Portsmouth I see they have gone a goal behind four times this season and come back to win.. Now there's the difference, we don't, because we don't sign players that are up for a fight.. We sign the same kind of nice on the eye, are good at doing pretty triangles and little flicks but without laying a glove on the opposition.. Little Lee, big buddies with the Cryne family (nowt wrong with that) once said while here 'he would fill his team's full of central mid-field players if he could'.. Ive often wonderd how much a young James (self confessed not a football fan) took that statement to heart.. and used it as some kind of yard stick over few years. When/who was the last 'combatent' mid-fielder we bought ? Struggling to think after Josh Scowan (before Lee under Danny).. but we must have brought in a least dozens of the tippy tappy kind in. While ever we have this.. CEO recruitment team, head coach status quo at Oakwell.. nothing will change. When the CEO and the board dictate the type of play/players they want to see that attracts bids, instead of building a ballanced team that not only can win promotion but is also sustainable in the higher league, then we're just going to get this same old, ' no shots on target' sideways-back dross served up.. We can change the coach every year. Will make no difference. One grey tracksuited 'yes man' followed by the next. Because as we've seen 3 times in the resent past, any coach with a bit of gumption leaves.. New outlook needed from the top to avoid stagnation, make no mistake, it's starting to smell at the minute.
Thankfully we've got another game tomorrow night. I like a bit of doom and gloom as well as the next person but we're covering old ground all the time now. I don't blame the board for our indifferent form other than they appointed Collins. Just got to hope he comes good. However, I doubt he will.
It's old ground, but still very much relevant.. the model/plan remains the same .. status quo,.. Going nowhere.
It worked in terms of we sold players in the summer for a profit and got compo for the head coach. It failed on the pitch though we are still a L1 side and our squad and coaching staff are inferior to last season's.
So for you promotion was the be all and end all?We had a new board and a new manager and new players ,wern't these allowed a bit of leeway considering the way the final panned out.Sometimes you've got to look at the bigger picture.
"All this board are interested in is buying players that are capable of playing in the top two divisions, they need to buy some ***** to balance it out." Stupid thread.
If last season was the learning curve and we were cutting them some slack, writing it off as it were. What is this season? Other than a massive f cuk up thus far.
Stephen we are 7th in the league with 36 games to go.Massive over reaction if you don't mind me saying.
Did you miss the repeated confirmation from various Managers that they tell the recruitment team what type of player they want not the other way round? Think you missed the Val season too cos we were very combatative then.
Thing is when footballs **** or fans think we're underachieving people look for someone to blame, players, head coach, owners. Look at Wednesday when chansiri was putting money in he was great now he's biggest ******* that walks to many Wendy's, same with coventry and many others. We're still feeling the pinch from conman and Lee and unless some Arab comes along with a load of money were going to have to buy sell players with a similar model.
Did it fail though? I know we narrowly missed out on promotion, but who honestly predicted we would get 86 points? For many, last seasons expectations ranged between ‘season of consolidation, to ‘go straight through to league 2’. At this point last season some of our fans had :- …..booed us off at Plymouth. …..questioned the quality of signings ….. said they were underwhelmed by Duff We had to wait until Wednesday away to see a genuinely good performance from start to finish. Pretty soon we were to have lost at home to Wycombe, Exeter & Lincoln - all bang average, and relegated Morecambe away, when Connell was subbed because he just kept pumping it forward. - we got booed off there as well. Some might see last season as a failure, and others see it as being smoother than it was, but the fact is, we’re only 1 point worse off than we were at this stage. It’s not great to watch, but to be 7th in the table with room for improvement isn’t a bad position to be in.
Point well made. We are as ever trying to get a team together, after losing key players, due to loans ending, transfers & the mystery illness to our best player. Also Styles, who has been my MOTM did not perform vs Blackpool, as well as others who have previously looked good, like O'Keeffe, Chapman, etc. Need to keep our powder dry. Need either Cosgrove or Watters to bag a couple of goals. Strikers are all about confidence. Both look devoid at the moment. I expect us to win at Cambridge, but a settled side is a way off at the moment.
There are some proper entitlement issues with our fans. If you'd asked me where we'd be at this point in the season without Luca Connell I'd have said a lot lower than 7th.