The new owners

I've seen a few on here criticise the board for the lack of signings in January.I too would have liked to have seen another striker fetched in.After reading how our transfer dealings work regarding coach/manager,recruitment team,finance director etc how can the board back the manager if he doesn't recommend a player for them to sign.If I found out the manager wanted a certain player and was refused by the owners I would seriously think about renewing my season ticket next season.Likewise I wouldn't be happy if the owners imposed a player on the manager he didn't want.

 

They have been clear with their plan... We should not spend what we haven't got and they have a sound business model. We don't have a divine right to succeed and we are not Man United so can't have the depth of squad many are advocating at this level... Nor could we attract the quality of player to strengthen us on the basis of him being a backup player. The key loss has been the unfortunate injury to Moore but what people are ignoring is that despite this and trimming the squad in January, we have sustained the same points per game ratio. We must not forget we lost 5 games before xmas with a deeper squad. I feel we had players surplus to requirements or who didn't fit the style of play and we needed to offset the loss of championship revenue. Many would say we should have gambled, taken more of a risk but there is no guarantee of success even if we had, plus we would highly likely to have struggled to attract players to improve the team. The sale of Potts was good business imo... We didn't need him and arguably having Jacob brown out wide has improved us by having more and much needed pace in the side. Like Potts, he will have good and bad games.

In my view if we don't achieve it with the squad we have at this level, it will be down to the slowish start. Appointing a foreign coach who didn't speak English at the time we did, meant it naturally took time to get across his message across and to work out the strengths and weaknesses of his players and squad.

We were off the pace of the top 2 most of the time pre Xmas yet we could still get there. 4 wins and a draw would give us an average of 2 points per game and we would be very unlucky not to go up automatically.

I will be bitterly disappointed if we don't as I see this as being the best opportunity we have had for a long time and I don't fancy our chances in the playoff lottery.

 

A very well constructed piece in my opinion.Referring back to my previous post I just don't get as soon as we have a defeat its the owners fault but when things are going along nicely nothings said..I wonder who other clubs like Sunderland,Porsmouth,Leeds, Middlesbrough,Sheff.Utd ,Derby for example are going to blame if they don't go up.At the end of the day only so many teams go up or down in a season.Football can cause many emotions and people do react when there team isn't meeting there expectations but we can't all be winners and it isn't always the fault of others.

 

I do understand that we are all disappointed with our very recent form and more specifically the timing of it.
However we are ahead of nearly every team in the division but may be fortunate to stay that way with Sunderland and Pompey`s games in hand. We have done this I would suspect with a considerably lower transfer and wage bill than those we are directly competing with.
I, personally , don`t feel let down by the board\management as I don`t think that they have been anything but transparent regarding their approach to the Club.
Equally I do not want to spend money on players\wages that are unsustainable for where we are.
I think it is easy to spend someone else`s money and don`t agree with the idea that we should do it because others do - it remains to be seen whether other teams` gambles pay off.

 

IMHO recruitment over the past few years has been absolutely amazing. The quality we've brought in and the success rate is astounding.

We just sell too quickly. And everyone we sign needs time to develop. Sometimes we need a player who can hit the ground running. And I still think we're missing one or two players who have seen and done it before. Filling the squad with youth makes sense but there should still be room for a couple of players 27 to 32, there's plenty with loads to offer.

 

Anyone who thinks we didn’t need a couple of extra bodies in January needs to look at our subs bench. And I think we could easily have attracted quality players even though they may have started on the bench.

 

I get the above arguements to an extent, but weve got multi billionaire owners. Whats the point in taking over a little back water club like ours if your only aim was to make a small profit even if it meant being in a worse division than when they took over. Im not sure anybody is advocating a Man City style spending spree but surely the shrewd business acumen that im sure these owners have will point them towards at least being in the championship and not league one. The January transfer window weakened our squad and undermined our chance of getting promotion. We sold one of our best players and didnt replace them at all, im not saying we should have gone and spent big but it just seemed we were trying cash in. The 'plan' needs to be tweaked so we bring in players that are further down their developmental path, ok, they maybe more expensive but it may just mean that it helps us play in a higher division and conversley the player is worth more. As a fan im getting a bit fed up of watching my team buy potential but having to watch the poor performances until you start to see them come good and then sold just as your proud to have them in our team and enjoy watching them play. I dont want us to be a Sheff Wed or a Aston Villa but I also dont want us to be vehicle for our very rich owners to make a tidy little profit every season but to see us stand still.
I know its not my money to spend but I just think we miss a trick sometimes and feel we could back ourselves a little bit more.

 

Bang on.

If you look at it we’ve only got 2 players injured in Dougall & Moore & the lack of depth is worrying. Imagine if we had 7 or 8 out at once like last season or even 4 or 5 like early this season.

 

I agree to an extent but if Stendel didn't want any new signings would you have been happy with the owners signing players for him.Also if Stendel didn't want any new players should some of the "so called blame" be attached to him?

 

If he didn't want any new signings he'd be the first manager in the history of football to be in such a position. Just because he said in an interview he was happy with the squad doesn't mean he was. Surely you understand the political nature of such a statement in terms of his relationship with those who pay his wages and the managerial connotations with respect to motivating his players. How do you think the owners would react if he said he wanted a number of signings but the powers that be wouldn't fund them and how would his players feel if he told the media he had hoped to get a number of better players in? I struggle to understand why you can't see that a good manager will almost always say he's happy with the squad and to say otherwise is entirely self defeating. To take it that he literally didn't want to sign anyone else is... Of course he wanted better players. Every manager in the world does, it just doesn't do any good at all to say that out loud.

 

I do understand that Jay I think we've been here before but I can't think of one reason why the board wouldn't back Stendel with our position in the league and everybody desperate for promotion.Or are we looking for a scapegoat if we fail to go up automatic.

 

We don't know the financial position of the club, not just in terms of money in the bank but also the wages situation in relation to FFP or whatever it's called in this division. Nor do we know if we tried but failed to sign players, either because our approach was flat out refused or our valuation did not match that of the selling club or we couldn't agree terms with the player. I can think of dozens of reasons why players weren't signed, but I really don't believe it was because the manager didn't want better players.

And no I'm not looking for a scapegoat.

 

I wasn't referring to you,you're quite a reasonable poster (sometimes) only joking. Yes you make some valid reasons there.I'd still like to think if Stendel wanted player X the board would have gone out of there way to make it happen.

 

Other than Sunderland why do you think we should have a considerably lower budget than those we are competing with?

 

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I think if Stendel wanted a player they'd try, I don't doubt that, it's just not always possible.

I do think they underestimated how important a couple of signings were, I think they hoped to get by without injuries, I think the tight ship they're running is a little too tight, but it is what it is.

 

Thing is this.
The previous owners had a transfer window where they had to sell.
At that time we had 8 players up for sale when we were just one point away from the playoffs.

To everyone’s joy - these owners retained our players.
So most fans including myself were over the moon with this.
In hindsight it wasn’t quite enough - we needed cover - especially striker cover.
HOPEFULLY - the owners have learnt from this.
Whatever league we are in - we don’t just need a good team - we need a good squad.
Too many of the current squad are not quite ready for this league.

 

Nudger in I WAS WRONG post.

I still await his final assessment of Green - whom he earlier advised was going to be the chap who goal blasted our way to the Championship.

I suppose there's still time.

 

Do you think Portsmouth’s playing budget is less than ours? I don’t know for sure but I’d be amazed if it was.

 

I’d describe Green as a winger.
I’m talking about lack of central strikers.
And no - I haven’t changed my mind about Green - he’s still the most exciting forward at the club.

 

We are a striker short. However, GG and PC have said we’re running at a loss this season, and that the Potts sale etc helps cover this a bit. There’s the chance that another striker coming in (proven goal scorer) would have cost too much and added to this season’s loss. This is not what they committed to doing, nor we as fans want.

Frustrating as it is, if we go up or stay in L1 come May, the balance sheet will show this season as a financial loss. Adding to the loss, to chase the Championship is not really the plan.

Having said that, we don’t know if they did try to sign someone else, but couldn’t get the right person.

For me, a Jason Scotland/Marlon Harewood type player for 6 months would have worked well. Not sure who though.