The way I understood it...

The way it was explained...

We'd buy young players with potential, we'd work with them on the training pitch, give them game time, improve them, make them better players and sell them at a profit. And the next set of young players signed would be of higher calibre than the last lot as we'd have more capital to work with having made a profit on the last batch. Constant improvement from incrementally purchasing players of more potential. No guarantee of success of course, but sounds like a good idea.

So we bought from non league, Roberts and Pinnock, from League 2, Hourihane and Winnall, from Scotland, Lindsay and Watkins, from the Championship reserves, players who'd done it in the lower leagues but weren't getting a chance in the Championship like Moore. And we did improve all those players and they were sold at a profit. And so were many others.

All the above players were young, but they'd all played lots of games. Young but quite experienced.

So the next phase, use the profit from the sale of those players to buy a higher calibre of young players.

How many professional games between them had those new crop of centre halves when they were brought to the club? Where are the young players who excelled in League 1 last season? Where is this higher calibre of young player?

We've gone from signing players who were proving themselves in professional leagues just below the level we were at to signing youth team players with no experience at all. And that isn't anything like what we were told would be happening.

 

I guess Wilks, Thomas and Collins are the exception? They all excelled in league one I think?

 

If we were flogging one or two players each season it would be easier to integrate new players into the first team over time . The problem is that we are selling in bulk therefore having to buy in bulk and chucking them straight in the first team and expecting them to perform at championship level, it just can't work.

 

Stop spoiling my rant!

 

Wilkes, Thomas, Collins all did well in league one last year, Correct me if im wrong but Diaby came from the Belgium equivalent of the championship , where was Anderson?

The 3 lads from Leeds must on paper have a better football schooling that non league players like Payne and Brad Ash.

Raw material is getting better in my opinion, its trying to buy 11 and play them all in the championship that is the flaw in the plan.

 

I disagree, I really don't think it is

 

Agree with this, it’s the timing that’s wrong.
Would also add (without researching this), my instinct says we spent more on this current crop than the previous ones, with Moore probably the exception.

 

As @Jay says, we've deviated from the original concept, so we're now signing a greater level of inexperience. The risk is that there are no guarantees with young players. They may develop as expected or they may not. There could come a time when the chickens come home to roost, when none of our acquisitions become hugely saleable assets and we're left floundering in L1 with a team full of average players, all on long-term contracts.

As things stand, that could be next season.

 

The biggest asset any newly promoted team has momentum from the previous season going into the new. Wholesale changes rip that apart and loose the biggest thing you have going for you. This is what Fulham did when they got promoted to the prem. think our biggest problem is we have no one who knows anything about british football running things. If bobby Hassell were a director of football id be a bit more confident

 

i can see why you'd think that. the following players were all signed this year, and dropped (for the majority of them) directly into the championship.

Radlinger, Diaby, Anderson, Wilkes, Halme, Sibbick, Odour, Thomas, Wilkes, Chaplin, Schmidt, Bahre

will they all make decent championship footballers? i doubt it but then neither did all of the players we've signed so far since we adopted this plan.

We've had some very good lower league experienced players step up in Hourihane, Winnall, Potts etc but would they have done that by being dropped directly into the championship without a years grace to get better, without other experienced players around them. in fact Potts looked very ordinary (being polite) when it happened to him.

 

“would they have done that by being dropped directly into the championship without a years grace to get better, without other experienced players around them”

No, they wouldn’t, in fact they didn’t do it in league 1, they were bottom of the league at Christmas. Difference is league 1 is full of very poor sides so when they started to gel they shot up the league- not going to happen in the championship.

 

The problem is that everyone else jumped on with the signing of lower league captains and we were eventually priced out
Many of our fans, myself included, also hated the fact that we were using too many loan players which was a short term fix with little if any financial benefit to our club. I do however think it beneficial to have 1 outstanding loan player in and another experienced loan player who’s maybe coming back from injury and needs the game time.
For me, if we’d retained pinnock, got the 2 loans and had dougall available from the off we wouldn’t be having these debates.
The fact is though that we can’t turn back time and therefor have to knuckle down until January. We do have a choice whether to attend games though and if you feel you don’t want to go any more then fair dos, I’ll still be going as I enjoy the day with my family.

 

Nice Ranting, but thar spot, we're doooooooooomed. My prediction of 24th's looking like i've got summat reight for once, HOPE NOT. Knew wed brought too many youngens in all at once into probably the most contested league in EUROPE. C.O.Y.R. keep what little faith we av left.

 

One thing's for certain, we are miles away from retaining our Championship status. Being a stable Championship club was the stated aim. First relegation, OK, a hiccup, followed by immediate promotion. This time though is just plain negligence. On this basis I can't say the squad we have now is better than the one we had two years ago. That squad at least had a fighting chance of staying up.

 

IMHO we not a bad side , I know it’s mostly Woodrow that’s getting most of our few goals but I think more will start once or if the confidence comes and if we go on some sort of unbeaten run , I know they’re all big ifs but I can see it in the team .
The problem imo were having is a mixture of unfortunate, comical and bad defending .
Diabys Own goal at WBA was calamitous and gave them a hope which I don’t they would have scored if he hadn’t .
The lazy defending by Cavare at Huddersfield where he just let his man walk up and tap the ball in was criminal imo.
We all know what the answer is but it may be too late by January if some sort of confidence isn’t installed .

 

which just reinforces my point above. the lack of respect given to the fans and paying public is astonishing.

 

We can talk about Cameron missing another sitter which would have been 1 all and a different game. Sibbick failing to block the cross for the tap in. Diaby free header from a set piece not hitting the target.

 

And Wilks and Thomas cost a lot more than the last lot.

 

Unfortunately in playing the 'what if' game for one team means we'd have to apply it for both teams and Town missed more opportunities than we did.

 

Agree but we seem to mess up the key moments. Had Chaplin taken a touch against Brentford we'd have gone 2-0 up. Had Mcgeehan not tried helping out at the back against Birmingham we'd have probably taken a point. Without his glaring misses against Swansea and Huddersfield we'd have had an extra 3 points. Diaby's own goal set the rot in against West Brom.

Yes the opposition are creating chances but the key moments in the game are where we are desperately lacking.