1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We were a rudderless ship heading for the rocks.

We still are. Next season is going to be abysmal even if we cling on to our Championship status this time around.

On 06/08/2023 at 17:22, DE. said:

You look at Ipswich's side and there's a lot of players there who are unproven in this league, have been relegated from the Championship or transferred from the Championship to League 1 last season. Think the hype around Ipswich might be a bit much, if they finish mid-table they'll have done well with their current squad imo. They look incredibly nervous every time Sunderland come forward. 

Up there with my worst ever takes for sure. Incredible season for Town, just a point needed at home to Hudds to get promoted now. If we ever get rid of Venky's there's no reason it can't be us. Shame on them for running this club so poorly we've never even been in the championship playoffs once in their entire tenure. 

I'm curious to know what people have seen from Leo when playing for us that suggests he has significant potential. I assume that judgement isn't just based on a single Swedish cap in a friendly against Finland. I believe he's a year and a few months younger than Pears, which isn't a significant difference, and Pears has generally performed better despite both being poor. 

24 might be younger for a keeper than an outfield player, but by comparison Raya was playing in the PL for Brentford by that age. So I don't know. I haven't seen anything that suggests potential from his performances for us, in fact there are some fundamentals he still seems to be lacking. Just seems to be a case, much like when Gallagher misses time due to injury, where people start to forget how poor a player is because he isn't there every week to remind them.

We likely won't have the budget for any replacement keeper, but in my view we need two unless one of our youngsters can step up.

We've had two coaches now who seem extremely reluctant to put Telalovic on the pitch, which probably says something. Does make you wonder what the recruitment team were thinking spending any of our limited money on him though. Might as well have kept Vale around - from memory he didn't go out on loan until 01/09, so we could have just decided to hold onto him if Telalovic was our only other achievable target.

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I'd be happy starting Brittain, Hyam, Carter, JRC, Tronstad and Szmodics each week in a good Championship team.

So realistically you're looking for 5 new starters. 6, really, because you know Szmodics is being sold this summer. 

I think S. Wharton, Leonard, Buckley / Travis / Garrett (don't think you'd keep all 3), Hedges, Dolan and Pickering have value as squad players. 

That's why JDT struggled at the end and why Eustace hasn't been able to do more than stem the bleeding. 

Tronstad and Carter are probably the only players, excluding Sammie, who I'd somewhat trust in a starting eleven. The rest I have absolutely no faith in. Brittain and Hyam have, imv, shown their true mentality over the past five months and it's far from being good enough. Would have them out of the door to anyone wiling to buy for a decent price. JRC made of glass, has ability but not ever going to be reliable as a regular first teamer. 

The rest are largely players with a weak mentality who are, at best, somewhat consistent 6/10 or 7/10 players as long as the opposition doesn't score first or there aren't some scattered boos. Either of those things happens and it's game over for these lads. Not good enough if we have ambition - although granted we know Venky's and Waggot do not.

Realistically we won't have the funds to clear out the squad, but it just means more disappointment next season, because I don't believe most of these lads are up to it. Most of them have had plenty of chances over the past three seasons and blown it in various ways. It's not a case of not trying, for most of them anyway, they just don't quite have the conviction and/or ability to make this club successful. We've collected a group of very soft players and it needs a huge shakeup to get us going again. I'm aware that won't happen, though, so assuming we scrape survival I'll enjoy the summer and, sadly, likely dread the beginning of next season. 

3 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Our match before this one was against Sheff W. where we put in a shit performance, yet the only change Eustace made was a forced one; today's MoTM McFadzean for Wharton. He did the same after our beating in Bristol and fielded the same side versus Leeds and while it was a performance full of fight, we were a bit lucky not to concede.

 

With that said I think the effort was there today, just feel as if the quality is lacking and we've become so reliant on Smods.

Since December we've been a bottom three team - both in form and in terms of points collected. The points JDT gained us from August - November will, maybe, just about save us. It's been a truly abysmal five months. The quality is definitely not there, and unless there is a dramatic and ruthless clear out in the summer, followed by actual investment (one can dream), it will be even worse next season. 

4 minutes ago, scotchrover said:

The Armstrong and Wharton money needs investing. We must be well within the limits of FFP having spent about 20p during the last few seasons.  Failure to invest is seeing us dropping into League 2. This squad isn’t good enough for the Championship, as it stands. 

Agreed, if Sammie hadn't had a once in a career season we'd already be relegated. Probably not too long after Rotherham. 

11 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I think JRC is trying to hard to be the creative force at the moment, hence the first-time passes that aren't on. As much as I think Tronstad is a great Championship player, he's not a creative one and in a midfield two that puts pressure on his partner to make things happen. 

I've always thought Hedges is a good option to have on the bench, but you're in trouble if he's your nailed on starter as his end product just isn't there. 

JRC can be very good creatively, but he's never really been consistent - again, though, I'd put a lot of that down to repeated injury disruption. His versatility may also hinder him somewhat as well, as it did with the likes of Phil Jones at United. Becoming a jack of all trades but master of none isn't ideal. It can work if you're a James Milner type with incredible fitness, but when you're injury prone as Jones was and JRC is then it becomes a bit more problematic. 

10 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

I agree, but he's never set the world alight in CM for us. His best performances have come at RWB so think he flatters to deceive a lot of the time. When he continued in the same way as versus Owls, I would've subbed him on for the more dynamic Ayari. Ayari had a point to prove against Coventry too, it's just that Eustace forgot about it when preparing for t he game....

He's had a couple of games in CM where you think, yeah, he could be superb in this role. Unfortunately tends to be followed be a string of anonymous matches before getting injured. I'd agree that he's more effective in the RWB role, but it's a demanding position for somebody with a fragile body.

19 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

JRC appears to have lost his while injured as well. One-touches 'passes' randomly and has been really poor the past two matches. Would prefer Ayari starting over him atm.

Been a purple patch player for some time, just harder to detect because he's also incredibly injury prone. When he's on form, he's really on form, but he's not consistent and at 24 he should be by now. Granted his regular injury layoffs won't help with that. Long story short, we can't rely on him, and that's a shame because a fully fit, consistent JRC would be a key player for us. I just don't think we'll ever get to see that. 

3 minutes ago, Silas said:

Criminal to do that twice.

Now wonder manager's lose the plot. Must be so frustrating after all the tactical work they put in.

Yeah, they'd been strong in the second half up until that point as well. Just seemed to collectively switch off when the corner was taken. 

Wow, Hutchinson again. Hull give him all the time in the world, again, and he punishes them accordingly. 

If we sell Sammie and continue to shop around the bargain basement then we're doing a Rotherham next season. Will be brutal. Venky's have been fortunate to have somebody step up each time a top goalscorer has left - Graham > Arma > BBD > Szmodics. Nobody from this squad is stepping up next season - I'm sure of that - and based on the dross our recruitment team has signed for the forward position on little-to-no budget I do not foresee a rabbit being pulled out of the hat by Broughton and co. 

So our only hope would be having some money available to invest in the team. If there's a small amount available and the recruitment team do better than identifying the likes of Leo for £800k type fees then maybe we scrape another season. Or maybe we don't. Ultimately the only way we genuinely progress is for Venky's to sell up, which seems like a distant dream at this point. 

5 minutes ago, OJRovers said:

Waggot/GB quite happy to throw £15k a week at Fleck who arrived on crutches, left on crutches.

Could have had Batth on a free in the summer - instead we penny pinch based on his age and end up bringing in McFadz in January who is, what, four years older? And probably on a similar wage. Our recruitment team just cannot handle being on a limited budget. Granted I'm not sure they can handle being on a decent budget either, but we likely won't see that again under Venky's anyway. 

3 minutes ago, OJRovers said:

Hutchinson on loan at Ipswich from Chelsea. Quality loan players are out there, yet GB gets Moran etc 

Ipswich have a decent wage budget tbf, Brandon Williams was probably on a fair amount as well before he went AWOL. Not sure if they're still paying those wages or not. 

Anyway, they're similar to us under Mowbray in that they have the ability to pay decent loan wages/fees, as we did for the likes of Elliot, Tosin, Reed, etc... but less to spend on actual transfer fees. 

Where they differ from us is that they have owners who are ambitious and a manager who is a winner. Two things we can only dream of. 

Honestly amazing what Rohl has done at Sheffield Wednesday. They'd only won a single match all season before beating our lot on December 2nd. They've gained 40 points since then. We've managed 22. 

What a strike. Great time to get a goal.

Absolute shocker from the keeper and Morsy there. Just hoof it if there's no options. It's like players are brainwashed into being unable to lump it when common sense calls for it. 

6 minutes ago, Devon Rover said:

What I wouldn't give to be in the parallel universe where we had given Hirst time and a contract and sold Gallagher.

Or, you know, just not sold the club to Venkys.

We're just cursed for as long as Venky's own us. They have the opposite of the midas touch when it comes to running a football club.  

George Hirst firing Ipswich back to the Premier League. Lol.

When Wednesday beat us 3-1 in December we were 7th and they were bottom, 12 points adrift and 18 points behind us.

We may well end up finishing below them. Incredible job Rohl has done there, but fuck me, Szmodics aside none of these players deserve to wear our colours again. 

Just now, Exiled_Rover said:

We might need fellow PL Champions to do us a favour.

We need Venky's to do us a favour and fuck off, else scraping survival this season only ensures a much more miserable season next year. 

4 minutes ago, G Somerset Rover said:

Hard to disagree. One thing is as sure as shit with this lot - if it goes to the final day then we’ll drop. No two ways about it.

And it'll be deserved. The owners deserve it. The CEO deserves it. The incompetent senior staff who can't do basic admin functions correctly deserve it. The manager and his cowardly tactics deserve it. The players and their spineless attitudes (Szmodics excluded) deserve it. The sizable amount of fans who worship Venky's and jump down the throats of anyone who dares call out the bullshit deserve it. 

The small section of the fan base who see through the charade don't deserve it, along with the employees of the club who don't fuck things up by being useless at what they are paid to do. Overall though, if we go down it's very much deserved.

Couldn't really be going any worse for us results wise.