Not Another..we Just Dont Need Them

[Andy Horsman]

Did they achieve relegation last season?

No, but having just about survived, we are weaker now than we were, as others have pointed out. Had Pompey not had points deducted, we would have finished 4th from bottom! Are you and Dave seriously advocating that that side does not need reinforcements?!!!

[Guest]

Every time i tap in to the forum it seems we have suggestions or links with another nondescript player who we should sign or who has allegedly been seen in cabot or in a motorway cafe with Del...we dont need any more players.!!!

The squad we have is perfectly adequate.. Now del has to earn his corn and get the best out of them, motivate them, improve them and most importantly get the balance of the fist team and tactics right.

Tactics and formation should vary against every team you play and the players on the periphery of the squad should be capable of stepping into the breech and doing a job accordingly.

Take out the top 6 teams in the championship and the bottom 6 in Divison 1 and all that are left are average professional teams with average professional players..so unless you are signing someone from The Premier League who has perhaps a couple of seaons left in him or someone from the top 6 Championship teams who has shown something consistent then your just buying average which is what we already have.

In fact I would say that some of the city First team if they improve as I expect them to in the next couple of seasons are certainly good enough to play in the lower sector of the Premier League.

Yet every day it seems theres a new post linking us with every tom dick and harry...Do you really think that any of these players are better than those we have already...The answer is a simple no they are not.

Footballers are delicate little flowers they need watering feeding and encoragement to grow...if a player is average by 24/25 he will always be average no matter if hes being paid 21/2 week in Div 1 or 5k a week in the championship.

So no more talk of these stupid signings lets do the job with the materials we have.

Who do you see as a potential Prem player? I don't see anyone who has the remotest chance of playing in the Prem.

Our squad is full of very average to poor players, and I include Adomah in that, unless we sign 3 to 4 very good championship standard players, and move on some of the average ones we will struggle this season.

Would you agree that to dominate possession you need to have a decent midfield, I don't think one of our midfield players can be described as decent, Skuse is half decent, but injury prone during matches, as for the rest, they either can't keep possession, can't pass or can't tackle.

The defence doesn't have a leader if Carey isn't playing, and we don't have a goalscorer capable of getting into double figures.

I'm really disappointed that Del hasn't secured some players who will improve us, and that has to be due to SL pulling the plug on finance.

Our wage bill has been reduced by 80 -100K PER WEEK by the release of Johnson, Hunt, James, Maynard, McCallister, Clarkson, Riberio, JCR etc,

If that money is being saved and little of it goes back into the wage budget we are in trouble.

[Super]

It is insane to say we don't need any players. This squad at the moment is the poorest in the championship. Can the OP tell me who he thinks we will finish above with no new players?

[Brislingwood Red]

Did they achieve relegation last season?

It was pretty bloody close and we're not as strong (if you could call us that) due to player exits. Do you want to go through that again?

[Brislingwood Red]

Who do you see as a potential Prem player? I don't see anyone who has the remotest chance of playing in the Prem.

Our squad is full of very average to poor players, and I include Adomah in that, unless we sign 3 to 4 very good championship standard players, and move on some of the average ones we will struggle this season.

Would you agree that to dominate possession you need to have a decent midfield, I don't think one of our midfield players can be described as decent, Skuse is half decent, but injury prone during matches, as for the rest, they either can't keep possession, can't pass or can't tackle.

The defence doesn't have a leader if Carey isn't playing, and we don't have a goalscorer capable of getting into double figures.

I'm really disappointed that Del hasn't secured some players who will improve us, and that has to be due to SL pulling the plug on finance.

Our wage bill has been reduced by 80 -100K PER WEEK by the release of Johnson, Hunt, James, Maynard, McCallister, Clarkson, Riberio, JCR etc,

If that money is being saved and little of it goes back into the wage budget we are in trouble.

Superb post.

[screech]

No, but having just about survived, we are weaker now than we were, as others have pointed out. Had Pompey not had points deducted, we would have finished 4th from bottom! Are you and Dave seriously advocating that that side does not need reinforcements?!!!

It's madness to continue to believe that throwing more money at it that we'll somehow survive financially. Fans are so quick to spend on the credit card every pre season, never given a moments thought of the future. There were 2 very bad runs last season, with a pre season behind Mciness who knows what the players can achieve. Johnson showed that with the right amount of belief in the players, you can go high in this league. You surely dont become a manager just to throw money at a problem, let the man coach the team.

We have Stewart, Carey, Fontaine, Wilson, Cunningham, Nyatanga, Edwards and Foster for defence, can we really afford another? If there was a mistake made it was keeping Carey on, we should have looked for another option.

In midfield we have Skuse, Kilkenny, Elliott, Morris, Adomah, Pearson, Adomah, Bolasie, Woolford, again that's a lot of first team players.

Up front, we maybe are short with just Taylor, Stead and Pitman, but if the idea is to play 451, we will not need to load the forwards with too many.

In goal we have Gerken and a young keeper who will cover for the bench, if Gerken gets a sustained injury we can loan in from elsewhere. Nearly all of our squad now are first teamers, and that's how it should be, we simply can't keep spending money we don't have.

[MrVinta8]

Every time i tap in to the forum it seems we have suggestions or links with another nondescript player who we should sign or who has allegedly been seen in cabot or in a motorway cafe with Del...we dont need any more players.!!!

The squad we have is perfectly adequate.. Now del has to earn his corn and get the best out of them, motivate them, improve them and most importantly get the balance of the fist team and tactics right.

Tactics and formation should vary against every team you play and the players on the periphery of the squad should be capable of stepping into the breech and doing a job accordingly.

Take out the top 6 teams in the championship and the bottom 6 in Divison 1 and all that are left are average professional teams with average professional players..so unless you are signing someone from The Premier League who has perhaps a couple of seaons left in him or someone from the top 6 Championship teams who has shown something consistent then your just buying average which is what we already have.

In fact I would say that some of the city First team if they improve as I expect them to in the next couple of seasons are certainly good enough to play in the lower sector of the Premier League.

Yet every day it seems theres a new post linking us with every tom dick and harry...Do you really think that any of these players are better than those we have already...The answer is a simple no they are not.

Footballers are delicate little flowers they need watering feeding and encoragement to grow...if a player is average by 24/25 he will always be average no matter if hes being paid 21/2 week in Div 1 or 5k a week in the championship.

So no more talk of these stupid signings lets do the job with the materials we have.

Every squad in football looks to improve at the end of every season. Even if you finish top of the prem , you still need to improve your squad, for lots of reasons. The fact that we struggled at the bottom of the leaguhaving just escaped relegation would suggest that we need to improve in lots of areas, in particular the spine of our team!

[The Kaiser]

No new players = relegation.

Absolutely correct.

The current side is bottom 3.

[Welshback]

There's being drunk... And there's being deluded, you automatically win stupidest post of the year due to your first sentence.

Bravo

Fair comment that.

[The Kaiser]

We have Stewart, Carey, Fontaine, Wilson, Cunningham, Nyatanga, Edwards and Foster for defence, can we really afford another? If there was a mistake made it was keeping Carey on, we should have looked for another option.

In midfield we have Skuse, Kilkenny, Elliott, Morris, Adomah, Pearson, Adomah, Bolasie, Woolford, again that's a lot of first team players.

Up front, we maybe are short with just Taylor, Stead and Pitman, but if the idea is to play 451, we will not need to load the forwards with too many.

In goal we have Gerken and a young keeper who will cover for the bench, if Gerken gets a sustained injury we can loan in from elsewhere. Nearly all of our squad now are first teamers, and that's how it should be, we simply can't keep spending money we don't have.

Of that -

What I would call decent quality defenders of a mid to higher quality in this league - Fontaine and Foster. Possibly Cunningham I would think.

Stewart is not. Carey should not have been given another year, he is too old now. Nyatanga is not good enough for this level and Wilson is young.

Midfield -

Cisse is a massive hole. Which Marv will turn up this season? Skuse, Kilkenny - both holding men - where is the creative guy.

I can't believe that sack of shite Woolford is actually still here.

Forwards - Woods is a big miss. We started last season with the best striker in the league. Stead is ok and I like Pitman but thats about it.

We need a creative midfielder, we need a decent centre back to partner Fontaine and we need a covering keeper at minimum if we are going back to Gerken.

This is far from a squad good enough for anything other than keeping our heads over water.

** I should add we need a striker I think and a midfield squad possessing Bolasie and Woolford. Need I say more?

[Cunnyfunt]

The squad needs improving.. That's so obvious to see. We have been crying out for a creative/goal scoring midfield player for years and id be do glad if this was addressed. One of the reasons why we survived last season is because of the loan signings at the back end of the campaign and they aren't with us anymore!! So it's clear new faces need to be brought in!! This has to happen otherwise we are in for a tough struggle again as the other teams are getting stronger!!

[screech]

Of that -

What I would call decent quality defenders of a mid to higher quality in this league - Fontaine and Foster. Possibly Cunningham I would think.

Stewart is not. Carey should not have been given another year, he is too old now. Nyatanga is not good enough for this level and Wilson is young.

Midfield -

Cisse is a massive hole. Which Marv will turn up this season? Skuse, Kilkenny - both holding men - where is the creative guy.

I can't believe that sack of shite Woolford is actually still here.

Forwards - Woods is a big miss. We started last season with the best striker in the league. Stead is ok and I like Pitman but thats about it.

We need a creative midfielder, we need a decent centre back to partner Fontaine and we need a covering keeper at minimum if we are going back to Gerken.

This is far from a squad good enough for anything other than keeping our heads over water.

Well, when does the club start taking responsibilty for it's finances?

It might appear I am whining over something trivial because good old Steve is there in the background, but we have heard this for at least 5-6 years that the club has to stand on it's own two feet. Whether the players are percieved good enough or not, the fact is there are plenty of players on the books to cover, adding more players without shifting a few is financial suicide (again). We can't keep saying next year all the time for getting the club to run as a business. If we can sell a few then bring someone in, but the numbers are already there in the squad, it's up to the club to shift the surplus on before we bring more in, otherwise it's another year going by with ridiculous losses to cover.

[The Kaiser]

I think we have to cull the squad, I don't disagree with your point about how many there are.

But seriously, we are including shite like Bolasie and Woolford in those numbers.

I mean we could draft in my 6 a side squad and say we have "cover", it doesn't mean our Big Dave who we have up front will be anything other than midweek 6 a side standard.....

We should be taking some ownership for signing crap like Woolford which is why we may struggle to move him on.

We were never going to sell someone like McAllister - hence he was only ever being released in my mind.

The club will have to run as a business and signing dross which we can't then shift is not helping.

However if we don't bring in better quality, I fail to see the current squad keeping us up.

I would like to think a decent manager like McInnes doesn't need telling this anyway.

[FanaticRed]

The OP is just looking for attention, he must be bored.

[Andy Horsman]

It's madness to continue to believe that throwing more money at it that we'll somehow survive financially. Fans are so quick to spend on the credit card every pre season, never given a moments thought of the future. There were 2 very bad runs last season, with a pre season behind Mciness who knows what the players can achieve. Johnson showed that with the right amount of belief in the players, you can go high in this league. You surely dont become a manager just to throw money at a problem, let the man coach the team.

We have Stewart, Carey, Fontaine, Wilson, Cunningham, Nyatanga, Edwards and Foster for defence, can we really afford another? If there was a mistake made it was keeping Carey on, we should have looked for another option.

In midfield we have Skuse, Kilkenny, Elliott, Morris, Adomah, Pearson, Adomah, Bolasie, Woolford, again that's a lot of first team players.

Up front, we maybe are short with just Taylor, Stead and Pitman, but if the idea is to play 451, we will not need to load the forwards with too many.

In goal we have Gerken and a young keeper who will cover for the bench, if Gerken gets a sustained injury we can loan in from elsewhere. Nearly all of our squad now are first teamers, and that's how it should be, we simply can't keep spending money we don't have.

As I see it it's quite simple; reinforce or get relegated. This squad, without plugging the obvious gaps would be relegated even if Sir Alex and Jose were in charge, so no disrespect to DMc!! If SL wants to own a League 1 team in a shabby stadium again, he just has to keep his wallet shut. In an ideal world we would produce 2-3 youngsters each season who may well make the grade, thus reducing the reliance on buying players, but up to now our Academy has been fairly pointless in terms of producing youngsters who can make it as 1st team regulars at this level. The Academy, it would appear, despite previous rhetoric of intent, is now going to be striving to rectify that situation. That major evolution may take a few years, so in the interim we need to keep spending whether it's on proven quality or with an improved scouting network, on unearthing 'raw diamonds'.

[Tins]

We just about got away from relegation last season.

We have lost Cisse (arguably our best player last season), The artist formally known as Bikey (A key player at the end of the season) and a lot of dead wood.

We have only brought in Cunningham who will strengthen the team, Morris I don't believe will.

By loosing 2 key players and better teams being promoted than the ones relegated means it will be a much harder league.

If we don't sign 3/4 starting 11 players then we will go down. No doubt about it.

We need a CB to partner Fonts, Carey, Stewart and Wilson are not good enough.

We need a creative midfielder, who else will provide service?

And a striker to play of Stead, Pitman is hit and miss, Taylor is untried. We need a out and out goalscorer.

If we don't get these then it will be a long tough season.

[BCAGFC]

Without the loan players last season, we would be playing L1 football this coming season.

To be competitive at the top end of this division, we require at least 6 new players in various positions, to compete lower down, we need around 3 or 4.

Anything less and we will be staring at another relegation battle and without any loans, it's Carlisle United away the following season.

BCAGFC

[Sniper]

As I see it it's quite simple; reinforce or get relegated. This squad, without plugging the obvious gaps would be relegated even if Sir Alex and Jose were in charge, so no disrespect to DMc!! If SL wants to own a League 1 team in a shabby stadium again, he just has to keep his wallet shut. In an ideal world we would produce 2-3 youngsters each season who may well make the grade, thus reducing the reliance on buying players, but up to now our Academy has been fairly pointless in terms of producing youngsters who can make it as 1st team regulars at this level. The Academy, it would appear, despite previous rhetoric of intent, is now going to be striving to rectify that situation. That major evolution may take a few years, so in the interim we need to keep spending whether it's on proven quality or with an improved scouting network, on unearthing 'raw diamonds'.

Plenty of pros and cons in this thread but this point is +100.

You can phaff about all you want, talk about FFP, debate if SL is too tight when it comes to spending money on the most important part of the club i.e. what runs out of the tunnel at 3PM etc etc. At the end of the day this squad is far too weak, with not enough quality Full Stop, The teams that have come down, and the teams that have come up are probably far more equipped than us, and if we don't spend some money on some quality, WE WILL GO DOWN! Talk off all this lower league gems? Where are they? Who are they? If they are decent they will cost, so back to square one.

Alberts don't grow on trees I'm afraid.

I've asked this question many time before, but no one seems to know the answer.

What would relegation cost us in money terms? Would it not make sense to spend a percentage of this to ensure we stay up, or at least give us a bloody good chance of finishing mid table without being anyway near the trap door of L1.

[Frank Reynolds]

Every time i tap in to the forum it seems we have suggestions or links with another nondescript player who we should sign or who has allegedly been seen in cabot or in a motorway cafe with Del...we dont need any more players.!!!

The squad we have is perfectly adequate.. Now del has to earn his corn and get the best out of them, motivate them, improve them and most importantly get the balance of the fist team and tactics right.

Tactics and formation should vary against every team you play and the players on the periphery of the squad should be capable of stepping into the breech and doing a job accordingly.

Take out the top 6 teams in the championship and the bottom 6 in Divison 1 and all that are left are average professional teams with average professional players..so unless you are signing someone from The Premier League who has perhaps a couple of seaons left in him or someone from the top 6 Championship teams who has shown something consistent then your just buying average which is what we already have.

In fact I would say that some of the city First team if they improve as I expect them to in the next couple of seasons are certainly good enough to play in the lower sector of the Premier League.

Yet every day it seems theres a new post linking us with every tom dick and harry...Do you really think that any of these players are better than those we have already...The answer is a simple no they are not.

Footballers are delicate little flowers they need watering feeding and encoragement to grow...if a player is average by 24/25 he will always be average no matter if hes being paid 21/2 week in Div 1 or 5k a week in the championship.

So no more talk of these stupid signings lets do the job with the materials we have.

You really have no idea, do you?

I'd give up if I were you, you're never going to get it.

[Nibor]

We need to bring in three or four more players if we want to aspire to more than the bottom eight. That's blatantly obvious.

It's important that these players are young, hungry and talented.

We don't need marquee signings, players over 30, and ideally not players already playing first team football at this level or above. Why? Poor value.

Those kinds of players demand premium wages, and then either retire or leave on a free. We can't afford any more of that and it's what got us into this mess.

More Alberts, Pitmans, less Stewarts and Hunts. Get em young, from lower levels and bring them up to this one. They're cheaper in wages and fees, and more likely to be a saleable asset.

The hard part is getting the player judgement right, not deciding the strategy - this all ought to be obvious.

[HusseyBCFC]

We just about got away from relegation last season.

We have lost Cisse (arguably our best player last season), The artist formally known as Bikey (A key player at the end of the season) and a lot of dead wood.

We have only brought in Cunningham who will strengthen the team, Morris I don't believe will.

By loosing 2 key players and better teams being promoted than the ones relegated means it will be a much harder league.

If we don't sign 3/4 starting 11 players then we will go down. No doubt about it.

We need a CB to partner Fonts, Carey, Stewart and Wilson are not good enough.

We need a creative midfielder, who else will provide service?

And a striker to play of Stead, Pitman is hit and miss, Taylor is untried. We need a out and out goalscorer.

If we don't get these then it will be a long tough season.

cisse our best player last season!? You having a laugh, he hardly played!

[Tins]

cisse our best player last season!? You having a laugh, he hardly played!

He played 32 games for us. He was a vital part of our team under Del.

[Andy Horsman]

cisse our best player last season!? You having a laugh, he hardly played!

I thought Cisse was our best player last season by some distance.

[REDOXO]

The issue is going to be how much DM rates the fringe players and the youngsters coming through.

City have been terrible at bring on there own since AD did it and that took ten years of building. I dont get to see games as often as I would like particularly the youngsters but we have effectively got half a dozen that need to be pushing for starting spots.

Also surely Woolford will fnd some form some day. I just dont believe he is that much of a lemon!! Also Ryan Taylor could turn out to be the new Paul Cheesley or he could be the new Tony Dinning no one knows.

My instinct is that DM is still not sure what exactly he needs to cover fully....On the faceof it another midfielder, but Skuse finished the season on fire and scoring goals which we have cried out for, for years...My instinct is that if he could have kept Cissee he would not be looking for much outside the one that came in...

He has bought a full back and has cover in all defensive positions but I can see a big signing at CB with a player leaving....

As far as forwards go Who knows...I get the impression that he is not Pitmans number one fan and as such I can see see one coming in possibly two if Pitman moves on!

Either way dont panic...The season is not won in August just let the ones we have show some form in early preseason and take it from there

[Taylor10]

Fed up of people claiming we have a good enough squad to compete. It's ridiculous to suggest this and it's just people with their blinkers on.

We have had pretty much the same squad give or take a few ins and outs over the last 3 or 4 seasons. The likes of Stewart, Nyatanga, Woolford are just not the answer. What happened last season had been coming for ages. Why? Because we haven't strengthened the squad well enough and continued to give chances to the same average players who are not good enough.

Yet there are some that were shocked by our performance last season and didn't see it coming. It was all the managers fault or previous mangers fault. Nothing to do with the players being out if their depth. Pure delusion.

Pretty easy to follow.

[Guest]

The issue is going to be how much DM rates the fringe players and the youngsters coming through.

City have been terrible at bring on there own since AD did it and that took ten years of building. I dont get to see games as often as I would like particularly the youngsters but we have effectively got half a dozen that need to be pushing for starting spots.

Sorry REDOXO that is simply not true

Also surely Woolford will fnd some form some day. I just dont believe he is that much of a lemon!! Also Ryan Taylor could turn out to be the new Paul Cheesley or he could be the new Tony Dinning no one knows.

Type 'Paul Cheesley......Arsenal' into Google, then you can write an apology.

My instinct is that DM is still not sure what exactly he needs to cover fully....On the faceof it another midfielder, but Skuse finished the season on fire and scoring goals which we have cried out for, for years...My instinct is that if he could have kept Cissee he would not be looking for much outside the one that came in...

He has bought a full back and has cover in all defensive positions but I can see a big signing at CB with a player leaving....

As far as forwards go Who knows...I get the impression that he is not Pitmans number one fan and as such I can see see one coming in possibly two if Pitman moves on!

Either way dont panic...The season is not won in August just let the ones we have show some form in early preseason and take it from there

If we start the season with the squad as it is (22/07/2012) we will be in serious trouble by Christmas

[Tall King Blox]

The issue is going to be how much DM rates the fringe players and the youngsters coming through.

City have been terrible at bring on there own since AD did it and that took ten years of building. I dont get to see games as often as I would like particularly the youngsters but we have effectively got half a dozen that need to be pushing for starting spots.

Also surely Woolford will fnd some form some day. I just dont believe he is that much of a lemon!! Also Ryan Taylor could turn out to be the new Paul Cheesley or he could be the new Tony Dinning no one knows.

My instinct is that DM is still not sure what exactly he needs to cover fully....On the faceof it another midfielder, but Skuse finished the season on fire and scoring goals which we have cried out for, for years...My instinct is that if he could have kept Cissee he would not be looking for much outside the one that came in...

He has bought a full back and has cover in all defensive positions but I can see a big signing at CB with a player leaving....

As far as forwards go Who knows...I get the impression that he is not Pitmans number one fan and as such I can see see one coming in possibly two if Pitman moves on!

Either way dont panic...The season is not won in August just let the ones we have show some form in early preseason and take it from there

unfortunately common sense, patience, and trust doesnt exist on this forum...so far