Are we really going to repeat the mistake of last season, where pre-season seemed non-existent, and as a result we seemed to get off to a very slow start?
Was last year's lack of home friendlies mostly down to the need to sort the pitch out? Or am I mis-remembering that?
We definitely had a nightmare of a pre-season. The goalkeeper debacle, odd/lack of friendlies, next to no signings of any note for a month.
Could well have been the issue when you get to the play off final and lose out on weeks to other teams, but you also wonder if there was some chance of Gareth moving so plans were shelved until that was resolved.
I thought it was communicated clearly enough last night. Pitch renovations this summer mean only one home friendly is possible - JJ's testimonial - but there will be away friendlies, within easy travelling distance.
Pitch is being improved in June and will probably not be playable until mid/late July. My guess is JJ's testimonial will be Saturday July 29th??
I wonder if we might see a Welsh based team from the players who played with him for Wales atU21 level. Players like Vokes, Church, Ramsey, King, Eardley, Basey, Allen and Bale. All of these players are still 34-38 and most have retired from playing and therefore would not be tied to pre season with club teams but also still fit enough to put on a game.
@OxfordBlue No worries. I agree with your point and my hope is that the quantity and quality (standard of opposition) of the friendlies will be better than last years, which as you suggest, felt somewhat underwhelming and minimal.
I never felt that GA was too interested in pre-season friendlies - when confronted by this point in interviews, he always used to say "we'll be ready" - and his record for the first competitive game of the season when he was in charge (W6, D2, L2) kind of justified his claim. (Especially as one of the defeats was Rotherham, where he acknowledged that due to all of the problems at that time we were far from ready to start life in the Championship!!) How Blooms approaches things will be very interesting to see.
I strongly got the impression it'll be Cardiff for JJ's testimonial. Makes sense, as they were his boyhood team.
Asides from that, they'll be 2/3 local away matches pre-season. The likes of Chesham and Maidenhead seem to be regular opponents, so wouldn't be surprised if we end up with fixtures there.
JJ is a Cardiff lad and supporter of his home town club. I would be very surprised if Wrexham was his choice, if it's not Cardiff he could choose anyone including Premiership teams or even QPR.
At that time of the year he wouldn’t be able to get a combined team because clubs are into their preseason big time. Unless of course it is a team made up of retired Welsh players. If it is the bluebirds, I look forward to booing Allsopp time wasting, checking his studs.! Hope it’s not Wrexham. Don’t like them in the same way as I don’t like Salford.At my age, you are entitled to not like other clubs for no particular reason.
yes, he did say that we would be having away friendlies against fairly local clubs, so I would imagine Chesham Maidenhead et cetera would be in the mix.even dare, I say it an away fixture against a recently relegated club about 40 miles north. (Will now wash my mouth out with soap).
I live fairly local and go and see them sometimes. I was at Wembley on Sunday. The only drawback is that I can see about playing there is do we want to play on an artificial pitch pre season ?
Surely the whole purpose of a testimonial is to generate a tax-free lump sum for JJ, who gets to keep the net gate receipts and any donations.
Therefore, it is completely irrelevant which clubs the supporters may like or dislike, it's all about getting bums on seats, and maximising the income from the game.
Given all the publicity about Wrexham, and the possibility of Ryan Reynolds coming to Adams Park, and maybe even chucking a few extra £££s into the pot, this might be the best way of achieving that.
Apart from saying we'd have the best match day experience in the country, best food offerings, talk of a fanciful new training ground, talk of an even more fanciful new road, and selling out every week..
apart from all of these, what do you mean by overpromising?
Hopefully the away friendlies against local clubs are for the first team squad though, rather than 'development' squad fixtures - aka 11 unknown trialists wearing some old wycombe kit found lying around in a back room.
It would be tough on Bloomfield to have to watch all the players and supporters openly weeping for 90 minutes because you know who was in the away dugout.
I'm just nervous about pre-season as we never seem to have any tough or challenging teams to play against so we know where we are. Playing against bottom tier non-league doesn't seem challenging and it makes it worse when we have teams full of trialists and no real squad coming together.
As for JJ's match, I wouldn't be surprised if Bayo and a few other 'old boys' to appear for a small cameo appearence
Comments
Spurs or Cardiff would be my guesses
Are we really going to repeat the mistake of last season, where pre-season seemed non-existent, and as a result we seemed to get off to a very slow start?
Rob heavily implied it would be a Welsh team so likely to be Cardiff.
Was last year's lack of home friendlies mostly down to the need to sort the pitch out? Or am I mis-remembering that?
We definitely had a nightmare of a pre-season. The goalkeeper debacle, odd/lack of friendlies, next to no signings of any note for a month.
Could well have been the issue when you get to the play off final and lose out on weeks to other teams, but you also wonder if there was some chance of Gareth moving so plans were shelved until that was resolved.
Aren't they doing something with the pitch? Which is the reason all our friendlies were away last year (although that was badly communicated).
I'd forgotten I'd already written this in my "malone" account 🤣
I thought it was communicated clearly enough last night. Pitch renovations this summer mean only one home friendly is possible - JJ's testimonial - but there will be away friendlies, within easy travelling distance.
Makes more sense. Cheers.
Pitch is being improved in June and will probably not be playable until mid/late July. My guess is JJ's testimonial will be Saturday July 29th??
I wonder if we might see a Welsh based team from the players who played with him for Wales atU21 level. Players like Vokes, Church, Ramsey, King, Eardley, Basey, Allen and Bale. All of these players are still 34-38 and most have retired from playing and therefore would not be tied to pre season with club teams but also still fit enough to put on a game.
I would suggest inviting Wrexham for the home game testimonial, this would attract a lot of interest and generate a nice payday for JJ.
Then perhaps Watford for an away friendly.
@OxfordBlue No worries. I agree with your point and my hope is that the quantity and quality (standard of opposition) of the friendlies will be better than last years, which as you suggest, felt somewhat underwhelming and minimal.
I never felt that GA was too interested in pre-season friendlies - when confronted by this point in interviews, he always used to say "we'll be ready" - and his record for the first competitive game of the season when he was in charge (W6, D2, L2) kind of justified his claim. (Especially as one of the defeats was Rotherham, where he acknowledged that due to all of the problems at that time we were far from ready to start life in the Championship!!) How Blooms approaches things will be very interesting to see.
Good luck enticing Gareth Bale away from the golf course
Did I imagine a USA tour during the pre-season?
Bluey Does Dallas has to become a reality.
I strongly got the impression it'll be Cardiff for JJ's testimonial. Makes sense, as they were his boyhood team.
Asides from that, they'll be 2/3 local away matches pre-season. The likes of Chesham and Maidenhead seem to be regular opponents, so wouldn't be surprised if we end up with fixtures there.
Ascot Utd as an away friendly please. Somewhere I can walk to/stagger back from.
JJ is a Cardiff lad and supporter of his home town club. I would be very surprised if Wrexham was his choice, if it's not Cardiff he could choose anyone including Premiership teams or even QPR.
JJ supports Spurs
Would guess it would be Cardiff
At that time of the year he wouldn’t be able to get a combined team because clubs are into their preseason big time. Unless of course it is a team made up of retired Welsh players. If it is the bluebirds, I look forward to booing Allsopp time wasting, checking his studs.! Hope it’s not Wrexham. Don’t like them in the same way as I don’t like Salford.At my age, you are entitled to not like other clubs for no particular reason.
yes, he did say that we would be having away friendlies against fairly local clubs, so I would imagine Chesham Maidenhead et cetera would be in the mix.even dare, I say it an away fixture against a recently relegated club about 40 miles north. (Will now wash my mouth out with soap).
I live fairly local and go and see them sometimes. I was at Wembley on Sunday. The only drawback is that I can see about playing there is do we want to play on an artificial pitch pre season ?
Surely the whole purpose of a testimonial is to generate a tax-free lump sum for JJ, who gets to keep the net gate receipts and any donations.
Therefore, it is completely irrelevant which clubs the supporters may like or dislike, it's all about getting bums on seats, and maximising the income from the game.
Given all the publicity about Wrexham, and the possibility of Ryan Reynolds coming to Adams Park, and maybe even chucking a few extra £££s into the pot, this might be the best way of achieving that.
It won't be Wrexham. Spurs would be my guess, although RC has called it 'exciting' opposition and we know what he's like with the overpromising.
Hashtag Utd it is then!
Surely you can't possibly think Bale and Ramsay are going to be turning out in a testimonial?!
Why not QPR?
Apart from saying we'd have the best match day experience in the country, best food offerings, talk of a fanciful new training ground, talk of an even more fanciful new road, and selling out every week..
apart from all of these, what do you mean by overpromising?
Spurs! More like MK. Bucks Derby innit. 😋
AFC Richmond
Hopefully the away friendlies against local clubs are for the first team squad though, rather than 'development' squad fixtures - aka 11 unknown trialists wearing some old wycombe kit found lying around in a back room.
It would be tough on Bloomfield to have to watch all the players and supporters openly weeping for 90 minutes because you know who was in the away dugout.
They know Vokes exceptionally well and spent a number of years with JJ in the U21’s.
JJ is a very likeable character and you could easily see a number of those players being asked if that’s in JJ’s thinking
I'm just nervous about pre-season as we never seem to have any tough or challenging teams to play against so we know where we are. Playing against bottom tier non-league doesn't seem challenging and it makes it worse when we have teams full of trialists and no real squad coming together.
As for JJ's match, I wouldn't be surprised if Bayo and a few other 'old boys' to appear for a small cameo appearence