AshtonRobin21

Is it possible that Nige has been given the vote of confidence by the board, to get through January at least, and the agents tweets are to encourage the fans to stay on-side?

Feels like the beginning of the end.

A very good performance, as was Peterborough (away) last season IMO. But the Middlesbrough game was a standout, the ‘sweeper’ role seemed to suit him very well.

Potentially controversial opinion: IF, and only IF, Nige continues to keep Atkinson out of the team, I would like to see Joe Williams play the ‘sweeper’ role again. I think the Middlesbrough (Home) match last season, was the best game Joe has played for us. But we haven’t seen it again since. This would allow Scott to play in midfield alongside James, and Weimann to play as the ‘10’, where he thrived last season. Sykes or Tanner can then operate as the RWB.

As it stands, Nige probably has 1/2 games to save his job. No chance we start adding to the back room staff now.

I would look to Ainsworth. Motivator, no budget, strong defence, players would run through walls for him. Its where we are at. Forget Wilder, the guy fell out with Boro owners because he demanded they spend £10m on Gyokeres.

Said that it’s a good job our next couple of games are away. I couldn’t believe it.

The post-match interview does not make for good listening.

Am I right in thinking that we still haven’t won a Home 3:00pm kick off yet?

Started the game with a midfielder playing as a centre back. Finished the game with a different centre back, playing as a midfielder. Meanwhile, we have last seasons 22 goal top scorer playing right-wing back. Things do not look good, at all.

Nige said today in his press conference that HNM has made the decision to “run the clock down”. Also went on to say that upon arriving at the club, They highlighted HNM as someone who could be sold for a decent fee, but no offer was forthcoming. Lots of insightful information in todays press conference.

I think todays press conference was a subtle nudge to certain players agents to try and speed up a move for them in January. I believe we have players lined up, ready to sign, but cannot complete the deals until outgoings are confirmed. I also got the impression that we may be willing to terminate (‘mutually agree’), should it mean we can sign someone. Klose being the one, in this case. Personally I believe the 3 are: - Bentley - Martin - Klose (contract termination?) I don’t think Massengo will be in this category, as we have known for some time that he wasn’t signing the deal. I think he already has something lined up for January.

That’s a big positive. Credit to him because that must have been some pay-cut that he agreed. Superb professional by all accounts.

Since getting to the prem, a lot of their business is conducted overseas, in particular Denmark. Youssef Poulsen (Leipzig) is one who suits the profile that they look for.

I put them on at the start of the season to get relegated. I got 17-2. Put £20 on.

Tbf, Cardiff is a very good example of a club that has been managed as badly as we have. One key detail is that they have been a prem club in recent history. Whereas we have spent excessively without ever being promoted. Cardiff look to be in an awful position this season. A poor playing squad, with very little re-sell value. We are lucky enough to still have assets. However, we need to look at extending those contracts in order to protect their maximum value.

I don’t think it will be great reading on our part. Yes the market crashed. But this (making a loss on players) has been ongoing for a sustained period of time. Other teams will have suffered some loss, but not to the extent that we have had, with record signings walking out the door for free.

Pato was a good signing in my opinion. My issue is that 6 months after leaving us, there was talks of top 6 teams willing to pay decent money for him. I believe he would thrive in the side we currently have. He still had value, that we didn’t maximise, if offered a deal, he would have stayed.

My issue with the manner in which we released Hunt, was that we never had a replacement in place. I don’t think there’s any doubt that he was on a downward trajectory, but we still somewhat needed him. We were hoping for a miracle with Adelakun. Back in the days where we would chuck £600k around like it was nothing, on players who hadn’t played championship football before. Tried it multiple times, it very rarely/never worked.

Your right, Smith was a steal for the price we got him for, and as you rightly state, we had 6 fantastic seasons out of him. I got lost in memory lane when naming players from that team… the last time we looked competitive. The others however, all make a case for the poor strategy we implemented.

Not as costly, but the following all signed for fees and left for free: Marley Watkins Jack Hunt Jamie Paterson Korey Smith Callum O’Dowda All were circa £1m signings. With O’Dowda costing more. Overall, there’s a huge number of players we signed for a fee, who left for free. Doesn’t make for great reading at all.

I can’t remember too many announcements from the club regarding contract extensions, bar the customary “one year option exercised”. We’ve been stung too many times in the past from ‘expiring contracts / last year of deal’ forcing transfers. Bryan, Reid, Brownhill to name a few. We waited until they had outgrown us, before trying to negotiate extensions.

Great point regarding re-sell value. We simply didn’t protect ourselves. Add in our inability to renew contracts of key players, and it brings us to where we currently are. A flawed plan, that was followed for far too long.

How many of those named, were purchased for a large fee? Sure they are players who were the best performers at their respective clubs, and were huge losses, but they certainly were not record signings such as ours. I fully agree RE: pandemic and it’s impact, but we have always seemed to struggle to extend contracts for key players.

We have suffered some huge losses from our big money signings. - Kalas (expiring) - Diedhiou (gone - free) - Palmer (gone - free) - Dasilva (expiring) - Bentley (expiring) - Wells (expiring) Thats close to £30 million worth of transfer fees, set to leave / have left for no financial return. Have I missed anyone?