Adams Kebab
Well-known member
So the retained list is out. No shocks to be fair, can’t see Husband staying as he’s 30 and this could be one last payday opportunity. A strong character who ended the season as our captain. Marv gone, not a shock but that’s 2 of our starting back 3. Add to that, we’ve lost a midfield starter in Byers who made a big difference and alongside Husband was the only other one who gave the opposition or the ref any shit. That’s another strong character gone. Don’t see much personality or aggro in this team which you need in League 1. A team of nice soft arses now. We’ve lost the magic man Dembele who carried us creativity wise. Our natural left wing-back Coulson (still not sure on him) back to his parent club. We’ve also lost the super impact sub Matty Virtue who we utilised instead of a forward every game due to his goalscoring prowess. 6 of the match-day squad v Reading gone. Add to this Lavery, but he never plays more than 20 games a season so no massive loss. Rhodes a great penalty box striker but not so good if you don’t get the ball in the penalty box. Jake Beesley, who should be our 4th choice striker option with Kouassi the 5th and maybe a loan out. CJ Hamilton is never going to be the answer at RWB (but we gave him 2 years+ for some bizarre reason). His competition in Gabriel looks like he’s off unless his bird did refer to just moving house in a transfer window…
On the plus side Robbie Apter returns from a fantastic loan to no doubt be shoe-horned into a position he’s never played before in his life that lessens his ability and will have half our fans saying he’s shit. Dom Thompson is back too, whose elite concentration levels helped relegate Forest Green to non-league.
The rebuild starts now. We’re looking at 5-6 players to go in the starting 11. We’ll need another 4-5 to make up the squad. So we’re signing 10 players or more for the 1st team squad.
We can pad the squad with youth players but we’ll just have to make sure it’s “fair on them” so if you’re a young striker in good form at development level, don’t expect to come on if you’re on the bench if we are losing and we need goals. Professional football is all about being “fair” you see and not trying to score goals for our Head Coach seemingly… you need balls to back young players. Just feels like if Critchley was at Dortmund when Jude Bellingham turned up he would have gave him 20 mins last match of the season & said he’s not quite there yet or if was Luke Littler’s dad he wouldn’t let him turn pro till he was 21 so it was safer & fair, maybe enter a comp at the local social club.
We can talk about appointing Critchley to stabilise us after the shitshow under Appleton and Thick Mick & all that but a rebuild should take a season max where you see the identity and the plan and you add a couple in to make it grow. I’ve not seen that from us under NC, but even if I had, we’re now going to have to change half the squad. This is not ideal. I’m also thinking he’s not that guy to be able to pull it off. Don’t see he’s got the balls for it. A pure wet lettuce. Hope I’m wrong.
Don’t fall for the narrative that we’re little old Blackpool & it’s a consolidation season and we should be grateful it’s not the Oyston’s and it can’t be done without spending £££, because it CAN be done. Kieron McKenna at Ipswich. No doubt they are a bigger club than us but they’ve spent 4.7million in the past 2 seasons. Great loan deals to add to their squad, clear philosophy & playing style, extremely well coached with full buy-in from players and fans because you can see it makes sense & they all believe in it. Back to back promotions. Unbelievable achievement for McKenna. We did it under Ollie. Luton have done it.
Hladky - Salford
Tuanzebe - Free
Woolfenden - Academy
Burgess - Accrington Stanley
Davis - Leeds
Burns - Fleetwood
Morsy - Middlesbrough
Luongo - Free
Chaplin - Barnsley
Hutchinson - Chelsea (Loan)
Hirst - Leicester
No doubts they’re paying decent wages but it can be done. We only need one promotion for now and don’t forget we’ve made 6million in player sales in the last couple of years.
Rebuild is just a term used to get gullible fans to let the team be shit for longer and get away with it.
A rebuild comes from a neglection of a squad in the first place. Trying cheaper options that dont work and having to replace them (let’s see how he integrates Finnegan and Sassi our play-off push signings in January when our rivals were splashing cash) & a huge emphasis on loan players (we’ve done that for two seasons). In the meantime the few good players you do have, have enough and want to move on like Bowler and Yates. I think there will be interest in Grimshaw and Gabriel in the summer too, which is fine if we are reinvesting properly into the squad.
We just don’t get the Bishop’s, Brannagan’s, Moxon’s or the Joe Low’s over the line £££. Which means when you sell your best players, if you don’t reinvest back into signing proper players you won’t have much to sell on again. Brentford model was it we were trying to copy? What happened?
I have zero knowledge about the Hong Kong stuff with Sadler but if it’s on top for him, he may as well have a big blow-out this summer and see where it takes us. Call it player trading. Gotta be better than them taking his dough off him, even if it is trusting Critchley with some money after he agreed to giving CJ 2 more years. Every day I think about that. WTF were we thinking?!
If we don’t have a clear plan this summer, it could end up a never ending circle, forever in a rebuild. Pot the manager, rebuild. Bring his players in, rebuild. Loads of players move. Rebuild. Pot him, rebuild…
All this whilst we’ve allegedly got this all singing all dancing infrastructure at the club to ensure we are always primed and prepped and ready to go, all being handsomely well paid for it too… I think I’d rather spend it on actual footballers than pen pushers.
Interesting summer ahead…
On the plus side Robbie Apter returns from a fantastic loan to no doubt be shoe-horned into a position he’s never played before in his life that lessens his ability and will have half our fans saying he’s shit. Dom Thompson is back too, whose elite concentration levels helped relegate Forest Green to non-league.
The rebuild starts now. We’re looking at 5-6 players to go in the starting 11. We’ll need another 4-5 to make up the squad. So we’re signing 10 players or more for the 1st team squad.
We can pad the squad with youth players but we’ll just have to make sure it’s “fair on them” so if you’re a young striker in good form at development level, don’t expect to come on if you’re on the bench if we are losing and we need goals. Professional football is all about being “fair” you see and not trying to score goals for our Head Coach seemingly… you need balls to back young players. Just feels like if Critchley was at Dortmund when Jude Bellingham turned up he would have gave him 20 mins last match of the season & said he’s not quite there yet or if was Luke Littler’s dad he wouldn’t let him turn pro till he was 21 so it was safer & fair, maybe enter a comp at the local social club.
We can talk about appointing Critchley to stabilise us after the shitshow under Appleton and Thick Mick & all that but a rebuild should take a season max where you see the identity and the plan and you add a couple in to make it grow. I’ve not seen that from us under NC, but even if I had, we’re now going to have to change half the squad. This is not ideal. I’m also thinking he’s not that guy to be able to pull it off. Don’t see he’s got the balls for it. A pure wet lettuce. Hope I’m wrong.
Don’t fall for the narrative that we’re little old Blackpool & it’s a consolidation season and we should be grateful it’s not the Oyston’s and it can’t be done without spending £££, because it CAN be done. Kieron McKenna at Ipswich. No doubt they are a bigger club than us but they’ve spent 4.7million in the past 2 seasons. Great loan deals to add to their squad, clear philosophy & playing style, extremely well coached with full buy-in from players and fans because you can see it makes sense & they all believe in it. Back to back promotions. Unbelievable achievement for McKenna. We did it under Ollie. Luton have done it.
Hladky - Salford
Tuanzebe - Free
Woolfenden - Academy
Burgess - Accrington Stanley
Davis - Leeds
Burns - Fleetwood
Morsy - Middlesbrough
Luongo - Free
Chaplin - Barnsley
Hutchinson - Chelsea (Loan)
Hirst - Leicester
No doubts they’re paying decent wages but it can be done. We only need one promotion for now and don’t forget we’ve made 6million in player sales in the last couple of years.
Rebuild is just a term used to get gullible fans to let the team be shit for longer and get away with it.
A rebuild comes from a neglection of a squad in the first place. Trying cheaper options that dont work and having to replace them (let’s see how he integrates Finnegan and Sassi our play-off push signings in January when our rivals were splashing cash) & a huge emphasis on loan players (we’ve done that for two seasons). In the meantime the few good players you do have, have enough and want to move on like Bowler and Yates. I think there will be interest in Grimshaw and Gabriel in the summer too, which is fine if we are reinvesting properly into the squad.
We just don’t get the Bishop’s, Brannagan’s, Moxon’s or the Joe Low’s over the line £££. Which means when you sell your best players, if you don’t reinvest back into signing proper players you won’t have much to sell on again. Brentford model was it we were trying to copy? What happened?
I have zero knowledge about the Hong Kong stuff with Sadler but if it’s on top for him, he may as well have a big blow-out this summer and see where it takes us. Call it player trading. Gotta be better than them taking his dough off him, even if it is trusting Critchley with some money after he agreed to giving CJ 2 more years. Every day I think about that. WTF were we thinking?!
If we don’t have a clear plan this summer, it could end up a never ending circle, forever in a rebuild. Pot the manager, rebuild. Bring his players in, rebuild. Loads of players move. Rebuild. Pot him, rebuild…
All this whilst we’ve allegedly got this all singing all dancing infrastructure at the club to ensure we are always primed and prepped and ready to go, all being handsomely well paid for it too… I think I’d rather spend it on actual footballers than pen pushers.
Interesting summer ahead…
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There's enough quality players out there to build a promotion worthy squad for peanuts.
