What is the long-term plan?

[Nick Jansky]

We have only spent what we have received in transfers out. But what we have done is kept our best players for the last 2 and 3 seasons and built upon it. Before this season started we got a few big offers but turned them all down. We only sold those not in the starting 11.

It's been a long process but we have a tight knit squad that always gives 100%. We know it isn't over if 2-0 down. There's teams with players costing more than our record fee just going through the motion.

You lost Hamer and O’Hare over the last 2 and 3 seasons and they were certainly amongst your best players at the times they departed. But that’s the same for us at a level above, it’s hard when bigger clubs come calling.

 

[Sky Blues]

You lost Hamer and O’Hare over the last 2 and 3 seasons and they were certainly amongst your best players at the times they departed. But that’s the same for us at a level above, it’s hard when bigger clubs come calling.

The last players we sold that we would keep now are Hamer and Gyokeres. That was 2.5 years ago.

We didn't sell O'Hare, but his replacement, Rudoni, is a better player. There isn't a lot you can do with a player that always let's his contract run down. We got him for free and got nothing for him. He had a run of games after coming back from being out injured for a long time where he looked excellent otherwise he looked good but without an end product. Your own supporters said exactly the same. Plenty of skill and effort but a bit lightweight.

Gyokeres yes would have him back.

Hamer yes if he kept out of the kebab houses and got back in shape. 29 next summer so wouldn't be worth what you gave us for him. But on his day is excellent.

O'Hare no thanks. Wouldn't get in our 1st team without injuries.

 

[Nick Jansky]

The last players we sold that we would keep now are Hamer and Gyokeres. That was 2.5 years ago.

We didn't sell O'Hare, but his replacement, Rudoni, is a better player. There isn't a lot you can do with a player that always let's his contract run down. We got him for free and got nothing for him. He had a run of games after coming back from being out injured for a long time where he looked excellent otherwise he looked good but without an end product. Your own supporters said exactly the same. Plenty of skill and effort but a bit lightweight.

Gyokeres yes would have him back.

Hamer yes if he kept out of the kebab houses and got back in shape. 29 next summer so wouldn't be worth what you gave us for him. But on his day is excellent.

O'Hare no thanks. Wouldn't get in our 1st team without injuries.

Have you seen O’Hare’s stats this season? In current form I’d take him over Rudoni.

 

[Kev Gee]

I want us to at least give the rest of this season a go and see we're we finish?

Theres still plenty of the season left to finish strongly.

Next season we will probably need to unearth some more bamford/reidwald type players.

Get rid of some of the deadwood. - Davies, etc who won't be in cheap salaries.

 

[AdamSufc1997]

Every club has to sell their best player it just happens. Long term would probably have to be the academy for us. Highly unlikely we won't get promoted this season but i guess wilder has a plan and the board are happy to back him.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Right lads, all we need to do is:

• Get a dodgy hedge fund to buy us
• get kicked out of our stadium
• play in league one for a few years
• act like a set of cunts blowing whistles and chucking tennis balls on the pitch
• 16 years after the dodgy hedge fund buy us, get a local businessman to buy us back
• sell our most valuable playing assets
• stumble on form the year that all the relegated teams have an absolute nightmare

That’s the Coventry way and it’s obviously the model that all other clubs should look to emulate.

 

[Gavlar]

Plan is to score goals and win matches.

 

[Toto]

Plan is to score goals and win matches.

Exactly this but if we don't we will still keep going down the lane with just the same enthusiasm as whenever. So why worry?

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Long term plan should focus on infra and cat 1 academy. If we can produce 5-6 first team players every few years and cash in on a couple that will provide some financial stability.

We also need to continue to be an "attractive proposition" for players to come here. Recent example is picking up O'hare on a free. Even if we're stuck in the championship for a few years, playing attractive football in a full capacity bramall lane is easily tempting to recruit good players - Coventry being a prime example of slowly and sustainably building success within their budget.

 

[Champagneblade]

Right lads, all we need to do is:

• Get a dodgy hedge fund to buy us
• get kicked out of our stadium
• play in league one for a few years
• act like a set of cunts blowing whistles and chucking tennis balls on the pitch
• 16 years after the dodgy hedge fund buy us, get a local businessman to buy us back
• sell our most valuable playing assets
• stumble on form the year that all the relegated teams have an absolute nightmare

That’s the Coventry way and it’s obviously the model that all other clubs should look to emulate.

The key to the Championship is stability.

Yes there are exceptions but as anyone who watches Benjamin Bloom’s excellent channel will know, stability plays a huge part.

Coventry stuck with Lampard and are reaping the dividends. Had our owners not got impatient and entitled so would we; our current form shows how a good Wilder team would put this division to bed.

You’ll get exceptions and luck can sometimes play a decisive part. Sunderland is my casing point. They were the worst team over two legs against Coventry and against us. In the PO Final they had a contentious and decisive decision go there way then benefited from favourable circumstances when we were a man light theough injury. It sounds like sour grapes but of the three teams they were the least deserving to go up.

Frequently allowing the manager to build from the season before is usually a wise option. Hopefully we can have a second half of the season similar to Coventry’s first half and secure top 6. If we do this time we’ll win the Play Offs provided Ipswich can take 2nd. YHIHF.

 

[Sky Blues]

Have you seen O’Hare’s stats this season? In current form I’d take him over Rudoni.

Rudoni has been injured and also had problems with an injury from last season. I have seen both of them play a lot and when both fit it's Rudoni every day.

 

[Rodley]

Imagine the time we could spend on other fans boards if we didn’t have a proper arch rival.

 

[Sky Blues]

Right lads, all we need to do is:

• Get a dodgy hedge fund to buy us
• get kicked out of our stadium
• play in league one for a few years
• act like a set of cunts blowing whistles and chucking tennis balls on the pitch
• 16 years after the dodgy hedge fund buy us, get a local businessman to buy us back
• sell our most valuable playing assets
• stumble on form the year that all the relegated teams have an absolute nightmare

That’s the Coventry way and it’s obviously the model that all other clubs should look to emulate.

1, Correct

2, we left each time because of the dodgy hedge fund

3, Correct

4, It gave you a goal.and a win but you still cry like a baby over it. Your supporters were the only ones that didn't back our protests. Thanks.

5, Correct

6, We sold 2 players we bought for peanuts for a lot of money and bought our present squad with it. We turned down some big offers before this season started. We didn't need the money and nobody wanted to leave. We sold 2 players that weren't going to get much game time for nearly 10m and will be spending it next month.

7, Look above. Stumble? Our 1st 11 have been with us for 2 years or more other than Grimes. We put a good squad together over time instead of throwing money away on overrated dross like others have.

 

[Sky Blues]

The key to the Championship is stability.

Yes there are exceptions but as anyone who watches Benjamin Bloom’s excellent channel will know, stability plays a huge part.

Coventry stuck with Lampard and are reaping the dividends. Had our owners not got impatient and entitled so would we; our current form shows how a good Wilder team would put this division to bed.

You’ll get exceptions and luck can sometimes play a decisive part. Sunderland is my casing point. They were the worst team over two legs against Coventry and against us. In the PO Final they had a contentious and decisive decision go there way then benefited from favourable circumstances when we were a man light theough injury. It sounds like sour grapes but of the three teams they were the least deserving to go up.

Frequently allowing the manager to build from the season before is usually a wise option. Hopefully we can have a second half of the season similar to Coventry’s first half and secure top 6. If we do this time we’ll win the Play Offs provided Ipswich can take 2nd. YHIHF.

We have also done it without relying on loans as much as everyone else. We have 1 loan this season and that's Rushworth. A great GK which we needed after our No.1 got a bad injury last season. We offered them 10m for him but agreed on a loan when they said no.

The problem with loans is that you have to start again with them every season. You lose the continuity after spending time getting them up to speed and used to the way you want them to play. We started this season with the players knowing each other well and how each other prefer to play. We've had a lot of injuries to our best players but the other players know the system well. Worked well at Southampton last game where we had a defender sent off at the start of the 2nd half. We were cruising until then. We ended up with a makeshift defence with no 1st team defenders but they still hardly had a chance after scoring.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Rudoni has been injured and also had problems with an injury from last season. I have seen both of them play a lot and when both fit it's Rudoni every day.

The fact remains that O’Hare has been a far more effective player than Rudoni this season. No matter how good a player Rudoni might be he’s not much use in the treatment room.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Unless you have billionaire investors I’m not sure you can fully nail a long term plan.

It has to simply be improvement.

So much of what you can and can’t do depends on the fortune of those on the pitch.

You’d like to improve your training complex to attract and retain better player and the Academy to ensure you can attract and retain top talent.

But is this going to be made at the expense of the first team build?

A wider ranging scouting network that uncovers gems before others. Again, what priority will that take? It’s another prong but what should it be at the expense of if things are tight? I’ve no idea what we spend ok. The lads from the Bulgarian league and the Peruvian lad. But what if that money had all been sent up to Dore? How far would that have been by now?

If you get promoted you can attack on many angles. If not then you need to prioritise. With the potential riches on offer that promotion provides I’d be surprised if your top three priorities were not First Team, First Team and First Team.

Who would accept three years of scaled back investment in the team for Academy A status? I’d like to think I would, but I wouldn’t!

Short term thinking rules but I'd bet good money that United would have zero top level promotions this century without the Shirecliffe investment - no matter who owned the club. Even the ascent from L1 under Wilder was built on academy player sales (Brooks, Ramsdale, Calvert Lewin, Adams) (arguable as was initially signed to go in academy squad).

If the infrastructure improvements at the Lane hadn't started happening in advance of PL football at BDTBL, we'd have been ill equipped to give our fans enough seats when we got there.

The new owners have got the fan zone going which has alleviated some of the kop issues. They've also sorted out the money pit of the enforced extra stewarding which was an unfortunate modern feature of the pre safe standing kop. That should save revenue for other uses. I'm not sure whether the recent ostensibly cosmetic changes have a financial yield in mind. Will sponsors pay more due to all these new visual things? No idea.

Dore is of course the big enchilada. If the ownership can't push that on then it's a bit strange why they'd get involved in the first place imo. That seems to be the next big goal of the club.

 

[Sky Blues]

The fact remains that O’Hare has been a far more effective player than Rudoni this season. No matter how good a player Rudoni might be he’s not much use in the treatment room.

O'Hare was injured for a long time with us just before you signed him. It didn't mean he wasn't any good. And I wouldn't swap 10m plus O'Hare for Rudoni. Once he is back to fitness again we will have a great player back in our side.

 

[Houston_Blade]

1, Correct

2, we left each time because of the dodgy hedge fund

3, Correct

4, It gave you a goal.and a win but you still cry like a baby over it. Your supporters were the only ones that didn't back our protests. Thanks.

5, Correct

6, We sold 2 players we bought for peanuts for a lot of money and bought our present squad with it. We turned down some big offers before this season started. We didn't need the money and nobody wanted to leave. We sold 2 players that weren't going to get much game time for nearly 10m and will be spending it next month.

7, Look above. Stumble? Our 1st 11 have been with us for 2 years or more other than Grimes. We put a good squad together over time instead of throwing money away on overrated dross like others have.

The Wilder MK1 Blades, Luton and Bielsa’s Leeds have done it before without having to rely on relegated clubs having a stinker. You seem to think you’re unique though.

Time will tell on Coventry, if you sustain a PL team then come back and talk to us, until then you’re just another one like us and will be cannon fodder in the PL.

 

[Sky Blues]

The Wilder MK1 Blades, Luton and Bielsa’s Leeds have done it before without having to rely on relegated clubs having a stinker. You seem to think you’re unique though.

Time will tell on Coventry, if you sustain a PL team then come back and talk to us, until then you’re just another one like us and will be cannon fodder in the PL.

Not expecting anything else. I just hope we don't overspend trying to stay up. Promotion is the aim but prefer watching us win games than getting stuffed most weeks.

 

[prescotblade]

Have to agree with you sky blue, the championship is more exciting than being the whipping boys in the Premier league. Unfortunately the money from the premier league rules.
Wish you all the best this season and hope you go up as champions. You have had a difficult journey and like us last season, many teams and fans envy you this season.
There are lessons to learn from us, hopefully yours don’t make the same mistake.

 

[GymClassHero]

Long term plan should be to establish ourselves in the Premier League

 

[Houston_Blade]

The key to the Championship is stability.

Yes there are exceptions but as anyone who watches Benjamin Bloom’s excellent channel will know, stability plays a huge part.

Coventry stuck with Lampard and are reaping the dividends. Had our owners not got impatient and entitled so would we; our current form shows how a good Wilder team would put this division to bed.

You’ll get exceptions and luck can sometimes play a decisive part. Sunderland is my casing point. They were the worst team over two legs against Coventry and against us. In the PO Final they had a contentious and decisive decision go there way then benefited from favourable circumstances when we were a man light theough injury. It sounds like sour grapes but of the three teams they were the least deserving to go up.

Frequently allowing the manager to build from the season before is usually a wise option. Hopefully we can have a second half of the season similar to Coventry’s first half and secure top 6. If we do this time we’ll win the Play Offs provided Ipswich can take 2nd. YHIHF.

We sacked our manager on a whim, but allowing Lampard a second season after a good first season hardly screams ‘stable’. It’s just common sense.

 

[Stanthemanfan]

The key to the Championship is stability.

Yes there are exceptions but as anyone who watches Benjamin Bloom’s excellent channel will know, stability plays a huge part.

Coventry stuck with Lampard and are reaping the dividends. Had our owners not got impatient and entitled so would we; our current form shows how a good Wilder team would put this division to bed.

You’ll get exceptions and luck can sometimes play a decisive part. Sunderland is my casing point. They were the worst team over two legs against Coventry and against us. In the PO Final they had a contentious and decisive decision go there way then benefited from favourable circumstances when we were a man light theough injury. It sounds like sour grapes but of the three teams they were the least deserving to go up.

Frequently allowing the manager to build from the season before is usually a wise option. Hopefully we can have a second half of the season similar to Coventry’s first half and secure top 6. If we do this time we’ll win the Play Offs provided Ipswich can take 2nd. YHIHF.

I'm interested to see how Sunderland get on next season, they were very lucky in all 3 playoff games and even though they've done well this season have had a bit of luck too, be interesting how they manage without their 6 afcon players, plus the 2nd half of the season they have tough away games at Brentford, arsenal, Bournemouth, Leeds, Newcastle, Villa and Everton

 

[Sky Blues]

Have to agree with you sky blue, the championship is more exciting than being the whipping boys in the Premier league. Unfortunately the money from the premier league rules.
Wish you all the best this season and hope you go up as champions. You have had a difficult journey and like us last season, many teams and fans envy you this season.
There are lessons to learn from us, hopefully yours don’t make the same mistake.

Thanks

There's a couple of lessons to learn from us if your owners don't put money into your club. No.1 is stability. We swapped our manager that took us from League 2 and skint for Lampard. Within half a season he was in the top half of longest serving managers in the Championship. It won't be long before we will have had only 2 managers in the last 10 years. You need a manager that can build a side and get the chance to improve it.

Keep the best players unless silly bids come in. Replace the weakest links in the squad. Get your supporters back on a journey where they enjoy themselves. Many will have forgotten what it's like not having parachute payments. But good luck for the rest of the season. It's not over yet. Only 9 points but with the better GD than 6th. Nobody has consistency.

 

[Sky Blues]

We sacked our manager on a whim, but allowing Lampard a second season after a good first season hardly screams ‘stable’. It’s just common sense.

And 7.5 years for the previous manager. How many managers have you had in the last 8.5 years? I can think of 3 managers you have had....or is it 2? in the last 6 months. Would continuity have been the best way to go?