The first thing that needs to change is the board's strategy. Nothing wrong with trying to sign young players to develop & sell on but you need 3/4 experienced players in there to help guide them. There's no one to turn to in that side? Where's the Hassell's, Foster's & Darren Moore types? I like the idea of what they're trying to do but there's got to be a balance. The second thing is we need to start recruiting players earlier & been ready for when the season starts. Let the squad have a proper pre-season & be ready come August. Last season it was understandable due to relegation & trying to move on the big earners but this summer there was no excuse. We'd got a smallish squad & a manager in place from the end of last season. Make them early signings permanent ones. The penny pinching strategy of signing loanees is all well & good but when 2 or 3 of them are poor & they've to be replaced & then we end up replacing the manager we end up paying even more out. Get the signings in even if we have to pay a little bit more in wages, in the long run it'll work out cheaper. Then if we do get injuries / players badly out of form we can use the loan market how it should be used & bring a couple of loanees in rather than filling the squad with them in August. The next thing they need to do is bridge the gap between the first team & the academy. We're absolutely useless at bringing through players who can't play full back. Noble-Lazarus, Rose, Clark & Digby all players who've been badly handled. All should've had loan spells sooner than they did. Digby's not had one but has barely played for the first team so when he does get a game after 3 months he's understandably rusty. It's no good for the player who loses confidence & for the fans who think he's not up to it. We've got no problem using the loan market to develop other teams players but don't take advantage of it to develop our own. I'd question why Brad Abbott's been in the reserves & not out on loan this season as well. The next concern is this statistical set up they've got going to identify signings. It's all well & good signing players with good stats but you have to understand that outstanding individuals tend to be outstanding because a teams built around them. We've seen it ourselves with players. Hammill & Howard are two great examples, fantastic for us because they had the side built around them, go to other clubs & they're bang average because they've more responsibilities & have to fit in rather than have team mates fitted around them. For example signing Luke Berry because he scored & assisted loads in the conference is mental when he's expected to be a grafter to give the ball to Conor Hourihane, that's not his game. And that leads me to Johnson, I don't like writing this because I've met him & do genuinely like him & wanted him to be a success but he's not the right man. I feel sorry for him because he should've never been appointed. The board should've signed someone who's got experience of developing young players if this strategy is one they plan on persisting with. A few reasons I don't rate Johnson- Players out of position - Nyatanga left back, Scowen & Hourihane been out wide, Winnall as a left winger, Winnall as a no. 10, Winnall as a lone striker Doesn't know how to get the best out of Winnall - It's obvious he needs a partner up top to get the best out of him. He couldn't be less suited to a lone striker role. Game losing substitutions - How many times has this happened now? Donny, Crewe & Shrewsbury off the top of my head & I'm certain there's at least one if not two others. Losing a quarter of games from bad subs is outright bad management Goalkeeper - We've gone from a young goalie full of confidence at the end of last season in Davies & Townsend who came in & looked great in the cup games to having two keepers who's confidence is shot to pieces. The reason? Johnson keeps chopping & changing them. Roberts - Was quality at the start of the season, in the form of his life, bigger clubs wanted him, out performing Nyatanga & Mawson but then he gets dropped. Johnson brings him back into the fold after a month & he looks drained of confidence & error prone. Bad management again. Winnall - Killed his confidence, played him that many times as a lone striker that he seems to have lost all self belief. The only reason for keeping Johnson as manager seems to be we can't keep sacking them but there's no creativity, no entertainment & no signs of recovery from his team. But the big concern is who's next if Johnson does get the sack? My issue is there's not a single person on that board that gets football. It's a board full of businessmen. I feel they're more likely to appoint a manager doing well currently like Hasselbaink or Dean Smith than actually sign a manager who's suited to the strategy of bringing through these young players. Follow the Swansea & Southampton strategy of appointing a manager who can work with the clubs plan rather than getting any decent manager you can find who's enjoying a good bit of form like we seem to do. I've personally no idea who that man is as I don't tend to watch much other league 1 / 2 football other than our own games but we should have people on that board that do.
Cheers. I feel sorry for him just because I've met him & although it was fairly brief he had time for everyone & seemed like a decent guy, as he does in his interviews so I would've liked things to have worked out for him. It it hard to have sympathy for him for on the pitch matters though, he's ruined the confidence of the keepers, Winnall, Roberts & made bad subs
