But for me we were relegated 10 matches ago, maybe more! Hecky knew we were done for and jumped ship to avoid a relegation on the CV; a sacking at Leeds sadly looks better than a relegation with us. I laugh when i hear/read folk saying we can still get out of this (i laugh because i wish i had the optimism they have) .... and dont get me wrong i hope im very wrong and we stay up... but the fact we cant win a match and haven't done so for a long long time at home screams league 1 next season to me. Couple all this with a terrible choice in manager in my opinion for this level we have shot ourselves in the foot. I've nothing against this manager but he wasn't what we needed. He could be a good manager given time/money, but time is something we didn't have when we appointed him. Anyhow....its not the be all and end all going down. As much as i dont want us to go down the best times in recent years have been at that level; lets go re-build and repeat it again.....i'd rather go to Accrington than West Brom anyway!!!!
Hi You. I agree with most of what you've had to say. BUT Disagree with a few points but everyone has their own opion on certain things. Obviously Rellogation is one thing I won't talkabout I'm a Believer a Believer that we will get out of this mess. Having supported the Super Reds for 57 year's. I've been through it all with the Reds. From near Rellogation to scrapping survival from having so many different managers and even players & let me say we have had some right players at Oakwell. Most of them have gone on to the premier league. But also had some right garbage None of them anywhere near the one's we've got now when I say the latter I actually mean the one's now are miles better! So that more or less tells you what rubbish I've watched BUT that's when we used to be in the old 4th Division. Which many of you won't even No about. I've seen a slight upturn in our performances more of a willingness to try and fight for our Club a Club that I Love and will never turn my back on even through our Fight to stay in the Championship
I was really impressed with the performance vs Bristol City, and there have been plenty of teams home and away that I've thought we were at least as good as if not better...and not just Birmingham and Sunderland. But the problem is, as decent as our overall play can be at times, we don't get it right at either end often enough to win games. Look at Cardiff. Absolutely appalling against us at Oakwell, gave the ball away loads, barely created a single chance, but still won the game because we didn't punish them and they took the one chance they got. If in these last 7 games we can finally stick the ball in the net and not make a calamitous error every game we'll stay up. But based on the previous 39 games, I just don't think it's going to happen.
We have a squad with little experience of playing at the level we're at, we have owners, 2 Americans,2 Chinese and 1 Indian, we have a French CEO, none of which have experience of English football at any level, and a first team coaching staff who are used to working with a class of player from up in the stratosphere, compared to ours. Now if all that is not a recipe for disaster I don't know what is. A final few words to Ian(Stahrost) a year or so when i kept saying the plan would end in disaster, you kept saying "wait til May", can i ask which May are we waiting for?
Agree with the first part about the owners and coaching staff . The plan will work just fine if we buy the right players , it also got us out of debt to the tune of c10million in the black . The biggest **** up was the Mcburnie fiasco back in August , we'd be at least 10 points better by now .
This bunch of players are not good enough at this level and we are poorly organised. A question i had put to me a few weeks ago was.......if warnock came in say when jose did ....do you think the results would be any different! I think we all know the answer and the reason is ....organisation.
The biggest **** up for me was not paying Watkins and Scowen the going rate and shoving Roberts out the door. Instead of wasting money on multiple "punts"
Judging by the number of available seats around me in the East Stand upper for the game against Dem Blades I think most people have chalked F*** on it as well. Struggled to get a spare seat against the Pigs, seems to be oceans of seats now. Next season as a minimum we are going to need:- 1 good goalie 2 full backs (assuming Yiadom goes) 1 Centre half 2 midfielders (assuming we don't keep Gardner or Williams, although I'd rather have Gardner) 2 strikers (Lets face it, we're not keeping Ollie) Anyone thinking we're going to have an easy time in League One might be in for a shock if we don't fill those places with good quality players rather than more league 2 punts and people plucked from the obscurity of Scottish football. What will be interesting assuming we start next season with our current coach is what influence or say he will have on the new signings - does he have the contacts?
Had the game vs Forest been played and won as I believe it could have been things would look an awful lot better. The negativity of our fans these days is absolutely energy sapping so christ knows how much it affects the players. I know performances are dire but the fans have been awful. I don't think we're any good, I also don't think we were any good the season we survived under Flicker. The difference that season was the fans got right behind the team with energy and momentum and it was reflected on the pitch. Jose has come in to whinging booing and silence.
I broadly agree with you, but I thought the fans were a lot better against Bristol then they've been for a long time. Think the atmosphere on Saturday could actually be really toxic if we concede first.
I agree that we should have offered them more money but in reality we'd have still lost them anyway . Roberts is on 20k a week at Birmingham . Watkins and Roberts put transfer requests in , Scowen saw his contract out because he wanted to move back down south . All this nonsense about 'punts' is just hindsight proving people right . I didn't see the word 'punt' used in August . Or when we signed Conor etc , who was also a 'punt' , they all are .
Because when we signed these players they were from the same league or the league below. Our recruitment this time was not so, we went even lower down the pyramid this time. And did it en masse to the point where this was always a likely outcome. The recruitment policy was either arrogant, stupid or a complete gamble.
Punts are ok when you are dealing with 2 or 3...what we did was unpresidented.....this was a league we could not mess about in. Thinking we could replace vertually our first 11 with lower league players...would have been a struggle in league 1...in the championship....impossible. Hecky voiced his concerns as some did on here but were quickly shot down as negative etc etc. Now hindsight has kicked you can see that this league is far more unforgiving...you either have to pay the going rate for players of the standard required or be supremely well organised.