Give me a gun and a length of rope now please.... :-(

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gipetto said:
OTT thread title aside, @dcl0sc is spot on here. Yet again, we appear to be entering a season with a squad that is ill-equipped for promotion. We've been saying this for years now, when we were in the PL, we weren't strong enough to compete, fast forward to present day, we're in league one...yes league one and still unable to attract players that are good enough to get us out of a tin pot league.

Players like Power, Flanagan, Wyke, Grigg and Dobson should not be first team players, we've seen enough of them now to realise they aren't good enough. These are the players that should be replaced with better, unfortunately we have a tendancy to replace players with like-for-like signings, we always stuggle to strengthen. Although Power and Flanagan are not bad league one players and Dobson deserves more time, these players should be squad players at best. Wyke should have been shifted after his first season here, he is utterly tripe and I struggle to believe we can't do better, surely worst case we could find better alternatives in league two and the national league.

I naively thought we'd pickup the cream of the crop in league one after being relegated, but it seems our meagre budget and inability to attract the better players in the league has proven too difficult for Donald and co. We have a proven league one attacking midfielder in Maddison who appears to want to join us and will all but guarantee 10 plus goals and assists, but our manager clearly feels he cannot handle him.

If we setup with the same players this coming season as the team that finished last, once more we'll struggle to even make the playoffs. It pains me to think we're likely going to persist with the cumbersome Charlie Wyke until his contract runs out basically. Donald regularly talks of ambition, ambitious budgets etc. we've seen little or no signs of ambition. Grigg was the last ambitious signing we made and what a shocker it was, they've been scared from investing ever since.

Without additional quality, we'll be entering the season once more on a downer, we have a manager few wanted and an owner that supposedly wants to sell the club. Where's the direction? Where is the energy going to come from to reignite the fans and help spearhead a push for promotion?
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Some fool further up has suggested we build a team around Grigg....
 


powburn red said:
I would give him the benefit of me getting behind him initially before said ball has been kicked ..maybe that makes me a modern day "uber supporter "who knows ( wanting to give the manager a bit of time ) ....a new season and renewed hope for me .If it all goes wrong we could call in said Granny ...mind she's not much owner than me .
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He's the wrong manager and should never have been appointed. It will end in tears.
 
It's not a flashy line-up but its well balanced and still strong for this league. I'm not far wrong in saying that this was the exact team last season who won 4 in a row and conceded 0? Honestly stop wetting your pants lads. O'Brien, Scowen, Embleton, Diamond are all fit and raring to go, more signings to come and if they are Fraser, Madisson, a GK, a CB & a LWB & 2 strikers, we are sorted!
 
dcl0sc said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1289925863035662342

This team will again get us nowhere..... again!
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I'm not excited either and the football is dire.

But won't be many clubs starting this season who will have kept the finishing XI together. The league will have gone backwards quite a bit, due to the pandemic. This will sound incredible given how much we still need to strengthen, but despite all the chaos off the pitch, on the pitch we may be one of the more stable clubs in the league.

Should start well - no excuses.

Still need another CB, two wingbacks and a striker mind. Another attacking midfielder would be a dream.

(obviously a keeper too, but looks like they're addressing that one).
 
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Summerbee said:
there's still work to be done and things will shift ahead of that first kick but it's the core of a very competitive side at this level, and PP will have them a lot fitter this time around too.
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I'm sorry but SAFC, in League One, shouldn't just have "the core of a very competitive side", relying on fitness to drive us up the table.

We should, unequivocally, have the best team and be expected to win the league at a canter. Anything else is a massive failure for a club of our resources that attracts 30k fans and has spent 15 of the last 20 years in the PL and 86 top flight seasons in total.

The simple fact is that before a ball has even been kicked, for the third season in a row at this level, we are again not strong enough to be the clear favourite to win the league. It is a not only a catastrophic failure of management at every level, but also a massive massive shame for the long suffering supporters who continue to spend their hard earned on failure.
 
dcl0sc said:
He's the wrong manager and should never have been appointed. It will end in tears.
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It will ..as it does for almost every manager ..we see them come and go .Sometimes managers who ha
dcl0sc said:
He's the wrong manager and should never have been appointed. It will end in tears.
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It usually does but lets at least see how it goes ..we have had loads of the " right fit " managers where it ended in tears .His hands are more tied than many have been ...let's see how he "manages "and go from there.
I would give him the first ten games ..see where we are ..how any new players are doing and look at that point .He will know he needs to get off to a good start .The owner carry on and salary cap cannot be helping him but I'm hoping he can get us heading forward .Keep Bailey Wright and Willis fit , add a forward and creative midfielder and who knows?
 
RossTheNinja said:
I'm not sure he's the worst in our current team.
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The 97 in his username would suggest he’s watched not a lot of football. Or at least been spoilt by years in the Premier League while he has. I only started going in ‘92 & I’m fully aware there were bleak years before even I started showing up under Crosby.
 
SuperGerryHarrison said:
I'm sorry but SAFC, in League One, shouldn't just have "the core of a very competitive side", relying on fitness to drive us up the table.

We should, unequivocally, have the best team and be expected to win the league at a canter. Anything else is a massive failure for a club of our resources that attracts 30k fans and has spent 15 of the last 20 years in the PL and 86 top flight seasons in total.

The simple fact is that before a ball has even been kicked, for the third season in a row at this level, we are again not strong enough to be the clear favourite to win the league. It is a not only a catastrophic failure of management at every level, but also a massive massive shame for the long suffering supporters who continue to spend their hard earned on failure.
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I understand the sentiment but Hull City were playing in an FA Cup Final and Europe as recently as 2014. Their fans will also be demanding they walk the league at a canter. Portsmouth and Ipswich are clubs with strong histories, as are Charlton and Wigan even though they're likely to be less competitive. Then there are very well-run lower league clubs like Peterborough, Oxford and Fleetwood.

It's a strong league and we're going to have to roll up our sleeves and earn it. There's no reason to believe we can't do that.
 
In the current squad, the only players that i think are good enough for a promotion chasing team, assuming they all stay fit, are Willis, Wright, Gooch, Maguire and possibly O'Nien. The rest of them are bang average league 1 players and wont get us anywhere. Maddison is probably the best midfield player we could realistically get and we desperately need a goal scorer.
 
Summerbee said:
I understand the sentiment but Hull City were playing in an FA Cup Final and Europe as recently as 2014. Their fans will also be demanding they walk the league at a canter. Portsmouth and Ipswich are clubs with strong histories, as are Charlton and Wigan even though they're likely to be less competitive. Then there are very well-run lower league clubs like Peterborough, Oxford and Fleetwood.

It's a strong league and we're going to have to roll up our sleeves and earn it. There's no reason to believe we can't do that.
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maybe Tom, if you did your job and persuaded Donald to sell at a price that is reasonable and not prohibitively overpriced, we’d get the investment necessary to get out of this mess
 
Roker Magic said:
In the current squad, the only players that i think are good enough for a promotion chasing team, assuming they all stay fit, are Willis, Wright, Gooch, Maguire and possibly O'Nien. The rest of them are bang average league 1 players and wont get us anywhere.
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You might be right based on last season but players step up and prove people wrong all the time.
 
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