The way forward for THFC ??

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Surely there's some reason for this, though?
Why does every coach keep claiming that he has this future?
It's probably fair to assume that they're seeing something behind the scenes that we're not.

I think we all see it but the point is it is for the future, not the right now. Right now he should be focusing on simply establishing himself before being a leader, walk before he can run type of situation.
 
Injuries got Skipp into the first team, not potential. That is the sad truth. His development has hit a bit of a wall due to a combination of his own injury problems, absymal coaching and a poor standard around him to learn from. Bentancur and Bissouma are by a distance superior players and I expect both will be selected ahead of him when fully fit.

It isn't 'trashing' someone to choose not to promote them to a position of leadership. Trashing someone, especially a young player who is eager to impress, is making them sit and freeze on the bench while Lucas Moura comes on and wins the game for the opposition. Which is why Bryan Gil wants to stay at Sevilla and Romaine Mundle is leaving the club.

And you're right, we shouldn't just hang around. We should identify that one signing who stands out as a leader AND as a footballer, and move heaven and earth to sign them.

I don't mean this personally but I am staggered at how low our collective standards have dropped over the last four years.

Talk of Hojbjerg as captain and Skipp as a leader is symptomatic of this.
I think we all see it but the point is it is for the future, not the right now. Right now he should be focusing on simply establishing himself before being a leader, walk before he can run type of situation.
By and large people are leaders they don't become leaders. Ignoring this is a source of many of our problems today and I am not just talking football. This is true in all walks of life.
 
Injuries got Skipp into the first team, not potential. That is the sad truth. His development has hit a bit of a wall due to a combination of his own injury problems, absymal coaching and a poor standard around him to learn from. Bentancur and Bissouma are by a distance superior players and I expect both will be selected ahead of him when fully fit.

It isn't 'trashing' someone to choose not to promote them to a position of leadership. Trashing someone, especially a young player who is eager to impress, is making them sit and freeze on the bench while Lucas Moura comes on and wins the game for the opposition. Which is why Bryan Gil wants to stay at Sevilla and Romaine Mundle is leaving the club.

And you're right, we shouldn't just hang around. We should identify that one signing who stands out as a leader AND as a footballer, and move heaven and earth to sign them.

I don't mean this personally but I am staggered at how low our collective standards have dropped over the last four years.

Talk of Hojbjerg as captain and Skipp as a leader is symptomatic of this.

I don’t think it’s entirely true that injuries gave Skipp his place. He was one of the few standouts at the base of a midfield 3 under Nuno and made a number of starts before his injury problems that season. I agree that in a midfield 2 he is likely only starting because of injuries but if we played a 3 I think he’s the best choice of our current crop to anchor it.
 
I don’t think it’s entirely true that injuries gave Skipp his place. He was one of the few standouts at the base of a midfield 3 under Nuno and made a number of starts before his injury problems that season. I agree that in a midfield 2 he is likely only starting because of injuries but if we played a 3 I think he’s the best choice of our current crop to anchor it.

That was before we signed Bentancur and Bissouma though. By signing them perhaps we were expressing concerns about Skipp's trajectory and/or his overall fitness?
 
Re Sissoko it's worth mentioning that he only really emerged as a "leader" when it became apparent that Aurier and Ndombele basically needed a babysitter and he took on the role of an older brother to them.

We wouldn't need leaders like that if we stopped signing clowns.
 
That was before we signed Bentancur and Bissouma though. By signing them perhaps we were expressing concerns about Skipp's trajectory and/or his overall fitness?

Certainly we needed depth and quality. Which is why we signed them. I think we’re not necessarily seeing the best of Skipp because he’s not a great fit for the system. Bentancur and Bissouma can each do a bit of everything and do it pretty well. I think you could play either of them as box to box 8s, basically what they’ve been doing under Conte, and either as a 6 if you wanted, especially Bentancur, though they have more to offer elsewhere. Skippy is more of a specialist. He’s intelligent and aware enough to do a job as an 8 but he’s not as technical as the other two and not as creative in his passing, so it’s not a natural fit.
 
Returning to the essence of this article, my points :

- 4 (DoF)
- 3 (manager)
- 5a/b/c (player acquisition)

are all reset or open to a reset at the same time.
 
Re Sissoko it's worth mentioning that he only really emerged as a "leader" when it became apparent that Aurier and Ndombele basically needed a babysitter and he took on the role of an older brother to them.

We wouldn't need leaders like that if we stopped signing clowns.

Erm….

Whilst I agree with you sentiment to a degree, and I'm all for signing better players, I think it's more accurate to say that Sissoko became a leader when Dembele's absence became a crippling factor at the beginning of the squads decline. In a squad stripped of a backbone, Sissoko becomes the 'goat'.

I disagree that we wouldn't need leaders like that. We've always needed leaders like that.

Sissoko was like a gaffa tape lesser alternative temporary fix for losing Wanyama and Dembele who were both firm in midfield. Before that it was Scott Parker partnering Modric, before that it was Palacios partnering Huddlestone. When these players came into our squad they always made a positive impact and added rigidity to a, too often, too soft centre. (Redknapp having to field a midfield pivot of Modric and Kranjcar in an inevitable heavy loss comes to mind.)

Look at how Dembele was willing to fight in the battle of the bridge.

Who, apart from, Sissoko, has had any kind of physical stature like that on he pitch to let the opposition know not to f&*( with our players?

Winks? Skipp? <laugh> Even Hojbjerg, "the viking", is lightweight and passive in comparison to prime Dembele, and he annoys me sometimes with his seeming passivity in key moments. Anyhow, I digress.
 
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That was before we signed Bentancur and Bissouma though. By signing them perhaps we were expressing concerns about Skipp's trajectory and/or his overall fitness?
Perhaps it was to in prove squad depth, something we all wanted. Unfortunately it coincided with a spate of injuries.
 
So of the six points I listed, we currently have :

1/2 - no changes needed as such

3 - new manager, style of play TBC

4 - no new DoF

5 - academy personnel in churn

6 - no changes likely
 
Or they are inflating revenue

The measure is a ratio R ( = X/Y) .
So to get R= 0.5, I can have 5/10, 50/100. 500/1000 etc.

Or from those who do stattery in their day job :

1. R means nothing without knowing X and Y

2. Publishing R without giving X and Y (or citing
sources that do) is an immediate alarm bell for
potential statistical deceit.
 
Or they are inflating revenue
Realistically what these graphs actually show is some clubs are run by people who couldn't be trusted to run a bath, most obviously Everton, Leicester and the Saudis

And that's the problem with the Leicester myth: they were held up for years as a model we should follow, and yet their model was based entirely on selling a player for a massive markup every summer to balance out how their wage bill had got out of control