10 Games in: Trying to be convinced

[blade too long]

I was replying specifically to your point on Bournemouth and quoted the figures: adding £7M to the wage bill and spending £3.2M on transfers. We are not going to do that.

I'm not disagreeing that we could still get promoted within our existing budget.

But to be clear, we will not do it in the style of huge equity investment like Bournemouth did from the 19th position that you quoted.

All Im responding with is we have spent some money and are reported to be spending more , probably not far off 3.5 m if we buy a couple more and our wage bill will probably not be too far off either

 

[UnitedBlade]

All Im responding with is we have spent some money and are reported to be spending more , probably not far off 3.5 m if we buy a couple more and our wage bill will probably not be too far off either

Again, no, Bournemouth's wage bill for that season was £11M.

I very much doubt we will be adding £3M to our wage bill.

Great if we do, I think we'd walk promotion.

With the budgets set and additional help for Adkins, he should be able to build a side capable of promotion.

The only other side in the League capable of running wages up to £11M is Wigan - because they have £9M additional turnover from parachute payments. They might spend at Christmas if they are close but once this season's parachute payments are spent, they are done. They have to be careful.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Had a similar conversation with WHF Jr Sr after the Donny game.

Afaics we've got two centre halves playing at centre half.
Sammon and Sharp are two good forwards, and a big improvement on last season. Billy in particular is scoring.

Adkins really knows his way around this division. He has Plans A, B, and C. The players have generally adapted very well to their new and varied roles - as illustrated by Bergen so well in his analysis.

We've worked on corners.

All of the above were significant issues last season.

So why, on the face of it, aren't we significantly better?

I think it has to be that we are using Clough's squad to play Adkins' systems.

And we are a work in progress. We are being set new problems, as we adapt I expect we'll improve.

For instance I think we were very quick out of the blocks against Donny, partly bc Colchester had caught us napping.

If someone does park the bus, then we'll adapt quicker than we did against Blackpool.

There's a new cynicism/"professionalism" in the way we are pressuring officials. Something Bury did very effectively.

Done, Brayford, and loan player/s should further improve the squad. Though I don't think any of them are saviours (eg in the minds of some it seems Bob has transformed into Paolo Maldini since he's been injured).

I think a major fault line runs through Billy. If he gets injured - or loses form - that will have a huge impact on our prospects.

We went to the top of the League last night and got a relatively comfortable draw. On the radio it sounded like we'd struck the right balance between defence and attack. Burton were set up to pick us off. We managed to apply pressure without overcommiting.

Hard to say who the top teams will be. Gillingham off to a flyer. Walsall effective so far. Can they sustain it?

Barring unforeseen disasters we'll definitely be in the mix.

The right acquisitions should see us in the Promised Land of the Automatics.

 

[BushBlade]

But anything less would be fatal for manager (and nearly fatal for club) wouldn't it?

Two of the three managers sacked, whilst we've been in this division, have gone on the back of getting in the play-offs, and as we did so last season, surely finishing outside would be a huge failure and back to square one yet again.

As for the opening post, I haven't been sat wanking in delight at our performances but they are a slight improvement on last season. Need more and hopefully it will happen with the injured returning.

If we sack Adkins at the end of the season I will despair. Tbh, I don't think we will. We didn't seem keen to sack Clough but something happened when he met with the board.
Sacking Wilson was a typical McCabe knee-jerk reaction but it's not his sole decision anymore. We tend to judge the club based on what's happened when KM was the only owner rather than since the Prince got involved.

 

[BushBlade]

We will never , ever , get investment like Bournemouth . Big multi million / billionaire money will be invested by individuals / corporate companies , in any club , inside or just outside , the M25 orbitol.

Bournemouth struck gold with a number of billionaires buying property and living within the Sanbanks area. That how the Russian guy got involved .

London and surrounding areas is like , and on par , with a rich principality . The North East , Yorkshire , Midlands are all suffering .

Manchester and Liverpool can be classed as 2nd to The Independant Country of London.

UTB

True. The former chairman Eddie Mitchell was a builder who built Maxim Demin's house on Sandbanks. During the build he got him interested in Bournemouth and ended up selling the club to him. Pure luck.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

bournemouth were 19 points behind tranmere

thats 19

But we're in the wrong position, 5 points behind, do we never get it right?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

For me, we're in the mix without really playing to our full potential. We have key playing returning into the squad, which even without a single new player brought in from outside might be enough to substantially improve us (though I reckon we'll recruit one or two more...).

We look a goal threat – we massively struggled in that department last year. We still look at times shaky at the back, but arguably no worse than last season presently. I can see improvements already, and the potential for further improvements. Perhaps this hasn't happened as quickly as I'd have liked, but I'm confident Adkins is building something decent here.

I tend to disagree with the "building sumat" sinario, Adkins has always said he can coach them to be better.

I'm now thinking the board thought great, good manager on paper and it will cost us fuck all.

 

[Cyprus Blade]

Good OP - new regime and the fresh start wouldn't help speed things up resolving the problems but they are clearly there (CH,CM,LB). The attack is improved and we have stopped playing 5'8" players out of position at CH.

We will never, ever, get investment like Bournemouth . Big multi million / billionaire money will be invested by individuals / corporate companies , in any club , inside or just outside , the M25 orbitol.

Absolutely agree. I doubt very much that there will be the kind of cash injections that Bournemouth got so its a case of spending and selling wisely ( I think there has to be some departures ). Former player of the year Murphy was the first out unfortunately. Getting Higdon out is a good move, though I doubt Oldham are picking up all his wages.To try and make out that the scale of investment in SUFC to date is on a par with the likes of Bournemouth is like using the flawed argument that getting a draw at Burton Albion (turnover £2.3m) is a great result as they are the Manchester United (turnover £433m) of the division (simply because they are first -other than being league leaders there are precious few parallels). The draw represents more of a measure of how far down the food chain we have fallen sadly. If the spending was on a par with Bournemouth you would have to wonder where it all went.

Realistically we are in a place of hard choices. We are not going to romp this league by throwing money at it. Nor do we have the unfair benefit of parachute payments. We are financially better equipped than many in the division but I think a lot is going to turn on Turnbull and Adkins managing a tight budget and making the right footballing decisions. I would say that I am more confident in Adkins tactical and motivational ability than I ever was with Clough.

 

[BushBlade]

I tend to disagree with the "building sumat" sinario, Adkins has always said he can coach them to be better.

I'm now thinking the board thought great, good manager on paper and it will cost us fuck all.

I've been thinking the same. It seems that they think we've got the players (on paper, you could argue we have; we're not short in any areas when all are fit and most of the senior players have played at a higher level so if you only have a basic knowledge of football and one eye on the purse strings you could be under the impression we don't need to sign more players, just get the existing ones to 'play better'. ) but to me, it's the same woolly thinking that saw Robson appointed.
Most clubs look to sign the next Mourinho but we seem to want the next Warnock.

 

[shorehamstreet1990]

It feels a bit like it's stage by stage. We've got the manager in place who knows how to get out of this league. We haven't got the strength in depth to cope with injuries but on the surface our squad seems one of the better ones in L1. That said, not been convinced by many performances this season, Posh away, Swindon away and Donny home seem to stand out.

That said, I'm hoping a credible draw at a side that have been flying in the league might not be a bad result come May.

 

[Bladesman]

Im not convinced yet and annoyed that we did not get the win last night. It seemed like it was there for the taking in the second half.

 

[alcoblade]

If we sack Adkins at the end of the season I will despair. Tbh, I don't think we will. We didn't seem keen to sack Clough but something happened when he met with the board.
Sacking Wilson was a typical McCabe knee-jerk reaction but it's not his sole decision anymore. We tend to judge the club based on what's happened when KM was the only owner rather than since the Prince got involved.

We won't sack Adkins at the end of the season. Clough has signed too many players for whom the only way is downwards. It takes time to turn that around.

If we get Done and Brayford up and running quickly and get 2 in shortly, we might turn the season around. If that doesn't happen I think sneaking into the playoffs is the best you could expect of this lot.

I expect the former to happen.

UTB

 

[Barney]

Great post Swiss. For me it's as simple as this:

10 games in, have we progressed from last season? Not really.

In my view that is down to the following 2 main reasons:-

• Not strengthening areas that have needed improvement for quite some time.

Not recruiting at least 2 strong, quality centre halfs as top priority. It has been common knowledge since mid last season we that 2 centre halfs were of the highest order. No matter what the reason, this objective hasn't been achieved and has and will continue to be the main cause for dropping points until we sort it.

• Not doing anything about the immoderately vast squad we have.

I appreciate it might be challenging to get rid of players punching above their weight on pay packets very few clubs that might want them (i.e league two, conference) could possibly match or better, but having said that, much more effort could have gone into at least shifting a handful out via loans.

To conclude,
The latter reason may inhibit the former to some extent but we know that wasn't the case for the 4 that came in. You have to ask yourself where we'd be if we had

(A) - Loaned a handful out, including Higdon and DCL (but earlier), as well as attempting to sell some.
(B) - Signed 2 x CB and 1x CM (potentially including Edgar but signed much earlier) instead of Edgar (?), Sammon and Woolford. Then signed Sharp after we'd sorted those more pressing concerns. (we had a 20 goal a season man in Done fit and ready at the time and wasn't to know of his injury)

I have a sneaking suspicion we would be sat top of the league by now, and comfortably.

Only my view as always.

 

[alcoblade]

Great post Swiss. For me it's as simple as this:

10 games in, have we progressed from last season? Not really.

In my view that is down to the following 2 main reasons:-

• Not strengthening areas that have needed improvement for quite some time.

Not recruiting at least 2 strong, quality centre halfs as top priority. It has been common knowledge since mid last season we that 2 centre halfs were of the highest order. No matter what the reason, this objective hasn't been achieved and has and will continue to be the main cause for dropping points until we sort it.

• Not doing anything about the immoderately vast squad we have.

I appreciate it might be challenging to get rid of players punching above their weight on pay packets very few clubs that might want them (i.e league two, conference) could possibly match or better, but having said that, much more effort could have gone into at least shifting a handful out via loans.

To conclude,
The latter reason may inhibit the former to some extent but we know that wasn't the case for the 4 that came in. You have to ask yourself where we'd be if we had

(A) - Loaned a handful out, including Higdon and DCL (but earlier), as well as attempting to sell some.
(B) - Signed 2 x CB and 1x CM (potentially including Edgar but signed much earlier) instead of Edgar (?), Sammon and Woolford. Then signed Sharp after we'd sorted those more pressing concerns. (we had a 20 goal a season man in Done fit and ready at the time and wasn't to know of his injury)

I have a sneaking suspicion we would be comfortably sat top of the league by now.

Only my view as always.

Barny - I don't want us to get hung up on this again - but you do keep repeating similar things, for instance;

"but having said that, much more effort could have gone into at least shifting a handful out via loans"

As you're concluding that the actual effort fell short of your expected level, how much effort did we make then? Surely you can't keep repeating such things without knowledge of what's going on?

Higdon has just gone out on loan, without a whisper. It didn't just happen, but nobody was aware of it.

There will be a lot going on behind the scenes. I don't understand why you keep making judgements on effort that you just have no way of measuring.

UTB

 

[PeteBlade]

http://www.prestonnorthend-mad.co.uk/snapshot_tables/2012_2013/6/oct/preston_north_end/index.shtml

just at random heres the table after 11 games in 2012 13
we are sat in 3rd after 11 with 21 points trying hard to chase stevenage and tranmere, neitherof whom got near the automatics in fact not many of the top 6 then did
just shows positions now mean absolutely nothing
10th placed doncaster 17 points , same as us now and 21 st placed bournemouth went up

bournemouth were 19 points behind tranmere

thats 19

If we take your random league table from a few years ago at face value, and we use the logic that who's at the top now won't be at the top come the end of the season and will even finish mid table as some has said....

To me it begs one major question:

Why are half this board completely creaming themselves at what a great point we've got against top of the league?

 

[mave]

So we've hit the magic 10 game marker, I always feel that this is a good time to assess progress. Last season after three or four games I urged people to look at progress after 10 games. It turned out we were way off the pace that should've been expected.

Onto this season, we've had a relatively stable summer in terms of recruitment at the back, but with the key change coming at manager and coaching level. Injuries to key players have had a huge impact.

Defence
I think we've failed massively to address the most glaring problem. We've quite simply not recruited the two centre halves and a loan left back that we needed to cover for the injured Harris.

This has all been reflected in goals conceded. We've simply not learnt lessons at the back and it's cost us. It will continue to cost us unless we do something.

Yet to be convinced by Edgar, McEverley and Collins. freeman and Wallace provide that glimmer of hope... At least until the beard and harris come back

Midfield
Very unsettled but shown potential, however too inconsistently. Our midfield problems have compounded the defensive issues as teams like Colchester walked through our midfield. Che Adams, coutts and Flynn are looking good and we've seen signs of freeman and Wallace being allowed to break from the back and pose an attacking threat.

Far too inconsistent and too many players like Basham, Baxter, Scougall and Reed failing to put their stamp of authority in the midfield. I fully expect Baxter to be challenged to step up. It's a gamble, which may well fall on its arse, but I'd give Jose the captains armband and challenge him to lead the team.

Strikers
Billy has really developed since last time here, he's helped by not carrying the burden of being the target man, Sammon has provided the perfect foil. Sammon has been quite inconsistent though. He can frustrate slightly but he works so hard it's hard to knock him. He does the same job each and every game. It's just that not every game suits him.

Billy and McNulty are goal scorers and I think they can work, just with McNulty as back up for Billy.

Che remains the exciting prospect and the gamble to be the game changer that Murphy was. I think he'll learn a lot but it's a big ask to rely on him too much

Adkins
Think he's been completely average so far, quite predicatable if I'm honest. What has changed so far? We lack some discipline on our set up, but that comes by attempting to be more flamboyant going forward...

We seem to dominate sides, possession especially, but when teams work us out (like they have done already) we look weak and vulnerable. Unconvincing in too many of the games so far.

Adkins though, can point to mitigating circumstances in some ways, injuries and suspensions have deprived us of at least 4 players, he's made mistakes though as well - failing to address the Centre Half problem, Colchester and Bury games, McEverley as captain to name a few.

Pace
We lack it. We need more pace desperately, whether that's Che and Done coming back or getting recruits in.

Going forward
It's not all doom and gloom, the potential is there and with many players like Che, Done, Brayford and Harris to come back we will boost the side with quality.

James Wallace though remains the millstone, if he ever gets fit we all know he's quality, but will he ever be fit?

Adkins needs to free up some of the squad places, too many fringe players need to get fit and get some games McGahey, Alcock, cuvelier, James Wallace, Diego and many more. Higdon is out on loan, lets get more out.

The Owners
They need a plan, right now it's a case of throw money at it to achieve promotion. Turning to Twitter and Facebook to 'engage' with fans is not helping matters. Lots of positive words, retweeting and hashtags won't get us promotion, neither will selling players with ambition.

I remember the season before we went from the Championship to the PL, the club promised Jags that he could chase his premiership dream if he gave us one more season. That season he got player of the year and we got promotion. We need to challenge the desire of players, not for their personal gain but for the gain of the club.

I feel at the top were rudderless. We've got big backing, great fans and owners who do spend money, but they need to step up and force the ambition of players to take us forward.

We've got a progressive manager, lets kick on now..... Please!

Great post.... Top lad.....

 

[BushBlade]

If we take your random league table from a few years ago at face value, and we use the logic that who's at the top now won't be at the top come the end of the season and will even finish mid table as some has said....

To me it begs one major question:

Why are half this board completely creaming themselves at what a great point we've got against top of the league?

Who's creaming themselves. 'It's a decent point' seems to be the consensus.

 

[Barney]

Barny - I don't want us to get hung up on this again - but you do keep repeating similar things, for instance;

"but having said that, much more effort could have gone into at least shifting a handful out via loans"

As you're concluding that the actual effort fell short of your expected level, how much effort did we make then? Surely you can't keep repeating such things without knowledge of what's going on?

Higdon has just gone out on loan, without a whisper. It didn't just happen, but nobody was aware of it.

There will be a lot going on behind the scenes. I don't understand why you keep making judgements on effort that you just have no way of measuring.

UTB

McGahey, McFadzean, Cuvelier, Dimaio, Diego.

Is it unrealistic to expect that more than 2 outgoing loans of Higdon and DCL could and would have been achieved if sufficient effort had been put in to loaning the above players out for example?

Would we have seen at least 1 or more of these players out on loan if that effort had been put in? I'm quite confident in almost guarenteeing a yes on that one, and I don't believe you're not either to be honest alco.

 

[alcoblade]

McGahey, McFadzean, Cuvelier, Dimaio, Diego.

Is it unrealistic to expect that more than 2 outgoing loans of Higdon and DCL could and would have been achieved if sufficient effort had been put in to loaning the above players out for example?

Would we have seen at least 1 or more of these players out on loan if that effort had been put in? I'm quite confident in almost guarenteeing a yes on that one, and I don't believe you're not either to be honest alco.

Here's my honest assessment;

McGahey - considering our weakness at centre half, it wouldn't make sense. Low wages anyway
McFadzean - surprisingly involved in pre season and the first few games.
Cuvelier - surely he's injured?
Dimaio - On peanuts - makes no difference either way
Diego - On peanuts - makes no difference either way.

I'd suggest that each one earns considerably less, in one year, than Brayford earns in a month. So, though I'd disagree on the impact any of loans would have on our finances and how many of those players were available for loan, I still don't accept that it's clear insufficient effort was made to loan these out. They're hardly a bunch in great demand.

Any disappointment I've got is directed to our inability, so far, to reinvest the Murphy money. I think you're barking up the wrong tree. But that's opinions for you.

UTB

 

[Barney]

Here's my honest assessment;

McGahey - considering our weakness at centre half, it wouldn't make sense. Low wages anyway
McFadzean - surprisingly involved in pre season and the first few games.
Cuvelier - surely he's injured?
Dimaio - On peanuts - makes no difference either way
Diego - On peanuts - makes no difference either way.

I'd suggest that each one earns considerably less, in one year, than Brayford earns in a month. So, though I'd disagree on the impact any of loans would have on our finances and how many of those players were available for loan, I still don't accept that it's clear insufficient effort was made to loan these out. They're hardly a bunch in great demand.

Any disappointment I've got is directed to our inability, so far, to reinvest the Murphy money. I think you're barking up the wrong tree. But that's opinions for you.

UTB

To be fair it is much less of an issue than the Murphy money, I agree there but just as you say we don't know how much effort they've put in, we also have no idea what wages they're all on. You could argue it as you have, or you could take a different view as you can most things:

McFadzean - Probably on very little but no clue either way, same with Dimaio. Each take up a spot another player could contribute more in though.

McGahey - Talked up as the next big thing when he signed, Clough was in charge and we know how wreckless he was with dishing out money. A regrettably large wage?

Diego - Same as above, I would imagine him and his agent won't have stood for an easy penny deal. Arguably on a very large amount for his age.

 

[blade67]

agree that 10 games is a good time to assess progress. The table says we are currently a play off team and based on what I've seen that is a fair position.

In short we have effectively swapped Michael Doyle for Billy Sharp.

The 5 man midfield (with one man protecting the back 4) and 1 up front
has been replaced by
a 4 man midfield with 2 forwards

As a result we are scoring more goals and conceding more goals despite slightly improving the centre back pairing (no more square pegs in round holes).

Brayford, Coutts and Done are key players returning and they will all improve our first team squad.

IMHO a signing like Hammond would be enough for now (till January ) when we probably need a bit of a clear out before a couple more signings for the final push.

Still a work in progress, but as ever, hopeful that this guy gets it right

 

[davidpinder]

The Owners
They need a plan, right now it's a case of throw money at it to achieve promotion. Turning to Twitter and Facebook to 'engage' with fans is not helping matters. Lots of positive words, retweeting and hashtags won't get us promotion, neither will selling players with ambition.

I remember the season before we went from the Championship to the PL, the club promised Jags that he could chase his premiership dream if he gave us one more season. That season he got player of the year and we got promotion. We need to challenge the desire of players, not for their personal gain but for the gain of the club.

I feel at the top were rudderless. We've got big backing, great fans and owners who do spend money, but they need to step up and force the ambition of players to take us forward.

We've got a progressive manager, lets kick on now..... Please!

Sorry to say it and I keep banging on about it but here is where the problem lies. For some reason the club keep spending money on the wrong things, top class pitch, state of the art dugouts for what ? League 1 for the 5th season and a good chance of next season being the 6th. We were crying out for some proper money to be spent for this season but once again we seem to lack the ambition to spend what we have already recouped remember through bonus cup runs and selling players. I am not talking about £10m on 4 or 5 players I mean £2-3m on good players to get us out of this shit league, do what teams appear to be doing to us, get players to force transfers, your not telling me automatic promotion won't get them an instant return on there investment? It's like transfer deadline day we looked destined for 2 or 3 good players to get told "we tried but....." I really can't work them out. Whilst we keep continuing to penny pinch we run the risk of being in this division for years to come and each season we sell our star player or up and coming star. I predict Che to be the one sold next if it is to be division 3 football next season, just tied him up on a contract to make him worth a bob or two like we did Murphy.

I just hope NA can work miracles on the budget he is on, it's a big ask but if we can get the injured trio back for a good portion of the season we might sneak into the top 2, if we don't I really fear the worst.

 

[s35blade]

Well we need to remember just what the the exceptions where when Adkins took where, the fact we're are not unbeaten with a +20 goal differences is a disappointment, other than that I think he's done okay agree that the defence is poor but then again our best defender by a mile is out injured. Reckon when we get Harris and Brayford back we'll tighten up, also wouldn't be surprised if we see Brayford being played as a CB. Also a lot of the time this league is won by teams going on a mad one around February/March so I think it's early to judge.

However of all the season's we've been in League one this is it's weakest, all the teams that have gone down look poor and other than us there isn't really a team with Championship written on it, if we don't go up this year, my god, there are issues.

 

[Harry's Game]

My view.

Management: Adkins is the most convincing manger we have had since Warnock, you can see a clear plan of where he wants the team to go which I have never had a real sense of from any of the past managers since Neil. (Whether he is being given the tools to do it is another matter see below)

The Players: With A few exceptions most of the squad are mid to upper table Legaue one players at best, those exceptions are Sharp, Brayford, Done, and possibly Adams those four could play in most squads in The Championship, no surprise that we have been and are a team that knocks on the play off door but can't reach the letter box of automatic promotion.

The Board: Same old, same old I am afraid, we always seem to get people who want to put the roof on before the foundations, nice pitch, nice stadium, without doubt the best in the lower Leagues... No chance of similar investment in the first team in seems where most of us want to see it.

Verdict. Despite everything we can still win promotion, this league is weaker even than last season, as hard as that is to believe, but we are three decent players away from that even when the injured players return, a bit of speculate to accumulate could get us up...,and then we would need to build again seriously well to survive in The Championship,

 

[blade67]

If we take your random league table from a few years ago at face value, and we use the logic that who's at the top now won't be at the top come the end of the season and will even finish mid table as some has said....

To me it begs one major question:

Why are half this board completely creaming themselves at what a great point we've got against top of the league?

Picking another random league table from last year

1 Bristol City 11 25 - finished top
2 Swindon 10 21 - finished 4th
3 Peterborough 11 20 finished 9th
4 MK Dons 10 19 - finished 2nd
5 Preston 10 19 - finished 3rd promoted
6 Chesterfield 10 18 - finished 6th
7 Bradford 11 18 - finished 7th
8 Notts County 11 17 - finished 21st
9 Rochdale 11 16 - finished 8th
10 Fleetwood 11 16 - finished 11th
11 Sheff Utd 10 16 - finished 5th
12 Oldham 11 15 - finished 15th

So only United, Peterborough,and County finished more than 3 places from their position in early October.

I'd say this is typical and Bournemouth and the blades (the year after) were an exception.

We are capable of finishing top two but history is against us

 

[SwissBlade]

Sorry to say it and I keep banging on about it but here is where the problem lies. For some reason the club keep spending money on the wrong things, top class pitch, state of the art dugouts for what ? League 1 for the 5th season and a good chance of next season being the 6th. We were crying out for some proper money to be spent for this season but once again we seem to lack the ambition to spend what we have already recouped remember through bonus cup runs and selling players. I am not talking about £10m on 4 or 5 players I mean £2-3m on good players to get us out of this shit league, do what teams appear to be doing to us, get players to force transfers, your not telling me automatic promotion won't get them an instant return on there investment? It's like transfer deadline day we looked destined for 2 or 3 good players to get told "we tried but....." I really can't work them out. Whilst we keep continuing to penny pinch we run the risk of being in this division for years to come and each season we sell our star player or up and coming star. I predict Che to be the one sold next if it is to be division 3 football next season, just tied him up on a contract to make him worth a bob or two like we did Murphy.

I just hope NA can work miracles on the budget he is on, it's a big ask but if we can get the injured trio back for a good portion of the season we might sneak into the top 2, if we don't I really fear the worst.

I don't think it's about throwing money at the team, this is the point, it's about investing properly - the pitch, the manager, academy, players...

But not just any players, we've got a big squad and wasted wages, whilst they're not on big wages we need to shift the players that Adkins doesn't want.

My frustration with sacking clough was not so much the love of clough but the constant changing of the manager. Not every failing is the fault of the manager. At Sheffield United it always is... Every season! We need to invest time in Adkins now that he's here, 3-4 years at least. Let him build and develop the club ethos and playing style.

Oh and for the record the dug outs were a donation from Winchester Cars

 

[Trigger Blade]

Im not convinced yet and annoyed that we did not get the win last night. It seemed like it was there for the taking in the second half.

I'd express my feeling slightly differently. I was disappointed with us not getting the win last night, but I can't say I'm annoyed by it, for me that's too strong for a game of football.

I reserve that kind of feeling and a lot stronger, from irritation right through to apoplectic impotent rage, for more important things in life. I certainly wouldn't squander it on our shiftless shower of incompetent, good for nothing, overpaid, ne'er do well, profligate wasters of an apology for a team, not fit to wear the shirt

 

[cooperblade]

Before Clough was sacked, we were as close to a complete agreement as we've ever been - we had to urgently sign some defenders. If Clough kept his job and didn't make signings at the back, he was to be run out of town by an angry, shoeless mob.

The delay in Clough's sacking and Adkins' appointment didn't help our squad planning but I was surprised that this obvious need to sign defenders was seemingly forgotten. It still feels a bit like we're making do at the back now. Wallace's performances at left back have been a welcome bonus but it's taken a long time to get that position sorted.

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

Convinced Adkins is the right man.

Unconvinced about some of our players.

 

[HighfieldBlade]