Am I The Only One Who Is Not Bothered One Bit?

[Esmond Million's Bung]

Just out of interest... if I were to say I was worried or not worried... what difference would it make?

 

You know, before I make up my mind.

 

Well your indecision must be a worry, so once your decision has been made, that'll be a difference.

[RedYoshi]

Well your indecision must be a worry, so once your decision has been made, that'll be a difference.

 

So if I choose to be worried, I might be less worried?

[Esmond Million's Bung]

So if I choose to be worried, I might be less worried?

 

No but at least you won't be not worried and worried at the same time, you'll be one or the other, a load off of your mind I would say.

[Guest]

Actually I do have a worry..., that we make a knee-jerk signing.

No-one is better than someone for the sake of it and even though there's only really a handful of weeks during the season where signings cannot be made.

We were very successful in that market last year... I also think we'll be up there as one of the main targets for Prem clubs sending young players to... Particularly Soton and Villa.

[phil_clevedon]

If you think the squad needs strengthening then the post was not aimed at you was it?

I don't recall using the word "disaster" either but add that in there if it makes your point more valid. Emotive words like "bordering on the hysterical"" you mean yea?

There are plenty on here who have posted that they are happy to start the season with what we have, these are the people who won't admit we are short. like the op maybe, who has quoted he is "not bothered one bit". Perhaps you should try reading his post and tie my reply in with the actual thread!

Ouch!

[Lack of Action Man]

I don't think it's unrealistic to say that it is naive or even arrogant to think that we will be able to go for the elite class of player in the championship and make enough additions to the squad through the remaining transfer window or loan market.

We are woefully short on players in the squad and all it takes is a few niggles here and there and one serious injury and we are foobarred.

For whatever reason we aren't attractive to the elite players in this league - so it has come to the point where yes actually a few (3/4) clubs in the bag are necessary.

[RedYoshi]

No but at least you won't be not worried and worried at the same time, you'll be one or the other, a load off of your mind I would say.

 

Has someone put my cat in a box again? Wish they'd stop doing that...

[collier]

I'm happy to go in to the season as we are. Perfectly happy. If we need reinforcements we can bring in a loan: Tom Ince, Patrick Bamford, Darren Bent just off the top of my head all loaned to the Championship last year and each better than we could reasonably expect to buy.

I hate the thought of a 25 man squad personally. SC doesn't do rotation so we'll be paying players for the sake of it, presumably on 2-3 year contracts with bugger all resale value. To me 25 man squad, even more than a few quality players on the bench is just dead money and expensive insurance in my eyes.

So yeah I don't care one iota if we don't make another permanent signing. I'll care if the emergency loan window closes and we've brought in no-one.

And I'm not saying it because of any reason other than I genuinely think it, and you have my reasoning for thinking it. Feel free to disagree with the reasoning.

Perhaps the real difference is in expectations. Reading your initial post you talk of teams at the top not fearing us and not preparing as we have. As it goes I wouldn't be shocked at all if we had a great season (from tenth - promotion) but equally I will not be disappointed to finish 21st, whereas it sounds as though you might.

I hope you are correct as top 10 would be fantastic for our first season back. It would be hard for me to say I would be happy to finish 21st though as it would probably mean we have a season of looking over our shoulders at the relegation zone all. That does not sound like an enjoyable first season back. I would take 21st yes, happy about it...no.

[Guest]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking play crap and nick it v cov and forest at the death... That would piss me off. I fear 3/4 clubs in the bag which are not the quality we aspire to or have the potential to get there will only inevitably drag us back to this place before it gets enjoyable.

But if we're battling valiantly and stay up through effort and transitioning to what is (imo) an incredibly competitive league, yeah job well done and I'll applaud at the end of the season.

If we go down then maybe the strategy was wrong, but I can't and won't bemoan that strategy because right now I fully support it... possibly still even after relegation if that's where it leads us.

[redapple]

I'm cool with the 11 we've got , recruiting for the sake of it is mindless , which is what footballs become . Permanent recruitment is not something to rush , and temporary recruitment is hardly difficult .

[Rob k]

Oh give over !

Give over what? You might have been happy with the summers recruitment but I'm not,

Or should I be giving it the (cringy as ****) ' in cotts we trust' bollox?

[ChippenhamRed]

Disaster? Really?? My wife supports Reading - a few weeks ago their fans were declaring their recruitment as a disaster. Suddenly the Thai owners let the manager know what his budget was (!) and they made 5 signings: 2 keepers (one of whom is young and inexperienced, one of which who is old and looks very suspect), 2 out of contract players from Hull (both of whom I wouldn't particularly have wanted at City) and one unknown striker from Portugal who isn't yet match fit. They just about managed to beat the Gas in a friendly (for large parts of the game they made the Gas look like the Championship side), lost to Crawley, drew with Swansea and drew 0-0 with Espanyol while only having one shot on target.

Compared to that, I'd say our summer recruitment, while not ideal, is far from disastrous and let's not forget, it hasn't finished yet, there's almost a month to go and I have great faith in SC and KB. However, as with everything in football, time will tell!

Singing one player having lost three, and seen all the loans return to their parent clubs, and ending up with a 14 man squad two days before the first match, is a disaster in my book. Apart from not signing Kodjia I don't see how it could have gone any worse.

[Ian M]

Whilst I don't doubt that we will be able to pick up short term loans to replace injuries, we cannot expect to have a successful season when Cotts has a bench he placed so little faith in last season that between them, they amassed half the starts a player we sold last August did! (Sam Baldock)

 

As another poster above raised, who do we bring on when Wilbs is blowing, who plays RWB if Little (who has been rushed back out of necessity) falls badly on his shoulder?

 

Managers use substitutes in modern football because it gives them a competitive advantage. This is something every opponent in the Championship currently has and we don't because, say what you like, but our manager does not feel he has a bench of 7 gamechangers. 

 

At what point does the OP care one bit? If Joe Bryan is injured mid-match and we replace him with a Right Winger? Or if Ayling has a first half shocker & is replaced by a player hitherto banished to the youth team?

[OldlandReddies]

Think we have a big advantage over most of the teams in the Championship in that we have a quality first 11 who know each others game inside out (Kod apart) having played 60 games together last season plus the team spirit is top class. Teams like QPR who have 10 new faces must hope that 1) they bed in quickly and 2) they perform. Yes, we need say 4 new faces to top up the bench but they will come either as permanent or loan signings. Hopefully the medical team at the Gate can keep giving the boys the same drugs as they had last season and lets hope it has the same result ! 

[djb6162]

[Rob k]

[djb6162]

[cidered abroad]

I am concerned about the start to this season for the reasons that follow.

Ever since I started supporting City 66 years ago, we have had the same cycle of events occurring.

Promotion, with a build up of fervour from the fans. An expectancy of good things to come, which never happens, followed a few seasons later with a return to whence we had come from.

We never have a good period of consolidation where we build up a more solid supporter base. Instead when the inevitable happens, the attendance level drops like a stone in a pond. So, unlike others such as Norwich, Leicester, Derby,Southampton, who bounce back upwards quickly and keep their attendance levels, City have to start again from the beginning.

So with last season as one of the top three years of my lifetime with City, and a feel good factor among fans that I have never seen before, I really believed that this time, we would build and build, players and numbers of fans in a way never done in my time.

This may still happen, but I am seriously concerned that our first team squad of 11 at present, while they are good enough to survive and do well, are but one step away from what we all fear, simply because in modern football, the team is eleven plus three from seven.

Confidence in football is precious and very fragile. The team and fans need to retain that and thus the back up to the starting eleven is not strong enough at present.

[wheatus59]

I am concerned about the start to this season for the reasons that follow.

Ever since I started supporting City 66 years ago, we have had the same cycle of events occurring.

Promotion, with a build up of fervour from the fans. An expectancy of good things to come, which never happens, followed a few seasons later with a return to whence we had come from.

We never have a good period of consolidation where we build up a more solid supporter base. Instead when the inevitable happens, the attendance level drops like a stone in a pond. So, unlike others such as Norwich, Leicester, Derby,Southampton, who bounce back upwards quickly and keep their attendance levels, City have to start again from the beginning.

So with last season as one of the top three years of my lifetime with City, and a feel good factor among fans that I have never seen before, I really believed that this time, we would build and build, players and numbers of fans in a way never done in my time.

This may still happen, but I am seriously concerned that our first team squad of 11 at present, while they are good enough to survive and do well, are but one step away from what we all fear, simply because in modern football, the team is eleven plus three from seven.

Confidence in football is precious and very fragile. The team and fans need to retain that and thus the back up to the starting eleven is not strong enough at present.

100% agree .

[Guest]

I am concerned about the start to this season for the reasons that follow.

Ever since I started supporting City 66 years ago, we have had the same cycle of events occurring.

Promotion, with a build up of fervour from the fans. An expectancy of good things to come, which never happens, followed a few seasons later with a return to whence we had come from.

We never have a good period of consolidation where we build up a more solid supporter base. Instead when the inevitable happens, the attendance level drops like a stone in a pond. So, unlike others such as Norwich, Leicester, Derby,Southampton, who bounce back upwards quickly and keep their attendance levels, City have to start again from the beginning.

So with last season as one of the top three years of my lifetime with City, and a feel good factor among fans that I have never seen before, I really believed that this time, we would build and build, players and numbers of fans in a way never done in my time.

This may still happen, but I am seriously concerned that our first team squad of 11 at present, while they are good enough to survive and do well, are but one step away from what we all fear, simply because in modern football, the team is eleven plus three from seven.

Confidence in football is precious and very fragile. The team and fans need to retain that and thus the back up to the starting eleven is not strong enough at present.

I think you refer to the issue directly in your post and then demonstrate it.

You refer to a cycle of we get promoted, and what follows is fervour and an expectation of good things to come which inevitably don't. But then in a few lines you say 'I really thought this year we would build upon it'.

Not aimed at you particularly but why not chill, lower the expectations, encourage a likeable squad and support the club trying to consolidate and then challenge rather than pay over the odds now resulting in us being hamstrung in future transfer windows when we are more established.

The way I see it in the FFP world and parachute payments 'building' on it the next season is virtually impossible. There's no way we could compete with QPR in this window and keep our expenditure under control. Develop our own, loans and punts like Kodjia is the way forward imo.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

I am concerned about the start to this season for the reasons that follow.

Ever since I started supporting City 66 years ago, we have had the same cycle of events occurring.

Promotion, with a build up of fervour from the fans. An expectancy of good things to come, which never happens, followed a few seasons later with a return to whence we had come from.

We never have a good period of consolidation where we build up a more solid supporter base. Instead when the inevitable happens, the attendance level drops like a stone in a pond. So, unlike others such as Norwich, Leicester, Derby,Southampton, who bounce back upwards quickly and keep their attendance levels, City have to start again from the beginning.

So with last season as one of the top three years of my lifetime with City, and a feel good factor among fans that I have never seen before, I really believed that this time, we would build and build, players and numbers of fans in a way never done in my time.

This may still happen, but I am seriously concerned that our first team squad of 11 at present, while they are good enough to survive and do well, are but one step away from what we all fear, simply because in modern football, the team is eleven plus three from seven.

Confidence in football is precious and very fragile. The team and fans need to retain that and thus the back up to the starting eleven is not strong enough at present.

 

Not forgetting 1965 to 1980 pretty much 15 years of improvement bit by bit.

[DT The Optimist]

[ChippenhamRed]

[cidered abroad]

[spudski]

I am concerned about the start to this season for the reasons that follow.

Ever since I started supporting City 66 years ago, we have had the same cycle of events occurring.

Promotion, with a build up of fervour from the fans. An expectancy of good things to come, which never happens, followed a few seasons later with a return to whence we had come from.

We never have a good period of consolidation where we build up a more solid supporter base. Instead when the inevitable happens, the attendance level drops like a stone in a pond. So, unlike others such as Norwich, Leicester, Derby,Southampton, who bounce back upwards quickly and keep their attendance levels, City have to start again from the beginning.

So with last season as one of the top three years of my lifetime with City, and a feel good factor among fans that I have never seen before, I really believed that this time, we would build and build, players and numbers of fans in a way never done in my time.

This may still happen, but I am seriously concerned that our first team squad of 11 at present, while they are good enough to survive and do well, are but one step away from what we all fear, simply because in modern football, the team is eleven plus three from seven.

Confidence in football is precious and very fragile. The team and fans need to retain that and thus the back up to the starting eleven is not strong enough at present.

What we do need to make sure, is that we don't make the same mistakes as before from when we've done well.

 

Dicks and GJ both got us places....but both ****ed up when it came to contracts....and although they brought short term 'success', both contributed to the free falls that followed soon after.

 

Agree....we should be stronger throughout the squad going into the season, but without going into the reasons we are here, a lesson needs to be learned from those two mistakes.

[cidered abroad]

Not forgetting 1965 to 1980 pretty much 15 years of improvement bit by bit.

15 years of improvement is a bit rose tinted?

Promotion 1965. Near miss the following season.

Then five or six years of constant relegation battles.

From '72 onwards, a consistent upward trend ending with promotion.

Four years of survival followed. But apart from the first four signings, Hunter, Cormack, Garland and Royle, the quality of recruitment then went downhill fast.

Jantunen, Meier, Fitzpatrick, Hay, Marshall?

When Hunter left in 1979, only Garland and Royle of the major signings remained.

So was it 15 years of improvement or just two or three? And gates of 30,000 turned into 4,000.

I dread to think how many empty seats there will be in 2016-2017, should we have anything less than an encouraging year ahead.

I am actually more optimistic than I realise and I do believe in the managerial and playing teams to do reasonably well. But the Championship is a cruel place if we have too many weak spots and the lack of quality on the bench is worrying.

[GrahamC]

What we do need to make sure, is that we don't make the same mistakes as before from when we've done well.

 

Dicks and GJ both got us places....but both ****ed up when it came to contracts....and although they brought short term 'success', both contributed to the free falls that followed soon after.

 

Agree....we should be stronger throughout the squad going into the season, but without going into the reasons we are here, a lesson needs to be learned from those two mistakes.

Bit harsh on Dicks, he was in charge from '67 (even before my time) and even though football was so different then it isn't fair to say his success was short term, we stayed in the top flight until 1980.

The freedom of contract thing was new then but yes, he got it wrong.

[spudski]

[hortonred]

Personally I look at our first 11 and know these players are more than capable of getting into the top 10 of this league, so we may have missed out on a few signings, oh well, never mind.

 

One things for sure, SC has gone for quality over quantity, and I admire that. One delivered so far, who knows how many we have tried for, who knows who we may end up with yet.

On the plus side we could have easily ended up with masses of shit that was the GJ transfer policy, or otherwise known as clubs in the bag. We appear to have learned our lesson on that front at least.

 

It appears that some are craving for any signing no matter who it is, just to have something to gossip about.

When I think of the great Liverpool teams under Shankly and Paisley , however well they did they always strengthened the team the following season.They never sat back and said we have got a great team we are happy to stay as we are..And guess what they kept on winning.Let's hope we buck the trend but I think the failure to build a squad could be our undoing.And it doesn't mean I think we should sign anybody but I cannot understand how we failed to sign even a premiership youngster on loan or a top league 1 player ready to take up the challenge of the Championship.

[collier]

When I think of the great Liverpool teams under Shankly and Paisley , however well they did they always strengthened the team the following season.They never sat back and said we have got a great team we are happy to stay as we are..And guess what they kept on winning.Let's hope we buck the trend but I think the failure to build a squad could be our undoing.And it doesn't mean I think we should sign anybody but I cannot understand how we failed to sign even a premiership youngster on loan or a top league 1 player ready to take up the challenge of the Championship.

I already made this exact point earlier in the thread. Football is a ruthless business and strong managers don't mess around and let sentiment get in the way. They have a good team 1 season, they then bring in a few better players and try to turn them into a better team the next. We have a great league 1 team at the moment, we have just been promoted and that team is now a good/average/below average( delete 2 of these as you see fit) championship team.