The playing squad is a disgusting mess

[les-tah]

On 15/03/2025 at 00:29, Gerard said:

Bringing in Skipp for £20m was ridiculous, signing a player well into his 20's that we all knew everything about. The Tottenham boardroom must have been high fiving each other just like the Liverpool boardroom about Danny Ward (yes I said it before we bought Ward).

 

Paying good money for players well into their 20's who have proved they're not good enough and are at peak value is ridiculous. We know all there is to know about them and they're not good enough, players like Skipp, Ward and Praet while we're at it should only be coming here for nominal fees or on a Bosman, £50m squandered on players who had little room for potential improvement and not good enough to walk in the first XI, we deserve everything we get. 

Skipp was genuinely a PSR scam gone wrong for Rudkin and Levy has been laughing and telling the story about it to his mates since “the day i conned Rudkin if he buys Skipp we will buy someone from you”

[coolhandfox]

It's not great, but it's been lead by two morons in Cooper and RVN.

 

I still believe a competent manager would get more out of them.

[Stuntman_Mike]

3 hours ago, justfoxes said:

Matt Piper on Radio Leicester basically said to put the kids into the first team the likes of Monga, Golding, Evans and recall will Alves from Cardiff they’ll play their hearts out for the club, I’m tending to agree with him some of the players Ruud picks seem to be going through the motions for end of season and moving on so play the young lads bring some fighting spirit back to the fist team !’

They should, but the board will want to save face and continue to hope things turn with the dross they've bought. The fact they think things might turn without change is what's comical and just further adds to their incompetence. 

[Wortho]

Ayew and Edouard are two examples of incompetence. Every football fan knows that Ayew is slow and lazy, and at 33 he’s on the way out. I bet Palace couldn’t believe we’d buy him and loan the other.

There’s another ten to go through but I can’t be arsed. The most pathetic and laziest team in my 50 years!!!

[filthyfox]

I just received a email from club marketing!

 

"bag a deal!  241 on shit defenders not fit to wear the shirt that noone else wants!"

[Nalis]

Mads has to be the only player who might get poached who we would actually miss.

[Lambert09]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHRe19qyu-P/?igsh=ZXRzMTQzNXl2NWxu

[ClaphamFox]

38 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHRe19qyu-P/?igsh=ZXRzMTQzNXl2NWxu

Story of our season…

 

 

[Steve Earle]

5 hours ago, Nalis said:

Mads has to be the only player who might get poached who we would actually miss.

Mads is the only player we have now who would get in the relegation XI of 2023. That tells you two profoundly awful things:

 

1 how on earth did 22/23 end in relegation? Top? Rudders? Brendan? The most avoidable relegation ever. 

2 how far we’ve fallen under the same incompetents in two years 

[Foxy-Lady]

11 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

It's not great, but it's been lead by two morons in Cooper and RVN.

 

I still believe a competent manager would get more out of them.

but who decided/recommended to appoint them....and all the others that we're probably still paying off?

 

Doesn't matter which way you slice & dice this complete s**t show of an equation, it still all comes back to the same person.....and do we really still want him in charge of the next re-build that is going to have to happen over the next 2 years?

 

We are in a lot of financial trouble right now with an over-paid and ageing squad, minimal re-sale value....and the need to buy fresh blood to strengthen and re-build our squad for next season.

this is going to need some "seriously" good wheeling and dealing from hereon to try and sort out this mess that's been created and we cant afford to get it wrong AGAIN so i am genuinely concerned that the owner is going to leave the responsibility of that rebuild with the same guy that has largely got us into this mess in the first place......RUDKIN

 

Definition of madness?    "Keep doing the same thing the same way and expect to get different results...!"  

 

 

[Foxy-Lady]

11 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

It's not great, but it's been lead by two morons in Cooper and RVN.

 

I still believe a competent manager would get more out of them.

maybe, but marginal gains are not going to solve this mess for us now....it goes way deeper than that!

 

Personally, im not convinced even Slot, Klopp or Guardiola could do much with this group of players right now.

[kingfox]

We dropped the ball, simple as that. 
 

Recruitment team often get stick, but our recruitment in the Championship last season was pretty solid. 
 

Going into the Premier League for any newly promoted club, I feel it’s extremely important to build a solid spine. We needed a Premier League quality CB, CM & ST, we didn’t get any. 
 

Cooper’s obsession with wanting Premier League experience has partly fvcked us over. Wanting a certain profile of player mixed in with what Maresca wanted is a terrible mixture. Some of the crap we’re lumbered with will probably stay with us in the Championship next season, a depressing thought. 
 

We have wasted a season due to an incompetent managerial appointment and recruitment. 
 

Criminal. 

[Phil Mitchell]

There’s more passion in calling out multiple threads than the board and it’s quite concerning

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, Foxy-Lady said:

maybe, but marginal gains are not going to solve this mess for us now....it goes way deeper than that!

 

Personally, im not convinced even Slot, Klopp or Guardiola could do much with this group of players right now.

Sport is all about about marginal gains.

 

To overcome a lack of quality you need to be organised, well drilled, fit and well motivated to out work and out run the opposition.

 

Good at set pieces, good at game management, good at exploit the opposition weakness, make good decisions.

 

 

 

[ClaphamFox]

42 minutes ago, kingfox said:

We dropped the ball, simple as that. 
 

Recruitment team often get stick, but our recruitment in the Championship last season was pretty solid. 
 

Going into the Premier League for any newly promoted club, I feel it’s extremely important to build a solid spine. We needed a Premier League quality CB, CM & ST, we didn’t get any. 
 

Cooper’s obsession with wanting Premier League experience has partly fvcked us over. Wanting a certain profile of player mixed in with what Maresca wanted is a terrible mixture. Some of the crap we’re lumbered with will probably stay with us in the Championship next season, a depressing thought. 
 

We have wasted a season due to an incompetent managerial appointment and recruitment. 
 

Criminal. 

I've said this before but it bears repeating: when Maresca left, the top two names on our shortlist were apparently Graham Potter and Steve Cooper - the former representing a clear continuity from Maresca, the latter a clear departure. Two completely different types of manager. Had Potter accepted the job, we'd have likely targeted the same or similar players to those we would have targeted had Enzo stayed; as Potter turned us down, however, we went in a completely different direction with Cooper. The subsequent signings of BDCR, Ayew and Skipp would almost certainly never have happened if Maresca had stayed or Potter had taken the job - they were signed for Cooper. Then a few months later Cooper was sacked, immediately rendering those signings pointless. 

 

The fact that the club was prepared to go into two completely different directions with managers (and by extension player transfers) is symptomatic of the mess we're in. That would not have happened at Brighton, Brentford, Fulham or Bournemouth - all clubs that have historically been smaller than us but are currently in a much better place because they have a clear sense of identity and a coherent approach to manager and player recruitment. We look like rank amateurs in comparison.

Edited 18 March by ClaphamFox

[Fightforever]

14 hours ago, fox_favourite said:

This is where the current crop of crock are shooting themselves in the foot. People will look at them and see they're not good enough, so won't get the wages they're on here so will sit it out. 

 

It's not one thing that is wrong, it's the whole footballing side. From players and their wages, to manager choices, to coaches and that goes right back to who is in charge of that side of things. 

 

It's a shambles. It's obvious the players and manager are quitting. Doing the minimum to still get paid and not accused of breaching contract, but not doing enough to make any difference. Vardy looked drained of enthusiasm in the last game, it's affecting him as well. He's the only one showing any emotion to the situation in his body language. Others just don't give two hoots. 

 

 

This part hit the nail on the head so perfectly, they've given up.

[Steve Earle]

1 minute ago, ClaphamFox said:

I've said this before but it bears repeating: when Maresca left, the top two names on our shortlist were apparently Graham Potter and Steve Cooper - the former representing a clear continuity from Maresca, the latter a clear departure. Two completely different types of manager. Had Potter accepted the job, we'd have likely targeted the same or similar players to those we would have targeted had Enzo stayed; as he turned us down, however, we went in a completely different direction with Cooper. The subsequent signings of BDCR, Ayew and Skipp would almost certainly never have happened if Maresca had stayed or Potter had taken the job - they were signed for Cooper. Then a few months later Cooper was sacked, immediately rendering those signings pointless. 

 

The fact that the club was prepared to go into two completely different directions with managers (and by extension player transfers) is symptomatic of the mess we're in. That would not have happened at Brighton, Brentford, Fulham or Bournemouth - all clubs that have historically been smaller than us but are currently in a much better place because they have a clear sense of identity and a coherent approach to manager and player recruitment. We look like rank amateurs in comparison.

100% true. And it’s worse than that @ClaphamFox. Enzo was plan B after our first choice, Scott Parker. Another couple with similar visions, not.

Then, when we decided, rightly or wrongly, to get rid of Cooper, our shortlist of two was Potter (for the 3rd time) & Moyes. I mean, in what world would a competent board even consider both? It wouldn’t happen at Brighton or any of thx other clubs mentioned in your post.

And you’re forced to wonder if the club even contemplated both Potter and Moyes turning them down. Because plan C was a pure punt, not remotely evidence based. 

[GraceRoader]

13 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

It's not great, but it's been lead by two morons in Cooper and RVN.

 

I still believe a competent manager would get more out of them.

So the man who had this disgusting mess out of the relegation zone was a moron? 

[kingfox]

1 hour ago, ClaphamFox said:

I've said this before but it bears repeating: when Maresca left, the top two names on our shortlist were apparently Graham Potter and Steve Cooper - the former representing a clear continuity from Maresca, the latter a clear departure. Two completely different types of manager. Had Potter accepted the job, we'd have likely targeted the same or similar players to those we would have targeted had Enzo stayed; as Potter turned us down, however, we went in a completely different direction with Cooper. The subsequent signings of BDCR, Ayew and Skipp would almost certainly never have happened if Maresca had stayed or Potter had taken the job - they were signed for Cooper. Then a few months later Cooper was sacked, immediately rendering those signings pointless. 

 

The fact that the club was prepared to go into two completely different directions with managers (and by extension player transfers) is symptomatic of the mess we're in. That would not have happened at Brighton, Brentford, Fulham or Bournemouth - all clubs that have historically been smaller than us but are currently in a much better place because they have a clear sense of identity and a coherent approach to manager and player recruitment. We look like rank amateurs in comparison.

Continuity is the perfect word. Maresca’s departure clearly threw a spanner in the works, but we simply didn’t build on what he left. We’ve seen this season what can happen when you veer off course. If Potter didn’t want the job, fair enough, but you then target someone with a similar profile. Cooper being on the list in the first place, as you say, shows zero planning and identity. 
 

Just when we started to get back on a positive track with Maresca, yet more mistakes have set us back again, I sincerely hope they don’t actually set us back years, because we’ll quickly turn into another Norwich/Watford. 

Edited 18 March by kingfox

[Chrysalis]

On 18/03/2025 at 06:42, foxinsocks said:

We have players earning wages so big we can't move them on.

So, 1. Never offer a wage that is more than an acquiring club would pay.

2. In year #3 of a four year contract you offer an extension (without breaking rule #1).  If thr player declines it then sell them.  End of.

3. Do not sign or resign players over 33... make soace to promote academy players.

It can be done but it needs some balls, one of the reason the previous Arsenal DoF is highly rated is he forced players out from the club on massive wages like Ozil.  He basically said you not welcome at the training ground any more **** off, and the player then had a dilemma to sit and home ending their career for the salary, or moving on, the targeted players chose to move on.  Yes they want higher salaries, but they dont want to retire early either.  We dont have the balls to play that poker game to get them out.

 

It would also help if we actually accepted offers for players as well, we have turned down many offers for fringe players, because we have become obsessed with paper valuation.

[Bibby]

On 18/03/2025 at 17:26, Steve Earle said:

Mads is the only player we have now who would get in the relegation XI of 2023. That tells you two profoundly awful things:

 

1 how on earth did 22/23 end in relegation? Top? Rudders? Brendan? The most avoidable relegation ever. 

2 how far we’ve fallen under the same incompetents in two years 

Sorry, Mads has been complete Ben and Jerry’s since he’s been back. Think of the worst flavour.