Definitely did a lot better this season than expected... If you told me 7th in August I would have been happy to take it. But frustrating when we threw away so many games, just 2 points needed as others have said. Overall my sense is we dont really have a plan on how to move forward as a club, and are quite vulnerable to a poor manager coming in and taking us down. Thought Ismael was that manager, but hes done well since Sheffield Wednesday.

Think we did pretty well today, its the horrendous losing runs and appalling form against bottom three sides which has done us this season. Dennis has to be one of the worst all time signings. Would have cost us around £300k for 4 months of barely playing and being absolutely useless when he has.

Not for me, if we concede we are cooked. Watching us after subs has shown we fall apart organisationally if we change too many.

Im a bit concerned if we take Hedges off that will open up our left side too much. Hes terrible in the final third but has done very well keeping in tight defensively.

Id bring Kargbo on, they are very loose in midfield and his pace on the turnover could make a big impact. Gueye and Dennis I am less sure of what benefit they would bring. Very unlikely we make it but the big relief for me is that Ismael now seems to have the team well coached and I am looking at next season with considerably less dread than a month ago.

I dont think weve ever managed to sign more than 6 first team players in a single window (eg. Last summer we got 5 in Ohashi, Gueye, Beck , Baath, Cantwell. Baker, Cozier-Duberry and Toth were squaddies). Its very very difficult. Thats the problem really, we need to retain enough first teamers so adding 5-6 actually expands the squad size by maybe 3 more first team quality overall. But we don't. My guess is we will be a couple first teamers overall weaker in numbers come September.

I'd really challenge that Dolan isn't top half... he's always available, puts a massive effort defensively and contributes a decent amount offensively. I am sure his new club will be one that is top solidly half. Wouldn't be surprised if a well resourced parachute club takes him. Hedges is more debatable, but if/when he leaves I would fully expect him to get a sideways move to another mid table side.

Beck has missed a lot of the season... so that leaves 5 names definitely top half. There are a lot of people on here who would say (and do say every time we don't win a game) that Travis, Hyam and Dolan are not good enough.

Yeah a great question is who do many consider top half players out of a squad that has finished just outside the top six in three of the last four seasons? The sentiment on this board I would only be confident that Tronstad (Rev aside!) and maybe Brittain would get the nod from those who post regularly. Which obviously statistically doesn't make any sense.

Agreed. Absolutely works his nuts off, gets goals, good technique. One of our best £ for £ signings at £300k I think?

I agree.... Gueye strikes me as a forward who if you can get it all to click can be a top player. Has much more about him imo than say Brereton Diaz, and BBDs turnaround in the 21/22 season was incredible. Could see something from Geyue like that, when his confidence is up, fully embedded in the league and the patterns of play etc. I'd definitely keep Gueye and have him central to our plans. It's just I don't think Ismael is a fan and the feeling is mutual. To be honest we are going to need to sign so many players this summer not having to also find a replacement for Gueye would allow us to focus on the areas that need addressing.

Yeah, really get the impression that Ismael and Gueye dislike one another. Shame as on his day Gueye is absolutely unplayable. Need to unlock that.

If we can't offer Dolan a decent contract I dont think we are paying a £5M fee.

I doubt we can match the highest bidder who now comes along... As soon as he didnt sign 18 months ago we were buggered. Our main leverage is an early renewal so the player be tempted by a immediate significant bump in wages and more job security. Once their past 18 months holding on till the end of their contract gets more more attractive. That we didnt tie someone like Dolan down who is young, has obvious potential, rarely injured, already reasonable stats and we got for nothing from the PNE academy is just completely and utterly stupid.

It's all so Championship.... completely mental. Once you take out the parachute clubs the correlation between net money spent and where you finish in the league is pretty low. Lots of teams that spend big are at the bottom, and lots of clubs who spend bugger all are around the playoffs. It gives you hope that if we can bin off Venkys and get a local coalition we can still be competitive.

Hedges has been decent recently.. best form hes had last few games

Really remarkable win when you consider how rarely we get 3 points after going behind.

We look really organised and snappy through the middle , night and day compared to Ismael's first few games. Been definitely the better side but not really made it count that much in good chances. I thought Ismael was absolutely hopeless after five games but we do seem to be much much better now. Press is working, passing is pretty tidy, players seem very motivated and energised. I am not really sure why exactly.

Yeah... Im very skeptical of Premier League players coming down to the Championship anyway. More likely than not to be poorly motivated and not focussed, and on top of that very expensive. If you add a long layoff not playing its an obvious problem. Id be quite happy for us to never sign a senior premier league player again.

To answer my own question I found this... parachute clubs are not excluded, but I suppose an assumption can be made that they roughly net out year on year. So it does suggest that overall wage inflation is not a big issue in last 5 years. Big jump in 2024 but thats not going to impact us as we didn't sign any new contracts in that year... otherwise flat/declining. I agree that it is very hard to understand how our wage bill has stayed roughly the same over last 5 years when we have gone to as extreme lengths as letting established players run out of contract and signing no established premier league or even top half championship players in the last 5 years. Is this a question that has been raised with the club by the fans forum etc? It does seem very suspicious.

I wonder if general wage inflation is an issue... Do any stattos have a link to a graph of how the average wage bill in the Championship has increased over the last 5 years? It would be ideal if there was a way to exclude parachute clubs.

Hah - read it as elliott bennett my bad! Yes Harvey Elliott was great, would obviously take him!

I am not sure I would be taking that squad as an example... Out of that list I'd take Kaminski, Harwood-Bellis, Armstrong and Brereton out those. Mulgrew by that time was a total liability, Elliott poor, Ayala constantly injured, Downing struggling in his second season, Branthwaite poor, Dack had done his cruciate in 2019 and was out for a year, and never a decent player again. Really I haven't seen much variation in the quality of the squad since we have been in the Championship. Some decent players some poor players season after season. Good enough to finish mid table somewhere.

Great bit of analysis this... Second half of season form absolutely abysmal for seven seasons now. There has to be some reason for that. Poor january windows and a small squad are the obvious candidates... but I am not that convinced that other non parachute teams that have made the play offs have had that much better windows or bigger squads (Coventry, Luton, Huddersfield, Barnsley, Sunderland etc).

Agreed the winger was well past him and he pulled his arm, it was a yellow card. But then there were a lot of similar infractions the ref didnt give cards for, so a confusing referee performance.