Top Robin

49 minutes ago, Johnny Musicworks said:

Unfortunately Anis and Cornick have not delivered as yet and Knight and Roberts may need time. Only Dickie looks comfortable out of our recent signings. It’s not a great situation just now.

 

That is a poor showing.

It doesn't give me too much confidence in the ability of Nige to recruit the right players.

Or is it that once they get here they regress.

Aside from frustration for us fans, they are also also expensive mistakes in terms of £s

Cant imagine managers in the mould of Thomas Frank or Roberto de Zerbi messing up like this.

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

2 1/2 years.

This is not his squad of choice.

This is a squad of compromise.

This summer should really have been the kind of squad he took over with a solid set of finances behind the club, to allow him to build “his squad” in “his image”.

 

 

Rubbish.

Why do people keep making excuses for him.

12 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

Forgotten how much of a mess this place is after a defeat. Suddenly everything and everyone is wrong.

You'd think we'd all be used to it, but I'm sure it never used to be this mental, even when we were in a much worse state than we are now.

I think fans are frustrated that Pearson has had 3 years to create an attractive and consistent team and that perhaps this season may have been the turning point after very average previous seasons.

When they see barely any chances created in our first 3 games of this season and 2 of those 3 games are dire performances, then justifiably some do start to worry.

Just now, ChrisBW said:

I think some of the signings are highly questionable 

Nige has has 3 years to get together a team and squad' of his choice - some may say that is long enough. 

It's a worry that we still aren't great, but we should really give him a few more games this season to get some more consistent performances. 

If things aren't better in 4 ot 5 games then questions need to be asked.

No, not yet,  but I can see her managing a club side up to Championship level first.

15 minutes ago, TheReds said:

Seriously? 

The bar must have seriously been moved down if this thread is classed as a "tirade of criticism and abuse". Abuse ffs.

Yeh maybe not abuse...more condescending and taking the p*ss

Blimey....Magger1 just came up with a perfectly reasonable suggestion, albeit not worded particularly well, and he has been met with a tirade of criticism and abuse from some who have clearly woken up this morning spoiling for an argument.

Like us, he's a City fan who wants them to do well and felt that a big striker may be the option.

To be honest, if it were a big target man but with good feet skills, it may be worth a punt.

And it's up to personnel at the club to decide if they want to take this route and who to target and how much to spend...that's what they are paid to do.

Really good performance.

Defence looked tight and organised.

We seemed to have most possession and chances.

Thought the subs made us look better.

1 hour ago, Roe said:

Crazy that Bournemouth alone have given us nearly 50 million over the last few years

It's embarrassing and and shameful, and emphasizes our historic failure over  the past 40 years.

Great shame

Imo we have not had a big quality keeper who dominates his box, is good on crosses, dishes out instructions from the back and we can feel 100% confident with for 10 years or more.

8 hours ago, maxjak said:

The only aspect that is strange?...is your over reaction to an inconsequential friendly that is designed to get players fit, and the new recruits to blend in.  I assume you did notice that we had 2 completely different forty five minute sides? Which is quite unlikely to happen during a league match?

8 hours ago, maxjak said:

No........that is NOT the case,  any Happy Clappy references are just a sad distraction.  My problem is with the  pedantic over reactions to inconsequential  training exercises labelled as friendly matches, which will have absolutely no bearing on our performances over the coming 2023-24 season.  Who cares if we conceded 2 goals...it is about getting fit, and seeing which cream rises to the top during pre season, so a team is developed and organised ready for the real games to come?  Any meaningful or   relevant criticism of the team at this stage is pointless, misleading and  just plain dumb?  .  

Strange?

1 hour ago, maxjak said:

Thanks Dave, for your voice of reason............seems like the kneejerkers are back........though, did they ever really go away?        

FFS! - some of us are little bit disappointed that we let in 2 goals in 25 minutes against a non- league team - not that the team is shite and we will go down this season! 

Nobody has said any more than that but you are blowing it up our of all proportions.

There are so many on here that are so happy clappy that they are frightened to make any criticism, no matter how small.

13 minutes ago, DaveF said:

@Top Robinwhat can you tell us?

I have special powers

Just now, Davefevs said:

Nah….

Dave...even if we go on to win 6-2...it is not good to concede 2 goals against a team like Torquay 

I know it's only a meaningless friendly but to concede 2 goals in first 25 mins against Torquay is a bit of a worry.

Many of you know that I have never been a great fan of Nige but I am willing to give him a chance for the first part of next season.

I really hope that the new players and improving existing players can turn us into very good side.

However, this is now a 'Nige team and squad' and therefore the buck stops with him. If things don't go well in the first few matches, questions must.be asked.

But let's hope we do well and don't have to ask those questions.

Really sad news

Glad he's not coming back to us. 

I am not seduced by the fact that he is an ex favourite City player.

Frankly, now he is not really good enough if we want to progress. 

I want Scott to stay but if he is going, I wish it would happen soon - we need to find a replacement and bed him in for next season or completely rehash that midfield. 

14 hours ago, Percy Pig said:

And also had an 8 game unbeaten run before Naismiths injury. 

We played much better football in that spell than at any time during our other good runs. 

 

Welcome Rob.....bout time we had a big hard nut in the team.

2 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

In all seriousness, this is the legacy of Ashton that many posters who have been critical of Nige have dismissed as "excuses". 

Ashton gutted the recruitment team and forced out Burt, brought in his own sycophants and ensured that he was the de facto "head of recruitment". His ego meant that he needed to ensure that without him the entire operation would be redundant.

Since then we've recruited Tinnion into the lead recruitment role, time will tell whether he's good at it or not, but I like the early signs. I also like that there seems to be an open and honest relationship between manager and Tins, they are aligned and are now recruiting to a plan. Previously it was a scattergun mix of basic analytics, "money ball" and trying to turn players into profit. The clubs you mention recruited to a system. A system that has been in place longer than any individual coach or manager. 

We are at the start of the process those clubs embarked on. We've cleared the dead wood, cut our outgoings and embedded a blend of Youth and leaders. Now recruitment becomes important. Those clubs started somewhere. It wasn't overnight. That's where we are now and hopefully it comes to fruition. 

Genuinely Percy, do we have people or contacts abroad looking at young players on the continent?  

I've been thinking about the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth, Brentford, Luton and similar when they were in the Championship.

They seemed to have a really good scouting system to the extent that they brought in players from around the world and domestically at relatively low cost and who may have been under the radar.

These players seem to have transformed those teams to the extent that they have been promoted.

When they were in the championship, they were not considered attractive clubs so someone is doing an amazing scouting and selling job.

I genuinely haven't got a clue how our scouting system works but, I can only assume that it is not as good as those I mentioned.

2 hours ago, Keepers Ball said:

I cannot congratulate Luton. Or Coventry if they had won. I find it embarrassing and if I'm honest a little bitter.

It wasnt that long ago Luton were in the Conference. 5 bloody years!

Then you had Coventry. Slowly going down the leagues, ending up in League 2 and often homeless.

Both make our outfit look like amateurs

What he said. 

It's a disgrace and shameful that the likes of them have sailed past us.