Short and long term balance 10:05 - Nov 11 with 3934 views | rsonist | Interesting to compare reservations many have voiced on here about the tweak in our strategy this season wrt loans of players we're unlikely to afford to keep and comments from the Brentford boards following yesterday. (Reservations is putting it nicely - outright hostility early on, abandoning the club ethos, back to giving hack managers whatever they want, "bombing out" etc etc). Here's a selection: The leadership group not doing it. We lack leadership. As good as Mepham & Konsa are individually there's something fundamentally wrong with the defensive unit. We miss the experienced centre half to organise the back four. We've seemed to have assembled a defence to resell for profit and not to win the league. Needs a shake up inc Bentley. Individually worth a fortune. As a unit they are worth pennies. Sometimes it's the potential and talent of our two CBs at other times it's a matter of inexperience and youthfulness. Two or three years down the line they will be top players. They will be outstanding players, but we don't have an outstanding defence. We are so brittle. Put under any concerted pressure and we concede. Concede and we go to pieces. Need to toughen up fast. In all probability this crap run means that we’ll lose our best players come the end of season or possibly before. Then the whole bloody merrygoround begins again. Thinking back to our early season form I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest Brentford folded in a way very similarly to us before the loans came in (and indeed Ollie's side last season quite often)... I don't think there's a right answer here suffice to say if there is one it's obviously somewhere in between the extremes of old lags on a last payday and and a team of precocious wunderkind. But the uniting factor is that as the bloke there says, without promotion "the whole bloody merrygoround begins again" - Brentford will back themselves to pocket the profit and unearth another gem, we will as it stands presumably back ourselves to again identify another batch of more experienced players that will always be left discarded while everyone else keeps spending. Clearly a blend of the two approaches would be ideal - but who is striking the better balance? Eze, Lumley and arguably Manning are coming along nicely but we also have a whole B team of capable players now pretty much wasting their time playing U23 games (raft of loans desperately needed come January IMO). At the same time however the wildly distorting factor in this league of mediocrity is the obscene jackpot at the end of the rainbow - so huge and life-changing it's arguably irresponsible not to go for it if do you find yourself with a team that can string a couple of passes together. [Post edited 11 Nov 2018 10:06]
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Short and long term balance on 10:24 - Nov 11 with 3871 views | DejR_vu | I think the board consider this as the last realistic chance to have a go for promotion, hence the players brought in. If we don’t go up, the finances look pretty dire without parachute payments so, realistically, we’ll be fighting to stay in this league, not competing to get out if it. That said, if we get to the end of the season with Lumley and Eze genuinely established, with two or three others on the periphery with substitute appearances approaching double figures, that’s real progress, and far more sensible than the romantic notion of throwing half a team of youth teamers in all at once. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) |
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Short and long term balance on 10:30 - Nov 11 with 3850 views | distortR | Another factor is that some of us, including me, demand the manager take the long term view and play youngsters, yet after 4 matches people are calling for him to be sacked. How can we ask him to take the long view when so many of us demand instant success? It then falls on the DoF to oversee a long term strategy, which may well, and possibly has, put him at odds with McClaren. How do we square that circle? I really don't know. From the DoF's point of view, I suppose it involves appointing a pliant manager. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Short and long term balance on 10:34 - Nov 11 with 3828 views | rsonist |
Short and long term balance on 10:24 - Nov 11 by DejR_vu | I think the board consider this as the last realistic chance to have a go for promotion, hence the players brought in. If we don’t go up, the finances look pretty dire without parachute payments so, realistically, we’ll be fighting to stay in this league, not competing to get out if it. That said, if we get to the end of the season with Lumley and Eze genuinely established, with two or three others on the periphery with substitute appearances approaching double figures, that’s real progress, and far more sensible than the romantic notion of throwing half a team of youth teamers in all at once. |
Not sure about this - post 7-1 I'm fairly certain that gambling for promotion was the last thing on the board's mind when they took action to bring the extra experience in. I wouldn't even be particularly convinced they've had it in their thoughts since hiring Ollie to be honest. | ![](/images/avatars/6250.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Short and long term balance on 11:23 - Nov 11 with 3727 views | DannyPaddox | I was chatting with a Brentford supporter after the game at theirs last season. I asked him if he fancied their promotion chances. He said quite seriously: "Oh no we don't want to go up just yet. It'll be better the season after when the new ground is built" I nearly spat my cider out (nearly - as it was top stuff - Express Tavern). I just said: "It doesn't work like that mate". | ![](/images/avatars/17496.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Short and long term balance on 11:29 - Nov 11 with 3706 views | PunteR |
Short and long term balance on 10:34 - Nov 11 by rsonist | Not sure about this - post 7-1 I'm fairly certain that gambling for promotion was the last thing on the board's mind when they took action to bring the extra experience in. I wouldn't even be particularly convinced they've had it in their thoughts since hiring Ollie to be honest. |
Yeh i think the board was just trying to avoid relegation without having to spend money. | ![](/images/avatars/11748.gif) |
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Short and long term balance on 11:41 - Nov 11 with 3680 views | PunteR | The long term strategy should be to develop a style of play and ethos. I think you need a mix of youth and experience but everyone needs to be on the same page. Hence why the new training ground is essential imo. I still dont think we're ready for the premier league. Its just nice to see us play decent football and win games with a bit of backbone and spirit. Maybe we have to expect a couple of quality loans to acheive that. | ![](/images/avatars/11748.gif) |
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Short and long term balance on 13:11 - Nov 11 with 3552 views | Northernr | The most obvious comparison yesterday was that Brentford are still killing their centre backs and goalkeeper making them play a budget Barcelona style they’re not equipped to do. We started like that, realised it wouldn’t work and adapted, which is credit to McClaren. We did finish Ingram in the process though. | ![](/images/avatars/1005.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Short and long term balance on 13:14 - Nov 11 with 3543 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Short and long term balance on 13:11 - Nov 11 by Northernr | The most obvious comparison yesterday was that Brentford are still killing their centre backs and goalkeeper making them play a budget Barcelona style they’re not equipped to do. We started like that, realised it wouldn’t work and adapted, which is credit to McClaren. We did finish Ingram in the process though. |
Ya, their splitting the centre-backs was a gift to us. Bless them. | ![](/images/avatars/1570.gif) |
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Short and long term balance on 13:35 - Nov 11 with 3479 views | ngbqpr | Two blokes behind me yesterday (and a couple more in earshot) were on Eze's case all game. Non stop vitriol. I'd love to be developing a team based around a core of young, homegrown talent, but they'd need to be pretty strong mentally to shut out the 'support' from a lot of our fans. Of course this is water off a duck's back for a Rangel or Cameron. Not exclusively a Rangers problem I should add - it's just the way the game's gone, the demand for instant success, the division between fans & players due to wages etc etc. | ![](/images/avatars/7941.gif) |
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Short and long term balance on 13:44 - Nov 11 with 3456 views | Northernr |
Short and long term balance on 13:35 - Nov 11 by ngbqpr | Two blokes behind me yesterday (and a couple more in earshot) were on Eze's case all game. Non stop vitriol. I'd love to be developing a team based around a core of young, homegrown talent, but they'd need to be pretty strong mentally to shut out the 'support' from a lot of our fans. Of course this is water off a duck's back for a Rangel or Cameron. Not exclusively a Rangers problem I should add - it's just the way the game's gone, the demand for instant success, the division between fans & players due to wages etc etc. |
I turned round at Ipswich when Eze chipped one onto the bar from 20 yards and glared at the fella behind me who’s been absolutely slaying him for 70 mins and demanding McClaren take him off. | ![](/images/avatars/1005.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Short and long term balance on 13:51 - Nov 11 with 3431 views | DesertBoot |
Short and long term balance on 13:35 - Nov 11 by ngbqpr | Two blokes behind me yesterday (and a couple more in earshot) were on Eze's case all game. Non stop vitriol. I'd love to be developing a team based around a core of young, homegrown talent, but they'd need to be pretty strong mentally to shut out the 'support' from a lot of our fans. Of course this is water off a duck's back for a Rangel or Cameron. Not exclusively a Rangers problem I should add - it's just the way the game's gone, the demand for instant success, the division between fans & players due to wages etc etc. |
Man in front me was slagging Eze the whole game yesterday....then duly let rip at McClaren when Nakhi Wells was subbed. Some of our fans astonish me. | ![](/images/avatars/2009.gif) |
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