Here we go again.
One problem. And it’s a pretty major one.
How the fuck do we do a “complete reset”, requiring a full new squad and mentality, when we don’t have the recruitment set up, the coaching staff, the academy quality, and the fan mentality to back it….but even worse still have an owner that can’t cobble together the funds to run a league one side? That wants out? That has a board with no plan??
I’m keen to hear this pearl of wisdom
I don't think that anyone believes for one minute that you can solve everything you lost immediately overnight. What you can do is begin to put into place a structure within the club that has clear goals and targets (even if it is something as simple as "leave the club in a better and more financially sustainable place than it was twelve months ago") and accept that bringing everything together will be a multiple year work in progress.
Playing squad - it is clearly way off PL standard now. It is not clearly way off Championship standard. It just needs strong decisions in terms of clearing house with players who have reached their peak already where said peak is not where we need to be, and to ensure that players who might have the ability to improve the first XI have a clear pathway and opportunities to do so
Coaching staff - not my area of expertise, but feel like with other areas it needs separating from the current first team head coach, bring in the best you can without worrying about the "manager" only being on board if he brings in his mates
Recruitment setup - similar. There needs to be clear divergence between this and the first team coach, you make decisions which are always both value for money and are in the long term interest of SUFC. You don't bring in player X because the current "manager" likes him when he will cost the earth and is only there so the manager delays being sacked for a couple of months. Specifics of what said set up would look like can clearly look very different from club to club, but it seems moderately clear that it needs working on one way or another
Academy quality - ideally we would like to be cat 1, but that takes time and money to get there, think everyone understands that, but in the interim period I think it needs an understanding that what we have is in no way a dumpster fire, and that we have talent there that can be developed and used
Fan mentality - ok, that's the big one
