Going backwards in every respect

[symyjym]

Embargoes on teams who already have the quality players?

Yep I have thought this myself and it could be a problem. All the clubs who know they will probably face an embargo are stocking up with the best pick of players, I would.

This will mean that they will show the door to their worst players who will be cheap to pick up. Every club has their own FFP strategy and I am not too sure that we have been thinking outside the box on this, and have taken too strict an approach without looking at different scenarios and what will happen if our plan backfires.

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we are one of the best supported clubs in this division and the primary target should be to keep it that way and ride on top of that wave.

If we don't do better than Bournemouth with 12k gates this season there is something fundamentally wrong with our strategy either with FFP or the way we are projecting ourselves to potential signings in the market.

Still, that said, I cannot judge the rest of the season on a game where we were down to 10 men, and we still might get some important signings before the window closes. Hopefully some discontent being shown amongst fans may make them try harder because if we treat the club like the Emperor's New Clothes we wouldn’t be helping them.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

If Bournemouth finish above us this season Im not renewing my season ticket. Absolute disgrace. One club one ambition my arse. Yesterday was utter utter dogshit. Worrying frankly. As a team we are REGRESSING.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

That is a very worrying trend. The apathy is quite distinct.

We have not been good enough in the last two seasons and are now very much depleted. The club hides behind silence and very little substance at the forum.

The silence is deafening.

Frankly I was bored stiff last year and we only achieved the play-offs due to other clubs "blowing up".

I fully appreciate FFP and the need for the club to follow it etc etc but please can we have something to get us excited.

This.

As I say yesterday was utter dogshit and its gettimg worse not better.

I EXPECT us to beat dogshit teams like Weds. Make no mistake they were poor. Im ok losim to better teams -hell last year at the amex barmsley were awesome amd fully deserved their win - but weds? Never in a million years and yet we still gift them three points. Not. Good. Enough.

 

[ewe2]

I know it cant be helped,but starting the season,with the window still open,is not ideal . The club have proclaimed the squad ,will be competitive come the end of August.I for one am prepared to give the club that time. I can only hope the squad that is assembled is competitive for a top 6 finish,and not a bottom 6 scramble......!

 

[Hungry Joe]

I feel horribly conflicted about what is going on at the club right now. I've supported the playing-by-the-FFP-rules approach up to now as I don't see a responsible alternative, but the fact that we had so few for the S'hampton friendly, followed by what was a baffling team selection and very average performance yesterday, just screams that we need some quality signings and some names to put bums on seats and get some excitement back. For that to happen we'll have to gamble and splash some cash.

I actually enjoyed some aspects of the game and our new style yesterday, it was the quality to deliver that was lacking.....again. In the same way that Oscar didn't have the players available to play the beautiful game to the required standard, Hyypia hasn't (as yet) got the players to play a more attacking, direct game. That's certainly not his fault, but I really can't say for certain whether you can blame the club either given the reality of FFP. One thing that struck me watching the FLS last night was the drop in quality in every Championship side from last season. The new FFP-enforced late transfer dealings and less money available for signings/wages across the board are hitting all already it seems.

IF we are able to land the likes of Clayton, Ward and Baldock by the end of the transfer window things will look a whole lot rosier. If we don't we're in for a long old season and we may end up relying on teams who are in a considerably worst position in terms of finances and/or stability in order to not end up looking over our shoulders at the wrong end of the table.

 

[Driver8]

Once the clubs with parachute payments and those ignoring or trying to cheat FFP have finished their squad building things will start to move for the rest of us.

Then players wanting a move will have to be more realistic in their wage expectations.

 

[jackrussel]

O'grady is slower moving than the people repairing the roads in Brighton

 

[somerset]

Right. Glad I've got your attention. Obviously it's the first game of a long season. Obviously the transfer window closes at the end of August and we appear to have several irons in several fires. Obviously playing with 10 men against a team as adept at time wasting as Wednesday is never going to turn out well. Obviously we still have a club, The Amex is lovely, the seats are padded yada, yada, yada.

Nevertheless I am about to wet the bed. Regular readers on here and of last season's blog will know this is actually out of character. I understand FFP. I understand how much money TB has put in and, no, I don't have that much myself. I understand we have the best Academy in the country and this is going to give us a rosy long term future. So I have to say:

When you start with Shamir Fenelon and O'Grady in the Championship where once it was Barnes and Ulloa you are going backwards. When you have to play your reserve right back as a left wing back you are going backwards. When you play another ex-devteam squad player as one of two holding midfielders when his major weakness is tackling you are going backwards. When you no longer have Mathew Upson reading the game and controlling the spine you are going backwards. When your answer to this is to put on an overweight, out of favour player with the pace of a snail on mogadon and who cannot accurately pass a bottle of port you are going backwards.

This squad doesn't need three or four additions. It needs major surgery.

Correct .... its getting near tipping point for me, my 300 mile round trip is nearing its expiry date,..... Premier League prices for League one fare...... if you want to call it bed wetting, hey, you are mistaking me for someone who gives shite.

 

[bhawoddy]

Correct .... its getting near tipping point for me, my 300 mile round trip is nearing its expiry date,..... Premier League prices for League one fare...... if you want to call it bed wetting, hey, you are mistaking me for someone who gives shite.

Unless there are a few players coming in between now and sept there will be a few more expiry dates from people who live a lot closer. IMO

 

[somerset]

O'grady is slower moving than the people repairing the roads in Brighton

I thought he looked useful,... certainly contributed more than Buckley, JFC and Agustein.

I am also at a loss to understand what the hell is our coaching team doing having Kaz on the pitch and asking him to play close to the middle line,..... we all know Kaz needs the ball wide and early, then let him do his stuff. Buckley was the same once he came on, drifting inside all the time.

 

[Hometownglory]

Dissappinting to think the days or signing Bridge, Upson, Ulloa and Vicente are already behind us! Taking FFP into consideration we must still have some sort of budget to get some quality in at least. The suits have a few weeks to turn things around though and give us fans some excitement and optimism.....

Also, some passion from the dugout is maybe order of the day!

 

[Sheebo]

Agree with everything op - also re the time wasting I think they were the worst I've seen. So frustrating. And a ref that did nothing about it and seemed oblivious too. Also a couple if woeful offside decisions that were just unreal.

But yes we were also shit. As were Wednesday!

 

[origigull]

I am also at a loss to understand what the hell is our coaching team doing having Kaz on the pitch and asking him to play close to the middle line,..... we all know Kaz needs the ball wide and early, then let him do his stuff. Buckley was the same once he came on, drifting inside all the time.

We lacked width yesterday without proper wingers. Trying to use our backs as wing backs just didn't seem to work well. They had a hard time trying to beat their man and cross the ball. There was no getting down to the byeline and crossing. They seem to cross from 18-25 yards which made it little more difficult for the forwards. Maybe in time they will get used to the systems used by Sami . . but have we got time? Its not a weeklong fix.

 

[drew]

Spot on - massively complacent attitude at the club at the moment - this squad is not good enough

Unbelievable dumb post. Do you not think that the club are trying to sign players. Do you think they should broadcast to the wide world the details of ongoing negotiations? I was not happy with the game yesterday but I do believe the club are working hard to bring players in but will not do so at any cost.

You see, this is my problem with all the bollox spouted on here. Nobody knows what is spoken about behind closed doors, althouth there are a lot on here who would have you believe they do. As i have said on here numerous times, we don't know who we are looking at, how many we are close to signing, an how many we miss for various reasons, we don't even know the reasons, for christs sake. Every thing the club does in the recruitment department seems extremely professional to me, if we miss players, we miss them, but, I would bet that we move heaven and earth to sign the pkayers we would like,some won't come cos of the wages, some wont come because of length of contract, and some like, shall we say a little sweetener, that we are not prepared to pay. But to imagine that the club hierarchy doesn't want success is bordering on madness, and very disrespectful to Tony Bloom etc. Judge the transfer window when it closes, not before

Agree with this.

According to Bloom/Barber at the fans forum our new academy got the highest rating in the country. From that perspective it is the best academy in the country. That doesn't mean it is the most successful, or most productive, but then it's only been open a few minutes, it's not likely to top those charts yet.

We only have the highest rating for facilities. It will be quite a few years before players start coming through to the first team and become saleable assets.

Embargoes on teams who already have the quality players?

But that was always going to be the case. Until FFP has been applicable for a couple of years there will always be disparity. However, does your comment apply to Forest who spent big all season and still finished below us!

 

[the wanderbus]

No, you haven't but none of us are close enough to the finances to know how close we are. If we make no signings and have a profit next year, I am 100% with you - that is crap. But we do know the start point is losses of £14m for year to 2013, which has to be reduced to £5m by year ended 30.6.15, a £9m improvement. Yes, we have £11.5m from Ulloa and Bridcutt (lets assume we get £8m for Ulloa) and TB is committed to spending some of that. You may be right - it is all too little too late - but Ithink we need to give them to at least 31 August before judging. Personally I think the acid test will be next january, when embargoes potetnially hit with a consequence o lower fees and wages.

I don't understand all this "we've got to 31st of August" bollocks,we haven't, we had until yesterday to be ready for the start of the season and we weren't. any signings between now and the end of the window should be to augment a virtually complete squad not to bring in the essentials. There are 15 points to play for this month, we have already dropped 3, how many of the remaining 12 do you think we'll pick up with the squad we've got? Theres no guarantee we'll be able to get the players we need either permanently or on loan and if we don't we are right up shit creek .

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I don't understand all this "we've got to 31st of August" bollocks,we haven't, we had until yesterday to be ready for the start of the season and we weren't. any signings between now and the end of the window should be to augment a virtually complete squad not to bring in the essentials. There are 15 points to play for this month, we have already dropped 3, how many of the remaining 12 do you think we'll pick up with the squad we've got? Theres no guarantee we'll be able to get the players we need either permanently or on loan and if we don't we are right up shit creek .

Personally I find it horrifying that huge numbers of fans can see that giving the rest of the division a 15 point start is a bad idea, yet the club seem stupidly blasé about it, like those 15 points couldn't make the difference between promotion/relegation. Maybe it actually needs a brush with relegation to shake the club out of their current apparent complacency. Could be that all the recent promotions and play-off places have made them think its all a piece of piss and you can turn out any shoddy kind of product and rise to the top without trying all that hard. Time for a massive wake-up call methinks.

 

[Ernest]

Personally I find it horrifying that huge numbers of fans can see that giving the rest of the division a 15 point start is a bad idea, yet the club seem stupidly blasé about it, like those 15 points couldn't make the difference between promotion/relegation. Maybe it actually needs a brush with relegation to shake the club out of their current apparent complacency.

It's ARROGANCE, Barber telling us to pipe down he knows better than any of us

 

[aolstudios]

Personally I find it horrifying that huge numbers of fans can see that giving the rest of the division a 15 point start is a bad idea, yet the club seem stupidly blasé about it, like those 15 points couldn't make the difference between promotion/relegation. Maybe it actually needs a brush with relegation to shake the club out of their current apparent complacency. Could be that all the recent promotions and play-off places have made them think its all a piece of piss and you can turn out any shoddy kind of product and rise to the top without trying all that hard. Time for a massive wake-up call methinks.

Nail. On. Head.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Personally I find it horrifying that huge numbers of fans can see that giving the rest of the division a 15 point start is a bad idea, yet the club seem stupidly blasé about it, like those 15 points couldn't make the difference between promotion/relegation. Maybe it actually needs a brush with relegation to shake the club out of their current apparent complacency.

Complacency, never! I am sure the Board have never even put up a scenario of relegation since they know very well that even should the unthinkable happen then attendances would remain near 20,000 at least. Pies might need to come down a tad, but tickets would still roll out. After all, nobody (least of all on here) would want to be called a JCL or fair-weather fan would they?

 

[El Turi]

If Bournemouth finish above us this season Im not renewing my season ticket. Absolute disgrace. One club one ambition my arse. Yesterday was utter utter dogshit. Worrying frankly. As a team we are REGRESSING.

Depressingly, Bournemouth have a much better squad than us at the moment.