It feels a bit like the end of an era

[marshy68]

I think Bloom should have gritted his teeth and toughed it out with Gus for one more season. It would have involved spending more than he would like to and massaging Gus's enormous ego a lot - but people forget just how good that Gus team post Ulloa signing was - it was the best performing team in the division for that second half of the season. We were primed for an automatic promotion run, it could be a few years before we have such an opportunity again at the huge £100m+ revenues.

Gus was leaving that summer whatever happened - he had tried to resign in March.

 

[ewe2]

IMO Derby away in the play offs was our watershed .

 

[vegster]

We couldn't keep up with his ambition, that's true. He's now in the Premiership, and we're not.

Beautiful football, terrific signings, bought to you by the best manager we've ever had,

Still, you're right, he was ambitious and had an ego. Glad we got rid.

I think that we had our best chance we will get for many years under Poyet with those two games against Palace. Quite simply the players did not perform and that was that. I think the slide to mid table mediocrity will occur this season and no amount of singing at corners will change that.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

It's amazing how ineffective at attacking we were in some of those games under Gus, where we didn't manage a single shot on goal over a few games in a row at one stage, the build up was often criticised as slow and boring, the tactics of 1 up front often questioned and the striker often left isolated and yet judging by this thread at least, we were supposedly world beaters.

He had a philosophy which the fans brought into and gave it a chance to work (took him until the second season for it to start to be effective against League 1 opposition) - the 2nd season when we spent money (CMS, Buckley, etc) we finished 10th and never really threatened the play-offs

Last season under Oscar Garcia, and with a lot of key players under Gus out through injury, etc (Orlandi, CMS, Buckley, etc) and yet we still managed to get into the play-offs. The question then should be did Gus cost us promotion? would we have been more effective with a differrent, better manager than persisting with Gus for so long? - Gus was often criticised for no plan B after all.

I suspect there is a lot of rose-tinted specticles going on here.

How about we afford Sami Hyppia the same luxury as we did with Gus and allow him and his signings enough time to try to turn us into a more effective attacking force in this division and hopefully go that extra step that Gus (and Garcia in difficult circumstances) failed to do and achieve promotion. - we already look like we are moving players into positions to support the striker so he/they arn't as isolated which was a big criticism of mine before. And even down to 10 men, he didn't panic, he kept a side with attacking intent and even took off a defender in search of a goal and we certainly didn't get outplayed with a man short against Wednesday and they still didn't manage to produce much more of an attacking threat against our 10 and did very little to threaten us with 11.

Lets be patient and stop all this defeatist stuff.

 

[Kevlar]

What players should be top of wish list for the new era?
I have no idea what specific players are available within
our wage and fee budget but attempting to understand what Sami is trying to achieve
for I would suggest the following priorities
1 centre forward
2 support striker (inside forward in old money)
3 left back with stamina and pace
4 another inside forward
5 right back with stamina and pace
6 deeper playmaker

 

[saafend_seagull]

Bit depressing when you watch Amex highlights from bbc for game v donny

 

[kevo]

Maybe it was when he said it not what he said - that got some of us irrate?

Fair enough - it was mistimed, but I could see his point.

 

[Eksman]

Agree - but there is already a thread on this:

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?306669-Only-Greer-left-now

Sorry petal

 

[Deadly Danson]

Bit depressing when you watch Amex highlights from bbc for game v donny

Maybe-but as I recall we didn't play particularly well that day and were lucky enough to get a couple of late goals to make it a fantastic afternoon. As a previous poster said-there are an awful lot of rose tinted spectacles being worn here. I recall a hell of a lot of moaning during a lot of the Poyet era. Even if the club don't want to admit it (for obvious reasons), we are clearly in a rebuilding phase and patience from our notoriously impatient, hysterical fans would be welcome.

 

[kevo]

It's amazing how ineffective at attacking we were in some of those games under Gus, where we didn't manage a single shot on goal over a few games in a row at one stage, the build up was often criticised as slow and boring, the tactics of 1 up front often questioned and the striker often left isolated and yet judging by this thread at least, we were supposedly world beaters.

He had a philosophy which the fans brought into and gave it a chance to work (took him until the second season for it to start to be effective against League 1 opposition) - the 2nd season when we spent money (CMS, Buckley, etc) we finished 10th and never really threatened the play-offs

Last season under Oscar Garcia, and with a lot of key players under Gus out through injury, etc (Orlandi, CMS, Buckley, etc) and yet we still managed to get into the play-offs. The question then should be did Gus cost us promotion? would we have been more effective with a differrent, better manager than persisting with Gus for so long? - Gus was often criticised for no plan B after all.

What a load of utter nonsense. If you are going to pontificate on here, at least get your facts right.

He had a philosophy which the fans brought into and gave it a chance to work (took him until the second season for it to start to be effective against League 1 opposition)

Eh? He didn't join until November that first season. We were in the relegation zone and ended up in mid-table.

The second season we won the league at an absolute canter, promoted in March, championship secured with four games to spare. Yet you are criticising him for taking two seasons to get it right?! Blimey.

The 2nd season when we spent money (CMS, Buckley, etc) we finished 10th and never really threatened the play-offs

Agreed, what a total failure that season was, mid-table after just having been promoted from League One. The least we should have expected was the play-offs! The previous occasion we were promoted from League One, we got relegated - and we had Bobby Zamora in our squad.

It's amazing how ineffective at attacking we were in some of those games under Gus, where we didn't manage a single shot on goal over a few games in a row at one stage

Really? When? I'd like to see evidence of this. It's true we often didn't convert our dominance into chances, and when we did create chances we often didn't take them. But that changed when Leo joined.

Did Gus cost us promotion? would we have been more effective with a differrent, better manager than persisting with Gus for so long?

What a bizarre comment. Gus built the team, was personally responsible for attracting some top quality players to the squad (something Garcia singularly failed to do), and got us playing some of the best football ever seen by fans of this club. And yet you say another manager "would have done better"? Well of course, another hypothetical manager could have "done better" -Mourinho maybe? Guardiola? But the fact remains that whatever you think of him and his inflated ego, Poyet did a fantastic job. I wish the club had been as ambitious as he was.

 

[jonsey]

Ulloa, Orlandi, Barnes, Bridcutt, Upson, Kuszczak, Lopez all gone and now Buckley on his way too. Gone is the tika-taka latin mentality of Poyet and Garcia.

It feels like the inital 'Amex era' is over and we're now heading into the next phase with Hyypia.

Please note I'm not bemoaning all of these players going and saying this is the worst team we've had or that we'll get relegated. Nothing like that. Merely an observation.

Before T Bloom, before the Amex and before our recent success we used to have to sell all of our best players just to stay alive. Now it seems like " Ground Hog Day " all over again. We have the stadium, the training ground and even the high level of season tickets sales. Yet it feels as if the club has no control of its short term future. Im sure that there is a master plan somewhere but, the club needs to reassure its followers before it all falls apart at the seems