Having reflected on the pounding we had yesterday here are my thoughts.
given the resources available to Evans, it certainly wasn't a level playing field. That said, as a football purist I have to say that Bournemouth were a pleasure to watch. Not dirty, not diving, just quality. We could not blame the ref or linesmen who had a good game except for missing their free kick going over the line.
taking positives out of the game, well I struggled to see that pathetic pink and black ball, I don't have to any more. Also Tony Stewart can be under no illusions now, we have to either spend nothing and prepare for relegation or spend wisely , within budget in order to avoid administration but yet be able to compete at this level.
I said it before the season and I will say it again, the gap between l1 and the championship is the biggest in football.
We now need to figure out how to get the optimum performance out of our current players on a consistent basis until they are replaced.
I thought Pringle can be singled out as having a poor game defensively yesterday. Yet again he consistently dived in and let the player off-balance him. Stand up, make the player pass the ball. job done. Hard for me to say because he is one of my favourites. You could tell he is being trained by Warney too because he used to tackle by grabbing the opponent's shoulder too.
Remember, Bournemouth are the best in this division. Revenge in a fortnight would be great, but is not likely.
I have missed two games this season due to holidays. Middlesbrough and now Bournemouth. It appears I can't trust you lot with my team so I'm comeing back. But we're we that bad yesterday are were they that good? Wrong team? Wrong shape? What went so wrong for us to concede 5.
Painful as it was, yesterday may just be the kick start we need. We are currently not in the relegation zone and Blackpool and Millwall, until now anyway, are consistently worse than we are. The defence, although slow, will not face that every week.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this transfer window is absolutely crucial. I have run out of patience with Derbyshire, the guy is obviously lacking in confidence and we haven't the time to nurture a misfiring player. He needs to go on loan at a minimum and permanently if possible. The same applies to Bowery, I'm sure Bury will be grateful.
The players we have are not adapting quickly enough to this new style of play. Time is not a luxury we have so we either bring in players more used to the system or change the system itself. I'm no football manager, but it really is apparent that if we want to stay in this division, then changes are needed.
Kempo is right in saying we don't need to be Bournemouth, they are light years ahead of us and are Premiership bound as far as I can see. We, however, just need to survive. That puts us on a par with Millwall, Wigan, Leeds and others scrapping down there. Forget Bournemouth it's unrealistic to compare us to them at this time and I've already written off the fixture in a fortnight as a defeat. The key games this season are against those around us, against whom we have held our own. There is a tendency to knee-jerk after a defeat like that, but I don't see total doom and gloom, we are not Blackpool.
One thing is for sure, we will be much clearer where we stand by the end of this transfer window and we can better judge the squad by then. To say we are doomed at this point is lunacy. At least one pacey defender and a decent quality striker is required. Not an easy prospect to acquire, but you get what you pay for in this division.
Agree with others and I have said my piece on what I think we need.
There were lost souls out there yesterday but Kempo and Pod are correct, we are not competing with any of the clubs in the top third.
We have to buy a striker, a central defender and for me get Ledesma back. Extend Reece James loan. I would also put in a bid for Tavs and put Arnie back into midfield in front of back four. Others will say we don't have the money but unless we invest in the above, I think we will resume Lge 1 status. The gulf is huge in Champs and I now believe TS will have settled down over dreams of getting into Premiership. By striker I don't mean Tom Lawrence, I mean proven goal scorer, they are around. Becchio should return imo.
We need investment and by that I mean other than what TS has already kindly introduced. He alone surely does not have the financial clout to bankroll this club much further. Without investment we cannot compete at this level. I think, last season's Wembley team were better than the current team and we ought to have built more on that, than sweep aside the old style and bring in untried methodology. We haven't the players to do that - yet.
Green is a little lightweight imo and Prings just needs to be allowed to play his last season's role. He's always been less than average at tackling back but the poor lad just doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing. Did you see Raynor trying to console him yesterday? Prings doesn't understand what is being asked of him and equally of the others. He is an absolute star given his normal duties.
And then we have our strikers. Bowery and JCH are not ready, end of. Derbyshire needs for his own sanity to start afresh. We have no Goal scorers on the books so how on earth can we survive in this league?
If we then have more loan players around those I can live with it but we have to build a team of regulars who we know are going to be on our books in 3 months time. How disruptive can it be to have 5, 6 or 7 loaness in the squad.
When you have a solid nucleus you can add additional short term loanees. The team spirit which is non existent now will be rebuilt. The fans will sing and chant again - they haven't done this since Birmingham and Boro out sung us 10 fold. The whole club becomes one again. This is the moment that will determine our status and the ambitions of the club.
As always, I will be there whatever but please, if we can, make that investment. Last chance saloon ............
Just read this from an AFC Bournemouth fan on the other board
"I'm not sure if we have " bought success" as much as built a stable team. We had a count the other day and 8 of the side that played were in our team in div 1 two seasons before. We paid big money ( by our standards ) for Wilson but we received more for selling Grabban. Wages wise, I'm not sure what we pay I am just a fan. What I do know is that Grabban, after turning down a move in Jan and signing an improved contract, was off to Norwich on a lot more than we were paying six months later."
Makes the point really that we might have been better building on the ethos and mentality of two successful seasons, kept the bulk of the players and added just a few. Pay Agard £2k a week more and he would have stayed - so would Tavs.
Just a thought
-- Edited by Millers4Ever on Sunday 4th of January 2015 01:34:54 PM
I think the most important thing now, regardless of division we are playing in, is financial stability.
To cave in to high wage demands is to go down the route of a third admin. I would rather watch league 1 football.
I agree, we need to be prudent, but this would be at the cost of progress. I see us as a progressive club who could sustain life in the Championship. Without investment it would deem some of this progress irrelevant. I have no idea of the investment involved in the club, but surely offloading some of the players we have and buying one or two of genuine quality could seem feasible. However, given the choice of League 1 or administration, I'd take League 1.
Problem with all our excellent posts is that for the most part they are conjecture so far as financial arrangements are calculated. Does anyone have a realistic idea of what the ratio of success to investment is. Obviously not.
Some of our group won't be moving on because they are on contracts that others may not match.
I wonder if the fringe players will all be told to go play elsewhere on loan, of do a spot of gardening. I doubt this will apply to Bowery, Derbyshire, JCH and Green.
I suspect that we will add to the main group without much initial subtraction.
Yes, lets deal in facts rather than conjecture. If you look at the results since 30th September, we have won as many as we have lost and are gaining points at a rate which, if continued, will keep us in the Championship. And we do know that SE has used the January transfer window well in the past. As Pod suggests, maybe at the end of the season yesterday's wakeup call, painful as it was, will be seen as the day we retained our Championship status.
