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

[JoeAman08]

Regardless of how short our bench is and the mood at the moment, as soon as that first goal we will all be signing their names. It's fine for the moment. I think Bobby Reid, Wes Burns and El-Abd can do a job for us if need be for 2-3 games. I think it is silly to think that we will have this small of a squad the entire season.

Whether our transfer strategy has worked or not(honestly, don't think we will ever know as its kept so quiet) I'm sure we will have a quality season and the guys we bring in will fit in seamlessly. For me, 2 more permanent signings would do with another 2 loanees for the year. Anything else can be smaller loans if need be.

Can't wait for the season to kick off so we can talk about that again. It's been a tiring close season.

[hortonred]

Regardless of how short our bench is and the mood at the moment, as soon as that first goal we will all be signing their names. It's fine for the moment. I think Bobby Reid, Wes Burns and El-Abd can do a job for us if need be for 2-3 games. I think it is silly to think that we will have this small of a squad the entire season.

Whether our transfer strategy has worked or not(honestly, don't think we will ever know as its kept so quiet) I'm sure we will have a quality season and the guys we bring in will fit in seamlessly. For me, 2 more permanent signings would do with another 2 loanees for the year. Anything else can be smaller loans if need be.

Can't wait for the season to kick off so we can talk about that again. It's been a tiring close season.

But as we pretty have much failed to sign the players we wanted so far what is going to change and surely a lot of the best options will have gone.

[JoeAman08]

But as we pretty have much failed to sign the players we wanted so far what is going to change and surely a lot of the best options will have gone.

Possibly but one door closes and another opens maybe? I'm being extremely optimistic of course. Some of these premier league teams are just getting back from tours and getting settled. A few of their outside of the fringe players could start to become available. This is a hope however.

[Shelton’s Love Gravy]

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 !

This.

And in fact, if any of our first eleven get injured, we shouldn't replace them.

We should convert them.

Like these buggers:

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Cyberman_(Mondas)

We WILL survive...

[Northern Red]

First XI is fine, no issues there at all. That's not to say we shouldn't be looking to improve it but it can more than hold its' own in this division.

 

The 'cover' for that starting team isn't fine, and needs addressing because right now even 1 or 2 injuries would see us royally screwed. The subs we're likely to have on Saturday wouldn't have been adequate at L1, let alone the Championship.

[NickJ]

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.

 

Not bothered one bit either.

 

Have immense faith in Cotterill, always have, and to be fair think SteveL has learned from mistakes. The support staff are strong. The stadium is where it should be. Bristol Sport hopefully know their place.

 

We won the League One at a canter FFS!

[miketh2nd]

I'm bothered that we don't have competition for places or any sudden injuries.

I'm really happy that cotterill is trying to get us quality over quantity. Look at GJ at Cheltenham 15 new players ! I don't miss signing getting excited over signing journey men.

I'm sure players will come to us by the end, as having a smaller squad gives potential signings knowing they have a great chance of lots of match time .

[MichaelRobartes]

Our lack of numbers is a concern, but I'm delighted that we seem to have moved away from the bad old days of paying over the odds for players that we didn't necessarily want or need.

[CyderInACan]

The best time to strengthen is when you have the momentum with you, surely? 

[Kid in the Riot]

like most including the gaffer im not happy either, but i cant do anything about june or july, its gone its over and done with.

What the gaffa can do is shape things in August and then in the loan window in September when things settle down and pricing and wages are actually back in the commercial real world.

 

The concern for me would be: are the prices and wages going to settle down in August? I'm not so sure they are. The Championship is awash with money even more so than last time we were in it 2 years ago.

 

Also, I think we all appreciate the prices quoted for the likes Gayle and Gray are obscene but truly what were we expecting? Trying to sign Brentford's top goalscorer of last season? Of course they are going to quote a crazy price to a league rival.

 

People aren't saying "go out and spend silly money" we're saying perhaps we're in a position where we aren't going to be able to sign some of the better, proven Championship players and so we're going to have to take some more gambles like we have done with Kodjia and pick the best players from L1. And of course use the loan system, which it is abundantly clear we will be doing now...two or three loanees would not surprise me at all.

[Offside]

Apart from lack of cover for injuries, suspensions etc my main concern is that we lack anyone on the bench to bring on if we are losing and need a different option (like JET last season). Burns and Reid will hopefully be able to have an impact in this respect.

[chipdawg]

Reading through this, there do seem to be a number of people who would rather than we'd just signed some people who we knew were available rather than those who would improve our squad- which to my mind is what got us in trouble during the Millen/Del eras. To say the lack of bodies we have is concerning would be an understatement, but I would genuinely rather this than us having signed 3 or 4 'meh' players to sit on the bench. On Saturday we play a team who've splashed cash on a load of expensive, largely foreign-born players and we'll be starting with a group of players who are tight-knit, talented and have been together for over a year. I'm genuinely confident of a win on Saturday

[famouslastword]

Ive always come on this forum but have never posted until now.  Ive been a season ticket holder for 12 years from a young age so i dont have a recollection of the good old days.... 

 

However i just wanted to post some positivity about this group of players who have gelled so well together with a never die attitude. We have achieved something special last year with this group of lads and bar a couple that have moved on. We have done extremely well in holding onto the core of our players. Not losing JB or Freeman is like a new signing in my eyes they could have quite easily been tempted to move on. However they havent and although yes we are extremely short in numbers i trust SC to pull something out the bag. 

 

SC came in to a team which was on its knees, ive gone to home and away games when i actually fell asleep half way through a match (granted a little hungover from the night before) but the buzz around the place, the new stadium, promotion.... people on here need to relax and hey so what if we dont get to the playoffs or promotion.... this is our first season back to what is now a different championship level to what it was a few years ago when we graced it. The parachute payments and the outrageous wage demands have made it a more difficult place to compete but as long as we can keep hold of our core players which we have done i feel that a finish around mid table is easily do able. 

 

But most importantly we need to get behind this group of lads because for once i look at all those 11 on the pitch and i feel like they are playing and giving everything each game. When was the last time that we had a group of lads that you have thought that about? 

 

Lets keep our chins up and get rid of all this negativity on the forum. SC & SL got us here and we will get success maybe not straight away but have faith!  

 

 

[RedRock]

What I'm really struggling with is why we haven't boosted the squad with at least a couple of quality Division 1 players. Surely, from a division we knew inside out there were players in non promoted teams who could comfortably step up to the Championship mark, be bought relatively cheaply, low wages and, perhaps most importantly, be content to sit on the bench for a while until their opportunity arises. We should have been in for them early summer, they'd be embedded with the squad and ready to go. Even if we had failed with our 'big' signings, as we have, at least we would've had something resembling a squad.

I've just found this summer totally bizarre on the transfer front. Not only have we lost all our advantage of being 'first up to the plate' but now, seemingly, are just looking at the scraps.

Anyhow's, in Cotts I trust. COYRs.

[Guest]

[spudski]

The concern for me would be: are the prices and wages going to settle down in August? I'm not so sure they are. The Championship is awash with money even more so than last time we were in it 2 years ago.

 

Also, I think we all appreciate the prices quoted for the likes Gayle and Gray are obscene but truly what were we expecting? Trying to sign Brentford's top goalscorer of last season? Of course they are going to quote a crazy price to a league rival.

 

People aren't saying "go out and spend silly money" we're saying perhaps we're in a position where we aren't going to be able to sign some of the better, proven Championship players and so we're going to have to take some more gambles like we have done with Kodjia and pick the best players from L1. And of course use the loan system, which it is abundantly clear we will be doing now...two or three loanees would not surprise me at all.

Totally agree with this fella...

 

What people are forgetting though....is we are relying on a lot of Luck and hope....who runs a successful business like that.

 

The scenario is.... that 'luck' could quiet easily go in the other direction and we get more injuries to key players at the beginning of the season.

 

Flint, Freeman or any Striker and we'd have a real problem. Then our hand would be forced to get players in, who might not be what we want.

 

Something has gone wrong along the line....From the back end of last season when Cotts wanted to bring in a couple players and 'for whatever reason' wasn't allowed too.

 

From where I see it....he wants to bring in players that the board wont back....and now is having to bring in players they will. A bit of power struggle going on, and a show of 'If you don't give me the money needed, then this is the position we will find ourselves in'....

 

Can see us bringing in a couple signings towards the end of August, and relying on the loan window....with a statement of 'I told you so' to the board being insinuated.

 

Who knows....we might luck out....we might not.

 

But as a successful business, and with our momentum I would have hoped we had looked to strengthen appropriately.

 

As it stands....we still may end up with players we may not especially want, if our hand is forced through injuries.

 

Too much Luck and hope heavily relied on imho.

[djb6162]

[Guest]

 

 

The scenario is.... that 'luck' could quiet easily go in the other direction and we get more injuries to key players at the beginning of the season.

 

Flint, Freeman or any Striker and we'd have a real problem. Then our hand would be forced to get players in, who might not be what we want.

 

 

 

But on a loan. Personally I much rather that than pick up someone now who might not be what we want but on a two or three year deal. We did that before in this division - panic buying defenders and midfielders who were third and fourth choices and it got us to a bloated squad with no resale value.  

 

What happens in January if first choice becomes available again or is willing to move? We've already brought in third or fourth choice, or are we to keep adding to our squad?

[Esmond Million's Bung]

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.

 

of course it 15 years of improvement, it was 15 years unbroken years in the 2 top divisions, something that we were not used to and still historically still fall victim to these days.

 

The season after the near miss was in it's way inevitable, replacing much of an ageing team and a very slight improvement was shown for 2 seasons relying on journeymen signings, the next blip came when that team was being replaced with a lot of young players breaking through from our youth team and with one slight blip it was consolidation and then promotion.

 

of course the financial 'mismanagement' that followed almost proved to be catastrophic, I am aware of that but those 15 years, I wouldn't have missed for the world, 15 years in the top 2 divisions, 2 promotions, 4 seasons spent in the top division and seeing a team develop from the most productive youth era in our history to form the backbone of our side (something we are allegedly trying to achieve now), has got to be improvement and also remember that the season we were relegated from the old 1st division it was a dire run in that saw us relegated, we were sitting close to mid table when the wheels came off.

 

and for me the barren years that followed although incredibly painful at the time, made us the club that we are today.

 

Am I happy at our lack of signings, of course not, it's not ideal, am I glad that we now have a targeted transfer policy (something the harshest critics have cried out for), am I pleased that more investment is being filtered into the academy/development squad (something else the same harshest critics have cried out for), to right I am, do I think mistakes have been made this summer almost certainly and do I thing mercenary players backed by their even more mercenary agents have reneged on proposed deals? absa ******* loutly.

 

The ITK's have been 100% wrong all summer, we have had '4 in by Thursday', the inevitable 'done deal', the even more inevitable 'incoming' warning and we have even had the invisible/unnamable 'marmite' man and to hide the embarrassment, invent imaginary rifts at the club, the last one being the clubs phone system, so nobody at the club got a mobile?.

 

I know things change, I mean my god even the new seats have suddenly turned to red, of course we had to wait until the covering was taken off of them.

[spudski]

But on a loan. Personally I much rather that than pick up someone now who might not be what we want but on a two or three year deal. We did that before in this division - panic buying defenders and midfielders who were third and fourth choices and it got us to a bloated squad with no resale value.  

 

What happens in January if first choice becomes available again or is willing to move? We've already brought in third or fourth choice, or are we to keep adding to our squad?

Yes....most likely on Loan.

 

Not ideal when you are trying to build a team for the future.

 

Again....it's short term. Wages wasted on a player who is going to benefit another team eventually.

 

I'm all for not repeating the mistakes of the past....but you still have to be realistic in the market.

 

I personally think there has been a balls up...

 

Like I said before....we are purely relying on luck and hope.

 

We could get lucky and get no injuries and be flying....

 

Or we could just as easily get injuries, not winning, have no signings or cover, and find ourselves 15 points off top by the end of August.

 

However way you look at it... as a Professional football Club in the Championship, we should not be going into the season with a first eleven that has less experience in the Championship than last years first eleven....and a bench that is full of players who played League 2 last season and young kids.

[Nogbad the Bad]

[Guest]

Yes....most likely on Loan.

 

Not ideal when you are trying to build a team for the future.

 

Again....it's short term. Wages wasted on a player who is going to benefit another team eventually.

 

I'm all for not repeating the mistakes of the past....but you still have to be realistic in the market.

 

I understand but equally I'd level all of that at buying our 3rd or 4th choice on a permanent - not ideal for building a team, short term, wages wasted (probably a fee too - unlikely to have a sell on). A loan won't keep us hamstrung in future windows or contribute to our long-term wage budget.

 

I think our current approach is by far the better of the two evils... albeit not necessarily the preferred option as last season drew to a close.

 

I personally think there has been a balls up...

 

I don't doubt we've contributed to the situation, but I support the stance as a principle although I understand and appreciate why others might not.

 

Like I said before....we are purely relying on luck and hope.

 

Isn't that the same with most permanent transfers? Luck and hope that they'll settle and not turn out like say Nyatanga who we had great hopes for? There's only so much due diligence that can be done; but luck and hope are still a large part.

 

I don't agree we eliminate all, much or any significant amount of luck or hope because we've brought someone in on a permanent. Perhaps just luck and hope in slightly different regards.

 

We could get lucky and get no injuries and be flying....

 

Or we could just as easily get injuries, not winning, have no signings or cover, and find ourselves 15 points off top by the end of August.

 

We could buy someone and they get injured. There are risks with every course of action. I see the risk as acceptable compared to the long-term gamble. If we're 15 points off top at the end of August c'est la vie, so long as we're 1 point ahead of 22nd in May.

 

Or we could make a load of signings, suffer no injuries have adequate cover and still find ourselves 15 points off top and with our budget blown on second or third rate quality.

 

However way you look at it... as a Professional football Club in the Championship, we should not be going into the season with a first eleven that has less experience in the Championship than last years first eleven....and a bench that is full of players who played League 2 last season and young kids.

 

I agree in principle. Not so sure about the young kids though - I don't dispute that it's a fact, I'm just not convinced it's such a problem. Kids grow and develop as players exponentially, just as Joe Bryan has done before our very eyes and many were writing him off as not good enough or not going to make it.

 

We don't know what sort of understanding Reid might work up with Kodjia, what position Burns will grab and make his own (if any) etc.

 

Again a risk, but equally one I'm content with.

[djb6162]

[Major Isewater]

[Guest]

[spudski]

 

 

Fair points very well made fella....would like to say more, but I can't / wont.

 

Thankfully I think todays signing will keep a lot of pressure off the team and Cotts.

 

Glad this enquiry signed....as lots haven't.

 

Funnily...if all the enquiries had actually signed, we imho, would have stormed this league.

 

Shame it isn't possible to guarantee potential signings, that others will 100% join and what type of team they will be playing with.

[spudski]