Where does this summer rank in terms of worst pre seasons

[JPBrods]

Now I know technically we are now into the season, but the seeds of the most recent developments in what has been quite frankly, a shambolic summer, were planted well before now.

I am not so sure I can remember a pre-season as poor as this one in terms of outgoings, recruitment, and off-pitch politics relative to the hopes and expectations of where we are now - and have been in recent times - as a club.

23/24 perhaps runs it close because selling your best players after promotion to the premier league truly is something only we could achieve, but at least the future of the club in that moment was much more secure, and had effectively been saved by promotion in the first place.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

At the risk of being shot down, i personally think we're a Cannon sale / MGW type loan away from having had a solid Summer.

I suppose flip side of that coin is we're a Peck sale / Tanganga injury away from the sky falling in.

Oh, i don't fucking know....

 

[SwissBlade]

Maybe it’s 2nd after last pre season, but that’s like saying the earth is close to the sun.

Last pre season was an absolute clusterfuck of clusterfucks.

This pre season has been pretty chilled and no dramas

 

[Guesty]

At the risk of being shot down, i personally think we're a Cannon sale / MGW type loan away from having had a solid Summer.

I suppose flip side of that coin is we're a Peck sale / Tanganga injury away from the sky falling in.

Oh, i don't fucking know....

Give or take a Winding Up Order and a likely points deduction, of course. I suppose strictly speaking that will happen after the pre-season, but that's where it started.

 

[Guiseley Blade]

I think this summer is very similar to 2024 after relegation, Wilder was frustrated through pre-season matches. Then a bulk of the 'good' signings came in and around the week we are in now.

Only free transfers and swaps until mid August:
Summer 2024 Arrival Dates

Player	Date Confirmed	From
Jamie Shackleton	1 July 2024	Leeds United (Free)
Sam McCallum	11 July 2024	Norwich City (Free)
Kieffer Moore	15 July 2024	Bournemouth
Callum O'Hare	15 July 2024	Coventry City (Free)
Alfie Gilchrist	7 August 2024	Chelsea (Loan)
Harrison Burrows	11 August 2024	Peterborough United
Tyrese Campbell	11 August 2024	Stoke City (Free)
Michael Cooper	15 August 2024	Plymouth Argyle
Jesurun Rak-Sakyi	16 August 2024	Crystal Palace (Loan)

 

[Proper Blade]

Obviously we'll have to wait until 1st September to see where we really stand. And maybe we'll pull it out of the bag before then. I'm more frustrated by the fact that we've started the season completely undercooked for the third time in four seasons. We're basically just throwing away the first 6 matches of every season and then trying to play catch up.

It's not good enough.

 

[brownblade]

This is like when someone asks you to name your 10 favourite films. Way too many to accurately rank.

 

[Bell4]

Good question

I’ve been going for 55 years so I’ll have go …

Prem league last time = 1st

This one = 2nd

Last year = 3rd

We’re really getting good at this aren’t we - practice makes perfect I guess

 

[Champagneblade]

At the risk of being shot down, i personally think we're a Cannon sale / MGW type loan away from having had a solid Summer.

I suppose flip side of that coin is we're a Peck sale / Tanganga injury away from the sky falling in.

Oh, i don't fucking know....

Were it not for this deftness at the High Court, I’m very much a less is more when it comes to summer activity; that’s why last summer was such a let down. It needed minor surgery that’s all.

We made sensible decisions on Cooper to let him recooperate (see what I did there?!). We got Faxon a decent loan and we’ll offload Grbic somehow, I’m sure.

We helped out Seriki and have some added cover to centre defence in one move. I’m even getting used to the notion than spending 10m on a centre half may be avoidable.

Midfield also looks healthy and strong in experience and could still arguably handle a departure.

It just all depends what happens at LW for me. Before I’d thought what we do at CB but I’m prepared to see McGuinness backed to come good. Not sorting out an option A for left wing would feel like dereliction of duty.

It’s pivotal to how this turns out.

Those at the top not playing silly buggers might help too!

 

[The Fox]

As we took a huge hit on parachute payments, this preseason is alot better than it could have been .

 

[dexter101]

Completely on the fence on this summer (ignoring all the legal stuff going on).

Our existing squad on paper is not a bad squad. If we could get in a couple of additions in the next 10 days that would be good and ideally get a sense of formation we are going for.

If pushed, my only real major concern is LM, but if we went O'Hare in the middle and One on the left, I could live with that.

We won't really know for a few more games.

 

[Jim Mcdonald]

Well Wilder wanted a re build, that hasn't happened. We've signed a player we originally released and a youngster on loan, and the owners have been putting in what are quite obviously purposefully derisory offers for HS, keeping the fans believing nothing is wrong and buying season tickets. Sold one of our best assets to Norwich, and Gus went for next to nothing to Coventry with rumours we couldn't afford the remaining fee. To top it all off the owners are in court for not paying for the club, and maybe a points deduction and worse to come. Oh yes, it has been a fantastic summer

 

[Badger Blade]

A lot depends on the owners' situation and who else gets picked off from our squad, if anybody.

Getting some good loans is key because last year's were largely dire.

We've at least trimmed some of the rubbish but there hasn't been a single signing worth getting remotely excited about.

Looks like being a long, turgid season.

 

[Rochdaleblade]

This is like when someone asks you to name your 10 favourite films. Way too many to accurately rank.

It just seems fairly Blades like - sell a few good players, spurious transfer rumours that never come to fruition, financial shannanigans in the background.

 

[joe casey]

Putting the court stuff to one side (as we don't know the eventual outcome of that apparent mess) - its been pretty drab even compared to recent seasons.
Last pre-season worse just because of the mental decisions that were made time and time again.

This one so far pretty similar to the last Prem season under Hecky as we sold our main hopes and replaced them with dross. We haven't yet replaced with anything really (I'm not having a 19 year old as an adequate replacement for Brooks). We're just sort of stagnant - the bare bones are still relatively strong for the level but as soon as injuries/suspenisons creep in then we'd struggle - and we lack any players with a genuine spark of creativity.

Of course if the ownership stuff ends up with anything close to a -12 then it would have to be up there as the worst ever.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Were it not for this deftness at the High Court, I’m very much a less is more when it comes to summer activity; that’s why last summer was such a let down. It needed minor surgery that’s all.

We made sensible decisions on Cooper to let him recooperate (see what I did there?!). We got Faxon a decent loan and we’ll offload Grbic somehow, I’m sure.

We helped out Seriki and have some added cover to centre defence in one move. I’m even getting used to the notion than spending 10m on a centre half may be avoidable.

Midfield also looks healthy and strong in experience and could still arguably handle a departure.

It just all depends what happens at LW for me. Before I’d thought what we do at CB but I’m prepared to see McGuinness backed to come good. Not sorting out an option A for left wing would feel like dereliction of duty.

It’s pivotal to how this turns out.

Those at the top not playing silly buggers might help too!

Absolutely. You could even argue with One and Burrows, we have a couple of semi-decent LW options in-house too.

And if we avoid the supermarket sweep approach to recruitment, it can only be a good thing.