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Match day thread: Coventry

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  • edited January 2019

    Regarding Curtis Thompson, in my post match interview yesterday Gaz confirmed that the last game of Thompson's contract is the Doncaster Rovers match. If nothing changes before then, he will become a free agent.

  • Must admit Doncaster, Brizzle and Plymouth not the best next three matches if we are not on top form!

  • I was on the fence about Gape, but making him captain on saturday, and then saying we need to let some players go suggests that GA is resigned to losing him.

    I wouldn't say i was sanguine @DevC but i'm certainly not panicking. As i said, i wouldn't be surprised to see Fred and Randell return. Even if they don't the blow is softened by the fact that GA has spent five years finding players we've never heard of and turning them into cult heroes.

  • So if we sell Gape, release Sammy Saunders and get some Hause money we are minted and can get all the loanees back until an ex-player comes in to buy the club? Have I got that right?

  • I have the utmost faith in GA and have had for many years, even when it was fashionable to put him "under pressure". He is, I think on the balance of probabilities, still human rather than fully deified and hence there is a limit to what even he and his admirable bunch of players can achieve.

    It is possible their may be an innocent explanation for all this. It is possible that we just have a few last minute issues with our prospective investors that will shortly be ironed out - these things happen. it is possible that Gape wants to keep his options open and doesn't want to sign a new contract yet. it is possible that Thompson too wants to see if more lucrative options appear before committing further. It is possible that we wanted and financially could extend Morris's loan period but shrewsbury simply wanted him back or indeed that GA concluded we don't need him. it is possible that Watford wanted Williams back possibly to sell him on or indeed that GA felt we had enough wide forwards without him. It is possible (although frankly unlikely) that millwall wanted fred back. No-one I suspect much cares about Fox and Saunders. it is possible that there are really plenty of finances in the kitty to fund replacements and possible too that imminent transfers for Hause, Gape and/or Harris may stock the bank even further. it is possible that one or more of Gape, Thompson, fred, Willams and morris may shortly be announced as staying at least until the end of the season. Even then staying up in this strong league will be far from easy.

    It is possible also that, given that we are losing £600k per year, given that all our loanees have been allowed to leave at the earliest possible opportunity and expiring contracts show no sign of being renewed, given that without investment we have no obvious way of funding that loss, given that deadlines for the next stage of the investment seem to have passed without progress being seen and with no apparent ramping up of the "sales pitch" over Christmas, given that those investors do not seem to have intervened to ensure that some of those players are retained and given that we know we required short term funding pre Christmas to make ends meet, that the prospects for the deal have receded significantly and that without that deal our financial situation is very grim indeed. If we lose all those players, struggle to fund similar standard replacements, and indeed struggle to fund the contracts of those we have, sadly I fear that a relegation battle this season may possibly become the least of our worries.

    lets hope paragraph two is a better reflection of the situation than paragraph three. I can't say I am not concerned though.

  • On facebook they just say 'That's it we're ****ed' after every loss. I sometimes envy their certainty. From most of the games I've seen this term I think we well stay up...but where the club will be financially by the end of the season is anyone's guess.

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • While obviously we would all much prefer to stay in league 1, relegation to league 2 would not be a complete disaster as long as the long term finances ensuring as far as possible we slipped no further were secured. For me that is a much bigger concern than losing a few games in a row. frankly I expected a period or two of that this season before it started. I would have expected 20th in August, I'd take it now.

  • Whilst looking skyward for divine intervention after the second goal I noticed a new sound system has been installed in the F.A. From where or should I say whom did we get the monies for that

  • If all the loanees are not replaced and we sell Gape, I think it is still unlikely we will get relegated despite Dev's concerns. We have Charles, Bloomfield, Harriman, Bean and Cowan-Hall who have rarely played recently for various reasons. These players are more than capable of playing at this level.

    52 points will probably be enough to stay up so we need 20 points from out last 20 games, 5 wins and 5 draws.

  • @Wendoverman Trevor Stroud singing Santa baby leave some speakers under tree for me

  • @mooneyman I agree. It's not a great situation and harks back to our having only three players, a dinner lady and Bodger on the bench...but we've been there before and Gaz is a whizz in the loan market.

  • edited January 2019

    Even in the massively unlikely event that none of Gape, Thompson, Fred, Morris and Williams (plus Fox, if he was even still around anyway), play another game, we can still field

    Allsop
    McCarthy El Abd Stewart JJ
    Paris Bloomfield Bean Tyson
    Bayo Samuel

    with a full bench of
    Harriman, Sido, Freeman, Kasket, Charles, CMS and Yves

    With Saunders in the background.

    So it's not quite the panic stations of a few years ago.

    And there's no chance all 5 (or 6) of the originally mentioned players won't play for us again.

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  • Not sure what the long term plan is, but as far as I understood it...whatever happens begins with us not being relegated! Hopefully, while men in suits scratch their noggins that is ALL Gareth is worrying about...

  • @Malone , fine servants that both have been, a first choice centre midfield partnership of Bean and Bloomfield would surely be unlikely to keep us up.

    Next four weeks will tell us more. 8-1 on relegation feels very generous to me.

  • @DevC said:
    I have the utmost faith in GA and have had for many years, even when it was fashionable to put him "under pressure". He is, I think on the balance of probabilities, still human rather than fully deified and hence there is a limit to what even he and his admirable bunch of players can achieve.

    It is possible their may be an innocent explanation for all this. It is possible that we just have a few last minute issues with our prospective investors that will shortly be ironed out - these things happen. it is possible that Gape wants to keep his options open and doesn't want to sign a new contract yet. it is possible that Thompson too wants to see if more lucrative options appear before committing further. It is possible that we wanted and financially could extend Morris's loan period but shrewsbury simply wanted him back or indeed that GA concluded we don't need him. it is possible that Watford wanted Williams back possibly to sell him on or indeed that GA felt we had enough wide forwards without him. It is possible (although frankly unlikely) that millwall wanted fred back. No-one I suspect much cares about Fox and Saunders. it is possible that there are really plenty of finances in the kitty to fund replacements and possible too that imminent transfers for Hause, Gape and/or Harris may stock the bank even further. it is possible that one or more of Gape, Thompson, fred, Willams and morris may shortly be announced as staying at least until the end of the season. Even then staying up in this strong league will be far from easy.

    It is possible also that, given that we are losing £600k per year, given that all our loanees have been allowed to leave at the earliest possible opportunity and expiring contracts show no sign of being renewed, given that without investment we have no obvious way of funding that loss, given that deadlines for the next stage of the investment seem to have passed without progress being seen and with no apparent ramping up of the "sales pitch" over Christmas, given that those investors do not seem to have intervened to ensure that some of those players are retained and given that we know we required short term funding pre Christmas to make ends meet, that the prospects for the deal have receded significantly and that without that deal our financial situation is very grim indeed. If we lose all those players, struggle to fund similar standard replacements, and indeed struggle to fund the contracts of those we have, sadly I fear that a relegation battle this season may possibly become the least of our worries.

    lets hope paragraph two is a better reflection of the situation than paragraph three. I can't say I am not concerned though.

    Bloody hell.

  • edited January 2019

    @DevC said:
    @Malone , fine servants that both have been, a first choice centre midfield partnership of Bean and Bloomfield would surely be unlikely to keep us up.

    Next four weeks will tell us more. 8-1 on relegation feels very generous to me.

    Rubbish. Bean and Bloomfield have a combined career appearance record of well over 800 league games. Their best days may be over, but I think they still have enough in their tank to see out our last 20 games. We do have another 9 players on the pitch to help them Dev! You seem to be turning into an elderly Trevor!

  • How the fuck were you ever top of the prediction league.....

  • You'r now turning into lovable Richie!

  • “You’re”
    Micro now....

  • To be fair to Dev, I'd also be worried if we just had to rely on Blooms and Beano for the rest of the season... harsh, but true

  • @HolmerBlue said:
    To be fair to Dev, I'd also be worried if we just had to rely on Blooms and Beano for the rest of the season... harsh, but true

    So you don't think we could scrape together 20 points with the team suggested above by @Malone at 6.18?

  • If Beany and Bloomfield are our starting midfield 2 I'd put a couple hundred on us going down, they're simply not good enough at this level

  • @DevC said:
    “You’re”
    Micro now....

    I think you may now be suffering from split personality disorder. Are the increased train fares affecting your wellbeing?

  • Are the increased attendances not helping matters?

    We’re regularly getting 5000 through the door (6k yesterday) compared to 3000-4000 for an average league two game

  • @PrinceOfCrowell said:
    Are the increased attendances not helping matters?

    We’re regularly getting 5000 through the door (6k yesterday) compared to 3000-4000 for an average league two game

    I expect that just about covers the players' wage increases after promotion

  • So... with basically the same squad sandwiched between the two Coventry games we played 12 games with a return of 20 points. Sometimes (Accrington away) we probably got more than we deserved and sometimes (Scunthorpe away) we probably got less. Taken as a whole that’s a more than satisfactory return over that period. Shame it’s been so skewed recently but that is football sometimes (ask a Man City fan).

    Okay so we now enter the second half of the season with an awful lot of question marks hanging over what the squad will look like on 1 Feb but at least we enter the second half with a bit of a safety net.

    I do have the feeling this month is going to be messy on all fronts however...

    I liked your analogy @fame_46. I would personally enhance it a bit to say that if your wife cheated on you and left you penniless and homeless would you be quite so keen to date again? (But I probably still would...)

  • @mooneyman said:

    @HolmerBlue said:
    To be fair to Dev, I'd also be worried if we just had to rely on Blooms and Beano for the rest of the season... harsh, but true

    So you don't think we could scrape together 20 points with the team suggested above by @Malone at 6.18?

    I wouldn't say we wouldn't... but as I said, I'd be worried, very worried.

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