Doug on CWR (3 Viewers)

[Brighton Sky Blue]

But by all accounts people weren’t even in the ballpark before Sheff Utd came in. Transfers are tricky. With Vik we knew he was going, sporting were in the right ballpark at start of window but it was all about squeezing as much as we could while lining deals/replacements up. With Gus, Sheff Utd suddenly slap suitable offer in out the blue. players we could've gone for might’ve already moved, clubs and agents start asking silly money or other/better clubs come in for same player .

By all accounts we’ve put in a big offer for Kitching and it was rejected. Might’ve happened with others. Should we just keep increasing until they accept ?! Be silly to. Best laid plans and all that.

I agree we shouldn’t be paying extortionate sums for players who aren’t worth it. My issue is in allowing him to leave relatively late, we increased the chances of not covering his absence.

 

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[Chris1987]

Could be the case that Doug was boxing clever. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still a number of targets. Maybe one is close to getting over the line .

 

[Grendel]

There needs to be a complete shift in mentality in a lot of fans.

Nobody is writing off any hope of a play off push but there is a clear expectation by many that we are aiming for promotion this season.

We need to enjoy the season. We've got a good team but this is the most challenging Championship in history.

One of the things that has helped us in recent years is how fans have had low expectations and got behind the team regardless.

It’s a bit naive to think we’ve sold a record number of season tickets without an expectation of a play off push. That won’t be repeated unless we are seen to be pushing as hard as we can for promotion

The championship won’t get any easier

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

There needs to be a complete shift in mentality in a lot of fans.

Nobody is writing off any hope of a play off push but there is a clear expectation by many that we are aiming for promotion this season.

We need to enjoy the season. We've got a good team but this is the most challenging Championship in history.

One of the things that has helped us in recent years is how fans have had low expectations and got behind the team regardless.

King has made a rod for his own back, you can't hike up the prices massively across the board and expect the fans to start lowering expectations

 

[CCFCSteve]

I agree we shouldn’t be paying extortionate sums for players who aren’t worth it. My issue is in allowing him to leave relatively late, we increased the chances of not covering his absence.

Agreed but I’m guessing Sheff Utd offer was too good to turn down and hamer was refusing to sign a new contract. Maybe we should’ve sold him at for a lowball offer (and bought in a cheaper replacement) earlier in the summer, I wouldn’t have though

 

[pusbccfc]

It’s a bit naive to think we’ve sold a record number of season tickets without an expectation of a play off push. That won’t be repeated unless we are seen to be pushing as hard as we can for promotion

The championship won’t get any easier

We'll probably be in and around it but if we are 14th in November, people will be losing their heads.

If people are only buying season tickets because they think we are making the play offs this season, that's worrying. We need to be developing a fan base for rainy days and not just the highs of last season.

 

[CCFCSteve]

Could be the case that Doug was boxing clever. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still a number of targets. Maybe one is close to getting over the line .

Agreed. Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes. He’s never going to say we’ve got 12-15m burning a hole and will pay whatever it takes to keep SBT happy…oh and is will grigg available

By accounts we’ve had a £4m offer turned down for a L1 defender. It’s not as if we’re not trying

 

[pusbccfc]

King has made a rod for his one back, you can't hike up the prices massively across the board and expect the fans to start lowering expectations

He's priced season tickets in-line with most.

It's worrying that people are only buying tickets because they expect success. We need to grow a fanbase that buys tickets in June regardless of the hopes and aspirations.

 

[fatso]

Maybe if he took us off to Northampton next week or sold Dom Hyam tonight you'd be happier?

Actually selling Dom Hyam was a master stroke, we got to the play offs due to the tightest defence in the clubs history. Hyam missed out!

Just saying.

 

[Macca1987]

A lot of people are forgetting where we were at the beginning of last season. There aren't many I suppose who would have said we were going to be play off finalists at that point. The moon and stars all came into alignment last season, Ben Wilson's goal at Blackburn, teams around us losing points hand over fist, it all opened the play off door to us to step in. Now we all want that again, but with such a turnover in playing staff it is going to take a while to gel. I will give it 10 games and look where we are at that point, not just position in the league, but how we have played in those 10 games. I think with Watford tomorrow we have had a very hard 5 game start, let's wait and see after 10 games and things may be clearer. PUSB

 

[shmmeee]

Why didn’t we sign a player before Gus left?

pretty basic stuff

Happened too quickly by all accounts. Seems we got a bid way above others out of the blue and it all got done quickly. Id guess the feeling was it was that or nothing and he goes for free and maybe is unhappy.

It’s not ideal but I can get it is the rumours about what the club were being told by Gus are true.

 

[shmmeee]

There needs to be a complete shift in mentality in a lot of fans.

Nobody is writing off any hope of a play off push but there is a clear expectation by many that we are aiming for promotion this season.

We need to enjoy the season. We've got a good team but this is the most challenging Championship in history.

One of the things that has helped us in recent years is how fans have had low expectations and got behind the team regardless.

The club offering Premier League Packages and talking about playoffs next 3 of 5 years and Robins being all coy about “well I can’t say we’re going for promotion” plus us smashing out record transfer fee all might have something to do with raised expectations TBF.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Agreed but I’m guessing Sheff Utd offer was too good to turn down and hamer was refusing to sign a new contract. Maybe we should’ve sold him at for a lowball offer (and bought in a cheaper replacement) earlier in the summer, I wouldn’t have though

Depends what those offers were, but I doubt there would have been a problem with us asking for a week or two to replace the player, assuming targets had already been identified. That way we'd be negotiating without public knowledge that there's over £10 million in our transfer kitty.

The good news anyway is that we're quite unlikely to be in this situation next summer irrespective of league status.

 

[Sick Boy]

How many times did he say “join the journey”?

 

[Boicey]

We'll probably be in and around it but if we are 14th in November, people will be losing their heads.

If people are only buying season tickets because they think we are making the play offs this season, that's worrying. We need to be developing a fan base for rainy days and not just the highs of last season.

I think most except this is a mid table team.
What I'd like is some entertainment and I'm not sure there's enough in the team to deliver much, especially in terms of goals. Certainly until COH is back.

 

[hamertime]

There needs to be a complete shift in mentality in a lot of fans.

Nobody is writing off any hope of a play off push but there is a clear expectation by many that we are aiming for promotion this season.

We need to enjoy the season. We've got a good team but this is the most challenging Championship in history.

One of the things that has helped us in recent years is how fans have had low expectations and got behind the team regardless.

There should be an expectation of aiming for promotion, we narrowly missed out last year. The league isn’t as strong as people are making out. Every team we have played we should have beat. Play offs should be attainable for this squad, anything less is a failure.

 

[Matt smith]

There should be an expectation of aiming for promotion, we narrowly missed out last year. The league isn’t as strong as people are making out. Every team we have played we should have beat. Play offs should be attainable for this squad, anything less is a failure.

I’m sorry this squad isn’t good enough currently to get top 6

mid table finish which I’d take going into next year

this season is probably going to be a write off in terms of a promotion push

 

[alexccfc99]

The only person who seems to escapes any criticism for the way the Hamer move come about, is Gustavo Hamer strangely enough

 

[hamertime]

The only person who seems to escapes any criticism for the way the Hamer move come about, is Gustavo Hamer strangely enough

Not true. Loads of posts slagging him off for making out to fans he wanted to stay.

 

[alexccfc99]

Not true. Loads of posts slagging him off for making out to fans he wanted to stay.

Can accept why he wanted to move to Sheff Utd but people peddling the myth that he’s Cov through and through and is desperate to sign a new contract was nonsense and didn’t really help the situation

 

[Happy_Martian]

Why didn’t we sign a player before Gus left?

pretty basic stuff

Because we weren't convinced he was going ? Noone was bidding so maybe the club thought he'd still be here today.

Or more likely, maybe MR was actually trying to get players but couldn't due to players being over valued or their general availability. Just because this forum or Twitter aren't reporting activity, doesn't mean the staff at the club are sat back, drinking brandy and puffing on cigars celebrating a job half done.

FFS, this isn't Football Manager 23 and real life clubs don't work like they do in a computer game.

 

[clint van damme]

I’m sorry this squad isn’t good enough currently to get top 6

mid table finish which I’d take going into next year

this season is probably going to be a write off in terms of a promotion push

Absolutely no way you can say its not good enough for top 6 with any certainty at all.

This time last year we were struggling and people were saying we would be relegated and we ended 1 kick away from the EPL.

Let's see what happens when things have settled down and new players have bedded in.

 

[clint van damme]

Can accept why he wanted to move to Sheff Utd but people peddling the myth that he’s Cov through and through and is desperate to sign a new contract was nonsense and didn’t really help the situation

Anyone who believed that is a cretin.

 

[alexccfc99]

If you’ve watched the recent documentary on Amazon involving Newcastle and their signing of Anthony Gordon you’ll see how difficult clubs make it for sides who are actively searching for new players

I’m not comparing the wealth between the two clubs, but the situation is similar - People think transfer deals are as easy as they are on FIFA career mode

 

[pusbccfc]

There should be an expectation of aiming for promotion, we narrowly missed out last year. The league isn’t as strong as people are making out. Every team we have played we should have beat. Play offs should be attainable for this squad, anything less is a failure.

It is as strong as people are making out. Have you seen some of the transfers in the past 3/4 days?

 

[Happy_Martian]

Absolutely no way you can say its not good enough for top 6 with any certainty at all.

This time last year we were struggling and people were saying we would be relegated and we ended 1 kick away from the EPL.

Let's see what happens when things have settled down and new players have bedded in.

New players bedding in, possible free agents and we have a great youth setup of which some are already breaking through to the first team. Our fans are too quick to moan that the club doesn't meet their personal expectations.

 

[mmttww]

Why didn’t we sign a player before Gus left?

pretty basic stuff

Hamer deal happened quickly.

We got a loan as a backstop.

We're working on something better.

If not now, we'll all be disappointed.

No need to chuck blame about. Chill.

 

[alexccfc99]

Don’t know if this point has been raised elsewhere, imagine it has

But if we have had £4m knocked back by Barnsley for Kitching it does put to bed the Doug has pocketed all the Hamer money shouts

 

[skyblu3sk]

Why didn’t we sign a player before Gus left?

pretty basic stuff

We did with Vik which is rare for Cov. We obviously had plans for if Hamer went but just because it's written on a bit of paper doesn't mean it's definitely going to come off.

 

[shmmeee]

We did with Vik which is rare for Cov. We obviously had plans for if Hamer went but just because it's written on a bit of paper doesn't mean it's definitely going to come off.

We didn’t. We signed Wright after Vik had left. Simms was the second striker we were after with Walker leaving. The poacher to replace Godden eventually.

 

[skyblu3sk]

We didn’t. We signed Wright after Vik had left. Simms was the second striker we were after with Walker leaving. The poacher to replace Godden eventually.

We don't know for sure that's the case. What I'm saying is before we sold a striker we poneyed up and brought a striker at decent expense for us and the majority of us viewed Simms as the Vik replacement until Wright rocked up.

 

[Boicey]

Don’t know if this point has been raised elsewhere, imagine it has

But if we have had £4m knocked back by Barnsley for Kitching it does put to bed the Doug has pocketed all the Hamer money shouts

I mean as things stand Doug has over £10m net in his pocket 're the transfer in and outs this season. So far.
See PINNED 'ins and out' thread above.

 

[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

Absolutely no way you can say its not good enough for top 6 with any certainty at all.

This time last year we were struggling and people were saying we would be relegated and we ended 1 kick away from the EPL.

Let's see what happens when things have settled down and new players have bedded in.

Considering the only team that’s still in the league that finished above us last season is in worse shape - which last season. championship sides are better than us?

we absolutely should be aiming for the 3 spots below Leicester, Southampton and Leeds considering we’ve spent over 20m on players.

 

[napolimp]

The problem is in CDM, sure Sheaf and Eccles can play there, and Ayari can fill in if one of them is injured, but no opportunity for rotating players to avoid injuries and reduce tiredness, and if you move Ayari into CDM you have a problem if Palmer gets injured. There just isn't enough depth in that midfield area at the moment.

 

[RegTheDonk]

Enjoy his passion and I trust in him being the right person (at the moment) to take us forward. However, we've heard plenty in the past about him apparently micro managing, if that's the case he needs to be more clued up on getting sponsors sorted in time, making sure the manufacturers are on target, knowing it's deadline day today. Buck stops with him.

Going to get shot down here ... I get those who have pre-ordered shirts will be hugely pissed off that they had some in the new shop, but if you have stock on the shelves, why not sell them to max the sales before the game? Am assuming those pre-ordered will be shipped directly from the supplier/warehouse anyway, rather than the store?