If we were fortunate to get promoted I was wondering how the "under 25" plan would or could apply in the Champ. It's a great idea to develop young players in order to further their careers but is that good enough for us in the Champ? What I'd hate to see is a successful young team being bullied and mentally destroyed by some of the big boy tactics. So would we have to change "the plan" in order to survive? It's a problem worth waiting for if it happened, promotion first and then let's see.
I think it’s ok, would just need the calibre of youth to be a little better. I remember one particular bloke being proved wrong when he said, “you can’t win anything with kids”.
I think Daniel Stendel should be made aware of an important English phrase before he speaks to the Board members in the next few months... "spine of the team". IMHO this team would not be in a relegation battle in the Championship this season.
Successful teams at championship level generally have older heads. It would be interesting to see the average age of sides promoted to the premier league over the last say ten years. The average ages must be a few years older than our own squad.
Those kids were quite special though... They were also put into a team containing people like Eric Cantona, Denis Irwin, Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce. They had older heads around them. That’s not to say our side wouldn’t do well in the championship, I think it would hold its own quite well.
The team did perfectly fine after promotion last time around. I imagine we would see similar incomings to Pinillos and Mills, people with championship experience. Hopefully they will turn out better, but as we've seen with the head coach, the board made a very good appointment when they had time to consider their options, and this would likely be the same for player recruitment.
I think our central midfield will be fine, the strikers we've got will be fine but need additional numbers but the defence is nowhere near good enough and needs significant improvement and our wide options are pretty much none existent too. Missed a massive trick not strengthening last month imo. As for the plan. If it hasn't been changed from last time it could well be a disaster. You can't use the same system for signing players in the lower leagues as the higher leagues. Logic dictates that the higher leagues require higher ability
'If we were fortunate to get promoted I was wondering how the "under 25" plan would or could apply in the Champ.'Not sure what you mean by this!! If we finish 6th and scrape through the playoffs and go up the fair question. If we finish top 2 and in automatic, several points clear of 3rd place, are we really 'fortunate to get promoted'?
Erm... most of this team were in a relegation battle last season. They may have had a year longer to gel, with a better manager at the helm, but it’s difficult to argue we have a stronger squad.
If we were to go up I would keep the policy but move it up a level I said last time we should have looked at bradley dack would have cost 1 million and is worth probley 10x that now. People talk about experience and getting players like we did before 8n John Hendrie ect but like it was said a few week back any older head like that worth having would want some serious wages in tiis day and age. Fulham were paying a 35 year old scott Parker over 30k a few seasons back. If we went up the center backs would be fine and the center midfield upfront also but all other areas and even upfront would need more competition. The 1st thing I would do is get mcgeehan in and offer him a new deal his current one ends next season.
Hourihane, Winnall etc were in a League 1 relegation battle. They managed to be successful in the Championship, there's no reason that this group can't be.
The big problem was that it about 16 players who all joined us in one go with little / no championship experience. They’d be much better equipped second time round. They should keep improving as well when you look how old most of the team are. Last season we could’ve done with more experience, this time round I don’t think they’d need it as much from all the games together.
If we go up I suspect we would need a massive clearout and the plan would need to up a gear financially. It is a good one but the higher your league the more investment needed. If we didn’t change it’s my view we would come straight back down.
There is a huge gulf between the two divisions. It will be much harder to bring players through from the u23's, so it will be key to either hang on to our better players, like Pinnock & Mowatt, or at least if we do sell for a high price, that money needs to be properly re-invested in players ready for that level, not like we did at the start of 2017-18. Hopefully lessons have been learned. Let's enjoy this season for now, as we are playing some great football most of the time & even on an off day we are managing to pick up points.
To be fair a lot of people said that last time and we were absolutely class until the January debacle. Some players will definitely struggle at the higher level and will need replacing, but I reckon that plenty will be able to make the step up. Davies (as long as his head is in the right place) Pinnock Lindsay Mowatt McGeehan Dougall Possible, with high hopes: Thiam Moore Woodrow Brown Williams Not seen enough of Green or Styles to pass judgment one way or the other, but I guess that right now they'd be nowhere near ready. Ditto Victor. Strength in depth would definitely be needed far more than it is at the minute.
If there's a huge gulf between the divisions, why are The Blades where they are at the mo? They've hardly bought their way to third.
They have a very good manager & have hung on to their players. Something we should take note of this time round.