Is this the worst Albion team...

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Not at all. You said 'we haven't got a 15-20 goal striker' and given that O'Grady scored 15 last year I'm just pointing out that's an opinion, not a fact.

I didn't say otherwise. And since he's only fallen short because of injury, it doesn't mean he's not capable of scoring that many.

We'd like to sign one, but that doesn't mean we don't currently have a player capable of getting 15.

You're welcome. Thanks for the thumbs down

Sorry, didn't realise I'd given you a thumbs down, I'm on a mobile and I'm not always that accurate, let me redress the balance.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Not the worst, but the most disjointed. A victim of circumstances, I feel that this year (in the very least) will be a transitional period where the new (3rd at the Amex) manager can take some time to develop what he as got, weed out the unwanted, bring in his own players and ideas along with some developing youngsters hopefully.

This will NOT happen overnight.

Wasn't that the plan for Oscar, but he grew disillusioned and walked?

 

[chaileyjem]

Wasn't that the plan for Oscar, but he grew disillusioned and walked?

Or acknowledged it wasn't right for him. He's not publicly said anything about his reasons for leaving.

Is implication with these thoughts that *any* manager once aware of the, IMO, sensible albion set up (ffp, a recruitment team, more focus on development, no desire to overspend, effective CEO) would leave. ?

That makes Oscar and Sami pretty naive . That said both are relatively inexperienced coaches/managers.

 

[Stuart Munday]

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's our worst team/squad of the Amex era but I do think certain area's of the team are looking at their weakest, mainly left back, creativity and goal threat. The worrying thing is we're 8 days away from the start of the season, we've run out of pre-season friendlies and we still don't look any nearer to signing the players we need. I get the feeling that if we don't make a few significant signings between now and Tuesday then the likes of Tony Bloom, Paul Barber and Sami Hyypia could be in for a bit of a rough shunt at the fans forum.

Oh I don't know we will probably get the debate about the price of pies, why I should get a ticket for Portsmouth and can the club buy their own rolling stock etc etc etc

 

[spanish flair]

Or acknowledged it wasn't right for him. He's not publicly said anything about his reasons for leaving.

Is implication with these thoughts that *any* manager once aware of the, IMO, sensible albion set up (ffp, a recruitment team, more focus on development, no desire to overspend, effective CEO) would leave. ?

That makes Oscar and Sami pretty naive . That said both are relatively inexperienced coaches/managers.

You are presuming that Oscar got what was promised at his interview and along those lines, none of know what Sami has been informed would be available to him.

 

[Triggaaar]

Not the worst, but the most disjointed. A victim of circumstances, I feel that this year (in the very least) will be a transitional period where the new (3rd at the Amex) manager can take some time to develop what he as got, weed out the unwanted, bring in his own players and ideas along with some developing youngsters hopefully.

This will NOT happen overnight.

Unfortunately I think you're right.

Sorry, didn't realise I'd given you a thumbs down

Ah fair enough Some people give them for the most bizarre things. VHA on NSC (some weird palace fan, whose first account must have been banned) has a fixation with me, and gives all of my posts the thumbs down. Someone the other day said that unfortunately Palace were better than us at the moment - I agreed, and the Palace troll gave me the thumbs down (that one wouldn't have been by mistake, as he only ever gives me the thumbs down).

 

[Luke93]

Not at all. You said 'we haven't got a 15-20 goal striker' and given that O'Grady scored 15 last year I'm just pointing out that's an opinion, not a fact.

I didn't say otherwise. And since he's only fallen short because of injury, it doesn't mean he's not capable of scoring that many.

We'd like to sign one, but that doesn't mean we don't currently have a player capable of getting 15.

You're welcome. Thanks for the thumbs down

Exactly what I posted yesterday. We have two players that are capable of score of scoring 15+ goals. However, weather they will or not is a completely different matter. I personally feel we need at least one other striker.

 

[symyjym]

Not the worst, but the most disjointed. A victim of circumstances, I feel that this year (in the very least) will be a transitional period where the new (3rd at the Amex) manager can take some time to develop what he as got, weed out the unwanted, bring in his own players and ideas along with some developing youngsters hopefully.

This will NOT happen overnight.

I thought that last year was our transitional period and that Oscar would be rebuilding the team this summer. For whatever reason we have failed to keep up with ourselves and last years plan did not pan out, so who is to say that this seasons plan will?

We have obviously got FFP bang on and we have got a state of the art academy, but we should have all learnt by now that the club is not thinking short term. By doing this the counter balance is that we are not sending out the right messages to potential players about our promotion ambitions this season so our market is small.

At the end of the day players and their agents interview the club not the other way around. We obviously got it right with Stockdale, but we need more than one successful transfer outcome before we pat ourselves on the back.

The way I see it is that if we end up lagging behind Bournemouth with only a 12k capacity, we have got it hugely wrong, which will probably effect our ST renewals next season, and maybe a drop in single match tickets this season.

Clearly there is a balance between gambling too much and gambling too little, either way we are gambling in some shape or form. Will it pay off short term? I doubt it. Will it pay off long term? possibly. Will we see a relegation like Shampton, recruit good L1 & L2 affordable players with potential like Wolves, and wait for our academy to produce, and then rise from the ashes? Maybe.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Or acknowledged it wasn't right for him. He's not publicly said anything about his reasons for leaving.

Is implication with these thoughts that *any* manager once aware of the, IMO, sensible albion set up (ffp, a recruitment team, more focus on development, no desire to overspend, effective CEO) would leave. ?

That makes Oscar and Sami pretty naive . That said both are relatively inexperienced coaches/managers.

He said we were "the only club" in the division to be weaker after the January window. What he hasn't done is clarified his role in that.

 

[chaileyjem]

You are presuming that Oscar got what was promised at his interview and along those lines, none of know what Sami has been informed would be available to him.

He'd never worked in English football before, had no experience of the championship, and was, according to TB, hard to get to know and not as engaged in recruitment as we expected or hoped. The implication is always though... Club didn't support him by splashing out on big transfers. And likewise with SH. There was a thread on here implying that SH was going to walk because of that about 6 weeks in.

For Oscar though. How about this.
Perhaps it was him not us...

 

[symyjym]

He'd never worked in English football before, had no experience of the championship, and was, according to TB, hard to get to know and not as engaged in recruitment as we expected or hoped. The implication is always though... Club didn't support him by splashing out on big transfers. And likewise with SH. There was a thread on here implying that SH was going to walk because of that about 6 weeks in.

For Oscar though. How about this.
Perhaps it was him not us...

Getting to know anyone works both ways. Did Bloom go to the training ground to get the lowdown and bond with him, or did he expect Oscar to call him and have long chit chats on the phone? Why would Oscar make the extra effort when Bloom knew where he was on a dialy basis and could have had a face to face at anytime. Unfortunately Bloom persuaded him to come here and then left him to deal with everything including deflecting the press on his behalf.

To be fair to Oscar, for Bloom to even publicly say that he was hard to get to know was not very professional and it sounded more like finger pointing. Why did he feel he had to say that?

 

[chaileyjem]

To be fair to Oscar, for Bloom to even publicly say that he was hard to get to know was not very proffessional and it sounded more like finger pointing. Why did he feel he had to say that?

I've no idea. We do know that Oscar has indicated he was going to leave before Derby and had discussed with TB. Also that TB was "disappointed" to learn Oscar had resigned 2nd hand on a train back from Derby after the Sunday play off. And unhappy he'd resigned at all given that he was left with having to start from scratch again.
(All from the interview in May that TB gave to Johnny Cantor)

 

[symyjym]

I've no idea. We do know that Oscar has indicated he was going to leave before Derby and had discussed with TB. Also that TB was "disappointed" to learn Oscar had resigned 2nd hand on a train back from Derby after the Sunday play off. And unhappy he'd resigned at all given that he was left with having to start from scratch again.
(All from the interview in May that TB gave to Johnny Cantor)

Shame that you edited out the first half of my quote that was directly responding to your previous comment. The first part of a response explanation built up to the ending, which was saying that getting to know someone works both ways.

 

[dan4bha]

don't think the personnel is the issue, although clearly some areas need strengthening.

So many players haven't been playing in their best positions this pre season (eg wingers need to be on the wings). Hope Sami either: a) realises his tactical system isn't working OR b) gets the players adapted to the system and fast.

 

[durrington gull]

...since we moved to the Amex?

Not on a wind-up or moaning, generally questioning how capable our current squad is vs our recent previous squads?

Based on our current squad at this moment in time then definitely yes

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Didn't poyet say that the quality of the players he had at his disposal might not be seen at the Amex for a long time
regards
DR

 

[TSB]

Is it worse than the one with: Sparrow, Dicker, Harley, Vincelot, Ankergren as number 1 and Painter in?
No. No it isn't.

The back five is about the same as the back five that started last year and went on to concede the second-least goals in the division.
The front line's about the same as the first season.
The midfield is almost identical to last season.
So. No. We're three players away from being top 6 and only two away from being competitive. Same as our start last year.

 

[Philzo-93]

We've won leagues with worse teams.

 

[BensGrandad]

Based on our current squad at this moment in time then definitely yes

I agree but our full squad hasnt been assembled completely yet