Have we strengthened our squad?

Gona hav to disagree on this one. I think he was average to good in league 1 and every player was bigger than the sum of their parts. Reyt good to watch for us but given one or 2 more credit than they deserve in my opinion

 

Which of the three players mentioned are you referring to? (Asking for a friend)

 

I see that, but why would we pursue Ryan Kent so much if there was a chance of getting Isgrove ? If we did get him it would mean Kent would be 3rd choice behind Isgrove and Watkins and probably then wouldn't get his required quota . It doesn't add up to me , I think its dead in the water .

 

Sorry on abart Brownhill theer

 

The cake has been made.........it just needs icing.
That icing will come through the loan market.......like it did last season.

 

I don't think 4-4-2 is quite as cut and dry as that.

Quite often last season Winnall dropped in to midfield to make it 4-4-1-1 when we were defending. I don't think you need to change the players to make a 4-4-2 more solid.

 

View to a kill. Until we get stuck in, we won't really know what we need. The journeyman/loan route bollocksed up last time. It's cautious, but not the end all...

 

I think second half of last season we were the best team in the division.

To me it looks like we have roughly replaced the loanees quite well. CM is a question mark. Fletcher was a class act but both Bradshaw & Payne offer goals & options up front.Think Kent could be a revelation & every bit as good as Isgrove.

CB is key. If we get cover there I think we'll be OK.

 

The problem with the Championship now, is that it has become the buffer zone between the Premiership, with its endless riches provided in the main by Sky, and Leagues 1 and 2 with sensible financing and SCMP to ensure that it is run sensibly and competitively. Between those two is this area of anything goes, a wild west, an area where some clubs still spend money that they cannot afford and other live out the 4 years of reducing payments from the Premiership parachute system in a desperate chase to return there. The Championship is full of desperate clubs and desperate people.

This season Barnsley is plunged back into that maelstrom with little finance, and frankly, little chance of being able to compete. Players will ultimately follow the money, and if there is less of it at Oakwell, then that means that the quality of player will not be as good, and we are relying on team ethos and clever tactical knowhow. But we have changed too many players for team ethos to be a strong factor in our play. A team ethos just simply cannot develop in such a short period, and it cannot develop under the stress of constant losses and constant changes whilst the coach is searching for a blend that works. I have seen it so many times. The team starts poorly, the fans call for changes, the coach makes changes, the team does not improve because the changes simply reveal more gaps in the team, poor results get worse, the fans turn on the coach, the coach is sacked.

The club has had to look at the chances of making this step up stick. They are not good. The consequences of dropping back into League 1 are high, and the consequences of that are that League 1 SCMP forces a fire sale of the club's higher paid players. That makes no sense at all, it is wasteful of resources and it forces on the club the constant flux of rebuilding from the bottom. So what is the answer?

Having thought about the problem over the summer, the answer that I came up with was to build a basic squad that you would be able to afford if the worst happened and we were relegated back to League 1. These have to be young players because then we are certain to be compensated if they allow their contracts to run down in order to engineer a move to a higher grade of football with better money. On top of that, we bring in the maximum number of loan players. At the end of the season, these players move on and we are not saddled with their cost long term should the worst happen. Unfortunately, these loan players will probably be young players from Premier League academies with lots of potential, but little experience or knowledge of how to win when the chips are down. You cannot have everything with this strategy, because it is basically a survival strategy.

At the end of the season, two outcomes are possible. That is, we survive or we go down. If we survive, then our players are another year older and they have the invaluable experience of having played in the Championship for a season. It will do them good, and it will improve our chances of survival in the second year, when our strategy will be similar to the first, because survival in the Championship is not assured by survival this season. It is the long term aim to build a club that is once more secure in this division, and security does not come about automatically because the club has survived its first season. It comes about because it has sound policies and has built upon its success every successive season until it has built a supporter base and a player base that will allow it to change its strategy to one that will allow it to climb again.

The other possibility is that we a relegated, and when that happens, that we lose Winnall and Hourihane because they have allowed their contracts to expire. The loss of those two players, and the loss of all the loan players should mean that we do not have to sell in order to comply with SCMP. So over the period between our two relegations, we will be in a position to compare the two teams that began the following campaigns. Now, I cannot predict the future, but I am almost certain that our starting position will be much better if we are relegated this time than it was last time. Last time, we put all our eggs in a desperate attempt to survive, and we were in absolute disarray when it did not work. We have a better plan. A plan that allows us to go down, and still continue with the building process. A plan that allows us to go down and come back stronger.

What all this waffle has been about is that it does not matter if we do not survive this season, because one way or another, our long term plan allows us to gradually become stronger until our team is strong enough to survive and prosper in the melting pot of the Championship.

 

Anything else of note from the QA last night? Not heard much said about it to be honest.

 

Did anyone ask Tommy if any one had contacted him from Walsall :-D

 

Cheers Mate, think it's a bit of a shame Lewin might be heading off. Think it would be good to have some more experienced cover at the back.

 

That's fair enough. Be interesting to see if we go in for another CB if either Maws or Roberts get injured or whether we're prepared to put faith in Cowgill and Angus.

 

I think we are worse than the team that started and Wembley and have less strength in depth. That could change quickly though before the window closes.