Now he's settled in is Hughton doing that much better than Hyypia?

[BBassic]

For me he's doing better by simple virtue of the fact that, when I turn up to watch us play, I don't have that horrible gnawing apathy in my gut about an inevitable loss.

In short, he's given me hope which is something SH never did.

 

[nwgull]

Staying up is the priority. If that happens with 0-0 draws and 1-0 wins then so be it. Hughton brief is to keep us up whatever then look forward.. I think he will do it, under Hyypia we would have been relegated no doubt about it in my mind.

This. We earned 1 more point by not scoring last night than we did on Saturday.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

What worries me is another summer of rebuilding...then the old problem of new players settling in etc etc, dallying around with transfers, new players not having a pre-season. What would be lovely would be a string of results to get us a few points clear and start the process of getting ready for next season in March / April - not going to happen though is it.

I cant guarantee anything I hope lessons have been learned, bearing in mind the car crash of last summers recruitment (and it all started with the Ward dilly dallying) and the fact that the man responsible Burke has now departed means that we start the process EARLY and have aour squad in place bar one or two beforew we embark on pre-season.

 

[Icy Gull]

I cant guarantee anything I hope lessons have been learned, bearing in mind the car crash of last summers recruitment (and it all started with the Ward dilly dallying) and the fact that the man responsible Burke has now departed means that we start the process EARLY and have aour squad in place bar one or two beforew we embark on pre-season.

Errrr dream on, Burke did not set the budget and I would be surprised if he had anything to do with the delay in signing players, that will have come from the very top in a cost saving exercise. Blame him for the quality of players but I don't think you can blame him for the ****ing about.

 

[Biscuit]

I don't agree that the players aren't good enough, just that they need a little bit of extra quality in certain positions sprinkled in to the mix,

But then you need a mix of quality to get results, not just one good winger (Buckley), one good striker (Ulloa) or one good midfielder (Bridcutt). You need quality about the park. That's what's so worrying. We haven't just not reinvested in one area, we've completely ignored the holes left or signed woefully inept replacements.

Our team as it stands is poor, but could easily be good with just a couple of new additions. I guess that's what's so frustrating.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Our squad is expensively assembled and the most rewarded ? You have to be joking surely.

We sold all our best players before the season even started and replaced them with arguably a League 1 squad. Neither Hypia or Hughton can do much about that. We have not really made significant changes in the January transfer window to bring in better players or ship out the less well performing ones ( yes I know about Calunga and Kayal but the problem is much more widespread than that ).

If this squad has been expensively assembled then the club has been ripped of for mostly average players and Burke deservedly should have gone.

Hughton can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, and I'm afraid our players just aren't putting in the necessary work rate that a relegation scrap needs. If they want to stay in the Championship, they've got to show a bit more fire in their belly.

 

[Ernest]

We will spend all Summer looking for a new manager, appoint him a day before pre season starts and get a squad cobbled together with out of contract and loanees sometime after the season has started after Hughton quits or is sacked

 

[Don Quixote]

We seemed best with Jones.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Errrr dream on, Burke did not set the budget and I would be surprised if he had anything to do with the delay in signing players, that will have come from the very top in a cost saving exercise. Blame him for the quality of players but I don't think you can blame him for the ****ing about.

Sadly it very much was Burkes fault. After all this is a man who signed Toko and "chased" Ballsack all summer. Who only agreed to sign Ward at the last min. If we had got in earlier he would have signed. With literally ten days to go we had Casper as No1 and CMS and Fenelon as our strike force. It was a car crash and the buck stops with him. Then as Aspinall said on the radio that scouts identified players that Burke just ignored or didnt even consider. The list of Burkes failings go on. And on.

 

[Julio]

Our squad is expensively assembled and the most rewarded ? You have to be joking surely.

We sold all our best players before the season even started and replaced them with arguably a League 1 squad. Neither Hypia or Hughton can do much about that. We have not really made significant changes in the January transfer window to bring in better players or ship out the less well performing ones ( yes I know about Calunga and Kayal but the problem is much more widespread than that ).

If this squad has been expensively assembled then the club has been ripped of for mostly average players and Burke deservedly should have gone.

Hughton can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, and I'm afraid our players just aren't putting in the necessary work rate that a relegation scrap needs. If they want to stay in the Championship, they've got to show a bit more fire in their belly.

Like it or lump it, they are the facts. Didn't say they are the best. CMS, Stockdale, Baldock - they are three of our 4 (maybe 5) most expensive ever signings. According to Tony Bloom the squad as a whole is the most lavishly paid.

 

[Marshy]

I think we are looking a better side, we are creating plenty of opportunities in my opinion, just not taking them

We scored 2 on Saturday, hit the woodwork 3 times and had several other excellent opportunities.

Simple to say I know... but take some of our golden chances, stop giving away soft goals and we will be fine

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

I think we are looking a better side, we are creating plenty of opportunities in my opinion, just not taking them

We scored 2 on Saturday, hit the woodwork 3 times and had several other excellent opportunities.

Simple to say I know... but take some of our golden chances, stop giving away soft goals and we will be fine

I agree, but Forest scored 3 goals ( and pretty soft ones at that ) - not really acceptable at home - the defending needs sorting out.

 

[jimbob5]

Let him off the home loss to Brentford but the losses to Forest and to the pool means the jury is out. It kind of backs up the argument that we were right AT THE TIME to give Sammi some time [wrong in hindsight but we don't live in hindsight].

 

[Rogero]

He is not settled in yet. He is still getting his team together. If Sami was here would would be down with Blackpool.

 

[perseus]

Motivating the players will help. KLL couldn't have looked more disinterested if he'd tried, for the 20 mins he was on the field.
I don't see the fight for a relegation scrap in our team.

It does not mean anything. The technical disinterested "scientist" is no less capable than the "street fighter" and at Championship level we need both.

Two players with guile: Gerrard and Nugent always seem to look disinterested in the latter years and both are getting on a bit.

Lualua tackles back sucessfully better than any of our forward players. I think he is more suited to the central role as he can kick with both feet and go either way. On the touchline his change of direction is limited by the exactly that, the touchline.

 

[perseus]

I think we are looking a better side, we are creating plenty of opportunities in my opinion, just not taking them

We scored 2 on Saturday, hit the woodwork 3 times and had several other excellent opportunities.

Simple to say I know... but take some of our golden chances, stop giving away soft goals and we will be fine

With a 50% conversion rate of good chances we should have beaten Forest 5-2 (one of Forests was not even a good chance, just an Albion **** up). It was three points we needed and lots of people left early and missed the best bit. The miracle escape by Forest in injury time was something not to miss. I was aghast that the ball somehow did not go into the net. I thought a second afterwards that surely it must be a goal as I did not expect the net to bulge. I don't think I have seen anything quite so close, not even in a Cup Final.

 

[stss30]

We have been royally ****ed over by Burke, lets hope Hughton can get this poor team to safety then big changes will be made. He is still far better than Hyypia and has given us a fighting chance of survival.

 

[fleet]

Simple answer - yes. We were never going to stay up under Hyypia, now I am reasonably confident that we will.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I think relegation was nailed on with Sami , we now have a fighting chance with Hughton. Some of the players (including loanees) we have are not good enough and have to be replaced.

 

[big nuts]

Hypia had the defensive nous of Kevin Keegan and attacking prowess of Paul Lambert.