New Season Optimism

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Tynemouth Blade

Tynemouth Blade

International Pan Fighting Judge at the EU
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So, here we go, new signings already in place, with hopefully a couple more to come (strikers?) and no doubt a couple of loanees (the Beard???).
Fixture list published (tough looking start against some of the teams most will expect to be challenging with us!) but another home start (and finish!).
Is everybody full of optimism, confidence, trepidation.......?

Come on you Red n White Wizaaaaaards!
 



Same, bought a season ticket for first time in 3 years. Still sceptical about the state of our current squad's ability to challenge for top 2, but if we can bring in 2/3 players of real quality I will be looking forward to it. My god, how can we let any of the other 23 clubs finish above us? We are a medium sized fish in a puddle really (I think that's the phrase).
 
Well SkyBet have us a favourites for promotion!

I'm hoping that Nigel is going to pull another gem out of the bag, either loan or permanent who's goals can boost our chances!

Things are starting to look good off (new kit supplier and sponsors etc.) as well as on the pitch (when was the last time we had so many signings in at this stage?), money is being spent wisely and the future proofing of the club is very promising.

UTB
 
I'm surprised we are favourites - as despite the additions, I think we are weaker than last season without Brayford & Coady. And even when we improved under Clough, we really struggled to score in many of the games.

I think it all depends on who else we bring in. We desperately need a proven goalscorer. If we get that - plus Brayford and/or Coady - I'll be happy!
 
im feeling good about the new season, clough is a great manager and i can see us doing well. We need goals tho, not just from the strikers, but im not sure where they will come from? Come on the blades!
 
I expect us to be challenging from the off next season , as Clough has instilled a purpose and a drive we were missing, , I think if we dont get too many injuries or horrific refereeing displays against us, we can go in to the season optimistic of ending our exile from a division we should never have left
 
Deano said:
I'm surprised we are favourites - as despite the additions, I think we are weaker than last season without Brayford & Coady. And even when we improved under Clough, we really struggled to score in many of the games.

I think it all depends on who else we bring in. We desperately need a proven goalscorer. If we get that - plus Brayford and/or Coady - I'll be happy!
Click to expand...

We've signed 5 players and lost 2 loanees and yet we're weaker than last season?

Yes Brayford had a positive influence and yes Coady had a few good games ( and a few shockers) but we have 5 new players, picked by the the current manager, and they're all ours.

Sometimes I despair.
 
Maidenhead said:
We've signed 5 players and lost 2 loanees and yet we're weaker than last season?

Yes Brayford had a positive influence and yes Coady had a few good games ( and a few shockers) but we have 5 new players, picked by the the current manager, and they're all ours.

Sometimes I despair.
Click to expand...

Sometimes you despair? Eh?

Hopefully the additions will have a positive impact but Brayford & Coady were top quality at League 1 level, which is why I - like many - think we are currently weaker.

Quality not quantity. Keep up. It's not rocket science.
 
Maidenhead said:
We've signed 5 players and lost 2 loanees and yet we're weaker than last season?

Yes Brayford had a positive influence and yes Coady had a few good games ( and a few shockers) but we have 5 new players, picked by the the current manager, and they're all ours.

Sometimes I despair.
Click to expand...

Coad had a 'few good games'. That's an impressive understatement! We are currently weaker than we were last season, that's no to say we won't be come august, but our best 11 currently is not as good as the FA Cup semi team, no chance.
 
I have to say, I was very happy to see we drew a lot of our rivals so early on. We should have a decent head start on most of them having done most of our business so early. It may take a lot of those teams until until mid-late September to hit 4th and 5th gear.

Of course that is dependent on us not suffering any "end-of-transfer-window-blows" such as selling Harry one game in without a replacement lined up, it is also dependent on us solving this striker/full-back 'conundrum' sooner, rather than later. I still think we need two full-backs and two strikers (one of each must be of good quality). A right back is of course essential, and cover for the seemingly injury-prone Bob Harris I would suggest is a must have too (Freeman would be great for covering both sides). And I can't say I'm overly convinced that we'll have "a very strong strike-force" if Clough considers Porter and Baxter to be half of that and he only brings one more in...
 
Squad was always gonna be weaker at this point due to losing two premier league loanees. The squad is an improvement in terms of permanent signings, so let's wait and see who else we sign and who we bring in on loan before worrying about if we're stronger than last year
I've still a feeling that we'll make a surprise signing before August UTB
 
Deano said:
Sometimes you despair? Eh?

Hopefully the additions will have a positive impact but Brayford & Coady were top quality at League 1 level, which is why I - like many - think we are currently weaker.

Quality not quantity. Keep up. It's not rocket science.
Click to expand...

Wallace has already done it at this level, part of the Tranmere team who stormed to the top of the league 2 seasons ago before he got injured. Who's to say that's weakened us as it looks like he's the 'Coady' for this season. If, as expected, Basham is in for Doyle, there's another improvement. Man for man you can argue we're a right back down but overall, I find it hard to agree that we're weaker than last year.
 
SESKU Blade said:
Squad was always gonna be weaker at this point due to losing two premier league loanees. The squad is an improvement in terms of permanent signings, so let's wait and see who else we sign and who we bring in on loan before worrying about if we're stronger than last year
I've still a feeling that we'll make a surprise signing before August UTB
Click to expand...
As much as i think we are a bit weaker(although that could be proved wrong,as the players signed might all end up been brilliant for us)i think your statement is spot on sesku.Lets wait and see who we have in august,because that is when it will count.
 



Deano said:
I'm surprised we are favourites - as despite the additions, I think we are weaker than last season without Brayford & Coady. And even when we improved under Clough, we really struggled to score in many of the games.

I think it all depends on who else we bring in. We desperately need a proven goalscorer. If we get that - plus Brayford and/or Coady - I'll be happy!
Click to expand...

I also despair a little at the negativeness, i must be easily pleased perhaps. Yes we have lost the Beard who was excellent and needs a good replacement, but id be happy with Freeman. Also yes i liked Coady but come on are you all saying that the 6 players we've signed permanently can't fill that void, if he was Messi yes but he was average till towards the end of the season and then became really good.
How many of you have seriously seen any or all of the new additions sufficiently enough to say we are weaker?

Finally, how can we sign 6 new players of good league 1 or championship standard and be weaker, so sorry but I'm in the 'i despair' camp.
 
Bob Havenhand said:
I also despair a little at the negativeness, i must be easily pleased perhaps. Yes we have lost the Beard who was excellent and needs a good replacement, but id be happy with Freeman. Also yes i liked Coady but come on are you all saying that the 6 players we've signed permanently can't fill that void, if he was Messi yes but he was average till towards the end of the season and then became really good.
How many of you have seriously seen any or all of the new additions sufficiently enough to say we are weaker?

Finally, how can we sign 6 new players of good league 1 or championship standard and be weaker, so sorry but I'm in the 'i despair' camp.
Click to expand...
Don't disagree with your argument on the debate up until you say 'i despair'.

You shouldn't really despair that some of us may think we are weaker bob,you can disagree yes but i think despair is the wrong tag to use if i'm honest,but its all about opinions i suppose.

What i will say bob is i hope your side of the debate is correct,i really do, and also we have a couple more good signings,especially another striker and freeman as you have allready said.
 
If we can only get off to better start than under Weir, we'll do ok ;D
 
Maidenhead said:
We've signed 5 players and lost 2 loanees and yet we're weaker than last season?

Yes Brayford had a positive influence and yes Coady had a few good games ( and a few shockers) but we have 5 new players, picked by the the current manager, and they're all ours.

Sometimes I despair.
Click to expand...
well said that man we are for sure stronger than last season with more to come.
 
The time for drawing comparisons on whether we are weaker/stronger than last season is when we've done our business

Taking that further, it's probably after seeing them play together for a number of games to see how we gel

One thing I will say is, we are definately stronger than the side Weir put out at the start of last season
 
True, we are stronger than the side Weir could field, but we're weaker than the side that finished, so it sort of balances things out (well, not quite, we look like play-off material to me right now). If our aim is to achieve automatic promotion there's still a lot of work to be done, but we're still in June so there's no point panicking yet.
 
I think Clough has written off getting Coady back given that our central midfield has Doyle, McGinn and two new signings in Basham and Wallace. With Scougs and Baxter offering that attacking midfield threat I don't think he'll be looking to add in that dept now.
We have cover at centre half now, 4 wide players all offering something different. With Brandy and Taylor on the way out we are undoubtedly short up front plus we still don't have a right back. I trust fully that Clough will bring in the right players.
For me if (and it's a MASSIVE if) Brayford signs on (very unrealistic I know) plus Freeman to offer cover in both full back positions and we get one, possibly two, strikers who offer something different to what we already have I will be decorating my underpants in shear anticipation.
UTB
 



The key is getting the balance right in the centre of the park. Seeing what evolves there in pre-season is key. I am optomistic, just need a couple of key signings for me, or 3 if we lose Harry.
 
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