We clearly aren't "ready" and I would suspect another yo-yo instance awaits us if we did go up. But what can you do? "Best not try lads, we'll only go down next season".
I reckon Rochdale haven't got a pot to piss in either (though they did get a bit of cup cash) and they've done all right.
We shouldn't be second in league two based on budget, attendance, debt etc. But we are.
Just because things look bad on paper, doesn't mean they pan out that way.
If we kept Ainsworth, and he kept his philosophy of a great first 11, a handful of squad players and no dead wood, we'd have a fair chance of staying up, providing we stayed fairly injury free.
@bourne70 said:
I am not someone who would want us to stay down as we " are not ready " but we are not are we ?
Not sure we can go up as we don't sing enough songs and not enough people will want to join in, so until all the old people have died and been replaced by 16 year old singers, that is the time we can finally take our place in league 1 as a proudly loud club.
This is a better team than the team that went up under Taylor. Also many teams have not only survived but gone on to prosper with very low budgets in Div1. If we do go up then it may well have come a few years earlier than we would have anticipated but we need to accept the challenge with both hands and go for it.
The way we set up gives me optimism should we go up. This team is much more likely to nick a result then either Waddock or Taylor's promotion winning sides.
We've been quite lucky with injuries and suspensions this season which is bound to test the squad sooner or later but it might as well be in a higher division.
Amazing comments. It is the managers job to win games and so to the players. If the players don't play well they get dropped likewise if the team lose to many games the manager gets the sack. If we got promoted it would be great. cOUB
@Blue_since_1990 said:
This is a better team than the team that went up under Taylor. Also many teams have not only survived but gone on to prosper with very low budgets in Div1. If we do go up then it may well have come a few years earlier than we would have anticipated but we need to accept the challenge with both hands and go for it.
@M3G said:
Not sure we can go up as we don't sing enough songs and not enough people will want to join in, so until all the old people have died and been replaced by 16 year old singers, that is the time we can finally take our place in league 1 as a proudly loud club.
As a 67 year old I resemble your remarks and would ask that you retract them now. I am often seen to be singing ' come on you blues' and 'chairboys' and I sit in the Woodland so there.
First reaction "Oh, no the old boy [my junior by 10 years] has taken this seriously" but on re-reading I can see the tongue firmly planted in cheek. Can't I? I also make a lot of noise. In the Woodland of all places.
@marlowwanderer said:
As a 67 year old I resemble your remarks and would ask that you retract them now. I am often seen to be singing ' come on you blues' and 'chairboys' and I sit in the Woodland so there.
Whoops sorry Tom Jones. No offence meant
But I never retract anything. Its just a bit of banter.
I say, steady on M3G! Was marlowwaanderer's riposte too subtle a piece of banter? The clue is in the (slightly anachronistic perhaps) use of 'resemble' instead of 'resent'.
If we do go up we have a strong chance on surviving as people have said previously better squads and in my view better manager. Hopefully can push on from there although would expect to remain in the league for some time due to our finances but you never know we could go that one step higher .
I realise this is getting way ahead of ourselves, but if we did go up and came straight back down again there would be significant pressure on Gaz's position. It's easy to say now that we would still be in a better position than we had expected at the end of last season but people have short memories in football. The 5 and a half year contract might then be looking a little odd.
building a hypothesis on top of a hypothesis is pretty flimsy, but I doubt it re. Gaz's position - basically we're never going to have cash to play with barring exception cup run or new sugar daddy circumstances (not that I'm suggesting the latter would be a good thing).
If he didn't get canned after, what was it, 19 games without a win last season, I can't imagine him getting the Spanish Archer after having taken us up and having no money to spend, only to come straight back down.
The 5 1/2 yr contract is an odd one though, if I remember it right just because it's that long doesn't mean we have to pay him off in full if he gets the shove...but surely that cuts both ways and the only reason to dish out such a long contract is to guarantee compensation should someone try and pinch him. But that wouldn't be in GA's interests if he wanted to go, i.e. an onerous payout would probably deter potential suitors. Oh well, pointless musing of the day.
many didn't think us ready for League 2 at the start of the season and more chance of retaining some of our loanees as a League 1 club and attracting possible new players so everything crossed they should give it a good go
@MightyWanderer said:
Let's go up, financially its the right decision and our starting 11 is certainly good enough.
Isn't that the same mistake that has been made previously i.e. trust in the players who have got you promoted? As much as I like the players we have now, considerable change would be required to stay in League One.
When Brentford went up (from League Two) a few years back they got rid of much of their squad, including several first team regulars. This was quite drastic and that's not even mentioning the finances involved, but to think we could stay up with basically the same players is misjudging the step-up from Two to One massively.
If we were to go up, I think keeping the exact first 11 would most likely lead to an ill-fated relegation battle. However, doing a Brentford and getting rid of everyone would be unnecessary too, and we could struggle to gel properly.
The following players could cut it in League 1 as first team players IMO:
Ingram, Jacobson, Mawson(?), Pierre, Wood, Hayes. That is a decent spine of players.
Murphy would make a decent back up option in League One. Holloway, Ephraim, and Bean I haven't seen enough of to make my mind up but I'd probably keep them all at the current time.
Jombati is very composed on the ball for League Two but his positioning and desire to get forward might be exposed in League One. Back up player in League One I think.
That leaves Craig, McClure, Kretzchmar and Bloomfield. Would like to see Bloomers stay on as a coach but think this should probably be his last season as a player. I really want McClure and Kretzch to succeed but they really haven't shown much improvement in quality this season.
Comments
We may not be ready but at least your golf handicap would come down once we started losing...
Jesus , grow up why can't you ?
I'm sure Bournemouth fans had similar concerns about playing in the Championship.
We clearly aren't "ready" and I would suspect another yo-yo instance awaits us if we did go up. But what can you do? "Best not try lads, we'll only go down next season".
I reckon Rochdale haven't got a pot to piss in either (though they did get a bit of cup cash) and they've done all right.
This situation arises in all leagues and in all sports and something you sign into when entering.
We weren't ready for this season in League 2 in February last year but we've done alright so far.
We shouldn't be second in league two based on budget, attendance, debt etc. But we are.
Just because things look bad on paper, doesn't mean they pan out that way.
If we kept Ainsworth, and he kept his philosophy of a great first 11, a handful of squad players and no dead wood, we'd have a fair chance of staying up, providing we stayed fairly injury free.
I think I agree with you bill
Not sure we can go up as we don't sing enough songs and not enough people will want to join in, so until all the old people have died and been replaced by 16 year old singers, that is the time we can finally take our place in league 1 as a proudly loud club.
This is a better team than the team that went up under Taylor. Also many teams have not only survived but gone on to prosper with very low budgets in Div1. If we do go up then it may well have come a few years earlier than we would have anticipated but we need to accept the challenge with both hands and go for it.
Let's go up, financially its the right decision and our starting 11 is certainly good enough.
The way we set up gives me optimism should we go up. This team is much more likely to nick a result then either Waddock or Taylor's promotion winning sides.
We've been quite lucky with injuries and suspensions this season which is bound to test the squad sooner or later but it might as well be in a higher division.
Amazing comments. It is the managers job to win games and so to the players. If the players don't play well they get dropped likewise if the team lose to many games the manager gets the sack. If we got promoted it would be great. cOUB
Wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. Also loved M3G's shrewd analysis of what's needed! Great stuff.
As a 67 year old I resemble your remarks and would ask that you retract them now. I am often seen to be singing ' come on you blues' and 'chairboys' and I sit in the Woodland so there.
First reaction "Oh, no the old boy [my junior by 10 years] has taken this seriously" but on re-reading I can see the tongue firmly planted in cheek. Can't I? I also make a lot of noise. In the Woodland of all places.
Whoops sorry Tom Jones. No offence meant
But I never retract anything. Its just a bit of banter.
I say, steady on M3G! Was marlowwaanderer's riposte too subtle a piece of banter? The clue is in the (slightly anachronistic perhaps) use of 'resemble' instead of 'resent'.
If we do go up we have a strong chance on surviving as people have said previously better squads and in my view better manager. Hopefully can push on from there although would expect to remain in the league for some time due to our finances but you never know we could go that one step higher .
If we go up I reckon theres a good chance we will say up for a while, but even if we don't it's not the end of the world
I realise this is getting way ahead of ourselves, but if we did go up and came straight back down again there would be significant pressure on Gaz's position. It's easy to say now that we would still be in a better position than we had expected at the end of last season but people have short memories in football. The 5 and a half year contract might then be looking a little odd.
building a hypothesis on top of a hypothesis is pretty flimsy, but I doubt it re. Gaz's position - basically we're never going to have cash to play with barring exception cup run or new sugar daddy circumstances (not that I'm suggesting the latter would be a good thing).
If he didn't get canned after, what was it, 19 games without a win last season, I can't imagine him getting the Spanish Archer after having taken us up and having no money to spend, only to come straight back down.
The 5 1/2 yr contract is an odd one though, if I remember it right just because it's that long doesn't mean we have to pay him off in full if he gets the shove...but surely that cuts both ways and the only reason to dish out such a long contract is to guarantee compensation should someone try and pinch him. But that wouldn't be in GA's interests if he wanted to go, i.e. an onerous payout would probably deter potential suitors. Oh well, pointless musing of the day.
many didn't think us ready for League 2 at the start of the season and more chance of retaining some of our loanees as a League 1 club and attracting possible new players so everything crossed they should give it a good go
Isn't that the same mistake that has been made previously i.e. trust in the players who have got you promoted? As much as I like the players we have now, considerable change would be required to stay in League One.
When Brentford went up (from League Two) a few years back they got rid of much of their squad, including several first team regulars. This was quite drastic and that's not even mentioning the finances involved, but to think we could stay up with basically the same players is misjudging the step-up from Two to One massively.
Isn't it a nice thing to be worried about compared to a year ago
Absolutely Crabbie!
If we were to go up, I think keeping the exact first 11 would most likely lead to an ill-fated relegation battle. However, doing a Brentford and getting rid of everyone would be unnecessary too, and we could struggle to gel properly.
The following players could cut it in League 1 as first team players IMO:
Ingram, Jacobson, Mawson(?), Pierre, Wood, Hayes. That is a decent spine of players.
Murphy would make a decent back up option in League One. Holloway, Ephraim, and Bean I haven't seen enough of to make my mind up but I'd probably keep them all at the current time.
Jombati is very composed on the ball for League Two but his positioning and desire to get forward might be exposed in League One. Back up player in League One I think.
That leaves Craig, McClure, Kretzchmar and Bloomfield. Would like to see Bloomers stay on as a coach but think this should probably be his last season as a player. I really want McClure and Kretzch to succeed but they really haven't shown much improvement in quality this season.
Largely agree, except I'd put Wood into the backup group along with Murphy and Jombati.
Also I'd be concerned about relying too much on Hayes with his injury problems this season.