Hang your heads in shame...

[Hotchilidog]

Idiot. No one is suggesting that but just go and watch any of the free scoring teams in this league play. Look at how bournemouth move the ball around the midfield and look at how Burnley did it last year. - Compare it even to us under Poyet 11/12. Now go and watch us today. Bruno receives the ball and stands on it for a minimum of 3 seconds, LuaLua does the exact same thing. We have played large parts of the season with a single recognised winger who at best blows hot and cold, we've generally played with 2 very defensive minded midfielders (but still regularly shipped goals because both our full-backs are defensively weak) so very few people in the middle of the park have the nous or the confidence to pick a quality defence-splitting pass nor to get forwards quickly. Our delivery from out wide is appalling. We might as well not bother with set pieces... we've been playing with an aged right back as a right winger for heavens sake, and he's been one of our more creative players!

How on earth anyone on this board can seriously look at this team and come to the conclusion that the only thing it is missing right now is a better striker to make it competitive I really do not know. Blinkers I guess.

There is definitely something in this analysis, and a decent creative midfielder/winger should also be high on the shopping list. However we have also missed a huge amount of decent opportunities to score this season, with rank bad finishing, of which Stephens back pass to the Watford keeper was merely the latest.

What you have highlighted is that we have more than one issue to deal with with this team, I do not disagree. Once we have identified the strikers we need the issue of supply is crucial, and more movement from the midfield would certainly help that.

 

[Surf's Up]

There are so many reasons why this season has been so awful and most of them appear in some shape or form in this thread. My concern is that, historically, our pattern of progress as a club tends towards relatively brief periods of success of varying duration. ( the best being the late 1970's/ early 1980's) followed by long periods of lower division anonymity. The key question is whether we have broken this cycle. We have had one of our periods of success prior to this season, are we now heading for a long period of lower division obscurity? It seems unimaginable but history is against us. That's why this summer and next season are so important. Will we break the mould and push on or will we quietly subside and revert to type? Tony Bloom, Paul Barber and Chris Hewton ..... over to you.

 

[Knotty]

The 'One club One ambition' was painted on the walls of the stadium for everyone to see. It was a stupid crass move by the club, and just as bad as Premier League ready.
The Premier League ready motto may have only been for club staff, but obviously someone in the club thought it was a ridiculous one for it to have leaked so easily.

I think you are reading far too much into those phrases.

'One Club, One Ambition' was a bit silly because it is surely stating the glaringly obvious! We are one club and we do have ambition, but ambition doesn't mean a guarantee or a promise.

As hard as I try, I cant find fault in 'Premier League Ready'. It was a motto for the staff as something to aspire to and, everywhere but on the pitch, it seems that has been achieved. I don't find it ridiculous in any way and it simply doesn't qualify to be important enough to be considered a leak of something the club wanted to keep secret.

That won't, of course, stop it being a stick for some to beat the club with, even though they are fully aware of the context in which it was used.

I have a number of criticisms of the club for what has happened in the past season, but those two things are not amongst them.

 

[Husty]

There is definitely something in this analysis, and a decent creative midfielder/winger should also be high on the shopping list. However we have also missed a huge amount of decent opportunities to score this season, with rank bad finishing, of which Stephens back pass to the Watford keeper was merely the latest.

Everyone in this league does, that's the reality of championship strikers. Notice how many teams in this league manage to score many more goals than us without depending upon premier-league quality strikers as we have done pretty much ever since Poyet took over. We've been carried by our strike force for a long time and now that our strikers are at best average (I genuinely don't believe that our strike force is 'bad' for this league) our instinct seems to be to blame the strikers.

Let me be clear here I am not saying we couldn't do better nor that we should do better, I agreed with the decision to release CMS and would like to see O'Grady sold if he is on big money I'm just pointing out that short of somehow landing another £10m+ rated striker on the cheap (and that obviously isn't a sound plan) simply buying more strikers isn't going to ease our problems.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Some people may need to remind themselves what the fight for the Albion was about: We wanted the club to survive. We wanted a home in the city for our kids and grandkids to watch their club. We wanted to be able to compete on an even playing field.

It has, we have and we can. Nobody promised we would subsequently win all the time and when we lose, we say (through gritted teeth) well done to the opposition and we go again next game, next week or next year.

Thankfully the club now looks like being here permanently. Some years will be good, some will be bad, some will be terrible and, every now and then, one will be historic. That's what we all signed up for, and moaning that some other team has got their historic year and we haven't just makes us sound like the sort of spoiled premier league arse-hats who cry to 6-0-6 every week.

Spot on.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Everyone in this league does, that's the reality of championship strikers. Notice how many teams in this league manage to score many more goals than us without depending upon premier-league quality strikers as we have done pretty much ever since Poyet took over. We've been carried by our strike force for a long time and now that our strikers are at best average (I genuinely don't believe that our strike force is 'bad' for this league) our instinct seems to be to blame the strikers.

Let me be clear here I am not saying we couldn't do better nor that we should do better, I agreed with the decision to release CMS and would like to see O'Grady sold if he is on big money I'm just pointing out that short of somehow landing another £10m+ rated striker on the cheap (and that obviously isn't a sound plan) simply buying more strikers isn't going to ease our problems.

Most of the high scoring players at this level miss just as many chances as our strikers. The big difference is that they know more quality opportunities will follow. Sadly, we lack the ability to keep carving out gilt-edged chances. For too long this season, our strikers have been trying to feed off scraps.
Midfield is the most important area in any team. Its the engine room. Its where, generally, the game is won or lost. Its the supply line to the front men. They rely on it. Strikers thrive on clear chances created in the box.
We've spent all season watching players fail to cross accurately. Failing to thread through balls or weighting passes correctly. Blasting shots miles wide or failing to get in shots. I agree our strikers aren't the best but they have been let down by our midfield and widemen.

 

[rippleman]

Of course there is no "right" to anything in football. But there are "expectations".

When over 200m is spend on the ground there is an expectation that there will be enough left in the kitty to put together a decent squad

When you sell your best players there is an expectation that that money will be reinvested in players of similar quality

When the Chairman goes public and says that the target is PL football within 5 years then there is an expectation that he will do everything possible to achieve it

When the CEO starts bleating that we are "Premier League Ready" there is an expectation that we really are (although I think we all now know to treat Barber's outpourings as PR billy)

When the club calls a fans' meeting to discuss how to improve the atmosphere in the North Stand there is an expectation that they will listen and act.

Expectations are based upon the words and actions of the club. No investment = no success. Gus was right wasn't he?

 

[Icy Gull]

I agree but I don't think Bloom and Barber sat down at the start of the season and thought "I know - let's get a load of shit players in and be crap". They were let down by a mixture of bad luck and a bad recruitment policy. Hopefully both of these can be sorted for next year!!

Not sure that they aimed very high. Hyypia had done nothing and had a serious question mark against him, and plenty pointed that out when he was appointed. I think both Bloom tried to wing it with the quality of players we brought in, most of them very very late in the day so no doubt at a knockdown rate. The teams that are successful tend to have a game plan and do their business early. I think there are very big question marks about TB's efforts in the last few windows. We may not have "done it on the cheap" but we certainly haven't signed many players of quality and that cannot all be dumped at Burke and Hyypia's door as so many on here choose to do. We haven't gone the extra mile in signing players and it shows - Grabban, Ward and Clayton, all quality players that we failed to land , any one of which could have made a big difference to the shit we've been served up this season. That is not Burke or Hyypia's fault I'm sure.

I believe, after the success under Poyet that TB thought he was as good at running a football club as he is at running his business, which has not proved to be the case over the last couple of seasons. Let's not kid ourselves we got lucky with what we achieved under Oscar, we had nowhere near the depth and quality of the other promotion contenders. This season we failed from the off.

For me it throws up big questions about how ambitious we are, the next few months will be interesting.

 

[chaileyjem]

Of course there is no "right" to anything in football. But there are "expectations".

No investment = no success. Gus was right wasn't he?

No investment ?? What was that increase in the football budget to £21.7m last season, up from £19m in 2012/13 and 60% up since 2012 ? (and another increase reported for 2014/15.) that put us well into the top 10 of of Championship spending. And what are those accumulated £51m of losses that Tony Bloom has paid for since 2010 ?

The club spend a fortune on buying players, and paying wages. A cool £500K a month. That doesn't guarantee success but it must be galling given TB is signing the cheque , that he gets accused of "no investment". In fact the investment in football costs from Bloom alone, let alone everything else, is simply staggering. And he's already committed to more in the summer.

 

[Hotchilidog]

No investment ?? What was that increase in the football budget to £21.7m last season, up from £19m in 2012/13 and 60% up since 2012 ? (and another increase reported for 2014/15.) that put us well into the top 10 of of Championship spending. And what are those accumulated £51m of losses that Tony Bloom has paid for since 2010 ?

The club spend a fortune on buying players, and paying wages. A cool £500K a month. That doesn't guarantee success but it must be galling given TB is signing the cheque , that he gets accused of "no investment". In fact the investment in football costs from Bloom alone, let alone everything else, is simply staggering. And he's already committed to more in the summer.

Doesn't matter how many times you say it, people will not believe it.

 

[chaileyjem]

Doesn't matter how many times you say it, people will not believe it.

Ha ! I'll have to keep saying it then.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

No investment ?? What was that increase in the football budget to £21.7m last season, up from £19m in 2012/13 and 60% up since 2012 ? (and another increase reported for 2014/15.) that put us well into the top 10 of of Championship spending. And what are those accumulated £51m of losses that Tony Bloom has paid for since 2010 ?

The club spend a fortune on buying players, and paying wages. A cool £500K a month. That doesn't guarantee success but it must be galling given TB is signing the cheque , that he gets accused of "no investment". In fact the investment in football costs from Bloom alone, let alone everything else, is simply staggering. And he's already committed to more in the summer.

Its a shame that the absolute ****tard that was Burke was in charge of signings. At least he isnt around to plague us anymore.

Kemi
Toki
Clunge
Cog
Ballsack
Etc
Jesus I could go on. What a waste of ****ing money after selling the family jewels (at least Barbs got a decent price for them).

Whilst I have a number of issues with the board - willy waving over ward (arguably Burke again) to keeping Sami on far far far far far far far too long for example - you cant say they havent invested.

Bought absolute dog shit though is a definite YES

 

[Hiney]

If you read my post properly you will see that the bad season is not the issue here. It's the fact that we were under prepared to even give it a go.

Your posts towards me have always been to criticise and put me down, you even edited my posts before so do me a favour and comment elsewhere if you can't do anything other than respond like a child

To be fair, you started it.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

It wasn't the fans that coined the phrase 'Premier League Ready'

The Premier League ready phrase wasn't something that was for the fans, it was an internal mantra about delivering the best possible set up, service and infrastructure possible. It was never intended for fans to hear and has never been something said to fans but the club. It's something that leaked out, and has been pounced upon ever since as a stick to beat the club with (see your post for an example)

and it wasn't the fans writing in the programme every week that we should all spend more money on a match day so that the playing squad could be added to and quality signings brought in.

I'm quite happy to be mid table in the Championship for a few seasons and build slowly but it was the club who raised the bar with the above statements and they then failed to deliver on their promise.

So trying to get fans to spend and help boost the funds available to improve our squad = promise of premier league football ??

Trying to get the best possible players affordable is surely a worthy goal for the club, and one way to help that is for the club to maximise its revenue stream rather than rely on hand outs from the owners or racking up losses (just like pretty much every other Championship club & pretty much every club in the World for that matter) - I don't get why thats being viewed as a negative. It doesn't mean that you have to spend beyond what you want to spend on a match day, as it's still your choice. I don't get why this is being frowned upon, it's like people want something for nothing and they want it now.

 

[dazzer6666]

Spot on. It has been a disjointed season, mainly due to poor tactics from Hyppia, which confused and demoralised the players in equal measure. We need a few players but if we had had a forward who could score 15-20 goals this season might have been quite different.

The sad aspect for me has been how quickly some sections of the crowd (especially at home) have turned on the team. They are not the greatest but they play for our team. Its time to get behind them. The best experience of the season for me was away at Fulham. Everyone was together that night. we need to try and replicate that next season.

Agreed. As well as a decent striker, we need midfielders to contribute - should be a couple of 10+ goal a season players there. Poor service, reluctance to shoot (even Kayal is guilty of this) and pisspoor shooting when we do have a go are all part of the problem - it's not either/or service/finishing, it's both.

 

[Westdene Wonder]

Although I agree with a lot of this we have had ONE bad season! All clubs have them - we have no divine right to just keep getting better.

Let's get a few decent players in and go again.

Heads up chaps.

There are two parts to the Premiership, the first ten places and the also rans,so lets be satisfied with the Championship and the super Amex