Is it any surprise we are where we are?

What with departure of Val and Mowatt, Schopp, signings of Oularé and Iseka(visa/injury debacle) loan of Kane to Oxford for season,failure of signings ie Benson, players put in the side who aren't up to the job ie Moon and Palmer, injury to Morris early on, Woodrow latter part, Jordan Williams and Helik(it seems), too long in replacing Schopp then with a inexperienced novice with no championship experience plus the idfield owners wrangle and the West Stand debacle - is it really any wonder why we are string relegation in the face.??

 

The blame lies solely on the owners. It was a novel concept, but English football is brutal. That is fact. They should've realised the second time we were relegated what a Championship club and team needs. If they swallowed their pride and finally played the ownership game how it should be played then I'll soften up to them slightly. I don't mean throw FFP out the window and cheat, I mean carry on with what's worked, chuck out what's failed and don't jump into stupid, idiotic decisions.

 

It’s no surprise and in fact for me at least was fully expected. This season was a bit unique in the loss of so many staff but the club always said they build consistency through the playing and coaching levels so it could have been mitigated better. But the coaches and managers aren’t buying the players so there is a mismatch.

We know the aim of the owners isn’t to hold on to the best players, it’s to sell them on. We know the owners aim to put zero money into the playing staff or infrastructure of the club. It seems clear that the priority is to get their return on investment from the club funds. It is therefore feasible this pattern will go on.

I fear our saleable assets are running out. This summer is a critical time to renew contracts but usually players let em run at this stage a la Mowatt. We don’t have that many to start with and I only see Collins, Helik, Woodrow and Styles being of interest to this level clubs. With lower income potentially to come it will get tougher.

We would be way off of the points deduction hadn’t been applied so we could get lucky again in this division. Luck seems to be our best hope right now.

I addition to all this it seemed to me the game day experience had took a distinct step down, I haven’t been for a while but speaking to some that still go it seems this is continuing.

 

Right now, no!

But you're looking at a lot of that in hindsight. All we knew in the summer is that we'd lost a good head coach and our captain.

We didn't know that all of our permanent signings would flop. We didn't know that we'd go through 2 head coaches who weren't up to championship level. We didn't know we'd become heavily reliant on the loan market. We didn't know we'd have long term injuries to key players (barring Andersen who was injured in pre-season).

I certainly didn't think we'd kick on from last season and challenge for the title, but with a core group of Helik, Collins, Andersen, Styles, Brittain, Woodrow and Morris, I certainly thought we'd be much more competitive than we have been.

I think poor coaching was Schopp's downfall, and whilst some of Poya's decision making has been poor, he's been hampered by poor recruitment and injuries that have left us desperately lacking in depth.

 

The players Brittain and Styles in particular have been shocking. They need to shoulder some of the blame because barring Mowatt's corners and overhead kicks into space it's the same team.

 

I think there were a few points that we knew without the benefit of hindsight. We knew that we’d appointed a coach that had previously played 1 up front at previous clubs, then assembled a first team squad that included 8 strikers (plus Odour, who then played in the front 3). We knew we’d took a gamble in having no experience in the middle of the pitch, Schopp highlighted that we needed to replace Mowatt and Sollbauer’s experience. People were concerned about Oulare’s injury record and not many were keen on moving away from a high pressing style.

But still after that, there was still a chance, thanks to points deductions but prolonging Schopp’s tenure as long as we did and failing to bring in an experienced centre mid in January has compounded it. That latter would probably have seen us hold on in one or two of the games that we conceded a late equaliser in.

 

We've had a decent centre midfielder in the building all along in Hondermarck. It's criminal he hasn't played. I think we'd have been in midtable if the club wasn't so stubborn in it's treatment of him. (Trying to make him into a centre back).

 

It’s quite a jump. He’s also a novice, and you’d expect inconsistency from him as well.

 

It's no surprise we've struggled. But it is surprising we've still managed to gain so few points (and maybe more than we deserve) in what is an exceptionally poor division.

No business or organisation is going to get better from involuntarily losing so many key personnel who proved to be successful. Particularly at a critical stage in the year.

The thing we've never recovered from is the pre season lack of fitness. From being the fittest team the season before, we've gone to be one of the least fit... with a very similar core of players.

Throw in replacements at all levels that have been a shadow of those they've come in for, a significant spate of injuries and innocuous actions by the ownership group and you have the season that is 2021/22.

 

There does seem to be a downgrade in the back room staff this season. We had two international breaks pretty early in the season where they could’ve done something to mitigate the lack of pre season. We seemingly just give the squad weeks off instead. Then we have players constantly picking up injuries (what on earth were we doing in training the day before the biggest game of the season that led to a potentially season ending injury?!) and taking an age to come back from injury.

 

Injuries can happen any time though. You could take a step wrong and break your foot. But I get your point. Our injuries this season certainly outstrip last and previous seasons. Sadly things like Jordan Williams' injury happen, thats football. But the shorter injuries with pulls, strains and tweaks, especially if in training. That sounds more like preparation and how the players are being developed fitness wise.

Players put in more effort and energy last season and we had less of those sorts of injuries.

 

If you're benefitting Poya with poor recruitment and injuries, it's only fair you do the same for Marcus. To me, the best football we've played this season was the first half of the QPR match under him

 

Quite simply, the squad is good enough. It showed last season.

But we were screwed by poor coaching by Schopp, signings which haven’t worked, and then injuries to key players and then some to Covid. Also lack of form from key players - which was probably caused by confidence issues.

Whoever came in would have had a massive task on their hands. Poya struggled clearly - and I think most would have had. He’s turned it round, and we’re a better team now, but he’s still learning and that’s also costing us too.

However, as I’ve said before, Poya is hampered by the fact there isn’t enough strength on the bench - and if he changes it, it weakens us. But, if he leaves it, we drop too deep as we’re tired. That’s what happened on Saturday.

We all thought Benson and Devante would add something to us - but clearly not (yet). But they are decent players. Oulare was a strange signing. Iseka for me, has the quality. But clearly must not be showing enough in training to warrant game time.

Then you have Vita and Gomes, who both have been class.

So whilst folk bang on about recruitment failure, there was only one signing which was strange - and that was Oulare. The rest have been decent (in terms of they were good signings) I still think Benson and Devante will be too, but haven’t done anything yet.

The ultimate failure this season, was Schopp, and the fact the club didn’t act quick enough to get shut. Although it’s admirable to give coaches time to turn things around, I understand their was enough noise around the club for him to have gone a lot earlier……but Poya wasn’t available then…….

 

The signings looked awful
benson- played most of his professional games on loan at grimsby town Burnley fans on twitter warned he would be no where near ready for the championship
Oulare- hardly played in the past 4 years conman was sold him by a agent and gave the clown a 4 year deal.

As for managers schopp came from such a poor league it was always going to be hard and came without his backroom staff.
Then poya who just wasnt what we needed at all.

 

Other, proven relegation fighting managers were though. Schopp wasn't the problem, Poya couldn't get a win, and barely got a draw until Quina and Bassi came on the scene.

 

I don't think Poya was worth holding onto Schopp for any prolonged period of time. May as well have put Schopp on garden leave after the Millwall game and given Laumann / Devaney / whoever a run, which started with an international break. Those extra 4 games he had, were defeats at Reading (how important will that prove to be in the end?), one of the worst performances I can ever remember at Middlesborough, a capitulation at home to Sheff U and a defeat at Bristol who had not won at home for about 9 months before that. I'm still struggling to understand how he lasted so long.

 

Funnily, if Kane had come back in January, and he had even just been used as a sub for the last 15 minutes - then we would most likely be 4-5 points better off than we are now

 

Based on his previous Championship outings, he’d have been no better.

Agree he’s doing well in L1, but that’s a different league and quality.

Tbf, he probably didn’t want to come back for the 2nd half of season either, and whilst you can make him, it does more harm than good.

 

Agree.

It was an admirable thing to do - giving him time. And maybe they were waiting for Poya to be done with Sweden. But ultimately, there were enough signs there to show he had to go earlier.

Having said that, we were no better under Laumann……

 

Won 1 in 3 under Laumann. Much better