Just came to mind whilst answering another post. Lots of talk about not replacing players, but bearing in mind the said players were all part of a promotion squad who's quality and momentum carried them some way into the following season at championship level (but only really away from home). A perfect storm situation as is often the case. When was the last time we successfully replaced key players from a promotion team and carried on without a dip in form and results? Clarke, Hunter with a season of mediocrity sandwiched between two promotion seasons. A different era in the pub leagues almost 40 years ago. Premier league promotion season to playoff season, when we chucked money at it and it almost cost us our existence. 2006 promotion season followed by years of fighting relegation with the odd half a season of enjoyment and a cup run. Nothing has changed really. Different plan same end product.
True, but the gap in what we are paying and what others are offering has also widened substantially too. Regardless of what the reasons are, history says we've never built on success, and the same goes for quite a lot of other clubs.
Allan Clarke did exactly that when he dismantled the 1978/79 promotion winning team within twelve months.
95/96? Taggart just before season started, transferred to Bolton, Archdeacon, Rammell, O'Connell, Payton, Bishop, Fleming (through injury to be fair). Arguably all were replaced by similar or better, which I think is where our big issue is now in the context of budget.
Before my time but I suspect the reasons behind that dismantling are different to the most recent one.
Irrelevant, old mate. You said "When did we sell/lose seven first team players in twelve months? Unprecedented." It isn't unprecedented. That's the only point I was making.
