Quick Poll for next season

It might be because we have dropped a division & considering the three teams that dropped the season before, all made instant returns ,including a Rotherham team who were arguably the worst ever championship team on record

 

Will depend on offers. He IS going. I think they will take a bit over a million, with one year to go.

 

Madness from the club if they accept such a low bid, it will cost a lot more to replace him , better off keeping him , after all he is under contract , bought & paid for

 

Are we on about Tom Bradshaw? seriously if someone bids over a million for him they must be off their rocker.

 

Could never fault the lad's workrate, but last season basically showed that he isn't quite Championship class. There are now apparently 81% of those responding on here that think we can get promoted this season. I hope they are right. But for my money, we are a considerable way off having a team that is capable of challenging. It will take a huge step forward from our squad. That's not impossible, but at this moment in time I'm not seeing a group of potential Hourihanes, Scowens, Roberts, Mawsons or (dare I say it) Winnalls. But this game can surprise you - let's hope that's the case.

 

With the absolute quality in our team anything less than top is a failure

 

You do realise that our last promotion winning side had players sold for millions of pounds and would pump our current squad 5-0 - and they needed a play-off final to get promoted. And this side are going up automatically? With Brad Potts?

 

Yes, but when they were first in league 1 were they worth millions? Were they ****. They developed during their time in league 1 and got the winning mentality and took that into the championship. I see absolutely no reason why this group of players can’t do the same.

 

The same team that broke a club record losing streak and lost to a non league club in the cup?

 

Personally I don't know where we will finish. There are a number of 'unknowns' for me such as I haven't the foggiest about the capabilities of most of the other teams in this division, since we are two years removed from our last time in it and secondly I have no idea of what Herr Stendel's capable of.

However, based on the 'knowns' I have a lot of concerns.

Goalkeeper - We have a choice of a good goalkeeper who sadly lost it last season and a youngster who looks a good shot-stopper but the evidence base is as yet too small to determine whether he is the commanding presence needed in other regards. It's a concern that we no certainty that we have an in-form goalkeeper that is proven.

Full Back - All four of McCarthy, Cavare, Pinillos and Fryers lack pace to some degree and have question marks over them defensively. If he can address the problem of getting beat on the outside and get some end product into his forays forward then McCarthy may come good but old one-foot Fryers is so limited going forward, Pinillos is slow and past his best and Cavare a liability ready to explode at any moment, either with a defensive error or red card offence. Full back is such an important attacking weapon as evidenced by eg Trippier these days and I really think we are missing out here.

Central Midfield - We are so weak here, literally. Our three options to accompany Potts seem to be players, Mowatt, Moncur and McGeehan, who struggled to get regular starts with no better than average sides in this division. There is some excuse for McGeehan given his injury and, hopefully with a full pre-season under his belt he will be a revelation. Potts was a mainstay of a relegated team last time he played in this league. I liked what I saw of Bird but he struggled to be a regular in division four with lowly Yeovil. None of the above would seem to have the ball-winning and passing capabilities required, most of them struggle to perform for half a game fitness-wise, let alone 90 minutes week-in, week-out. None are the leader that we are crying out for, the Conor, the Brian Howard, the Redfearn. None are even the Sheridan, the Scowen or the Burns.

Strikers - Moore will be a handful and Bradshaw will convert a decent proportion of chances at this level but neither will create much for themselves, they are both reliant on supply and I am concerned that we simply don't have the capability that, eg Walsall had in the team with the likes of Sawyers and their full backs setting things up for Bradshaw. If either Kieffer or Tom gets injured we look thin in terms of being able to replace them reasonably like for like and neither are blessed with searing pace.

Wingers - Whatever the qualities of Isgrove and Hedges, neither is exactly prolific in terms of creating chances. I know others see things in Isgrove that I simply don't but nobody can argue with his appalling end product last time we were in this division - what was it, two assists and no goals in 30 odd league games? Since then he has hardly had any football and is injury prone to say the least. Hedges may step up from being someone who put in some decent cameos at the beginning of last season to being a good 90 minute regular, I don't know. I do know that the last time he had regular football in this league, he was relegated with Orient. I hardly see these two as being the ones to give Moore and Bradshaw the supply they might thrive on.

General Squad Qualities - Collectively I think the squad desperately lacks pace, it lacks a competitive, combative midfield in toto, it lacks leaders and our set pieces were abysmal last season. All things that are proven ingredients in successful sides and for us when we've been promoted.

We also have players that don't have a winning mentality - we haven't won a game since 1st January 2018 in which Oli McBurnie didn't score!

The latter also reveals the change in recruitment policy from the 2015/16 side to the current batch. The former was based around Hourihane, Mawson, Scowen, Winnall etc - all players who were in winning teams at or near the top of the division below, or recognised in divisional teams of the year. I'd heard of all of them and they brought a collective winning mentality. The recruitment more recently has seemed to change to players who looked good or have decent stats in not so good sides, Moncur etc, without seemingly looking at the wider context and why they were part of a losing side.

The above being said, I am more than looking forward to the new season, it seems like an age since the Derby game. I will back whoever plays for us, providing they put the necessary 100% effort and pride into the shirt and I hope that we win the league with 100 points and some of the confidence (verging on complacency in a number of quarters imho) on here is well-founded. People very much have the right to their own view, provided it is not offensively argued.

I also don't think we should go out and buy players unless we can get the ones for the positions we need and are improvements on what we've got - more of the same cannot be an option! But remember, unlike last time round, we don't have the option of sinking to the bottom of the table and then bringing in the experience and/or quality of Hammill, Long, Brownhill and Fletcher to turn things around (until January).

What I would like to see though is three permanent incomings of an all-round central midfield player with leadership qualities, a striker with pace and a creative winger, with a loan for a second central midfielder. That'd not solve all our problems but hopefully Williams can step up at left-back and either Davies reclaims his form or Walton makes the keeper position his own.

COYR

PS - Blackburn went down with 51 points and strengthened, we went down with 41 and have (significantly) weakened. Wigan beat us with a team including the likes of James, Roberts, Scowen etc and had players in league one that we would give our right arms for - Morsy, Grigg, Powell, Jacobs etc. Rotherham's play-off winning team contained only three regulars from the team that got relegated.

 

I look forward to our automatic promotion. You've convinced me we'll **** this league. With Brad Potts.

 

Exactly. A team as good as we had found it difficult. A team containing players that have been sold for millions found it difficult. A team with players who are now established in the Championship and the Premier League found it difficult. Because this league isn't a piece of piss like many people are describing it. It's tough and even that fantastic team we had took quite a while to adapt to it. So I'm struggling to understand why people believe the team we have now, which, to me at least, look inferior in all departments, are going to run away with promotion.

 

I'm still looking forward to the new season. I still think we'll win promotion. Looks like I'm going to be amongst a very small, select group of like minded fans.

 

To be fair, you make the same post at the start of every season. At least you're consistent.

 

Not sure where I’ve said we’ll piss the league.

But incidentally, I do think Potts will have a good season. I’m sure you’ll disagree. But then I also thought Potts had a good second half of the season last season. Again, I’m sure you’ll disagree.

 

That's true. I'm usually optimistic with regards to our club. I'm not sorry about it and I don't apologise for it, either.
It proves I know nowt about football and our club in particular. Thankfully, there's always people willing to educate me.

 

You're not, look at the poll result. 75% of people think we'll make the play-offs or better.

 

The team was developing at an incredible rate though. Hourihane, Roberts, Winnall, Scowen, etc didn’t all turn up at Oakwell at the level they left. They all developed whilst playing well in league 1 and took the confidence into the championship and carried that on.

I could well be wrong, but I believe the players that we have can all do something similar. Maybe not quite to the level of joining the likes of Villa, Swansea but still increase their performance level.

 

I'm open minded. I'm not getting giddy about our chances, neither am I writing us off. Nothing stays the same in football. We should all know that from experience. The quality of opposition isn't exactly the same every season.

 

A grand total of 83 people (at the last count).