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How Good is our Squad?

A fully fit squad is a rare situation for any football club, we should recruit with the assumption that 20% will be unavailable at any given time.

Aye fair point. But it happens for a period of time. We had 6 first team players out injured against Birmingham. We've been extremely unlucky, usually a couple injuries are manageable. We've weathered a huge storm and the only way is up with a fully fit Simms, Stewart, Huggins, Ballard.
 

If we do go up we have to believe we have the nucleus to be better than the other two promoted teams so in reality we only have to improve enough to finish higher than ONE other club..... simple really.

It's not really about belief it's about spending - just look at this season.

I'm all for going up with the intention and belief we could stay up, but I wouldn't want to see us go up and blow all our parachute payments trying to stay up like some clubs do, and potentially end up back in the same financial shit were just working out of now.
 
On our day SAFC can beat anyone in this league... but.... I feel a promotion to the Premier in our first attempt this season would be too soon.

We are not ready. I also dont feel the current ownership will invest to the right level to keep us up if promoted .

Dont want to be another yoyo club tbh

The one positive of going up and coming straight back down would be the parachute payment.
 
I mean look at the utterly f***ing ridiculous reaction by a minority on here to speakman whenevr we lose 1 game, its utterly embarassing
It's a minority , same as on here, but a few of them just post and post and post the same drivel all the time and often shout the loudest.
Baring Bass, I wouldn't have issue with any of them starting
Bass was well liked at Pompey



A few posters knock him without seeing him play. I'm sure he will be fine
Ask the same question coming off the back of a defeat and see what replies you get
'we need 3 strikers and KS is incompetent'
From 3 posters posting it 1000 times
 
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i’d say the only dead wood is dajaku, hasn’t been great this season
Well considering he has hardly played,what did you expect. 90% of the squad are still learning their trade,years to develop. Harry Kane laned out 3 loaned FFS ! Now he's undroppable.
 
The entire club has progressed in leaps and bounds over the last 2 years, we've now got a sustainable and progressive model that is moving forward. We've got a top 6 squad with lots of depth and quality so a playoff place is a realistic target, even though we're a newly promoted team. Transfer window coming up, we're only going to get better :p
 
Baring Bass, I wouldn't have issue with any of them starting
Which is exact what we want -née point having players who cannot contribute like we have in the past
Two main areas for me -big strong box to box midfielder who can also help attack a corner -( good luck finding one mind ! ) and another forward. Two if as we suspect Stewart goes .
 
If we ever get to the time where everyone is fit then it's gonna be rough dropping someone from defense and we've already seen Roberts get dropped and struggle to get back on the team at a point where he was in the best form we've seen from him.

Ballard will have a real fight to get back in the side and when Stewart is back either Simms will have to drop out or another of the likes of Pritchard who doesn't deserve dropping anarl
Totally agree with all that, no way ONien can be dropped on current form, Ballard will have a fight on his hand to get back in..
 
A fully fit squad is a rare situation for any football club, we should recruit with the assumption that 20% will be unavailable at any given time.
Ha ha, how would you do that? You'd have to be some clairvoyant to know which positions to cover for [although with SAFC striker numbers/quality has been a long standing issue that must be addressed].
 
3 things needed for me, 1 and 2 in particular:

1) A CM who plays the same role as Evans

2) A quality RB who can also play RWB

3) Backup at striker just in case (presuming Stewart stays)

Can't see a RB coming in when we've Gooch, Hume, Huggins and even Onien who can play there. Even if Hume ends up going out on loan, its a position we've got bodies for.

2 (if we can get someone in who's a step up from Evans) and 3 (younger forward who can be in and around the first team) would do for me.
 
Totally agree with all that, no way ONien can be dropped on current form, Ballard will have a fight on his hand to get back in..
And that's only if we play three at the back, with a flat back four you'd have to drop one of Batth, Alese or circkin unless you think one of them or Ballard can play right back
 
Now we're an established "top half of the championship" side , it's difficult for the recruitment team to produce a regular first XI starter without a big transfer fee and / or disrupting the wage structure.

A top quality loaner is the easy way out but I expect them to keep looking for undervalued diamonds in the rough . At some point selling clubs do have to sell their better players.
 
3 things needed for me, 1 and 2 in particular:

1) A CM who plays the same role as Evans

2) A quality RB who can also play RWB

3) Backup at striker just in case (presuming Stewart stays)
Don't agree with 2

We already have Gooch, Hume, Huggins and O'Nein who all can play there
 
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