Did anyone really believe this strategy...

would have us were we are in such a short space of time ?

Just two and a half seasons ago was when we started with this new strategy and lets be honest for the first season and a half under wilson and johnson it was pretty poor, but yet here we are 8th in the championship, just 4 points off the playoffs.

I dont believe anyone either at the club or among the fan base expected the last 12 months or so to go so well.

The way that so many players have adapted to championship football without any prior experience is nothing short of remarkable and its not surprising that so many are now being chased by other clubs. So many players being out of contract at the same time isnt ideal and probably needs tweaking a bit going forward but it is what it is.

I know many are now obviously worried that we seem to be losing so many in such a short space of time, its understandable, but wasnt this the plan all along ? Buy, develop sell them on, rinse and repeat.

I would argue that we are at this apparent crossroads because the plan has worked hell of a lot quicker than any of us could have imagined. It could be said that the plan has actually worked too well.

Soz for boring everyone,

You Reds

 

In other words, victim of our own success.

It's not over yet though, we're 8th and if we play well in the next 2 games we could go even higher. The manager and players deserve the utmost praise for their performances in the last 13 months.

 

Totally agree

 

To quote Andy Ritchie after the play-off win, "We've over over-achieved".

I don't think anyone on here would have expected or even hoped, for us to be where we are now at the start of last season, let alone 13 months ago. Optimistically we would have been looking at promotion this season, followed by a relegation scrap next season.

 

For me we dropped on abit with brizzle taking lee Jay off our hands and hecky getting the job. What he has achived as a manager in 12 months is nothing short of remarkable I also think he speaks alot of sense and is a down to earth guy. Where's that ten year contract for hecky.

 

Any strategy is only as good as its leader and if LJ and his corridor of **** knows what had still been here theres no way it would have worked. Success is down to Hecky not the strategy per se.

 

Spot on. And if you'd have offered anyone our position now when we were rock bottom of Division 1 and no win in 8, they'd have taken it in a heart beat. We're all but guaranteed another seaosn in this division and maybe, just maybe we can finish in the top half and possibly push for a quite remarkable play-off place. Even better we'vre financially secure and have money to spend on players, even if we can't afford the wages of some in this division.


All these things outweight the leaving of players which will continue ad finitum. Rejoice and and live in the moment!

 

Totally agree, im certainly not throwing the towel in. Good luck and thanks for the memories to the one's that have left or will leave and even better luck to their replacements.

 

the plan was based around playing in league one. to develop players and sell them at a profit means its bloody hard to progress as a team also. For us to have been promoted last season was vitally important, probably far more than many of us realised as if we hadn't been promoted CH, SSW et al might have been off last summer. as said above we now find ourselves the victim of our own success.

we have 2 choices at this stage, carry on doing as we are, hoping that the players we are developing stay with us long enough for the team to do well or we move to the next stage, find better players that need less development, this would mean paying higher wages and fees imo.

 

I don't think the strategy did start then. It's the same strategy we applied under Hill and then abandoned under Flitcroft and Wilson. The key difference this time is it was easier to implement in League One, and we stuck with it through the tough times. There is obviously a different scouting approach that sits behind it now too.

The challenge at this point is going to be replicating the quality of player to introduce at a higher level and not abandoning the plan again. Although it's telling that under Hill we were just outside the play offs in the January transfer window. Hopefully we are better equipped to cope with the loss of key men this time.

 

Agree 100%