When we went up I knew it would be very hard to survive in the Championship, the quality of the teams there and the budgets means we are this years Burton, and will need a miracle. I can deal with that because that is modern day football. However to me it was clear that we had to have our business done early and to start the season with 90% to 95% of the squad in place, to have them fit and working as a unit, which is what got us here in the first place.
We are nowhere near that figure, we do not have a 15 to 20 goal striker, we are at least 2 short in midfield and now we have lost a left sided defender. We are not making it easy for ourselves are we?
I think it is hard for us to get our business done early, because we aren't likely to be many players' first choice for a permanent move to a Championship club either wages or prospect wise. Unless you go down the Evans route and sign players on their last legs who would sign for the first Championship club that came knocking. We could all list them. For that reason, the permanent transfers are likely to be towards deadline day.
Reasonable comment to be somewhat concerned given last time in championship and the fact squad that went up via play offs isnt any stronger as we start the season.
However, I have more faith in Warne than any manager we have had for the last decade.
It may only be faith but he did a very good job of putting a squad together over last season.
In 2016/17 we were effectively relegated before a ball was kicked what with the hurried appointment of Stubbs & his subsequent poor recruitment & alas I think the lack of quality recruitment will see the same outcome I'm afraid.
In 2016/17 we were effectively relegated before a ball was kicked what with the hurried appointment of Stubbs & his subsequent poor recruitment & alas I think the lack of quality recruitment will see the same outcome I'm afraid.
yep brad thats my thinking at the moment although im not knocking the players we have signed and haven't kicked a ball in anger
if we get tonked tomorrow then tony will have to spend and spend quickly stop haggling over the agents fees
"Stubbs & his subsequent poor recruitment". With the time and money he had and half a squad to buy just to replace NW's Cull - he used his knowledge of the premiership U21 and youth players to bring in some great loans. As 60% of the wage budget was taken up by such as Halford
( has beens and useless ) he brought in Scottish players with a meagre budget to play a certain way - to develop a defensive unit so we could take points off better teams. He was manipulating his squad in order to assess who worked well with others and he was making progress but TS bottled it and changed policy. PW took us down with a whimper. That's was happened if you read all the history and not just the mass hysteria of MM
( uneducated football tactics R-US ) and the propaganda from the club. AS did ok with the atrocious closed season - NW's procrastination and CULL. Head scout Evans disappeared and a rubbish budget. Say it how you see it but research backs my version. History now but I respect history and don't like it being incorrectly revised. Without an alternative view.
Just saying. Not worth a war of words !
Opinions - Do your own research.
Stubbs won one game in fourteen during his tenure. He won SEVEN percent of the games. The club CONCEDED thirty seven goals, and had the worst goal DIFFERENCE in the country. None of which, of course, was attributable to Stubbs. It was all Warnock and Tony Stewart's fault. Ain't that RIGHT lbj
A few good draws along the way but a great deal of quality management - manipulating various partnerships of players seeing who works with who. Remember his remit was a 3 year project - to build a quality top class ( Everton like ) academy. I can see your research doesn't take in all the facts of what happened prior and during AS tenure. I don't care - if that's the limit of your understanding of that period then be happy - you'll sleep well tonight ! Leave me to the fantasy of the real world of football realities of what can be achieved in such a short time. As for lbj - he was a very astute poster I believe. Great minds think alike so they say.
Really ! Personal attacks again ! You simply ignore the football tactics of - in layman's terms "parking the bus" a defensive tactic that allows teams to have a chance against better footballing sides. That's the tactic AS was trying to develop but sadly wasn't given time or resources so he did the best he could and ( if you knew the game / coaching ) you could see the defencive combinations he was trying.
Pep had 18 months grace before his squad of millionaires bought into his "systems" and how many keepers.
Don't tell me I don't know the game when you are evidently ignorant of the system at all and /or just one of the lambs that follow the club propaganda. RUFC chose to appoint PW in the championship which had the obvious end product. The budget was the killer of our season as every manager alluded to. Only AS stood and made a fist of it - using his football contacts to obtain the likes of Izzy as the class act for counter attacking football feeding Ward who scored 1 / 2 under AS and latterly 1 / 6 under PW.
We were robbed at Huddersfield / Forest / hit the woodwork 3 times in a 0-1 defeat v Newcastle.
Acient history - but your "ignorance" of the facts needed revising. Hope this helps but I doubt it. You appear to know it all and therefore you have no need ( or capacity ) to absorb more information. Great - I bet you're a happy chappy....my love to your Granny.
I am not a full-time coach, although I have a badge or two. I was not a great player, but in my younger days I used to get paid a bit for playing at a good non-league level. I don't profess to be a football expert who knows more than anyone else. I know that people have opinions - that is what makes us all love the game. I don't dismiss anyone who disagrees with my opinion out of hand. I know that some have played and coached at a higher level than me, but I know enough to have a valid opinion like most on here.Let me say that up front.
I went to all but a couple of the games we played under Stubbs. I was at Barnsley, where we capitulated in spectacular fashion. I was at Norwich when they could have scored seven if they had needed to, particularly when their best player was a left winger licking his lips at the prospect of Halford playing as a right back. Etc.
Bornamiller apparently saw a manger experimenting with different combinations, beginning to build a team capable of keeping things tight away from home and grabbing points by playing smart defensive football. I saw a manager who was clutching at straws and lost for ideas. One mans 'trying different combinations' is another mans 'desperation'. I saw desperation, and a bunch of players who looked completely lost and devoid of fight. Once one goal went in, heads went down and more goals inevitably followed. I accept that Stubbs had to deal late and under certain constraints, but they weren't financial constraints any more than any other manager of ours has ever had. Brown, Allan, Forster-Caskey, Blackstock etc - none of them came cheap by our standards. Whatever else Stubbs had planned, it looked to me like he couldn't motivate players and get them organised. His record was appalling - matched only by his lack of engagement with the club, the fans and (on the face of it) the players.
All that being said, he went nearly two years ago. Bornamiller/lbj has voiced his opinion about Stubbs and has done it to death on MM to the point of exclusion, and not only is it an embarrassing position for him to take, it is dead, done and finished. As with JCH, it is history. Born is in a minority of one, but everyone else is a football fool who doesn't know as much as him. Lets just park that and move on.
