Exodus

[papereyes]

But pretending that its all going to be OK! will be about as much use as a cock-flavoured lollypop.

[West Stand Man]

Oh my God!! RFC in 'players transferred shock'! It has never happened before and will never happen again.

The loss of a few of the players that we have become used to is not the end of the club as we know it - just that team. I suspect that Little leaving will be less of problem to us than Ronaldo leaving OT or Adebayor leaving Arsenal.

[Stranded]

But pretending that its all going to be OK! will be about as much use as a cock-flavoured lollypop.

But I didn't say that did I. I used the phrase cautious optimisim. As it stands at the moment, we're still the best part of a month and a half away from the kick off and not much has happened for the worse or the better.

We have the nuculeus still of a squad who have won this league before, this will more than likely change before the season begins but there will still be a fair number of players there who have been there and done it before as well as the management team who have been successful at this level both here and elsewhere in the past.

So as it stands at the moment, I see no reason not to have some optimisim that next season could be a decent one - I'm not saying we're going to romp the league but as it stands today there is a decent chance of us doing well. Especially if the mindset is right throughout the club.

If the mindset is wrong, ie the club is failing, the club is falling away etc then it is more likely to happen. If the mindset through the club is one that we can do well this season but that it us undoubtedly going to be a challenge, the club can rise to that.

I'm just getting the vibe from a lot of people on here (which is by no means a decent cross-section) that for some that battle has already been lost before it's even begun.

[Royalee]

If the mindset is wrong, ie the club is failing, the club is falling away etc then it is more likely to happen. If the mindset through the club is one that we can do well this season but that it us undoubtedly going to be a challenge, the club can rise to that.

You know what the irony in this is? It's exactly Coppell's approach to last season and signing players.

[Royal Rother]

Neither you nor anyone else on here can have any influence on whether those lessons have been learned or action has been taken to your satisfaction.

But I think we can legitimately point to the track record of the club's improvement and Coppell's management record over many seasons.

Mistakes were made last season, fair enough and fully acknowledged by Coppell, but it is bizarre not to have at least some belief that the Manager's manager of the year for 2005/6 and 2006/7 is doing just what you desire.

Just accept it is happening and move on would be my advice - if we are a shambles in the early part of the season you can take up the cudgel again.

Only to have another thread like the one after Bolton?
Only to be told that 5, 10, 15, 20 games is too soon to 'panic'?
Only to be told that "we can't do anything about our summer dealings now so why should we talk about them anymore"

If you really want to keep on for all eternity with the "I was right, you were wrong" type of posts then please just carry on - but it has been acknowledged on so many occasions that I'd really have thought a man of your intelligence would have moved on by now.

And sure, you can counter that with the fact that even a man of my obviously limited intelligence should have seen the writing on the wall last season, but surely it has to stop so we can just get on with supporting RFC which, after all, was all the blindly optimistic of us were doing last season.

Even if a few unnecessarilly patronising and insulting terms slipped in amongst the banter it was still support of the team, which, game after game, thread after thread, it felt, by the tone of the unrelenting player-bashing, many of the more negative posters seemed to stop doing as soon as they became aware of the shortcomings. My feeling is that it was that relentless negativity that was often being countered by the more vociferous spositivity - I'd hazard a guess it seemed the other way round to you, but really, really, who gives a big fat turd now?

Look forward not backwards is surely not an unreasonable expectation by now.

[floyd__streete]

Mistakes were made last season

Don't be so hard on yourself.

"sensible and realistic"

[Stranded]

If the mindset is wrong, ie the club is failing, the club is falling away etc then it is more likely to happen. If the mindset through the club is one that we can do well this season but that it us undoubtedly going to be a challenge, the club can rise to that.

You know what the irony in this is? It's exactly Coppell's approach to last season and signing players.

Maybe so, and the players/management didn't quite rise to that task last year as we all know. The bar is a bit lower this year and it's one we've cleared before and that we could clear again.

[Royal Rother]

Mistakes were made last season

Don't be so hard on yourself.

"sensible and realistic"

Still? Officially bored.

[papereyes]

Neither you nor anyone else on here can have any influence on whether those lessons have been learned or action has been taken to your satisfaction.

But I think we can legitimately point to the track record of the club's improvement and Coppell's management record over many seasons.

Mistakes were made last season, fair enough and fully acknowledged by Coppell, but it is bizarre not to have at least some belief that the Manager's manager of the year for 2005/6 and 2006/7 is doing just what you desire.

Just accept it is happening and move on would be my advice - if we are a shambles in the early part of the season you can take up the cudgel again.

Only to have another thread like the one after Bolton?
Only to be told that 5, 10, 15, 20 games is too soon to 'panic'?
Only to be told that "we can't do anything about our summer dealings now so why should we talk about them anymore"

If you really want to keep on for all eternity with the "I was right, you were wrong" type of posts then please just carry on - but it has been acknowledged on so many occasions that I'd really have thought a man of your intelligence would have moved on by now.

My point is more that 'what is to stop those posts happening again' rather than going back over last season. What is to stop that line of 'argument' occuring again? It is nothing to do with the fact of being right or wrong, really, it is the reasoning by which one gets to the conclusion, surely. We struggled and if we'd drawn with Spurs or hammered Derby by 8, we'd still have struggled and the reasons for that would have been the same regardless of a goal here or there. Surely?

Look forward not backwards is surely not an unreasonable expectation by now.

Moving forwards without realising what went wrong in the past is a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.

I will only mention, in small text, that it has more than a suggestion of what Schards pointed out earlier.

Stranded: no you're right. I don't really know where I stand - I'd like to be cautiously optimistic but I just fear that we'll chalk last season down to 'bad luck' or 'not our place', as some on here seem to have done. The result of that will be failure to move forwards as we've no real idea what went wrong last season. I don't think a top half finish was ever going to happen in that second season but the way we struggled to even compete against some of the teams around us was genuinely worrying. It was losing to Fulham and Bolton that relegated us and we're going to be playing teams of that calibre and mentality a lot more often now.

Yes, some of our players will have the experience, but those who have gone have been replaced by some less than inspiring purchases and those that remain are older, won't quite have the desire or the legs to do what they did in 05/06.

So, as I've said, it depends on the club - the actions of the club - to turn around a side that has had a run of not winning and not performing. And, yes, they know what they need to do and how to do it. What I really fear is that people think next season will see us turn it around easily. Not 100 % convinced the remaining squad have the balls or talent to do that.

The ball is fimrly, squarely in their court on all of this. Come on RFC, impress me.

[Big Ern]

Foolish and inaccurate statement.

Well you should know

We are facing a relegation struggle....Or will we all remain sensible and realistic?

[Royal Rother]

Moving forwards without realising what went wrong in the past is a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.

You must surely know that I agree with that - I happen to think there is every reason to have confidence that such a thorough review and navel contemplation will be happening right now.

Both what happened after 2004/5 and Coppell's generally thoughtful and intelligent approach to football management give me that confidence.

Not you?

[Kes]

Kitson is off to Wigan.

[Stranded]

I agree with some of what you say there papereyes, for everyone who sees doom and gloom, there will be and are those who think next year will be a cakewalk, another 106pt year and we march triumphantly back to the top flight.

The club do have to make the right moves, but we won't know if they have until the season starts. I can already say the threads starting on here, should say Harper leave and we replace him with a player from Carlisle for example, before we as fans even see them play. You know the lack of ambition yadda, yadda, yadda that we so often...

I guess it simply comes down to whether you accept that last year, mistakes were made but have been taken on board (Coppell seems to suggest they have) or if they haven't been.

[Stranded]

Kitson is off to Wigan.

Or Newcastle or Celtic, yep I read the NotW today as well.

[Kes]

i didn't, my sources are from the club itself.

[Stranded]

Of course they are, you just happen to post that the day it gets printed in the national press for the first time.

[papereyes]

Moving forwards without realising what went wrong in the past is a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.

You must surely know that I agree with that - I happen to think there is every reason to have confidence that such a thorough review and navel contemplation will be happening right now.

Both what happened after 2004/5 and Coppell's generally thoughtful and intelligent approach to football management give me that confidence.

Not you?

I am not as confident as I would have been simply because Coppell did identify problems last season (as a series of quotes both at the time and after the season clearly show) and did not act on it.

I am also uneasy at his patchy record towards the top-end of the transfer market (as far as our transfer budget is concerned).

I am also aware that continuity and a reasoned approach to next season will be better than slashing and burning the management team, squad and looking for a quick fix.

[papereyes]

Kitson is off to Wigan.

Or Newcastle or Celtic, yep I read the NotW today as well.

I'd heard the Newcastle one weeks ago.

Good luck to him, if he goes. He is a fantastic Championship striker and one we could do with.

[Stranded]

Yeah Newcastle rumour has been around for a while. Story in the paper basically was Wigan are joining Newcastle and Celtic in the £3m hunt for Dave Kitson who has privately made it clear he doesn't fancy playing in the Championship next season.

[Big Ern]

i didn't, my sources are from the club itself.

Mine are from Waitrose