Coppell out!

[Hoop Blah]

It's so easy to pick holes in your 'squad'.

Yes it is, but the same can be said about the other 23 sides in this division.

Only a few are really competing for a place in the Premiership though.

Personally I think the squad posted above isn't even close to a squad, it's not even close to a starting XI!

We'll quite some serious work on the playing side over the summer if we go up and if we don't then we'll lose another 2 or 3 of our better players, with 2 or 3 more being past their sell by date, and so we'll need a pretty serious overhaul either way.

[Ian Royal]

Look at the current squad, the players with premiership quality, and can keep it up for a few more years until we are stable in the Premiership.
Goalkeepers: Hahnemann, Federici (possibly).
Defense: Rosenior, Bikey, Pearce (possibly) and Armstrong (possibly)
Midfield: Matejovsky, S Hunt (when trying to prove himself worthy of £5mil)
Strike: Doyle, N Hunt (possibly)

That's basically a squad that could be premiership material. There is, however, the issue of strength in depth beyond the above players.

That's a Premiership sqaud without the real quality.

If you added maybe 4 or 5 players to that squad who would be first team starters and filled it from the remainder we might do OK. I reckon you could add Cisse to the list though and remove Marcus (sadly).

We have no way to judge if Tabb warrants inclusion yet.

Harper has shown he can do it with quality next to him, in fact even with utter dross he was one of our better players when we got relegated.

6 goals for a supposedly defensive midfielder who didn't have a settled quality partner next to him, when our top scorer only got 11 is fairly good going.

Too many of our players can go on extended poor runs, or don't quite fit into our style well enough. That's the problem for me. We have the bones, but they're brittle.

[Stranded]

It's so easy to pick holes in your 'squad'.

Yes it is, but the same can be said about the other 23 sides in this division.

Only a few are really competing for a place in the Premiership though.

Personally I think the squad posted above isn't even close to a squad, it's not even close to a starting XI!

We'll quite some serious work on the playing side over the summer if we go up and if we don't then we'll lose another 2 or 3 of our better players, with 2 or 3 more being past their sell by date, and so we'll need a pretty serious overhaul either way.

Sorry, my bad I misread Royalee's original post.

[IMAMATEOFJOVSKY]

Look at the current squad, the players with premiership quality, and can keep it up for a few more years until we are stable in the Premiership.
Goalkeepers: Hahnemann, Federici (possibly).
Defense: Rosenior, Bikey, Pearce (possibly) and Armstrong (possibly)
Midfield: Matejovsky, S Hunt (when trying to prove himself worthy of £5mil)
Strike: Doyle, N Hunt (possibly)

That's basically a squad that could be premiership material. There is, however, the issue of strength in depth beyond the above players.

That's a Premiership sqaud without the real quality.

If you added maybe 4 or 5 players to that squad who would be first team starters and filled it from the remainder we might do OK. I reckon you could add Cisse to the list though and remove Marcus (sadly).

We have no way to judge if Tabb warrants inclusion yet.

Harper has shown he can do it with quality next to him, in fact even with utter dross he was one of our better players when we got relegated.

6 goals for a supposedly defensive midfielder who didn't have a settled quality partner next to him, when our top scorer only got 11 is fairly good going.

Too many of our players can go on extended poor runs, or don't quite fit into our style well enough. That's the problem for me. We have the bones, but they're brittle.

I think your references to Harper performances should be in past tense - sounds from what you said that he needs someone to hold his hand - There are far better options than Harper in that position - Bodde is a far more capable player as would have been Ben Watson and so could be Marvin Elliott.

[Arch]

Harper is a perfect symbol of the team as a whole. When things are going well he's quick, efficient and exudes positivity without being flashy; when things go wrong, he loses confidence and goes missing. This has been true for the better part of a decade.

[IMAMATEOFJOVSKY]

Harper is a perfect symbol of the team as a whole. When things are going well he's quick, efficient and exudes positivity without being flashy; when things go wrong, he loses confidence and goes missing. This has been true for the better part of a decade.

Not the sort of guy you need in the trenches then! OK when all dandy but when going gets tough he deserts!

[Sun Tzu]

Harper is a perfect symbol of the team as a whole. When things are going well he's quick, efficient and exudes positivity without being flashy; when things go wrong, he loses confidence and goes missing. This has been true for the better part of a decade.

Not the sort of guy you need in the trenches then! OK when all dandy but when going gets tough he deserts!

There are plenty of players like that - Glenn Little comes to mind. Which makes talk of him returning rather interesting....

[Southbank Old Boy]

Harper is a perfect symbol of the team as a whole. When things are going well he's quick, efficient and exudes positivity without being flashy; when things go wrong, he loses confidence and goes missing. This has been true for the better part of a decade.

Not the sort of guy you need in the trenches then! OK when all dandy but when going gets tough he deserts!

There are plenty of players like that - Glenn Little comes to mind. Which makes talk of him returning rather interesting....

I think thats wrong on both fronts

Neither player hides when the going gets tough and both are always willing to get on the ball and do their bit

Neither are going to make a load of tackles and put the frightners on the opposition physically, but both will be brave enough to want the ball

[Sun Tzu]

I think thats wrong on both fronts

Neither player hides when the going gets tough and both are always willing to get on the ball and do their bit

Neither are going to make a load of tackles and put the frightners on the opposition physically, but both will be brave enough to want the ball

I certainly think Little is a player who excels in a good side but is much less effective in a poorer side. My understanding was this was a criticism of him from Burnley fans but of course something we never saw tested with us. It doesn't mean he's deliberately hiding , perhaps it's more down to his style of play. It's certainly not the job of a winger to physically frighten people and any tackles they put in are a bonus !

[Southbank Old Boy]

Some roles in the team just cant perform if the team is having a shocker though

That sometimes goes against Harper as his role isnt that spectacular anyway and he can perform just as well as in a good performance but look poor because others dont pull their weight or make use of the ball he gets out wide

He can cover the same amount of ground and close of just as many options as he does in a good team performance, but if team mates dont close other opposition players down or cover the right runs or just give the ball back to them everytime (putting us under more and more pressure) then Harper looks worse

Thats not to say Harper hasnt been having a poor run of form, personally I dont think he has been at his best, but I think too much is made of it

[Arch]

Fair enough, SB, I get to see very few games so I'm not the best judge. I'm a big fan of Harper, and have always thought he was underrated, but perhaps the best way to put it is that he plays a role that is not best suited for our current circumstances. I suspect he's one of SC's (so-called) untouchables because SC sees that he's an essential part of us at our best. Maybe what we now need (for a few games) is not us at our best, but our above-average quality squad scrapping out results however they come. From my lofty perch 4000 miles away, Karacan and to some extent even Gunnarsson seem like players to fill that bill.

[papereyes]

So at worst we are probably heading for 'only' our 5th best finish in 138 years?

Its like the limits of what the side can achieve with the players in a squad can't change on a season by season basis ...

Maybe the limits of what this side can acheive are what we are currently seeing...

Yeah, about playoffs, like what was said in the summer.

Suggests it needs some significant work in the summer whatever happens.

[papereyes]

Look at the current squad, the players with premiership quality, and can keep it up for a few more years until we are stable in the Premiership.
Goalkeepers: Hahnemann, Federici (possibly).
Defense: Rosenior, Bikey, Pearce (possibly) and Armstrong (possibly)
Midfield: Matejovsky, S Hunt (when trying to prove himself worthy of £5mil)
Strike: Doyle, N Hunt (possibly)

That's basically a squad that could be premiership material. There is, however, the issue of strength in depth beyond the above players.

That's a Premiership sqaud without the real quality.

If you added maybe 4 or 5 players to that squad who would be first team starters and filled it from the remainder we might do OK..

You're right - its the squad players of a Premiership squad. I'd imagine you'd want a decent centreback, decent winger, decent centre mid and another striker on top of that to even begin to think about coping in the Premiership. And another 5 or 6 players to turn it into a squad.

[papereyes]

Harper is a perfect symbol of the team as a whole. When things are going well he's quick, efficient and exudes positivity without being flashy; when things go wrong, he loses confidence and goes missing. This has been true for the better part of a decade.

Not the sort of guy you need in the trenches then! OK when all dandy but when going gets tough he deserts!

It's why he's still here. He'd only go to a Premiership club that will be involved in a struggle and they took one look at our relegation season and went "yeah, not the best player to have around in a scrap".

[Sun Tzu]

So kind of on a par with just about every other team that gets promoted, and possibly slightly ahead of some !

It's a shame in some ways that we went up the way we did last time becasue there seems to be a feeling that the team that we use this season would be the team we used next. We were an exception to the rule - most promoted teams more or less rip their squads apart. Us and Watford may have been exception !

[Sun Tzu]

Harper is a perfect symbol of the team as a whole. When things are going well he's quick, efficient and exudes positivity without being flashy; when things go wrong, he loses confidence and goes missing. This has been true for the better part of a decade.

Not the sort of guy you need in the trenches then! OK when all dandy but when going gets tough he deserts!

It's why he's still here. He'd only go to a Premiership club that will be involved in a struggle and they took one look at our relegation season and went "yeah, not the best player to have around in a scrap".

Without naming sources I can state categorically that that is not the reason Harps is still here....

[papereyes]

Without naming sources, that comment is going to be utterly ignored.

[Hoop Blah]

So kind of on a par with just about every other team that gets promoted, and possibly slightly ahead of some !

It's a shame in some ways that we went up the way we did last time becasue there seems to be a feeling that the team that we use this season would be the team we used next. We were an exception to the rule - most promoted teams more or less rip their squads apart. Us and Watford may have been exception !

I think the worry is that we've proven over the last few years, certainly the Coppell era, that we're not that good at immediate investment in strengthening the team.

I can't think of any player we've signed recently, apart from Doobs and now Armstrong, who's been signed and really hit the road running and won a place in the team from the off.

Lita and Doyle almost I suppose, although you could only claim one of them, which would be Doyle, and he was probably only purchased as a long term gamble and backup to Lita and Kitson. Funny how things work out!

[The 17 Bus]

Both of whom were bought to go straight into the team tho.

[Sun Tzu]

Without naming sources, that comment is going to be utterly ignored.

That's your perogative. And to be honest it's my usual approach to this sort of suggestions. At least I didn;t refer to a mate in the ticket office or somone in the pub !

It's no less valid than your version of why he's still here though !

I know mine is accurate, yours is simply an opinion