Operation Market garden failed....

[Rugrat]

I don't buy into the "ready for promotion" arguments and need more experience. Can't imagine the likes of Leicester, Forest, Derby, Ipswich, Leeds, Cardiff etc do either. You go for it from day 1 and take your chance when it comes.

You just don't just get better, season by season (too many examples of teams relegated to L1 to name). Promotion happens to any club when they get the right crop of players, a top draw marksman, have better consistency than the other guys (nobody is ever totally consistent in this league), and they get a good helping of luck.

Time served counts for nothing (v. little) imo

 

[TonyBloomsPokerFace]

It's not that we forget from where we have come, it's that we know it could be so much better.

Christ! It's not exactly like we've been languishing in the bottom three for the whole season. Things are ticking along nicely at the Amex, just requires a small amount of patience (which is seems is really at a premium these days).

 

[One Love]

Christ! It's not exactly like we've been languishing in the bottom three for the whole season. Things are ticking along nicely at the Amex, just requires a small amount of patience (which is seems is really at a premium these days).

Patience is fine if you feel it's going in the right direction.

 

[The Buttery Biscuit Base]

Patience is fine if you feel it's going in the right direction.

And what is the right direction? And, why do you think the direction you want take would be better?

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Mr Steward............ hmmmm no, still serving until a a year ago!! but I do have shinny boots ........ no hat tho!! sorry!

My grandfather's brother ws in the 1st British Airborne Division, 1th division of the parachute regiment, dropped behind lines at arnhem. He was captured and spent the remainder of the war in a camp in Bavaria. Never really recovered from that experience and would nev speak of it.

Funnily enough, even though I hardly knew him, the only thing that I really remember about him was that his shoes always shone brightly....as a kid that really impressed me.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Well said Para. And good to hear positive comments from other people as well. That man of Sussex Rudyard Kipling hit the nail on the head when he said if you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same...

NSC gets carried away when we win and massively negative when we lose. Even when we lose to a team who are top of the Championship, have a pretty decent side, are full of confidence, outplayed us on the day, and we we played with 10 men for 90% of the game. Because it was Palace it seems to be the trigger for even more negativity than usual.

Some people on here need a reality check.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

OP s post was spot on...apart from the Liverpool result....but true in every other respect!

 

[Mellotron]

You don't need to feel sorry for me. We obviously have different standards that's all.

You expect us to overachieve, it would seem. We are pretty much exactly on course for where we should be. I'm happy for us to take our time getting to the Prem, playing good football on the way, an not bankrupting the club through over stretching ourselves.

 

[One Love]

You expect us to overachieve, it would seem. We are pretty much exactly on course for where we should be. I'm happy for us to take our time getting to the Prem, playing good football on the way, an not bankrupting the club through over stretching ourselves.

I agree with your with your last sentence completely. Not with the first two.

I do love the way you give your opinion as though you were stating a fact.

Time will tell whether we are progressing along the right lines. For me we are following the same path as last year but with an improvement just because we have made improvements in some personnel. I would have hoped that the improvement would have been in other areas as well and I just can't see it.

A lot of things haven't changed.

For me

We don't need two holding defensive midfielders.
We don't play to our record signing's strengths.
We do not take a high enough percentage of our good chances.
We are hopeless in the air defensively and offensively.
We throw in too many crosses bearing in mind the above.
We are poor at offensive set pieces.
We play at too slow a tempo.
We don't come back from going behind which shows a lack of character and team spirit.
All of the above contribute to us being unable to beat the better sides in the division.
We go for spells where we suffer an awful loss of form.
I could go on.

Same last year and the same this year.

 

[Brovion]

My opinion was in no way meant to be preachy and you seeing my comments about the stadium being 'bollocks' is fine with me. Your comment is an opinion. The health and safety act which governs newly built sporting venue's such as the Amex would not allow for an 'Operations Manager' to say otherwise. No matter how good Richard Hebbard is .......... he doesn't posses that kind of power. Its simple modern day H&S

It was the way you said that all-seater stadia were brought in because of 'numerous incidents around the world with over-crowding and deaths' as if the very concept of standing to watch football was responsible for the fatalities. Also please don't say "It's the law, so tough". We're all well aware of the regulations, we just feel that they're 'anti-football' and are unevenly applied, which creates more friction.

The Germans have safe standing because their fans refused to sit down, (there was a campaign called 'Sitting down is for arseholes') and despite your claims they don't carry lorryloads of dead fans out of Bundesliga grounds every weekend, but hey, what do the Germans know about football?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

What do you mean by "build up"? In my mind if you finish in a position which grants promotion you're ready. If you don't you're not. Whether it takes 1,2 or 20 years is irrelevant. There is no evidence to suggest that hanging around longer in the 2nd tier gives you a better chance; none at all. What difference does finishing as champions after 2 years versus, say, 10 years make? None.

 

[Hamilton]

I agree with your with your last sentence completely. Not with the first two.

I do love the way you give your opinion as though you were stating a fact.

Time will tell whether we are progressing along the right lines. For me we are following the same path as last year but with an improvement just because we have made improvements in some personnel. I would have hoped that the improvement would have been in other areas as well and I just can't see it.

A lot of things haven't changed.

For me

We don't need two holding defensive midfielders.
We don't play to our record signing's strengths.
We do not take a high enough percentage of our good chances.
We are hopeless in the air defensively and offensively.
We throw in too many crosses bearing in mind the above.
We are poor at offensive set pieces.
We play at too slow a tempo.
We don't come back from going behind which shows a lack of character and team spirit.
All of the above contribute to us being unable to beat the better sides in the division.
We go for spells where we suffer an awful loss of form.
I could go on.

Same last year and the same this year.

It has been very depressing reading your comments. I understand you are keen to see us take that next leap, but these things take time and I agree with Mellotron in that it feels like things are moving at the right pace.

In your list of criticism there are things I agree with. My issue with the list is that some of the items are causes and some are effects.

Putting the effects to one side I think there are two points you've made that are spot on.

1. We are poor at offensive set pieces - I agree, but in reference to an Argus letter last week, I think this might sometimes be better addressed with faster free kicks and corners.

2. We play at too slow a tempo - I agree here also. We need to learn to vary the pace of play and on occasion turn defence into attack much faster.

For my part, if I had the wherewithal to add to the squad, I would give it a tougher and more aggressive spine. I'd add a central defender that can turn defence into attack; I'd have a reliable attacking midfielder (an uninjured Vicente); and I'd have an out and out selfish striker.

As for the other 'causes' that you suggest as areas of improvement, I disagree. I certainly see no problem with team spirit or character. We lost 3-0 on Saturday, but team spirit was still there. They battled. And despite what others say about "bottling it", they did not. They were forced to play 85 minutes with 10 men against the top of the table side.

 

[Return of the Rev]

what do you mean by "build up"? In my mind if you finish in a position which grants promotion you're ready. If you don't you're not. Whether it takes 1,2 or 20 years is irrelevant. There is no evidence to suggest that hanging around longer in the 2nd tier gives you a better chance; none at all. What difference does finishing as champions after 2 years versus, say, 10 years make? None.

correct! Getting 40 million in your hand could help you get ready