Big_Nige

The rules are horrendously bad, and put in place to protect the cartel. I agree to a point about a bad transfer window, and how hard it is to recover. But the rules didn’t stop us paying Ryan Bertrand £120k a week. It was never the transfer fees it was the ludicrously high wages we were paying either unproven, or past it, footballers, which we found nigh on impossible to then shift. We should have been smarter, it’s easy to blame the rules, and I did at first, but the more you scratch the surface of financial mess this club has gotten itself into, it’s all on Top and Rudkin for me

Looks like Taylor Harwood-Bellis arrived. He made his debut against us and got hammered. Followed by a couple of narrow defeats against Ipswich and Middlesbrough before the 25 game unbeaten run. Perhaps there were tactical tweaks too, but on the face of it he got a player who suits Martin’s way of playing. Perhaps O’Horo and Kangasniemi will do the same of us, but for me we don’t defend well as a team. We can all talk about Luke Thomas and his defensive deficiencies all day long, but when you re-watch that Stockport first goal he’s isolated within two passes. We don’t defend as a unit, that ball should not get to their winger that easily. Page and Braybrooke are both beyond the ball when we’re battling for a 50/50 from a Souttar long ball. Lundstrom is on his own with half a pitch around him. I’m not criticising Page or Braybrooke there but tactically playing with 2 very high 8’s is risky unless we have complete control of the football. Souttar, Thomas and some of the other cloggers we’ve seen this season like Okoli and Skipp are not good enough on the ball to be able to take that risk. You lose the ball cheaply, you can’t get back in shape, you get punished. Even at this poxy level That’s where Martin is too inflexible for me. There’s nothing wrong about having a preferred way of playing, but, you need to adapt depending on the players you have available.

63 in total. 9 of which were against us. 5 at home, 4 away. But that’s still 54 in their other 44 games. In fact just checking Southampton's results from that season they conceded 16 in the first 6. 4 twice and 5 away at Sunderland. He’s not a defensive minded coach in any way and I suspect all the work on the training ground is about how you set up with the ball it’s getting done on the transition that is Martin’s absolute Achilles heel. Yes we’ll probably concede a few brain fart goals playing out from the back this season, but he’s always going to gloss over that as risk reward. But we seem so susceptible when the ball gets turned over, there’s gaps all over the pitch because of the high 8 positions. Any team with a modicum of sense will set up exactly how Oxford did, wait for us to make a mistake and hit us on the transition. And we’ll never learn

100% conjecture. But I think from the money that we’ve banked, and the wages saved from the outgoings, we’ve given ourselves enough headroom to operate this season. It satisfies Macquarie, and it satisfies any further payments on old transfers (Skipp etc) Operating costs are high but were seemingly adhering to the Salary Cost Model thing. So there’s no real necessity to cash in on Page. Yet Next season will be a different story, and no doubt we’ll all be frustrated seeing the academy jewels sold in the next 12 months, but in the here and now Page is a difference maker. It’s no surprise that the 3 better performances have come with him in the deep laying playmaker role, opposed to Skipp in the first 3 games where we were honking. If Page keeps playing how he’s been playing they’ll be teams queuing up for him next season and we can potentially demand a higher fee The other side is having a potential £10m asset in the ranks inflates the value for any prospective buyer. If Top’s looking for a sale and can point to a player that is wanted by Man U it’s an important and attractive selling point. If your academy is producing a stream of Monga’s and Page’s then Seagrave isn’t the massive millstone round our neck that some folk make it out to be

I can definitely see a scenario where Thomas and Reid both start again. With Ipswich on Tuesday i can see McFarlane and Bristric both starting that instead and RM keeping the same team today. I really really hope not, I’d even accept Reid starting if it meant Thomas was binned off. Thomas was absolutely diabolical last week, you can’t put in a performance like that and expect to keep your place. The fact Notts County knew to target him, rather than a young academy lad making his debut at right back says so much about him as a footballer

Thought I’d give it a couple of hours before posting. Sometimes it good to not be so knee jerk Positives Academy lads - I thought they all gave a good account of themselves. Braybrooke and Jospeh stand outs. Building around these lads is the only way we’ll get back to any kind of success Pressing - When we lost the ball we pressed and either won it back straight away, or forced an error. For the last two years we’ve been far too passive so this was great to see Negatives Moved to ball far too slowly - All the good things from pre-season evaporated after 30 seconds. Literally. Too many safety first passes time and time again. I’m all for controlling the game, but there has to be possession with purpose. Not whatever that was Mavididi - Just get out of this club All in all kinda what I expected, it’ll take time to get up to speed. Okoli and Skipp just aren’t the right fit for a Martin team, add Thomas to that too. If we’re building from the back you need players who can handle the press, Okoli and Thomas will always turn back and Skipp doesn’t show for the ball. Whoever we play against, whether it be Man City of Bromley that is how those three play football. Cut our loses and get players who fit to the system. Cullen was invisible for 90% of the time, but when he did get involved looked good. Bobby Reid is not a footballer let alone a number 9. Onwards to Notts County. We’ll get better but I want 4 or 5 of that squad out before the close of the window because it just clouds my judgement and makes me hate this club all over again

Yes. Between accounting years 2021/2022 & 2024/2025

There’s nothing groundbreaking or anything we didn’t already know. All the analysis is based on the accounts for 24/25 with some educated guesses as to what the reality is like today. 7 consecutive years of losses totalling £393 million. The last 4 of those was a cumulative £272m. In English football only Chelsea, Villa and Spurs made bigger losses The rest of the article breaks it down, but it all boils down to high wages to turnover, high player expenditure, lack of big player sales, losing assets for free, low commercial revenue and a reliance on Macquarie for cashflow. All very grim, but nothing we don’t unfortunately know

Nobody said that about Ayew. There was universal criticism for that signing, Cooper was obsessed with adding premier league experience to a squad that had spent the best part of a decade in it. It was terrible business from an ability and financial viewpoint and I can’t remember any polarising opinions in the Jordan Ayew transfer thread. It was disbelief Burns, your point is very valid and that’s the concern, his experience, and ability (if fit) should complement the squad. Financially it’s a gamble and I think we’re all sick of KP gambling with our finances

9 in the cups. 7 in the league

A lot depends on outgoings over the next few weeks. Assuming both the Burns and Bristic deals go through we’ll have a squad of around 24/25 without anymore incomings. That includes Aluko, Joseph, Braybrooke, Page and Alves. But no more academy lads stepping up this season. We’ve only got a bench of 7 subs this season too. For Neale, Carr, Evans and Gray to get the minutes they need for their development they’ll have to go on loan It’s a bit disappointing, Neale especially I was really impressed with, but he’ll come back an even better player after 12 months of men’s football If our squad is still bloated, and we don’t get the above 4 good loan moves by the end of the window we have failed massively

I wonder if it’s a bit of a shit or bust strategy from KP. The sale valuation of the club is well below what they are willing to accept, if we go up it will increase to a level that would be acceptable, so signings like this that aren’t financially savvy will then be someone else’s problem. It’s a risky strategy and I’m sick of the club being treated like a gamblers play thing Having said that, I do rate a fit Wes Burns. On the pitch it makes sense, off the pitch, not so much

What we saying? The season proper starts on Saturday, Will any of the new signings make their debuts? Will big Russ trust the kids. Will Wout Faes be captain?

I’m completely torn by the business we’ve done this summer. I can argue pro’s and cons for both sides. Realistically, for the future of the club we absolutely have to get promoted this season, I don’t think that’s hyperbole, without promotion then administrators is around the corner. We’ve sold nearly all the assets we have left, and the talented kids we have coming through are being picked off by Man City before we can even hope to flip them for profit. Braybrooke, Nelson etc are down to a year or two on their contract. So I get why we’re not being brave and totally trusting the academy, but I also have no faith in the club to identify and sign the correct players on the budget we should be sticking to. Proper Schrodingers football club at the moment