Old GG will look a bit bloody stupid if we don’t go up, given he’s already spouted automatic promotion is the aim. Let’s hope stendal has turned em all into world beaters in the last couple of months! Lol
What about that promotion winning side pre christmas, the one that lost to a non-league side in the cup..
I think we're in danger of relegation. I think we have some poor players; I think there's a huge imbalance in the squad with very few ball winners; I think we're very light in some areas and the players we do have often succumb to injury; I don't think there's a lot of natural stamina in the team, not unfit as such, but not the type of players who can press for 90 minutes, no matter how hard they train, and I think this will lead to us to losing a lot of games in the second half; I think a number of our players have spent the majority of their careers in losing sides and don't know how to win; I think we have players who have been judged on a purple patch they may have had rather than their whole careers, I think people are vastly overestimating how much experience our squad has at this level and are discounting that for many this experience involves playing in relegated teams; and I think that having experience in the Championship doesn't automatically mean you're going to play well in League 1, particularly when that experience involved playing poorly and losing games. I'm also concerned about the experience of our backroom staff. One of our new German coaches is very young, with very little experience at all, the other has coached for the majority of his time at a level far below league 1. Neither have any experience of the English game. The two coaches they are supposed to rely on for knowledge of the English game, Hassell and Devaney, are not experienced coaches. They are very experienced players, but coaching is an entirely different discipline. And they've been working with the youth squad, they have no coaching experience with the first team at all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe we employ a fitness coach any longer? This position appears to be mandatory at professional clubs these days, so I'm wondering why we no longer need one? I'm very concerned about our recruitment team and their ability to identify quality and the right sort of players, particularly after getting it so wrong last season. The managers and coaches have all gone, but those with the responsibility of identifying players still remain, and for me, they were the ones who were most culpable for our poor performances over the last 18 months. Although this may be a moot point as I don't believe we have any money to spend to strengthen. What I don't know is how good our manager is. A very good manger can make his team much greater than the sum of its parts. I'm hoping Stendel is one such manager. I'm also aware that we may have some players who can perform at this level even though they looked poor in The Championship. Even taking this into account, I think we're a long, long way from a promotion winning squad. I'm not predicting relegation at this point, but I believe there's a very real danger of it. In the first half of the 2015/16 season I argued long and hard that we had a very good squad, a good manager and that we were going to be OK. I took a lot of abuse for holding such opinion. Once we reached the play-offs, I hadn't the slightest shred of doubt about our promotion credentials. Wembley was weird; I had no nerves at all, I knew we were going to win. Before the 2016/17 season and throughout the first half of that season I thought we had a very, very good chance of promotion. Not just the play-offs, I thought we had a manager and a squad capable of going on a run and sneaking into that second spot. At the start of last season I thought we were nailed on for relegation and didn't see anything to change my mind throughout. I wasn't a different person from 2015 to 2017 than I have been for this last year. I wasn't any more optimistic. I'm no more pessimistic as a person now. I wasn't a better fan back then. Analysing the club you support and coming to a conclusion about their chances has absolutely nothing to do with how much you care about them and how much you'll support the team, whether you predict good times ahead or the opposite.
This is the very reason I’ve been quiet recently because I’m rapidly losing interest with the board and their blatant apathy towards the club. You would think that they would try to do something to drum up enthusiasm after their disastrous first six months in charge but no, no signings whatsoever, none on the horizon to even start a rumour and another unproven manager. The team is simply not good enough and won’t even crack the top six and it will take us getting off to a bad start for these idiots to stop being cheap and invest. Club is currently regressing with this lot but hope the lads prove me wrong.
What is amazing about football is the impact of manager/coach. A team can go from crap to amazing and back again. The truth is that once you get to pro level, with a few notable outliers, they’re all pretty much of a muchness and that your coach and weakest players determine your fate.
Don't be so silly they are absolutely class players any side would be lucky to have. We'll walk this league without any signings because everything that happens at this club is brilliant and no one is ever allowed to say any different.
I guess logic tells you if Rotherham, Blackburn & Wigan can come straight back up then we can. Actually reckon it could happen again. Sunderland set to bring in the likes of Billy Sharp and Charlie Wyke with the bad owner gone. Burton got promoted last time by being very solid and relying on experience, really would not surprise me if they were up there again. We have the foundations of a very good squad here with the best strike force in the division if they stay.
I must say it's very refreshing that we do seem to be pulling in a lot of new support from Sweden these days. Any chance you and OGC could bring Agnetha Faltskoog with you on your next visit? Kudos to GG and the board for starting to make progress on the expansion of the brand overseas.
So,how many players in the current squad would get into the first 11 that went up? Some would argue that The goalie wouldn't even get in lol
You need to ask that question again at the end of this season once the players have had a season in league 1. Let me ask you, think back to when we lost 8 or 9 games in a row (I can’t remember exactly how many as I’ve tried to remove it from memory) with Altrincham included, how many of those players at that time would you want in this side?
It would be interesting to go back to this forum the week after we lost to Altrincham and have a look at the comments that were being made about that team.
It really would, if someone can find some threads it would be appreciated. That team (and individuals) got a lot of abuse hurled at it. Just as an actual example, I remember one game a fan behind me cheered (rather loudly too) when Winnall was subbed off. I wonder what their opinion of him is nowadays.
I agree the manager is going to be the key. Morais was a disaster & we should have been more than capable of staying up last season. I don't get the negativity re the squad. I agree we need a ball winner & need to work on fitness. Given our high press style I also think the loss of Adam Hammill could be a mistake. I think he could have been moved deeper. Overall I remain positive.