If we go down... | Page 2 | Vital Football

If we go down...

Parachute payments, who'll be sellable when we go down, we'll not be in a good position if we go down et etc.

FFS God (CW) is now an atheist? He's gone from turning journeymen water drinkers into vingate wine drinkers to Mike Bassett in the blink of an eye.

It's been a very odd year so one more experiment- imagine last season , football wise, was this season, our first one back on the gravy train.
We're struggling, ref's decisions are going against us, players are making mistakes,we're getting injuries affecting the team and the rhythm and we're in a dogfight.Just what we expected last season.
Instead we exceeded all expectations, CW had the Midas touch and , next season( which is now this one if you're following closely!) we'll smash it again.

No, we've just swapped season 1 and season 2 around.

It'll be a roller coaster, it'll be more like what we expected (feared) last year but, somehow we will survive.We'll be better established- into season 3- and then we can turn up the dial on our expectations - and we'll have had 2 yrs PL money ( notwithstanding Covid)
 
Calm yer tits, calm yer tits...

I didn't say we'll go down. I don't think we'll go down. But I do think we'll struggle, after an underwhelming transfer window. And if we do drop, it's worth thinking about what state we'd be in.

I don't think Egan would go, although it's obviously possible. He's over rated by our fans.

O'Connell might go, but I'd fancy him to stay after this injury lay off. Especially if the market is still not back to normal (one where Brooks stays in the Championship is far from normal).

Fleck could leave, but it would depend on his season. And the amount wages would drop.

We'd be more in our element recruitment wise. The types of signings that are fuck ups at this level, won't be in the Championship.

It would be fascinating to see what Wilder would do with a top Championship budget.

And let's be honest.... a successful season in the Championship is far more enjoyable than this garbage we're going through now.
agree 100 percent
 
Right, it's time to plan.

Relegation this season is forgivable, and not irrecoverable.

But we have to make sure the rot doesn't set in, and avoid the hangover.

That means new signings. Players who are hungry. The squad needs to be fresh. A careful balance needs to be struck.

Baldock, Berge and Mousset will leave. Possibly Fleck and O'Connell. Luncunt will be gone. Brewster will stay because we won't allow him to score a PL goal.

I think we'll be able to field this team from the current squad:

Ramsdale
Basham Egan O'Connell
Bogle Norwood Fleck Stevens
McGoldrick
McBurnie Brewster

That team could get us back up, for sure. But as part of a relegated squad there could be difficulties, especially if it's an embarrassing relegation. So new blood is vital.

So some suggestions...


Ben Pearson - This is the main one. And we should do it in January, with his contract expiring. Aggression, determination, quality, leadership. Middle of the pitch. I'd back him to replace Norwood. He'd play a massive part in keeping the squad fresh and motivated.

Daniel Johnson - Another PNE player with only 6 months left on contract. Quality left footed attacking midfielder who's gone up a level in the last season or so. Could replace Fleck if he left, or play as the number 10.

Jake Cooper and Ben Davies - Ideal O'Connell replacements if he leaves. Davies also has 6 months left. Cooper would be more costly but he'd be perfect.

John Swift - Would be excellent as our attacking midfielder in the Championship. If there are no major injury concerns with him anyway.

Luke Freeman - Get him fucking back. Major point to prove.

Rhys Norrington - Promote him to the first team. Stevens might be a spent force and Lowe........ well.


I'd like us to be left with a line up of...

Ramsdale
Basham Egan O'Connell
Bogle Pearson Fleck Osborn
Freeman
Brewster McBurnie

The technical quality and goalscoring capability is a level up from the team we got promoted with.

Oh and most importantly, Wilder needs to reset himself.
 
Planning for the Championship with 29 games to go? To many points to play for yet as long as there's four teams in the mix there's a chance.
We can only speculate if Wilder will be sacked or walk, which players will stay and the state of the clubs finances. Wilder hopefully will refocus and turn it around or at least give it a decent go.
 
Not impossible to stay up at all. But it doesn't look good. And not planning for relegation at this point would be negligence, even more so if we're adrift in January.
 
Planning for the Championship with 29 games to go? To many points to play for yet as long as there's four teams in the mix there's a chance.
We can only speculate if Wilder will be sacked or walk, which players will stay and the state of the clubs finances. Wilder hopefully will refocus and turn it around or at least give it a decent go.


Normally I'd agree
I watched a Sheffield United team not win in the first 17 top flight games under Bassett.

But it was different, that team tried to make things happen, you could see a win coming from somewhere.

This lot will take the record low points award, and one that will never be worsened.
I remember Derby "achieving" it all those years ago.

I said at the time that the record is safe for a while and it would only be beaten if we had another Premier League appearance.

It's the kind of embarrassment that's just been waiting for us to claim
 
Normally I'd agree
I watched a Sheffield United team not win in the first 17 top flight games under Bassett.

But it was different, that team tried to make things happen, you could see a win coming from somewhere.

This lot will take the record low points award, and one that will never be worsened.
I remember Derby "achieving" it all those years ago.

I said at the time that the record is safe for a while and it would only be beaten if we had another Premier League appearance.

It's the kind of embarrassment that's just been waiting for us to claim

I'm not saying they can get out of this position, but planning for the Championship after 9 games just a little early for me. Relegation to the 4th was an embarrassment relegation from Premiership not so much.
 
I haven’t given up but I hope the same goes for some of our players. Do the players now think that they’re not worthy or good enough to play like they used to and show teams far too much respect?

I do wonder if some of the post match criticism from Wilder inferring that his players were playing a league above their ability has eventually worked against him. I didn’t like him saying it at the time and it worries me that some players have started to believe it. He slammed them hard again after the Leicester away game and we haven’t won since. The odd performance has been ok-ish but it‘s hard now to even comprehend how we beat Wolves Spurs and Chelsea on the bounce right before the rot set in. To be honest those 3 games apart we were pretty meh in all the other games after football restarted and remember that O’Connell and Henderson were playing for us so we can’t pin the losses against Newcastle, ManU, Leicester, Everton and Southampton on losing them.

But as long as enough teams continue to struggle as well I think there is certainly enough time to turn this around, but I suspect that the solution will lie as much with the sports psychologists as on the training ground for players and manager alike.
 
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I do disapprove. That's bad moderatorship. You've made me look an even badder Blade than I already do........
 
I haven’t given up but I hope the same goes for some of our players. Do the players now think that they’re not worthy or good enough to play like they used to and show teams far too much respect?

I do wonder if some of the post match criticism from Wilder inferring that his players were playing a league above their ability has eventually worked against him. I didn’t like him saying it at the time and it worries me that some players have started to believe it. He slammed them hard again after the Leicester away game and we haven’t won since. The odd performance has been ok-ish but it‘s hard now to even comprehend how we beat Wolves Spurs and Chelsea on the bounce right before the rot set in. To be honest those 3 games apart we were pretty meh in all the other games after football restarted and remember that O’Connell and Henderson were playing for us so we can’t pin the losses against Newcastle, ManU, Leicester, Everton and Southampton on losing them.

But as long as enough teams continue to struggle as well I think there is certainly enough time to turn this around, but I suspect that the solution will lie as much with the sports psychologists as on the training ground for players and manager alike.

I think a lot of our problems still lie with the fact we got conditioning completely wrong during lock down. The players were over trained and have looked knackered after an hour ever since. We don't press anymore, we're slow to the second ball. The much shorter period between the seasons hasn't helped with less rest time.

All aspects of our play are slow and languid. Yesterday we started with a bit of a zip and it petered out after 10 minutes. First half we competed well and there was nothing between the teams. Second half the same old story. Opposition press a bit further up the pitch we look clueless in how to deal with this and have nothing left in the tank after 55 minutes.

CW is the right man for the job but he has to accept that simply doing the same things week in week out on and off the pitch that are failing isn't helping the players. The obsession in keeping with a 3-5-1-1 formation that relies on an overlapping LCB that we don't have is costing us points because we are creating little and without JOC are considerably weaker at the back. He has to look inward not just at himself but his coaching and fitness teams. The senior players have a role to play but it doesn't help when the only real goal poacher at the club is not even on the bench when we are at Home in a must win match.

The Prince tweeted support for CW last week so he's going nowhere for the time being. CW has to show he's open to change, if the owner, the fans, players and staff see attempts to arrest the slide then we'll all get behind him. Whilst he continues in this stubborn vein of saying what we did in the past has worked well and listens to the likes of Moyes that there's not much wrong with the team when his average set of plodders have just won at the Lane for the first time since 1968 he will continue to flounder.

We all want him to get out of this he's earnt the chance to do and it would be his greatest achievement if he kept us up this season. We have to hope that he really does have a plan B.