We stopped Robins building. We went cheap. We lost MR and had to settle for the pathetic joke that is Keith Hill. We built a squad of L1/L2 players who over-performed to dig us out of the brown stuff last season, but who have now reached (passed?) their limits and are showing their real worth. Flicker did so well, but do you set the fireman on as the architect cause he put the fire out? Of course not. Do you set the fireman's assistant on as.......... well, that one will soon get tired. PC/BT/DR take the blame for presiding over the shambles that our first team and it's management has become. Cheapskate doesn't cut it at Championship level. We don't have to spend megabucks but we do have to spend wisely. Do Uncle Maurice and Gentle Ben make any difference? The next two weeks will reveal, I suspect. But we need a proven Championship manager, a la Warnock/Wilson/Blackwell/Boothroyd/Holloway. "They wouldn't take it!" Well Ben or Mo must persuade one of them as to why they should. And pay for them - because of all the money you can spend, the amount you spend on the manager will have the most effect. We let Wilson go to Wednesday for 170k against the 150k we were prepared to pay to try and get us back up. We can't make that mistake again, because if we go down, it will start a downward spiral of falling attendances, lower revenue, more cuts, and more failure. I could support a team that gets relegated despite honest endeavour, but I'd struggle with a club whose downfall is self-inflicted.
Butland: Confidence gone. Doesn't know when to come for balls. Distribution pretty terrible. Wiseman: Didn't seem to know where he was supposed to be playing. Not confident enough to beat a man, and couldn't cross effectively if he did. Cranie: Jury out. Said to have more class than the rest, but still part of a worrying defence. Maybe. Mellis: Promises more than he delivers. Golden chance to make something of himself, and be a leader in this poor team. But too often lacking in effort. McCourt: When he plays, everything goes through him. Stutters and farts. Not a team player. Easily snuffed out. Easily injured. COG: Heroics last year, but this year exposed as too slow, and not a prolific scorer (best of ours, but that's saying nothing). Easy to see why Jones could do without him.