Winter transfer window

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I wonder whether there comes a point Speakman demands more of KLD. I still hark back to our wage bill being at the lower end. I dont demand we mortgage the club, but I cant reconcile where we seem to be in season 2 up here. Maybe this is the week we see an uplift. U20s from France can be got for low end wages. A 26 year old from England costs a bit more, understandably so. It is the latter we need though, whoever the bloody coach is.
Speakman gets a lot of criticism but nobody knows the parameters he's working under and what his remit is. If he's got f all money to play with and we're sitting just outside play offs with a low wage bill then you could say he's doing well? Then you look at the ownership and those with the money and whether they have the resources to run a club of our size. But people seem.to forget the ****show they inherited and the parachute money other relegated clubs have that we.dont.
 
Non-league manager I know. Been at Club X for a couple of seasons. Built a good side. They're flying in the league. Club Y are struggling in the league but he has a personal connection to them. They sack their manager and give him the job, along with his staff. But Club Y are still struggling in the league. Is he suddenly a bad manager? Of course not.

Will Still would doing similarly to Michael Beale if he'd come here.

All I could say if they Still might get more out of the French lads due to him knowing the language and culture.
 
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Look at what Brentford did when they sold Watkins and then Benrahma. They invested in the squad to eventually get them up into the Prem.
We sold Stewart for £10m in August and…..
It's the same thing.

He aimed to win the league until it was mathematically impossible, then aimed for European and so on.

IF we didn't aim for automatic promotion people would have twisted like they did when Moyes said we were in a relegation battle. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Give over man Speakman clearly said that they weren't happy with the play offs, obsession with progression etc. He had now supposed to have said play off are what we are aiming for. Now you can twist words as much as you want but my post still stands, he has lowered his aims and I fail to see the argument against it. He has lowered his aims as did Keane in your recount
 
Speakman gets a lot of criticism but nobody knows the parameters he's working under and what his remit is. If he's got f all money to play with and we're sitting just outside play offs with a low wage bill then you could say he's doing well? Then you look at the ownership and those with the money and whether they have the resources to run a club of our size. But people seem.to forget the ****show they inherited and the parachute money other relegated clubs have that we.dont.
Could well be the case. And maybe our financial constraints are such after years of mismanagement we are in need of caution. I am all for that. But lets not have expectations of coaches that are beyond the ability of the players we are able to afford.
 
Could well be the case. And maybe our financial constraints are such after years of mismanagement we are in need of caution. I am all for that. But lets not have expectations of coaches that are beyond the ability of the players we are able to afford.
Absobloodylutely!
 
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We sold Stewart for £10m in August and…..

Give over man Speakman clearly said that they weren't happy with the play offs, obsession with progression etc. He had now supposed to have said play off are what we are aiming for. Now you can twist words as much as you want but my post still stands, he has lowered his aims and I fail to see the argument against it. He has lowered his aims as did Keane in your recount
Because a lot of clubs aims would of been the top 2, but it's not that easy
 
Could well be the case. And maybe our financial constraints are such after years of mismanagement we are in need of caution. I am all for that. But lets not have expectations of coaches that are beyond the ability of the players we are able to afford.
Do we also need to temper our expectations as a fan base then?
 
Not sure Speakman has necessarily “lowered his expectations”. More just updated them based on our current standing. He’s hardly going to say the expectation as of now is promotion, so saying the expectation is play offs is fair enough.
Which equates to lowering them, it's not difficult is it . He's amended them down, how's that work for you? If he wanted top 2 but now is settling for play offs he's lowered them. Jesus . Let's hope we make the play offs otherwise he might have to erm amend them again
 
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Not sure Speakman has necessarily “lowered his expectations”. More just updated them based on our current standing. He’s hardly going to say the expectation as of now is promotion, so saying the expectation is play offs is fair enough.
Imagine he'd said in August that top two-way unlikely due to the finances of soton, Leeds, Leicester but we'd be happy with play off. He'd have been crucified
 
Which equates to lowering them, it's not difficult is it . He's amended them down, how's that work for you? If he wanted top 2 but now is settling for play offs he's lowered them. Jesus . Let's hope we make the play offs otherwise he might have to erm amend them again

it’s about language and connotation though. By your logic, every team in the division is lowering their expectations.

“lowering expectations” in the context of being a stick to hit Speakman with isn’t really fair. You set yourself a high goal and you adjust as you go. That’s every sporting team ever.
 
Do we also need to temper our expectations as a fan base then?
For me yes. We arent a top 6 squad in my humble opinion. We are on a good trajectory though. Folk on here said making top 6 last year was creating a rod for our back. I wasnt so sure, but they have been proved right. So many things clicked last year - Amad, Clark and Roberts, Stewart early doors, Neil was a glue even I couldnt predict. We were the great unknowns. Mowbray was such a great fit and just let them loose and gifted them so much belief and confidence. The squad isnt as good, opposition players and coaches have had a look at us, and we have tried to be a bit different. Just my opinion but we are still better than the sum of our parts.
 
Imagine he'd said in August that top two-way unlikely due to the finances of soton, Leeds, Leicester but we'd be happy with play off. He'd have been crucified
Which of course is a different argument. There is no harm in him lowering the expectations, I don't see why people are so quick to defend it
 
Which of course is a different argument. There is no harm in him lowering the expectations, I don't see why people are so quick to defend it

it’s because of the connotation that him adjusting his expectations is somehow a lowering of standards. You may not mean that, but it’s how your initial post came across
 
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For me yes. We arent a top 6 squad in my humble opinion. We are on a good trajectory though. Folk on here said making top 6 last year was creating a rod for our back. I wasnt so sure, but they have been proved right. So many things clicked last year - Amad, Clark and Roberts, Stewart early doors, Neil was a glue even I couldnt predict. We were the great unknowns. Mowbray was such a great fit and just let them loose and gifted them so much belief and confidence. The squad isnt as good, opposition players and coaches have had a look at us, and we have tried to be a bit different. Just my opinion but we are still better than the sum of our parts.
In hindsight what we achieved last year was an amazing achievement especially with the injuries we suffered.

Trouble I see is that beautiful fast football has gone and we are slow and ponderous in possession which isn't helping the mood
 
In hindsight what we achieved last year was an amazing achievement especially with the injuries we suffered.

Trouble I see is that beautiful fast football has gone and we are slow and ponderous in possession which isn't helping the mood

completely agree with this.

something I think has been massively overlooked is that the standard in the championship last year was awful. It’s upped itself quite significantly this year, in my opinion