• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

Blinded by the Kits ?

Just had a look down all our players, if you take every player that is here now including the 3 weve just signed but not including the young'ns who are stepping up the likes of Zak Johnson, Tom Watson etc. we have 29 1st team players on our books. 2 goalkeepers, 11 defenders, 13 midfielders and 3 forwards. For an sustainable model, this is the most unsustainable way of trying to achieve your goal. Bizzare recruitment really
 

They got off to a decent start in the window bringing in Browne, who in my opinion is an upgrade on Evans. Moore on the face of it seemed a sound enough replacement for Bass so I genuinely thought we had done some serious planning. Then once again we have done fuck all of significance for weeks and the season starts in just over a weeks time.

If we bring in a Striker it's likely going to be one that isn't up to match speed, We are then clearly going to do business once the season has already started which puts us at a disadvantage from the off.

It's so frustrating man, How can KLD and Sartori expect this season to be a success if we are now entering around 18 months of football without having one striker who can put the ball in the net? It's bordering on criminal.
 
RGZ said:
Personally feel like the change in playstyle has been much better than the dross we’ve played last season. Much more aggressive press and quick counters.

It’s pre season, the squads are mixed and matched. We drew with a premier league side and genuinely had a good performance against them.

Yes we all know we need a CF and if the Mendy deal is anything to go by they have been working on it.

We don’t need much else after that imo. I think people are going into this with too many pre determined “this is shite” thoughts with no evidence to back it up

Also none of that squad from yesterday will ever play together like they did last night. Players play better with better players around them.

Let’s just give the lads a fair chance. I think this style of play will have us playing good stuff

There is also a whole MONTH left of the window. Can’t judge it till it’s done
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I think the new manager is on a hiding to nothing, another one not given the tools to carry out the job, as of yet
 
JOEJA said:
Keep buying season tickets in numbers and they keep taking the piss. We had a chance of real change this summer but supporters get conned with the usual bullshit, tart up of the ground and new shirts.
Click to expand...

Or they've actually listened to some of the things people were constantly going on about. Read the minutes from the RAWA meetings and you'll see the ground needing a refurb was a constant issue raised.

Its abundantly clear that there are issues around recruitment, and yes, they've cocked up massively with the striker situation, but people cant wait to throw shite at them for being underhand and sly, when they are actually addressing other issues that needed addressing so its damned if they do, damned if they don't.

If we'd signed 3 strikers for £5million plus, there'd still be people whining on here about PA systems and pigeon shite.

Should we have sorted the striker situation by now. Yes, 100%. Are they right to keep working on other things that the supporters have whinged about at the same time? Yes, 100%
 
poolie said:
CB
Defensive Mid (not accepting the lad from Preston who has mainly played as an 8 is this)
At least 2 centre forwards.

As a comment I’ve just read on another post. The stunt the club have pulled with the kits is just like Donald and Salmon Pants with changing the pink seats. An easy win, that takes the focus off what is really going on.

We need to add quality to this group that has been lacking for 12 months now. We’ve brought in some players on free transfers but we need that boost in quality. Those 4 or 5 players capable of walking into the first team and taking us up the table. Also why are those clowns still apart of the backroom staff? Where are the new managers own team.

KLD you have under two weeks to get this done. If you are not the man for the job, just like a lot of us have been doing for the last 6 months+ then sell the club to someone who can.
Click to expand...
Send like we really are just aiming for internal improvements to get better and only buying players to go into the u21/squad.

Interesting to think about what players we've signed to go straight into the first XI. I guess it could be argued that browne is but if a free transfer is the extent of our ambition thats troubling.

I looked back on here and it goes back to Aug 2022 and i could argue we haven't signed anyone for the first XI. People might say rusyn (massive gamble/flop) bellingham (not better than Pritchard at the time, good signing but shouldn't have gone straight into the first XI) and amad (loan)
You must be logged on to see external links


Who has a memory that goes back to the last time we paid money for a player to go straight into the first team? I guess it's clarke? Maybe Ballard. And unsurprisingly they're still our best players by far.
 
Confucius said:
A little, but it goes to prove what can be achieved when you know what you are doing. Bruce has managed to do this, pull his team together, it isn’t just him, knowing what you “suppliers” can provide and set his standard high.
Speakman is failing to do anything of the sort.
Click to expand...
This.

A completely separate section of the club the kits. Other parts of Bruces’ setup need huge improvements too mind.

To think any improvement in merch is a ‘stunt’ or distraction technique is fecking mental tbh. 😂

Is mental we’ve still nothing up top however.
 
TDalt said:
Some of the young lads will struggle to make it at league one level in any decent country. Rusyn, what a load of shit. Two million for that? Jesus
Click to expand...
Exactly and the way they chased him like he was the next Schevchenko. Absolute dog shit. He's got nothing at all about him. He'd be last picked at school and have to play in his underpants cos he forgot his kit.
 
Season starts in less than 2 weeks, 1, new manager comes into a new job in a foreign country with no experience of the championship and he still has no assistant manager or coaches and making do with Dodds and Proctor. 2, Still no striker who you would say will score us the goals to even compete in the top half of the table never mind for playoffs or promotion. 3, no CDM to replace Evans, to me this is a massively important position in our team for the way we set up and play not asking Neil or Browne to play their cos they can, sign a f***ing player who thrives there man, 4, the list could go on but I’ve got no confidence in Speakman or KLD at the minute to change it anytime soon!
Call me a flapper twitchy arse etc but the Striker, Midfielder situation have gone on too long and us as fans can see it so why can’t they? Too stubborn to admit it? Money? Incompetent? I know the window is open still and it might change but I’ve got no faith in them whatsoever, complete soundbytes and jargon come out of Speakman when it seems a bit of positivity is happening but goes into hibernation when the going gets tough! Rant over 😂
 
Chucky Puddin said:
Season starts in less than 2 weeks, 1, new manager comes into a new job in a foreign country with no experience of the championship and he still has no assistant manager or coaches and making do with Dodds and Proctor. 2, Still no striker who you would say will score us the goals to even compete in the top half of the table never mind for playoffs or promotion. 3, no CDM to replace Evans, to me this is a massively important position in our team for the way we set up and play not asking Neil or Browne to play their cos they can, sign a f***ing player who thrives there man, 4, the list could go on but I’ve got no confidence in Speakman or KLD at the minute to change it anytime soon!
Call me a flapper twitchy arse etc but the Striker, Midfielder situation have gone on too long and us as fans can see it so why can’t they? Too stubborn to admit it? Money? Incompetent? I know the window is open still and it might change but I’ve got no faith in them whatsoever, complete soundbytes and jargon come out of Speakman when it seems a bit of positivity is happening but goes into hibernation when the going gets tough! Rant over 😂
Click to expand...
Great post.
 
It is a 5 year plan and this is only the start of year 3, totally unprepared and still with the wrong balance in the squad and missing in key areas. But apparently that is fine because the five years are not up. Or so a lot of people said towards the end of last season as we slumped down the table on relegation form.

In terms of getting the fans going, we have two signings who look canny on paper, but don’t address the issues we have. We don’t have a goal scorer or a defensive midfield and an inexperienced manager who has two years in the game where he steered a decent club towards relegation.

I think it is fair to say that any success this year will be a surprise rather than an expectation.
 
6inarow said:
Just had a look down all our players, if you take every player that is here now including the 3 weve just signed but not including the young'ns who are stepping up the likes of Zak Johnson, Tom Watson etc. we have 29 1st team players on our books. 2 goalkeepers, 11 defenders, 13 midfielders and 3 forwards. For a sustainable model, this is the most unsustainable way of trying to achieve your goal. Bizzare recruitment really
Click to expand...
It’s been scattergun past 18 months which will be hampering us this summer on the quality we actually need

It’s been pretty poor since Aug 22. The churn of players who’ve arrived is shocking.

They’ve done well bringing through Patterson, Neil, Rigg but they’re also 3 important players who weren’t “bought”. And as we’re discussing recruitment itself.

We’re a striker away (I know, I know) from having a very decent first 11, but the squad back up just aren’t taking their chances or looking good enough. We need some to really step up. Maybe Mundle will.

I hoped the French trio would look better this season, but they haven’t had a good pre season so far. Let’s see
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Sid
Super Ted said:
They got off to a decent start in the window bringing in Browne, who in my opinion is an upgrade on Evans. Moore on the face of it seemed a sound enough replacement for Bass so I genuinely thought we had done some serious planning. Then once again we have done fuck all of significance for weeks and the season starts in just over a weeks time.

If we bring in a Striker it's likely going to be one that isn't up to match speed, We are then clearly going to do business once the season has already started which puts us at a disadvantage from the off.

It's so frustrating man, How can KLD and Sartori expect this season to be a success if we are now entering around 18 months of football without having one striker who can put the ball in the net? It's bordering on criminal.
Click to expand...
How can KLD and Sartori expect this season to be a success if we are now entering around 18 months of football without having one striker who can put the ball in the net?

That's worth restating as it's the crux of the problems we've been having over the past two seasons.
 
In speakman’s defence he can only work within the budget he’s given. Up to now we haven’t spent a penny on transfer fees this summer. Only 3 other clubs in the league have done the same. The owner is a joke. Look at how long it took us to get a manager and we got one who has just been relegated with no assistant or coaches with him. The bloke hasn’t even got any family with him. He’ll be gone by xmas. Pretty telling that poyet’s advice to him was to make sure he was part of the PFA. The frightening thing is some fans still think these are good owners. Yeah the strips are nice, KLD will be dead keen on that cos the club make fortune off them and he likes anything that involves profit but sadly doesn’t like spending. We’ll sell jack clarke for 20 million and get a striker on loan and some of our stupid fans will be happy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top