"City's problems two years in the making" - BP

[lenred]

There’s some serious revisionism going on in this thread about Pack and his worth to the team as a leader and player imho.
Iirc there were lots of people on this forum and outside of it who were more than happy for him to leave (not saying it was necessarily anyone praising his virtues on this thread btw). I think at the time it was generally accepted that we needed to improve his position and midfield in general in order to continue our push to the promised land - I certainly did. Guess the fact we have regressed so badly just shows in part how awful the recruitment has been since. 

[cityloyal473]

5 minutes ago, Taz said:

The biggest issue doesn't relate to loing one single player, but more the fact that we were constantly being told that we planned 2/3 transfer windows ahead, so we should always have had a replacement lined up should someone be sold.

Did we have replacements lined up, or is it more that the replacements being lined up weren't good enough?

For all of their good PR and supposed "intelligent sounding" interviews, between Johnson/Ashton/Lansdown, collectively they dropped the ball.

The whole set up under Ashton appears to be like a massive Jenga set, and once one of the bricks was taken away it all started to wobble.  And then he kept giving the bricks away. Despite all the fancy words and management speak they never even managed to throw up some scaffolding to stop it tipping over. 

[Numero Uno]

4 minutes ago, Taz said:

The biggest issue doesn't relate to loing one single player, but more the fact that we were constantly being told that we planned 2/3 transfer windows ahead, so we should always have had a replacement lined up should someone be sold.

Did we have replacements lined up, or is it more that the replacements being lined up weren't good enough?

For all of their good PR and supposed "intelligent sounding" interviews, between Johnson/Ashton/Lansdown, collectively they dropped the ball.

Bit of a Colin statement but "we don't want you to tell us, we want you to do it"...........

[mozo]

Not as impressive as Piercy's other recent pieces. He reiterates what we've all been saying (and a few grammatical errors in there too).

Let's hope Pearson finds the right characters to address the problem. It won't be easy and might not happen in one window.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, SecretSam said:

Interesting that the supposed "yes man" LJ was actually opposed to some of the sales, as we didn't have replacements lined up

Of course he was, nobody wants to lose their best players, but that’s the strategy set by the owner / board, and he bought into that.

7 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Wonder if it's a coincidence that this article has appeared after LJ was back in Clifton this weekend

Anyway, very good article that aligns with what the likes of me and @Harry have been saying for ages in terms of how much say LJ really had in incomings/outgoings. 

Bottom line is that LJ had to keep selling his best players and leaders each season whilst being expected to mount play off challenges paying lower midtable wages. 

Given that context and especially what has happened since he left, it looks like he wasn't doing such a bad job afterall. His teams had much more fight and spirit than the current group does. They battled for results and got them. 

Ultimately poor succession planning, and “Recruitment” is a team effort.  How much did we waste on “clubs in the bag”.  Why buy one good wide-man, when you can buy three or four?

LJ knew the score, it’s not like it was a surprise, virtually all Champ clubs are selling clubs.

His team(s) did have more fight and spirit, and that probably died when Brownhill went, as it only left an injury-prone K.Smith.

It still comes down to recruitment.  They made a huge fuss of DNA....and have subsequently proved it was bullshit.

I totally get LJ not wanting Pack to leave....he’d built a playing system around him.  So, we get £4m for Pack, and spend more than that on Nagy / Massengo combined.  It’s not like that £4m was there to keep the wolf from the door is it?  Nor should all that activity have happened in the same window.  Nagy and / or Massengo should’ve had at least 6 months bedding in, WITH Pack, to ease the transition.

For a club that plans 2-3 Windows ahead we aren’t half knee jerk!

[steviestevieneville]

3 minutes ago, lenred said:

There’s some serious revisionism going on in this thread about Pack and his worth to the team as a leader and player imho.
Iirc there were lots of people on this forum and outside of it who were more than happy for him to leave (not saying it was necessarily anyone praising his virtues on this thread btw). I think at the time it was generally accepted that we needed to improve his position and midfield in general in order to continue our push to the promised land - I certainly did. Guess the fact we have regressed so badly just shows in part how awful the recruitment has been since. 

I did as well but you would hope the club would replace him with a upgrade . Don’t think any of us really knew marlons true worth to the squad off the pitch as well as on. 
Ashton always said about looking into any new signings character & being “great humans” I’m not saying it was done deliberately but we certainly seemed to shy away from big characters.

[Numero Uno]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Of course he was, nobody wants to lose their best players, but that’s the strategy set by the owner / board, and he bought into that.

Ultimately poor succession planning, and “Recruitment” is a team effort.  How much did we waste on “clubs in the bag”.  Why buy one good wide-man, when you can buy three or four?

LJ knew the score, it’s not like it was a surprise, virtually all Champ clubs are selling clubs.

His team(s) did have more fight and spirit, and that probably died when Brownhill went, as it only left an injury-prone K.Smith.

It still comes down to recruitment.  They made a huge fuss of DNA....and have subsequently proved it was bullshit.

I totally get LJ not wanting Pack to leave....he’d built a playing system around him.  So, we get £4m for Pack, and spend more than that on Nagy / Massengo combined.  It’s not like that £4m was there to keep the wolf from the door is it?  Nor should all that activity have happened in the same window.  Nagy and / or Massengo should’ve had at least 6 months bedding in, WITH Pack, to ease the transition.

For a club that plans 2-3 Windows ahead we aren’t half knee jerk!

You've spotted the basic problems in recruitment so you can bet everything you own that Pearson has spotted them (without going into the detail of Pack should have stayed six months longer etc.) and has let the Owner know too because that was part of his brief when appointed short term. There was a discussion yesterday on why Steve has the raving hump at the moment................................

[Cowshed]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Of course he was, nobody wants to lose their best players, but that’s the strategy set by the owner / board, and he bought into that.

Ultimately poor succession planning, and “Recruitment” is a team effort.  How much did we waste on “clubs in the bag”.  Why buy one good wide-man, when you can buy three or four?

LJ knew the score, it’s not like it was a surprise, virtually all Champ clubs are selling clubs.

His team(s) did have more fight and spirit, and that probably died when Brownhill went, as it only left an injury-prone K.Smith.

It still comes down to recruitment.  They made a huge fuss of DNA....and have subsequently proved it was bullshit.

I totally get LJ not wanting Pack to leave....he’d built a playing system around him.  So, we get £4m for Pack, and spend more than that on Nagy / Massengo combined.  It’s not like that £4m was there to keep the wolf from the door is it?  Nor should all that activity have happened in the same window.  Nagy and / or Massengo should’ve had at least 6 months bedding in, WITH Pack, to ease the transition.

For a club that plans 2-3 Windows ahead we aren’t half knee jerk!

If you do not have a model of play, that big plan  what are players being recruited for. Pack if so important to the model could have a replacement in the building, players in development and a list of targets to manage what are normal challenges in football - Players leave and get injured. 

LJ was the Emperor's new clothes, the dna, the project, the identities .. It was all bullshit. Now more see the smell (!), some saw it seasons ago. In 2017 LJ said he was creating playing identity throughout the club. That lasted months! The man and his 2-3 windows was more of the bovine.

[mozo]

Just now, Davefevs said:

Of course he was, nobody wants to lose their best players, but that’s the strategy set by the owner / board, and he bought into that.

Ultimately poor succession planning, and “Recruitment” is a team effort.  How much did we waste on “clubs in the bag”.  Why buy one good wide-man, when you can buy three or four?

LJ knew the score, it’s not like it was a surprise, virtually all Champ clubs are selling clubs.

His team(s) did have more fight and spirit, and that probably died when Brownhill went, as it only left an injury-prone K.Smith.

It still comes down to recruitment.  They made a huge fuss of DNA....and have subsequently proved it was bullshit.

I totally get LJ not wanting Pack to leave....he’d built a playing system around him.  So, we get £4m for Pack, and spend more than that on Nagy / Massengo combined.  It’s not like that £4m was there to keep the wolf from the door is it?  Nor should all that activity have happened in the same window.  Nagy and / or Massengo should’ve had at least 6 months bedding in, WITH Pack, to ease the transition.

For a club that plans 2-3 Windows ahead we aren’t half knee jerk!

The midfield ins and outs in that transfer window show that we had started to trade players like they were commodities, but neglected the ingredients that make a successful team.

Ever since then we've tried to crowbar experience and nous into the team with short term signings of players that carry a higher risk of injury. 

We need to build a cohesive squad again and stop plugging gaps and hoping for the best.

[Simon bristol]

1 minute ago, mozo said:

The midfield ins and outs in that transfer window show that we had started to trade players like they were commodities, but neglected the ingredients that make a successful team.

Ever since then we've tried to crowbar experience and nous into the team with short term signings of players that carry a higher risk of injury. 

We need to build a cohesive squad again and stop plugging gaps and hoping for the best.

Agree re comodities, thats exactly how i view the palmer szmodics signings anyway!!

i dont know who we look to bring in to get some character into the squad? Flint available?

[miser]

A key to the Pack departure was we had a massive squad which was threadbare in midfield. Pack & Korey with Brownhill as cover. Always was going to be a weakness and I don't think the LJ was blameless on that front.

[Numero Uno]

3 minutes ago, Cowshed said:

If you do not have a model of play, that big plan  what are players being recruited for. Pack if so important to the model could have a replacement in the building, players in development and a list of targets to manage what are normal challenges in football - Players leave and get injured. 

LJ was the Emperor's new clothes, the dna, the project, the identities .. It was all bullshit. Now more see the smell (!), some saw it seasons ago. In 2017 LJ said he was creating playing identity throughout the club. That lasted months! The man and his 2-3 windows was more of the bovine.

Agreed. The problem with "playing to the model" is that sometimes the exact replacement for a player is either too expensive or not available or you might have identified him currently putting in some impressive performances in say League 2 but you know that right now he would struggle in the Championship. That is where you need to have the odd utility player with nous in your squad who can step in and do a temporary job to say 80-90% effectiveness so that you can either wait for the right player to become available or just go out and get the player who isn't quite ready and work on him until he is ready. That is better than buying two players who just aren't what you are looking for to try and compensate....something we have been guilty of on too many occasions to count. You end up where we are now...........no identity, no results, no performances, no nothing.

[maxjak]

1 hour ago, Banned User said:

All a bit of nothing 

Not at all...........it makes some very insightful points regarding the importance of leadership and how vital it is to have strong characters and influencers in the squad.  You have to feel sorry for LJ, that his team was decimated by the sale of 2 or 3 essential players, who were never properly replaced, despite generating massive profits, which were to a large degree squandered.  

[lenred]

27 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

I did as well but you would hope the club would replace him with a upgrade . Don’t think any of us really knew marlons true worth to the squad off the pitch as well as on. 
Ashton always said about looking into any new signings character & being “great humans” I’m not saying it was done deliberately but we certainly seemed to shy away from big characters.

Agree. The Pack situation crystallises what a shambles recruitment has been since.  Thought we were going to get better in order to push on and ended up with nowhere near.

On a related note it’s interesting that NP says that the recruitment team are excellent (paraphrasing) here.  I’m guessing it’s the same team still on place bar Werhun / Ashton whom I appreciate would be massive parts of the process but still the system as whole doesn’t seem to be working great atm. From all his interviews and comments that was something that stood out as slightly worrying.   It may be that he is being positive in order to keep up the teams morale at such a crucial time I guess.  

[NcnsBcfc]

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

It’s a good piece (Piercy writes well) but the central Webster bit is overblown for me.

They offered £20m, so we were never going to turn that down & the permanent signing of Kalas earlier that summer was always made in my opinion in the knowledge that Webster would probably go.

Nathan Baker cost us £3.5m & started that season on the subs bench, with Bailey Wright also in the squad, though about to have an injury hit season, something we didn’t anticipate because prior to this his availability record had been excellent.

With Moore starting as a Webster type we did have 4 good enough defenders, it was in midfield where it went wrong.

Pack wasn’t replaced, neither Nagy or HNM (just 18 then) were that player & brilliant as Brownhill was, he couldn’t do it all himself.

There is no mention of whether LJ was happy to sell Pack (we know he didn’t want to sell Brownhill) but for me it wasn’t the Webster sale (as we were never turning down £20m) but the Pack one that started the problems.

Graham, for me Pack had been poor the previous season; and his poor form had continued into the following season. I was happy to let him go, and thought the alleged £4m we got from Cardiff, to be a fantastic bit of business.

I think what has been laid bare, is the fundamental difference between us, and someone like Brentford. A team that like us, have been forced to sell some of their better players, due to their inability to get promotion.

They seem to have a coherent transition policy, and were thus able to continue continuity; even when selling players like Maupay, Watkins, Benrahma etc. Other than Webster for Flint, I can't think of a big sale player at City that has been replaced by either a better player; or one that has developed into a bigger sale themselves.

MA literally has sold the cupboards bare over the last 4 years, and we've been left with 13 OOC players going for no money at all. He can't even claim to have bought any of the sold player in (bar Webster). They were already in our system through either the Academy or managers like SOD.

How have we got to such a situation, that even though we have sold £75m worth of players in the last 4/5 years; we have been having to play the under 23s in the first team, just to get through the season, what an absolute mess.

I wonder what the relationship will be like between SL and MA now? NP has by all accounts shown SL the truth, rather than the manufactured one from MA. SL says that he counts MA as a good friend, but must surely feel let down by this "friend"; who he had trusted to run the club on his behalf. What has become evident no doubt to SL is that he has been spun a whole load of untruths. Hence the immediate sacking of Rolls, as soon as the deception became apparent.

As to the coaching set up/back office of NP. I'm sure the current set up will be replaced in time. But we only have 3 months until the start of the new season. These things take time, and that's something that we are so short of. We need to get people through either the exit/entry door quickly; and integrated into the current set up. You can't do that at the same time as sorting out your coaching/back office team.

NP has no-one on the board to delegate these things to (I don't count JL, who is just a figure head; and has probably gone back to Bermuda already). There is no chief exec/secretary/medical team/performance team or anyone.

All fun this isn't it. I don't envy NP. He's already said that the job is much, much bigger than he realised.

 

[cidered abroad]

24 minutes ago, lenred said:

There’s some serious revisionism going on in this thread about Pack and his worth to the team as a leader and player imho.
Iirc there were lots of people on this forum and outside of it who were more than happy for him to leave (not saying it was necessarily anyone praising his virtues on this thread btw). I think at the time it was generally accepted that we needed to improve his position and midfield in general in order to continue our push to the promised land - I certainly did. Guess the fact we have regressed so badly just shows in part how awful the recruitment has been since. 

Very true comment about Pack leaving. I agreed with his departure as I felt we needed to upgrade central midfield.

It's the recruitment that was appalling. Hopefully we will do better now.

[havanatopia]

2 hours ago, Banned User said:

All a bit of nothing 

All a lot of what we have all been saying for 2 years as well. A nothing story pulled from here. the BP is a total rag and we all know that too.

[Major Isewater]

1 hour ago, petehinton said:

LJ wasn’t happy to sell Pack at all. The total opposite actually. Cardiff doubled his weekly wage and once he heard that it was hard for them to convince him to stay, but LJ was pretty hysterical over it. 
 

I also personally don’t get the frustration over the sales. There’s isn’t a single club in the division that would’ve turned any of those bids down. The fees are absolutely incredible for this level. The issue has been the poor recruitment in replacing them. 
 

More of a poor recruitment issue than a ‘selling club’ issue for me. 

Pack needed to be moved on IMHO because, although he was a good player, he slowed the game down and was easily identified as our playmaker and marked out of games.

We saw the best of him. 
 

 

[petehinton]

23 minutes ago, ncnsbcfc said:

Graham, for me Pack had been poor the previous season; and his poor form had continued into the following season. I was happy to let him go, and thought the alleged £4m we got from Cardiff, to be a fantastic bit of business.

I think what has been laid bare, is the fundamental difference between us, and someone like Brentford. A team that like us, have been forced to sell some of their better players, due to their inability to get promotion.

They seem to have a coherent transition policy, and were thus able to continue continuity; even when selling players like Maupay, Watkins, Benrahma etc. Other than Webster for Flint, I can't think of a big sale player at City that has been replaced by either a better player; or one that has developed into a bigger sale themselves.

MA literally has sold the cupboards bare over the last 4 years, and we've been left with 13 OOC players going for no money at all. He can't even claim to have bought any of the sold player in (bar Webster). They were already in our system through either the Academy or managers like SOD.

How have we got to such a situation, that even though we have sold £75m worth of players in the last 4/5 years; we have been having to play the under 23s in the first team, just to get through the season, what an absolute mess.

I wonder what the relationship will be like between SL and MA now? NP has by all accounts shown SL the truth, rather than the manufactured one from MA. SL says that he counts MA as a good friend, but must surely feel let down by this "friend"; who he had trusted to run the club on his behalf. What has become evident no doubt to SL is that he has been spun a whole load of untruths. Hence the immediate sacking of Rolls, as soon as the deception became apparent.

As to the coaching set up/back office of NP. I'm sure the current set up will be replaced in time. But we only have 3 months until the start of the new season. These things take time, and that's something that we are so short of. We need to get people through either the exit/entry door quickly; and integrated into the current set up. You can't do that at the same time as sorting out your coaching/back office team.

NP has no-one on the board to delegate these things to (I don't count JL, who is just a figure head; and has probably gone back to Bermuda already). There is no chief exec/secretary/medical team/performance team or anyone.

All fun this isn't it. I don't envy NP. He's already said that the job is much, much bigger than he realised.

 

Much like letting Smith go though, people thought we needed an upgrade and Pack wasn’t good enough etc etc but he went on to play 43 games for a club that finished 7th places higher than us in his first season away from us..

[Tin Soldier]

1 hour ago, tin said:

LJ said one day he'd write a book to let us all know about what he had to deal with here.

The bottom line is Ashton shouldn't have sold off the family silver without replacing it first. 

At the time there were loads on here lambasting my views about selling off the family silver.

Several OTIBrs stated at the time that letting Pack go was a BIG mistake including myself (rumour was that LJ was over ruled by Ashton), and that was the continuation of the slippery slope Ashton led the club down.

Obvious to state now but recruitment by Ashton was where this mess unravelled. Thank ****, that tosser has gone.

[The Coach]

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

So did other Championship clubs, not just City.  Brentford have been used as a prime example.

Quite right @Robbored

Look at Brentford's key outgoing and incomings over last two seasons. They haven't messed around and have signed some very good players to replace their key players in the last two seasons, at such a cheaper rate too. What a fantastic scouting system they must have...

Key Brentford Outgoings 20/21:

Watkins

Benrahma

Key Brentford Incomings 20/21:

Ivan Toney

 

Key Brentford Outgoings 19/20:

Maupay

Konsa

Sawyers

Bentley

Key Brentford Incomings 19/20:

Mbuemo

Jansson

Jensen

Norgaard

Pinnock

Raya

Forsu

 

[GrahamC]

2 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Much like letting Smith go though, people thought we needed an upgrade and Pack wasn’t good enough etc etc but he went on to play 43 games for a club that finished 7th places higher than us in his first season away from us..

That would have been my point.

Pack has been a regular at Cardiff & they have consistently outperformed us over the period he’s been there.

Ashton just seemed to want perpetual change (no idea how much LJ bought into this) but sometimes you just need to appreciate value, as opposed to price.

[NcnsBcfc]

1 minute ago, petehinton said:

Much like letting Smith go though, people thought we needed an upgrade and Pack wasn’t good enough etc etc but he went on to play 43 games for a club that finished 7th places higher than us in his first season away from us..

Don't get me wrong, Pack did really well with us for a couple of seasons. But it was the right time/price to let him go in my opinion at that time. 

The issue is around how we replace these players when they leave; and in Pack/Smith's case that hasn't been done effectively. The same could also be said for Webster,Brownhill, Reid, Bryan, Kelly (hopefully JD will come through, but his injuries are a worry). The list can go on and on.

We've had a squad that was on the cusp of the playoffs for a number of seasons. Now despite all the transfer fees received, we're looking in the other direction.

[Major Isewater]

14 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Much like letting Smith go though, people thought we needed an upgrade and Pack wasn’t good enough etc etc but he went on to play 43 games for a club that finished 7th places higher than us in his first season away from us..

Honestly, no one , least of all the club , thought that we needed an ‘ upgrade ‘ on Smith but his availability was the problem  because of injury and nobody would have imagined that the bloke would go on to play ‘ 43 games ‘ this season. 
 

Fair play to him.

 

[cidercity1987]

The idea that we signed Nakhi on a long contract as opposed to retaining Brownhill on loan makes me want to cry. Our form collapsed as soon as Brownhill left and we haven;t recovered

[BanburyRed]

1 hour ago, Taz said:

The biggest issue doesn't relate to loing one single player, but more the fact that we were constantly being told that we planned 2/3 transfer windows ahead, so we should always have had a replacement lined up should someone be sold.

Did we have replacements lined up, or is it more that the replacements being lined up weren't good enough?

For all of their good PR and supposed "intelligent sounding" interviews, between Johnson/Ashton/Lansdown, collectively they dropped the ball.

This is the key bit for me. For all the bluff and bluster coming out of the club, did we actively have a sound and robust system in place for recruitment that said if we sell player A, then player B comes in to replace.  Judging by NP's comments on the Sound of the City earlier in the week, he stated that the recruitment structure seems to be very good. Which would then lead you to believe that the players being targeted weren't up to it.

Not so much club DNA as Mark Ashton saying 'Do Not Argue'...!

[1960maaan]

18 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

Honestly, no one , least of all the club , thought that we needed an ‘ upgrade ‘ on Smith but his availability was the problem  because of injury and nobody would have imagined that the bloke would go on to play ‘ 43 games ‘ this season. 
 

Fair play to him.

 

Another question for the Physios, medical staff and our former Director of (under) Performance.

40 minutes ago, Redpool said:

What a fantastic scouting system they must have...

I don't think it's all scouting. We were supposed to be in for Toney, quoted £10m was what I saw being touted around. Now did any of us think that he would choose us over them ? They have a good reputation and we had "streaky" Johnson. They got Toney for a little more than we paid for Wells, yes there were add ons that apparently take it to £10m, but promotion would off set that or the amount he moves for next time. 
They have a plan, they stick to the style they play and recruit to that. Now, hands up anyone that can tell the class LJ's definitive formation/style/setup ..... I'll wait.

We stumbled across a quick moving, short passing , pressing game that was a delight to watch. That crumbled as the coach hadn't specifically planned for it. We signed 5 ( 7 depending how you think of Paterson & Weimann) different wingers over a period we didn't really set up for wingers. The complete lack of focus and direction makes planning and recruitment almost impossible .  How we have played this year has been , as stated, 2 years in the making. We have not just lacked leader on the pitch, but from the Coaches, or really Coach. Only my opinion , but Johnson had too many ideas and lacked focus. With luck Pearson will sort many of our problems out, it's a hell of a big job mind.

[tin]

54 minutes ago, GasDestroyer said:

At the time there were loads on here lambasting my views about selling off the family silver.

Several OTIBrs stated at the time that letting Pack go was a BIG mistake including myself (rumour was that LJ was over ruled by Ashton), and that was the continuation of the slippery slope Ashton led the club down.

Obvious to state now but recruitment by Ashton was where this mess unravelled. Thank ****, that tosser has gone.

I agree. Mind you, I didn't have an issue with Pack going at the time. He just wasn't adequately replaced.

You look at Brentford, for example. They get the replacements in before selling off Watkins, Benrahma etc. Ashton would probably argue Massengo was Pack's replacement, but then we panic bought Nagy soon after. It this scattergun, clubs-in-the-bag approach with no plan in mind that's got us in the shit. 

[Kid in the Riot]

2 hours ago, Robbored said:

So did other Championship clubs, not just City.  Brentford have been used as a prime example.

They are of course THE prime example in that regard. However, comparing them to LJ's City...they only finished two points ahead of us in the 2017/18 season and the following season we finished six points and three places ABOVE them.

Now what are we, 30 points behind them? 

[NcnsBcfc]

1 minute ago, tin said:

I agree. Mind you, I didn't have an issue with Pack going at the time. He just wasn't adequately replaced.

You look at Brentford, for example. They get the replacements in before selling off Watkins, Benrahma etc. Ashton would probably argue Massengo was Pack's replacement, but then we panic bought Nagy soon after. It this scattergun, clubs-in-the-bag approach with no plan in mind that's got us in the shit. 

Absolutely Tin,

How many players did we buy under LJ wasn't it something silly like 55-60?

We seemed to have an approach of quantity over quality, with unnecessary sometimes 3/4 players for every position. Cue a ridiculous amount of players out on loan, that we were no doubt heavily subsidising.

By all means send out the under 23's, or young players on loan. But what was the point bringing players in for fees on large wages; and then putting them out on loan to bring down the wage bill? 

We seemed to think that we were some sort of Championship version of Chelsea. A kind of football factory, that could buy players in, develop them (sometimes at other clubs); and then sell them for a profit. 

Whilst all the time selling off the real silverware from the first team, and having no consistent plan as to how to replace them.

MA really did see himself as a wheeler dealer, and probably got a massive buzz out of the whole process. Not sure how he could claim to be working to a plan though. It was almost like some sort of Ponzi scheme, that this season with so many OOC, Covid, and transfer system grinding to a halt has come crashing down on us.