Just a thought (2 Viewers)

thekidfromstrettoncamp said:

So wasn't this season big in the transfer market and the only gem we got along with some average players was Tats. We have since picked up Thorp in Janurary .Are expecting loads of jems coming in if so I hope they blend quicker than this season .If some people on here had their way we would be getting rid of double figures in personal.I dont know were they the funds will come from to service that.

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To some extent all our new signings have been successful.

Point being that we will obviously add to the squad with players like Torp (who most had never heard of).

Building a squad slowly.


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Who’d be a football club owner ….

King getting pelters for not supporting Robins enough in January, despite buying Torp and EMC. Not selling any of our better players.

Fans have short memories ….

I think both Vik and Hamer would have been sold last January under SiSU and I’m certain we not have got £30m + for them in either window. I’m also certain we would not have reinvested to the same degree.

I’m old enough to remember January windows where we sold our prized asset cheap on the last day and brought in veterans on short term deals.

I’m sure King has made mistakes but we feel like a professional club with ambition again and I’m all for that after a decade in the wilderness !

Deity said:

I’m old enough to remember January windows where we sold our prized asset cheap on the last day and brought in veterans on short term deals.

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You don’t even need to be old for that.

It’s a good point. I’ve really enjoyed the last two seasons and think we’ve done unbelievably well. Back at a decent level of football and up amongst it. With the scenarios we’ve faced it’s a minor miracle. We’ve gone from being loan based to building a squad. For years spending money on transfers was just a distant memory. We’ve now broken our own transfer record and regularly buy players. It’s easy to get frustrated at losses but they should be easier to stomach when they put you behind in the place for a championship play off spot rather than potentially costing you you’re league 1 spot.

BackRoomRummermill said:

Yep we lost to West Brom, some people think the season is over etc - well for me as long as we did not go down this season I was happy I thought mid table and we have a bonus of a FA cup run - 90 mins from Wembley - another thought is I don’t think we are ready for promotion and would end up like shef utd -

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This is all well and good but we were in a good position in the play offs which I don’t think we expected and we haven’t invested when we should have in January. It’s an opportunity lost and has created a negativity in the squad and fan base.

I guarantee you season ticket sales will drop. We were on the crest of a wave and it’s been wasted.

BackRoomRummermill said:

Yep we lost to West Brom, some people think the season is over etc - well for me as long as we did not go down this season I was happy I thought mid table and we have a bonus of a FA cup run - 90 mins from Wembley - another thought is I don’t think we are ready for promotion and would end up like shef utd -

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2 league defeats against inform teams while we've been struggling with injuries and its all doom and gloom.

We have 2 winnable games coming up and who knows where we'll be after that. If results go our way we could be back in the play off chase, and there's still the small matter of a cup quarter final for the first time in a generation!

Is it really a bad season now ???

Deleted member 9744 said:

If we don't get into the play offs, which looks unlikely now, we have gone backwards in my eyes. Success in football isn't measured in how much you have followed 'the model' but how successfully the team is. For the first time in years we will have done worse in the league than the year before and I put this down to slavishly following the model rather than being pragmatic as we have done in the past.

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Just ridiculous short-termist thinking. Your nostalgia for the previous ‘model’ ignores the reality that it was completely unsustainable. Our success in previous years came about despite our refusal to give Robins a long-term platform to build on, not because of it. His ability to pull a Walsh/Hamer/Gyokeres-shaped rabbit out of the hat every season was going to fail him at some point.

Last season we overachieved, we had a successful formation of 5 at the back because Vik did the work of 2 players. At the end of the season MR knew there were going to be massive changes to the squad
Vik / Hamer - leaving
Loans Doyle McNally Panzo BCN - returning to their parent clubs
Kelly Fadz Godden - all nearing the end of their careers at this level
That left a core first X1 squad of Wilson Bidwell Sheaf Palmer Eccles O'Hare (injured at the time) Jamie Allen not a realistic regular starter and Bidwell not really a wing back

It was a massive rebuild although I expected more from both the new strikers the only one that has really disappointed me is JDS and he was signed within days of the play off final. Next season we will have a much bigger core squad plus EMC to join. All I'm from the end of the season is that the 2 big home games Ipswich & Leeds we really challenge them and that we also give Wolves a proper game. Not got the squad depth to compete for a top 6 place

SBT said:

Just ridiculous short-termist thinking. Your nostalgia for the previous ‘model’ ignores the reality that it was completely unsustainable. Our success in previous years came about despite our refusal to give Robins a long-term platform to build on, not because of it. His ability to pull a Walsh/Hamer/Gyokeres-shaped rabbit out of the hat every season was going to fail him at some point.

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Wow. Such binery thinking. I was merely saying we should be pragmatic and flexible in our approach, not that we should fill the team with loans.

I don't agree that every signing has to fit 'the model ' and include a £2-3million fee and four year contract. All I am saying is some flexibility is sensible and to take advantage of good loan opportunities too. Successful teams at this level almost invariably take advantage of the loan market whilst building for the long term.

Putting all our resources into the model is very expensive and if players like Simms and Wright don't prove to be a success we will be saddled with massive wages for a long time.

Due to the size of the squad we have had to overplay players resulting in injuries. We have probably lost a great chance to get into the play offs in good form. Contrast that to Ipswich and Hull.

I know your approach is bung in Lusala, Andrews and co but I trust that Robins has more of a view on whether they are good enough or ready.

Will we really be good enough,like some people think on here,to finish in the automatic promotion spots next season? I see this being mentioned a few times & I always think it's a bit too cocky tbh

Deleted member 9744 said:

Wow. Such binery thinking. I was merely saying we should be pragmatic and flexible in our approach, not that we should fill the team with loans.

I know your approach is bung in Lusala, Andrews and co but I trust that Robins has more of a view on whether they are good enough or ready.

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The idea that our success this year can only be determined by league position is what I think is a short-sighted mindset. I agree with you that loans would have been welcome in January. I disagree with you that if we miss the playoffs, it means the team has gone backwards. We have a young core of players under contract with us for the next 3+ years who should be capable of competing every year, and we don’t have to do another complete squad overhaul in the summer as we usually do. Whether we finish 6th or 12th, I think that can be reasonably considered to be progress.

As for this comment about Lusala etc, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about

Deity said:

Who’d be a football club owner ….

King getting pelters for not supporting Robins enough in January, despite buying Torp and EMC. Not selling any of our better players.

Fans have short memories ….

I think both Vik and Hamer would have been sold last January under SiSU and I’m certain we not have got £30m + for them in either window. I’m also certain we would not have reinvested to the same degree.

I’m old enough to remember January windows where we sold our prized asset cheap on the last day and brought in veterans on short term deals.

I’m sure King has made mistakes but we feel like a professional club with ambition again and I’m all for that after a decade in the wilderness !

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Robins clearly isn't happy with the situation and seemed far from impressed with EMC remaining at Peterborough until next season.

baldy said:

Will we really be good enough,like some people think on here,to finish in the automatic promotion spots next season? I see this being mentioned a few times & I always think it's a bit too cocky tbh

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No, unless we get massive investment in the team in the summer the best we can hope for realistically is playoffs. There are too many clubs either prepared to spend big, or coming down with parachute payments to make automatics likely for us. Make top 6 though and anything can happen, as Luton showed.

It is not completely over yet? A big ask I know. Yes we need a good run in now, but how do we know that we have got our blip out the way and other teams have their's yet to come?

We are not alone, look at the teams out of our reach above us, Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton have all had a wobble over 3 or 4 games.

It would be stupid to lose faith and focus then find Norwich, Preston and Hull drop points in the last four weeks.

The pressure of being within touching distance the last four weeks - will get to one or two!

BackRoomRummermill said:

Yep we lost to West Brom, some people think the season is over etc - well for me as long as we did not go down this season I was happy I thought mid table and we have a bonus of a FA cup run - 90 mins from Wembley - another thought is I don’t think we are ready for promotion and would end up like shef utd -

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Whose fans are enjoying the season more? Us or Burnley/Sheff Utd/Luton fans, even Notts Forest fans? Ive seen a few of all those clubs home matches on Sky and the atmosphere has been utterly dead.
Had we gone up we would have played V*lla yesterday. We would likely had lost as well. Probably also would have had a few batterings by the likes of Liverpool, Man Shitty etc. Would we really be enjoying that given our history of 34 years in the top flight when many of those years we were finishing ahead of most premier league clubs?
My point is, while we all want to go up obviously, we need to be in a position where we would be competitive up there which means we would need to spend £200m at least as none of the players we have now i dont think would make it in the PL bar perhaps Sakamoto so we would need a total rebuild bigger than last season. King isnt going to do that, he doesnt have the funds.
We should be enjoying this season, its another season of over achievement. We can, and should criticise odd team selections as nobody is perfect not even Robins and he has made mistakes this season. But top 10 this year and a FA Cup QF with this squad is an over achievement.

Hobo said:

It is not completely over yet? A big ask I know. Yes we need a good run in now, but how do we know that we have got our blip out the way and other teams have their's yet to come?

We are not alone, look at the teams out of our reach above us, Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton have all had a wobble over 3 or 4 games.

It would be stupid to lose faith and focus then find Norwich, Preston and Hull drop points in the last four weeks.

The pressure of being within touching distance the last four weeks - will get to one or two!

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Whoever goes up this season is coming straight back down next season. The gap between the PL and the Championship gets larger every season. Sheff Utd Luton and Burnley probably go straight back up as they will have such a huge financial advantage.
English football is a bit of a disaster zone now for those of us who are old enough to remember the days when teams like us, Norwich, Ipswich Forest Derby could challenge for the title (in 1989 we were right up there until Easter). Forget Leicester in 2016, that was a league title bought by Asian money and represents all that is wrong with English football.

alexccfc99 said:

Because each team has a cycle - We showed promise in 2021/22, then following on from that, that team was ready to go up last season - it failed to get over the line so we have had to start that cycle again

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In the last 3-year cycle we finished 16th, 12th, then 5th.

Then that squad was obviously gutted due to contract expirations and the sales of Gyok/Hamer.

If we can finish in the top 10 this year we are in a great position for this team to push on over the next couple of years and do better than the last squad.

SBT said:

The idea that our success this year can only be determined by league position is what I think is a short-sighted mindset. I agree with you that loans would have been welcome in January. I disagree with you that if we miss the playoffs, it means the team has gone backwards. We have a young core of players under contract with us for the next 3+ years who should be capable of competing every year, and we don’t have to do another complete squad overhaul in the summer as we usually do. Whether we finish 6th or 12th, I think that can be reasonably considered to be progress.

As for this comment about Lusala etc, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about

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Now I am confused. You say it is ridiculous short term thinking and then agree we should have brought in loans in January rather than sticking slavishly to the model.

I think measuring level of success on league position makes more sense than on how many players we own and some conjecture about how we will do in the future.