I'm going to put my football neck on the line

gravy173 said:
We’ve lost steffen, Giles, mowatt, Ramsey and archer and akpom hasn’t been seen all preseason which stokes the rumour mill.

We’ve signed what based on last season looks like an inferior keeper and a bunch of kids for minimal fees with no pedigree of this league, the majority of which won’t be in the starting XI you’d think

I can’t see why you would be baffled, we are a long way off the team which finished 4th last season and ultimately wasn’t good enough, or is this just a treading water season while carrick clears the decks and we get rid of the high earners (if any are still left) like woodgate before him.
Click to expand...
Steffen was on loan.. he’s injured and we’ve signed Seny Dieng who is a very good keeper.

Giles was in on loan and did very well in the championship for us. Best of luck for him in his move to the premier league. I think our attack was quite one dimensional with Giles, we can replace him for much less than £4m and with a realistic wage structure and make our side harder to beat.

Mowett was on loan and injured for half of the season. He did well when he played.. but he hardly set the world on fire. Barlaser can do his job and doesn’t have such a terrible injury record.

Ramsey came in on loan in the January and didn’t make it to the end of the season.. Rogers is a very exciting prospect and will be with us for the whole season and beyond.

Archer again only joined in January on loan, so far only Gilbert could fill that role (if we set up as we did last season) I think we will bring in a new striker to add to our more comprehensive and robust frontline.

Akpom had a phenomenal season and he doesn’t owe us anything. Going into the last year of his contract I would be very surprised if he wasn’t off to pastures new.. let’s be clear we will be upgrading the whole squad off the back of this and securing the clubs future.

Six weeks to go and three or four more signings to come in..

Dieng/Glover/Jones

Smith/Agyemang/Dijksteel
Fry/Van Den Burg
Lenihan/McNair/Clarke
Coulson/Collins

Howson/Payero
Hackney/Barlaser

Forss/Jones
Akpom/Morgan
McGree/Silvera

Crooks/Gilbert/Hoppe/Coburn

Still five more loan spots available..

I think we will start off this season stronger than we did last season.
 
Do we just go off signings and perceived squad strength and does work on the training ground count for nothing? All these players doing a pre season under this management team will be massive.

Don’t worry.
 
I see us being competitive. It's good to see Fry and Lenihan at the back and if this partnership stays fit we have a fair chance in most games. I back van den Berg to step up: Dutch people tend to have character/confidence beyond their years. Barlaser showed yesterday he can replace Howson long term. Without Akpom, we may struggle to score enough, that's my main worry. Pretty to watch, but lacking ruthlessness/experience, although Silvera has looked bright and I have a sneaking feeling Gilbert could become an important player for us this year. It'll be hard to push into the automatics even so. Think Leicester will walk the league in the same way Burnley did - Coady is a great signing for them. Leeds will boss everyone at home, and Southampton will be strong at home too. Norwich may come back strong also.
We'll be feared though, because of how we put a run together last year. If we get off to a good start, confidence will grow - we need to become that boss team that turns up everywhere with 4/5000 fans (in a smart navy/lemon kit!) and expects to win. A poor start, cracks will show and the young players will go into their shell. It's finely balanced, but I'm optimistic.
 
newyddion said:
Steffen was on loan.. he’s injured and we’ve signed Seny Dieng who is a very good keeper.

Giles was in on loan and did very well in the championship for us. Best of luck for him in his move to the premier league. I think our attack was quite one dimensional with Giles, we can replace him for much less than £4m and with a realistic wage structure and make our side harder to beat.

Mowett was on loan and injured for half of the season. He did well when he played.. but he hardly set the world on fire. Barlaser can do his job and doesn’t have such a terrible injury record.

Ramsey came in on loan in the January and didn’t make it to the end of the season.. Rogers is a very exciting prospect and will be with us for the whole season and beyond.

Archer again only joined in January on loan, so far only Gilbert could fill that role (if we set up as we did last season) I think we will bring in a new striker to add to our more comprehensive and robust frontline.

Akpom had a phenomenal season and he doesn’t owe us anything. Going into the last year of his contract I would be very surprised if he wasn’t off to pastures new.. let’s be clear we will be upgrading the whole squad off the back of this and securing the clubs future.

Six weeks to go and three or four more signings to come in..

Dieng/Glover/Jones

Smith/Agyemang/Dijksteel
Fry/Van Den Burg
Lenihan/McNair/Clarke
Coulson/Collins

Howson/Payero
Hackney/Barlaser

Forss/Jones
Akpom/Morgan
McGree/Silvera

Crooks/Gilbert/Hoppe/Coburn

Still five more loan spots available..

I think we will start off this season stronger than we did last season.
Click to expand...
👌
 
I'm sure we will be competitive... Like top 12 competitive.

This post was regarding the delusion that we will be competing for the automatics that was all over here after the playoffs (which will be absolutely denied by the cheerleaders). Now the cheerleaders are shifting their expectations whilst pretending it was always going to be this way.

Top 6 would be a hell of an achievement.
 
alvez_49 said:
I'm sure we will be competitive... Like top 12 competitive.

This post was regarding the delusion that we will be competing for the automatics that was all over here after the playoffs (which will be absolutely denied by the cheerleaders). Now the cheerleaders are shifting their expectations whilst pretending it was always going to be this way.

Top 6 would be a hell of an achievement.
Click to expand...
At that point, I think most of us expected us to resign Archer, Giles and Ramsey, as well as keep Akpom, and then build on that. There was immediate optimism following that game against Coventry. At this moment it’s looking unlikely that any of them will be playing for us this season, and to replace that amount of quality is extremely difficult, especially on a shoestring.
 
alvez_49 said:
I'm sure we will be competitive... Like top 12 competitive.

This post was regarding the delusion that we will be competing for the automatics that was all over here after the playoffs (which will be absolutely denied by the cheerleaders). Now the cheerleaders are shifting their expectations whilst pretending it was always going to be this way.

Top 6 would be a hell of an achievement.
Click to expand...
Let’s see who lines up against Millwall before we go too far down the road of negativity.
 
alvez_49 said:
I'm sure we will be competitive... Like top 12 competitive.

This post was regarding the delusion that we will be competing for the automatics that was all over here after the playoffs (which will be absolutely denied by the cheerleaders). Now the cheerleaders are shifting their expectations whilst pretending it was always going to be this way.

Top 6 would be a hell of an achievement.
Click to expand...
the championship is very competitive no one really can say top 12 or top 6 yet as all the chips have yet to land. we did well last season and we’re well placed to build on that. Our aim will certainly be automatic promotion
 
Angus said:
Let’s see who lines up against Millwall before we go too far down the road of negativity.
Click to expand...
Or even what the squad looks like come September.

High quality loans in particular tend not to get done till towards the back end of the window as managers like to have a look at younger promising players in pre-season before making a decision. Also depends what business they get done themselves before deciding if they can release players.
 
festa5 said:
Or even what the squad looks like come September.

High quality loans in particular tend not to get done till towards the back end of the window as managers like to have a look at younger promising players in pre-season before making a decision. Also depends what business they get done themselves before deciding if they can release players.
Click to expand...


Very true. The original post incredibly negative based on a possible set of circumstances subject to all sorts of impossible to predict variables for us.

The reality it is possibly the most competitive division in football. The standard is very high, the teams that have come down have a massive financial advantage and the teams that have been promoted are likely to strengthen the division.

People forget very quickly how the manager transformed the club within a very short time, from the turgid under achievements of Wilder we went to being a joy to watch at times.

I’m not going to write the season of just yet.
 
newyddion said:
Mowett was on loan and injured for half of the season. He did well when he played.. but he hardly set the world on fire. Barlaser can do his job and doesn’t have such a terrible injury record.
Click to expand...
Then why didn't he? Why did Carrick consistently pick Mowatt in front of him for the run in?
 
Also, it is a full season. We don’t have to have the best squad in the league for the opening game of the season, we have until the end of August and also January to improve where required.

Added to that, we can afford to be less consistent than we were last season under Carrick and still be up there.
 
Caesium137 said:
Then why didn't he? Why did Carrick consistently pick Mowatt in front of him for the run in?
Click to expand...
Because when a large part of the run in actually happened we were almost nailed on for the playoffs; having fallen some distance behind the Blades, yet a fair bit in front of Norwich, Blackburn, Watford et al.
Carrick wanted his preferred first eleven as injury free as possible, especially when Fry and Ramsey had crashed out of it.
 
festa5 said:
Or even what the squad looks like come September.

High quality loans in particular tend not to get done till towards the back end of the window as managers like to have a look at younger promising players in pre-season before making a decision. Also depends what business they get done themselves before deciding if they can release players.
Click to expand...
Steffen, Giles, Mowett, Ramsey, Archer..
ALL LOANS

You gotta fancy our chances at bringing some decent loans in again.
 
Ipad1977 said:
Because when a large part of the run in actually happened we were almost nailed on for the playoffs; having fallen some distance behind the Blades, yet a fair bit in front of Norwich, Blackburn, Watford et al.
Carrick wanted his preferred first eleven as injury free as possible, especially when Fry and Ramsey had crashed out of it.
Click to expand...
?

That doesn't answer the point I was making to Newy.

He said Barlaser could easily do Mowatt's role in the squad. I pointed out when Carrick had the option/need to choose another midfielder beyond the H&H partnership he pretty consistently chose Mowatt.
 
Caesium137 said:
But Barlaser wasn't here then to chose? For the run in, when Carrick had the choice he chose Mowatt?
Click to expand...
The point still stands.. we’re better with a fit Barlaser than an un fit Mowett.

We will be better at the start of this season that we were last season.

Steffen is injured, Ramsey is injured (I think) Muniz didn’t fit, Giles brought in assists and now we’ve upgraded the squad.

Archer and Ramsey weren’t even here until January
 
LaPennaBianca said:
What if we smack Millwall 4-0? Perfectly capable of doing that.

I imagine there'll be a lot of bed sheets in the tumble dryer.
Click to expand...
We wont be doing that with the current squad as is !

Incidentally, what is the preferred term for the panglossian, rose tinted spec brigade that don’t believe realism has a place in the world these days? If nothing changes in terms of real quality up front and in the quality of their supply chain, there will be a lot of Alphabetti Spaghetti on their plates all season, never mind sheets in a tumble dryer !!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top