No outright mutiny yet, but definite rumblings of discontent about Duff. No obvious game plan or style seem to be the most common complaints. That's after summer of huge change in their playing squad. Most are willing to give him time, but a few of them are saying that the board should "recognise their mistake" and "act now" before it's too late. They've played 4 games. It's almost like a mirror image of here, just in black and white and with a Welsh accent.
They will wait until they lose at Cardiff on Sky in three weeks time. If the bad form continues up to and including then, MLH will be gone.
We went from direct pressing style under Ismael to tippy tappy stuff overnight with the same players Swansea have done the same in reverse. I dont know why clubs do this!
Not quite sure about that but I was thinking the same - if they lose that one, there will be huge pressure on him they seem to think they’re wales’ equivalent to the Dutch masters and that Duff is an unsophisticated hoofball merchant It will take him a good few months, possibly even a season to implement his style , whether or not he is given that time remains to be seen. Still think it’s a massive shame he didn’t stay with us as he could have built something brilliant here
Totally agree. On a similar theme I was looking through Preston’s squad the other day. It’s like a throwback to the 90s with so many players having played 30 plus games for them consistently over 3,4,5 seasons. there’s something to be said for stability, albeit I appreciate it is tough to achieve in today’s game.
Swansea are at home in the league cup on Tuesday night to Bournemouth. Saturday dinner they are home to Bristol City in one of their most local games. Lose them the pressure will build in the international break and then it's away at Cardiff. Don't get anything in those three games (out of the cup and lose to their two nearest league rivals) and I don't see how they could keep him because the board will be under enormous pressure from fans.
Always found it interesting that they went from a coach who dominated possession to one who was happy to let the other team dominate possession and how it would play out.
Preston and Millwall get same crowds as us and they dont have mega rich owners I would say the key difference is they have much more stability than us with a strong core each year
Preston have just sold 12,000 season tickets. They lost 16 million quid in 2021-22. Millwall are about 20 to 30 million in debt.
They do mate. It seems to me that they focus on players with a little more experience. my one major gripe with our model is that we don’t do this - rather thank having 80% of the first 11 as inexperienced I think 50/60% works better with experienced players alongside - ie a few more Solbauer / Norwood types i think that would make our model much more effective
I was thinking back a few years ago in championship Barnsley averaged around 14,400 fans Preston, millwall, luton all got less Point is we are not the minnows some paint us to be
I thought the board learned that last season with Norwood but then realised they hadn’t at all when they let him go on the eve of the season starting.
I'm not trying to portray us as minnows. Time and again I try to point out on here that we're held back by the fact that we try to run as close to financially viable as we can and the vast majority of our competitors, including those who have similar crowds etc don't, The facts are there on paper. Our Board don't take money out of the club. They put modest but not insignificant amounts IN. And then you have clubs like Preston losing 16 million in a season. We are, under our current policy, pushed at least 10 to 15 places further down the pecking order. There really can't be any argument about that. Does that mean I agree with everything they do? No. I can't understand, at the moment, why we allowed Norwood to leave. I'd have given him an extra year on top of this season to keep him. There's loads of things I wish we did differently but the bottom line is cash and we're reluctant to spend what we don't have and unless we have an owner who is going to sub the club through heavy losses or risk the club by running up losses they can't cover we are where we are.
As underdogs in the championship we shouldnt compound the difficulty of the challenge by having the youngest team in my opinion. Also we would be more competitive setting up like underdogs each year- being direct, physical, aggressive, utilizing set pieces & big throw ins. Look how that worked under Ismael
The plan should be to buy players, develop them then sell them for a profit Replace those with players of a slightly better standard than those bought in the first place, develop them and sell them for even more and keep doing that so you are constantly improving. We aren't doing that, we're signing players from further down the pyramid each season thus not improving.
Whilst I agree mate, it’s easier said than done, unfortunately you’ve got god knows how many clubs trying to do the same and will be looking at the same players has us who a far more financially superior to us,