Oh, What A Lovely Defecit!

[FiNeRaIn]

Why do you insist on complaining about what hasn't happened yet?

Because we've seen it all before.

[floyd__streete]

Bottom line is we are not a big club even by championship standards.

Why on earth do we always have to have club size tied down to previous achievement (or lack thereof)? We are not a big club in the Championship because we spent so many years in the lower divisions before? Since promotion back to this division, we haven't finished lower than top ten. Our average crowd would put us comfortably midtable. We should be more than adequately able to compete in this division.

[Royal Rother]

Why do you insist on complaining about what hasn't happened yet?

Because we've seen it all before.

What we've also seen before is the club's strategy for managing the team and the finances working rather well.

No good reason to think it will come to a grinding halt this season.

[Royal Rother]

Bottom line is we are not a big club even by championship standards.

Why on earth do we always have to have club size tied down to previous achievement (or lack thereof)? We are not a big club in the Championship because we spent so many years in the lower divisions before? Since promotion back to this division, we haven't finished lower than top ten. Our average crowd would put us comfortably midtable. We should be more than adequately able to compete in this division.

We do.

[Ian Royal]

Why do you insist on complaining about what hasn't happened yet?

Because we've seen it all before.

What we've also seen before is the club's strategy for managing the team and the finances working rather well.

No good reason to think it will come to a grinding halt this season.

And we've seen us adequately replace players since we've been relegated on the whole. Not necessarily obviously, or with big signings. But we've done it.

[Royal Rother]

Certainly looks like those of a negative disposition have already moved on from last season and are thoroughly enjoying the clean slate for 2011/12.

[Arnie_Pie]

Why do you insist on complaining about what hasn't happened yet?

Because we've seen it all before.

And it has worked quite well, has it not?

[sandman]

For how much longer?

[brendywendy]

i dunno.i do know that when it stops working theyll act to change that though

[sandman]

Ah but will they act correctly? They didn't act to adequately replace Sidwell.

[Avon Royal]

Why do you insist on complaining about what hasn't happened yet?

Because we've seen it all before.

And it has worked quite well, has it not?

Not if promotion is the aim.

[Vision]

Bottom line is we are not a big club even by championship standards.

Why on earth do we always have to have club size tied down to previous achievement (or lack thereof)? We are not a big club in the Championship because we spent so many years in the lower divisions before? Since promotion back to this division, we haven't finished lower than top ten. Our average crowd would put us comfortably midtable. We should be more than adequately able to compete in this division.

So you've an issue with saying we're not a big club by championship standards yet admit our average crowd is mid-table.

Its nothing to do with being tied down to previous achievement either. Its simply an honest appraisal of where we sit alongside other Championship clubs. Pretty much everything about us screams "average" in this division aside from our finishing positions as you point out since we got promoted under Pardew.

Whats even more remarkable is if you compare how "competitive" we've been in this division compared to other clubs relegated from the Premiership who don't bounce straight back up many of whom are bigger than us.

Our way isn't perfect and as I've said carries its own risks & there's always the argument that just a little more investment could have seen us do even better on the field (as with every other club in the world though) but I don't think even the most critical fan can honestly look at us and say we're not competitive at this level.

[brendywendy]

Ah but will they act correctly? They didn't act to adequately replace Sidwell.

we tried to.scott brown would have done it,fae could have,and cisse literally played him off the park when he came back.its hard to replace a player of his quality. And 1 failure isnt a bad record..

[Hoop Blah]

Ah but will they act correctly? They didn't act to adequately replace Sidwell.

we tried to.scott brown would have done it,fae could have,and cisse literally played him off the park when he came back.its hard to replace a player of his quality. And 1 failure isnt a bad record..

Within the Premier League squad it wasn't just one failure though was it?

We didn't adequately replace Sidwell, much like we didn't really adequately replace Sonko during his injury, Little during his injury or have enough down our left side whilst Convey was out and Shorey was starting to have his head turned.

In general we didn't quite have enough quality competition for places.

It's a slight tangent of course!

[ZacNaloen]

^ All of that was Coppell Conservatism, not just the club.


Different manager now, he hasn't shown any fear of being ruthless when it comes to fixing a situation that didn't work out as planned..

[Svlad Cjelli]

^ All of that was Coppell Conservatism, not just the club.


Different manager now, he hasn't shown any fear of being ruthless when it comes to fixing a situation that didn't work out as planned..

Indeed - the money was available, just not spent.

[brendywendy]

Ah but will they act correctly? They didn't act to adequately replace Sidwell.

we tried to.scott brown would have done it,fae could have,and cisse literally played him off the park when he came back.its hard to replace a player of his quality. And 1 failure isnt a bad record..

Within the Premier League squad it wasn't just one failure though was it?

We didn't adequately replace Sidwell, much like we didn't really adequately replace Sonko during his injury, Little during his injury or have enough down our left side whilst Convey was out and Shorey was starting to have his head turned.

In general we didn't quite have enough quality competition for places.

It's a slight tangent of course!

but people are moaning that we didnt try, when we did. people are moaning that our wage bill was silly in the prem and thats why we are so skint now, when actually we tried to get people in, good players, who wouldnt come cos we werent offering enough money.
every club makes mistakes. but i think everyone acknowledges that they were made, and are working to ensure we make less mistakes going forward. if we had a perfect club, and perfect management wed have won the champions league every year for the last 5.

[Hoop Blah]

^ All of that was Coppell Conservatism, not just the club.


Different manager now, he hasn't shown any fear of being ruthless when it comes to fixing a situation that didn't work out as planned..

Agreed, not that either of those points negate the point I was making to brendy, that more than one mistake or failure was made when looking to replace or strengthen.

[Hoop Blah]

but people are moaning that we didnt try, when we did. people are moaning that our wage bill was silly in the prem and thats why we are so skint now, when actually we tried to get people in, good players, who wouldnt come cos we werent offering enough money.
every club makes mistakes. but i think everyone acknowledges that they were made, and are working to ensure we make less mistakes going forward. if we had a perfect club, and perfect management wed have won the champions league every year for the last 5.

People are moaning that we didn't suceed more than try I think brendy.

I actually don't think any of the players we looked at turned us down because of money. The likes of Brown and Whitehead didn't fancy it here, Mensah was never going to be allowed to leave his current club at the time (at least not for the money we were talking to them about - Coppell refered to the protracted negotiations as a waste of time IIRC) and Lescott was always going to choose a club like Everton over Reading.

The likes of Taylor and O'Neil were lined up and within budget (I think terms were pretty much agreed) until we pulled out.

As Zac said, a lot of that was down to Coppell not wanting to rock his boat and essentially bottling out of making the tough decisions, in much the same way as 'the club' failed to take the same decision to let him walk away after relegation.

End result, the club was left without the right players within the squad. They are management decisions made and influence by those who've left the club and those that remain. I can understand people might have reservations about our ability to replace any outgoing stars when you look at recent history.

[brendywendy]

in effect its one bad season in the last 10 though, regardless of what mistakes were made.

hardluyy indicative of a club in crisis