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Anyone think we might go this way at some point during the season? I know Marti's pref is 4-3-3, but there are some recent pointers that 3 at the back could be on the table - Hevertton seems more of a wing back than a full back. Think Paal would be a good WB and it seems more like Larkeche's natural position than FB where he's often looked exposed. - We've extended Jimmy, but it seems unlikely he'll consistently be the RB. We know he can't manage at CB in a 2 but is quite decent in a 3 and it seems unlikely we've extended him to keep him as backup. - Morrison signing - could well be prep for JCS leaving (seems likely he will), but the two at the back thing only really worked with the JCS and Cook pairing last season.
Reckon its on the table, at least for some games? Or have I entirely misread these early signs?
Worth a watch if u've got a dead 10 mins or so. Apart from the massive feelgood factor from our most recent glory days, some behind the scenes stuff I personally had never heard about (some of it may be twisted - sure others know); and interesting summary of what happened to him after he left.
It's becoming pretty clear that if GA stays in charge there is a 90% chance we'll go down. Some would say the 10% chance we don't is generous :-)
I personally am unconvinced we've done anywhere near enough to get inside FFP. Selling Dickie and Dieng for a couple of mil combined and replacing them with Begovic, Cook and Colback on likely bigger wages feels like robbing Peter to pay Paul. I doubt we'll get enough e.g. for Chair in Jan to make it under unless there is a huge pickup in form.
So my guess is we may well be facing a points deduction and possible transfer embargo, regardless of what we do this season. Which would pretty much seal the departure to league one.
Against that background... the sustainable route back out of league one to the champ has been well demonstrated by Sunderland and Ipswich. Young squad, progressive manager, build while you're down with the writing off debt against equity by owners, even if it takes a couple of seasons. Don't do a Sheff W.
Would planning for that path already make sense? Probably means seeing if a suitable manager can be lured already safe in the knowledge that (1) give it a good try but you'll gets a pass this season if we do go down; (2) we're probably screwed on FFP anyhow, so we're not going to let you blow the bank in Jan but we're ok for you to do some smart young signings in prep for league 1. Might make more sense than trying another ST fix to try and get through the season when the odds are against us (a la Harry Redknapp) and more sense than sticking with GA who I'm not sure fits the profile for the "sustainable" route out of league 1.
Problem is it relies on our board having foresight and getting the right person - which history suggests is unlikely. And we still don't have a DOF to help.
Been thinking, how can so many players who were on fire 12-18 months ago now be part of this awful team. I’m coming down to team spirt and professionalism, which have been broken across the season. Few examples:
Earning the right. This season we had JCS and Balogun come in and instantly made the 1st choice pairing by Beale ahead of two centre halves (Dunne and Dickie) who had been top half champ CBs the season before. I reckon it shocked them and their current dire form started from that moment. Compare that to how slowly e.g. Willock was introduced into the team in 2020/21.
Team above all. Remember Todd Kane? Ostracised, and rightly so. Warbs backed his squad player Ozzie for the good of the team as a whole. This season, no-one is being called out. We have Roberts on his Insta basically undermining the manger’s line, but a few weeks later he’s back. That Critchley comment “Taylor can’t get himself going” and subsequent reaction makes you wonder WTF?
Squad age and loans. Four loans in the summer, all aged between 19 and 23 when they came here for 1 season. In previous seasons those old heads with good characters like Wallace, Barbet, Ball played an important role even if they weren’t on the pitch week in week out. I reckon it’s becoming clear the Warburton dismissal last season had less to do with the poor run of form and more to do with disagreements on a balanced squad and the way forwards.
The one I can’t work out is the medical team. They seemed so well in control until about this time last year, then everything fell off a cliff.
Where do we go from here? If GA gets his way with the team this summer we’ll likely end up with only old heads and no sellable assets when we need a balance. But if we go down (which looks likely) we’ll lose several LT players in a fire sale.
See the sale of that lot down the road went through, at 4.25bn.
Though I despise them more than any team on this earth including Man U (side note: remember watching that painful CL final in 2008 between them and Man U and praying for it to go to penalties, preferably on a 2 hour loop with Terry and Ronaldo missing and Man U to edge it on penalty no 501 - prayers almost answered that night), the sale price is interesting. Abramovich bought them for 140m. Net spent about 1bn on players. Sold for 4.25bn just now. Obviously loads of other expenses but loads of other income too plus bizarre loans, but we're looking at about a tripling of money he put in.
Have often though of him as a trigger happy money thrower. But maybe not after all. Right time right place or more than that? Why are there so many after, including our own owner, who've just poured money down the drain trying the same albeit a bit later? Curious for thoughts....
A timely reminder of what we are actually working with in this league. 9th lowest over the last calendar year. 1/10th that of Fulham (10m), who spent more on agents alone over the year than we have probably done on agents and signing fees for several seasons now. Though they are not alone - west brom, bournemouth, sheff u, stoke and (of course) forest all spending nuts money.
Under normal circumstances I love the passion and it's great to see. But in the current situation with COVID it may be a bit more complicated. A lot has been made of how the medical team have worked hard to avoid COVID outbreaks in the squad. Obviously when a player jumps in the crowd it then gets... complicated.
We might think this covid thing is over in football, but e.g. Huddersfield town team last weekend will remind you it's not. Will be interesting to see how Warbs reacts, I'd imagine he's not over the moon - maybe no Uncs in training or the squad on Saturday to be on safe side?
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