Gradual decline

That's what we're witnessing at the moment. Its not so long ago that we had Keiffer Moore up top, Pinnock etc etc. Now look. All as a result of poor short-termism by a crap board.
However, I do believe that at some point the decline will bottom out. The fan base is reasonably resilient, the new board regardless of mistakes seem committed and more focused than the Conway lot and the ground is secure. Play offs or not, Collins or not the gradual decline will bottom out over time and things will start to improve. Its the big picture.

 

Just as many mistakes if not more than Conway/Chien....... Suppose while ever they keep putting money in they are entitled to make mistakes, they certainly won't keep the fans onside however.

 

The gradual decline began for me with the relegation to the 3rd tier in 2002/3 and has only been interrupted by the occasional successful season. Sadly I think it has been the result of our most successful season ever when we made it into the greed league. Our efforts to stay there resulted in administration a few years after and that relegation.

 

We’ve had plenty of chances to put that right. Selling Hourihane and Winnall when fighting for the play offs which led to another five handing transfer requests in, the COVID season just was a couple of games too far (could see at Preston we weren’t gonna go up) and then losing Ismael and replacing him with someone inept as Schopp. As much as administration had an impact all those years ago, it’s damn right awful board decisions that’s put us in this state.

 

Until we get the balance right in recruitment terms it will be difficult, stop just signing players of a certain age, have quality over quantity and allow the head coach a free remit in terms of how we set up.
Last night for me showed for all our lovely play at times, physicality and power win over at this level.

 

The decline for me has been ever since we started using a spreadsheet and data set designed by a lad who according to his dad was just an ordinary fan with an interest in numbers. The over reliance on data for players potential a few years down the line has seriously harmed our ability to compete when we actually sign the players. It's a philosophy that says we will buy players not ready for the first team and suffer with them until they become adequate and eventually good and at that point we will sell. It works to make some money BUT it has two major drawbacks.
1. The first team suffers every cycle as it was never slowly implemented, it was thrown in in one go meaning that a large number of players are poor at the same time and reach their potential at the same time. This means we sell them at the same time and replace them at the same time so every 3 (maybe 4 years) we have sold a host of players and start again with ones who are out of their depth.
2. We are playing players in the first team who really should be out on loan at other clubs for the first year.

 

There is no investment. Only fire-fighting, by the provision of short-term operational cash. The 'stats-based approach' has been copied and bettered by other clubs, and we are a yo-yo club at best. Very difficult to see from here how we repeat the successes of 2015-15, let alone 1996-97.

 

Your right, I would say though that a data led approach has served us well to a degree but yes the over reliance on it has proved pur downfall aswell.
For me though we've not gone in for players that would have improved us because they won't fit into a 352 absolute madness

 

I reckon that the players were all supposed to fit into 5-3-2 (as opposed to (3-5-2) because somebody incorrectly identified that Jordan Williams was a capable replacement for Bobby Thomas in defence and was also experienced enough to become the captain and a leader. The entire defence was then built around that one bad decision. It's why when he doesn't play there the others look extremely uncomfortable and out of place. MDG looks lost on the right of the back 3 because he was intended to play in the centre and McCart likewise looks extremely uncomfortable in the centre because he was intended to play on the left. The signing of both Cotter and Okeefe makes absolutely no sense if Williams was intended to play at right wing back as it meant a back up to him and a back up to the back up, neither of which are particularly young as both are 25 years old. Now if Williams was intended to be one of the back three then O'Keefe and Cotter make absolute sense because it provides a first teamer and a back up.

The bigger question for me is why did the club publicly state (several times) that the ethos of the club was fast attacking football and that players were bought with that in mind but then they appointed a manager who was known for his slow defensive football? That meant that the players we had at the club weren't compatible with the style of play that we appointed a manager to use.

 

This strategy could work if we actually brought in better quality with the transfer money received. Look at this summer for example, recouped supposedly £7-8m for Kitching and Andersen. Why not buy a couple of centre backs for around half that, instead of signing loans and free transfers. We took two steps back in my eyes. Coventry and Brentford years before had the right idea with the money they received for their star strikers. I’m not saying we’re anywhere near their money bracket but could look to follow a similar model

 

I like chips.

 

If we don't go up I think we'll take a big hit next season on season ticket sales and POTD, don't want to go back to the mid 80s to mid 90s averaging about 7k at home but I fear we may well be ( I hope I'm wrong)

 

I shouldn't really say this, but isn't it time we let the Manager (whòever he is) have some say in who we sign?

 

The big turning point for me was replacing val with someone who was as bad as schopp. Then sacking schopp and instead of getting a proven manager in English football getting a p.e teacher. Also the window when we signed iseka, oulare etc was one of the worst in the clubs history. Alot bigger clubs than us have dropped to league 2 I wouldn't be suprised if we also did, look at pompey took them q2 years to get back to the championship.

 

My guess is the plan was to have a back 3 of Williams, De Gevigney & Kitching which had plenty of pace in it & would’ve allowed us to play a high line.

They didn’t think Coventry could get anywhere near our asking price & then when he did go it was a quick panic to try & find a left footed centre back & they got McCart in as a late replacement as he was surplus to requirements at Rotherham.

Problem is he’s not very good & can’t run.

 

If we don't go up I can see us being a "Charlton" plodding along in this league with no signs of it ending by being mid table every season.

 

They identify player A,B,C,D and ask NC which he'd prefer and that's as far as it goes. The problem is they are dictating we play a back 3 so if NC said I want to play 433 next year go recruit me 2 wide players up top with pace, what do you think the boards response would be?

 

Like we were really before Andy Ritchie sort of fluked promotion with us. We have to hope for some sell ons in players like carlton morris, pinnock, Chaplin etc so we can spend abit maybe.
We sold kitching last summer and got over 1million for Jacob brown going Luton.

 

Not a chance this is true!