| Very tough league games ahead 12:31 - Oct 27 with 4331 views | TooManyCooks |
Next 4 league games are all against top 6 opposition, no idea how many points we can gather from those. If it was offered, I think I'd happily take 6 points as it stands now (whilst hoping for more). Also, pre league 1, it felt like we used to do better against the top sides and be disappointing against the dross, not sure we can even try and measure that dynamic now though, given the current team isn't the finished article yet.
One thing for certain, this board is going to be a rollercoaster through November! lol
EDIT: I'm not going to change the text above, but given that I have been made aware that we face 5 of the next 6 games against top 6 teams, I'm going to say I'd happy with 8/9 points from those fixtures, i'll stick with my 6 points from 4 though
[Post edited 27 Oct 2021 14:02]
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:11 - Oct 27 with 827 views | TooManyCooks |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:01 - Oct 27 by tractorboy1978 |
I'm not judging us on 45/50 years ago, I'm judging us on now. We have the most expensively assembled squad in the division, packed full of proven top L1 and Championship players. |
We are in the very early days of a huge transformation of the club, both on and off the pitch, I think I just have a bit more empathy with those tasked with turning the names on the team sheet into points and success, it is far more nuanced than simply assembling, on paper, some good players at this level. If anything, the succession of managers and players we've had in the Championship and League 1 should have highlighted that fact. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:13 - Oct 27 with 810 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:01 - Oct 27 by tractorboy1978 |
I'm not judging us on 45/50 years ago, I'm judging us on now. We have the most expensively assembled squad in the division, packed full of proven top L1 and Championship players. |
Which has only had 14 games together (only 7 since Morsy's league debut). |  |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:15 - Oct 27 with 798 views | TooManyCooks |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:13 - Oct 27 by The_Flashing_Smile |
Which has only had 14 games together (only 7 since Morsy's league debut). |
Also, I'm not 100%, but wasn't the last game the first time this season we've managed to field an unchanged side from the previous game? | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:16 - Oct 27 with 794 views | DinDjarin |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:11 - Oct 27 by tractorboy1978 |
Carroll, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin. And Evans, Harper, Penney, Edwards have well over 100 Championship games between them too.
Edit - and Coulson! [Post edited 27 Oct 2021 14:22]
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How many has Chaplin played in the championship?
edit - just checked and more than I thought
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conor_Chaplin [Post edited 27 Oct 2021 14:18]
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:18 - Oct 27 with 775 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 13:51 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
Welcome to the board, nice to see some new faces on here.
I'm still very uncertain about whether we'll look better against the better sides. Our five wins have all come against sides in the bottom half and we've not beaten any top half side as yet. Some of the better sides in this league also set up to frustrate, they just do it more effectively than the lesser sides. I also still have flashbacks over a competent but unspectacular Bolton side making us collapse by applying the slightest bit of attacking pressure.
Certainly we'll know more about where we're at and what's achievable after this run of fixtures. Recent form has been good but we've got to sustain that now, not accept a regression back to a little over a point a game just because we're playing sides that are slightly less crap. |
"Recent form has been good but we've got to sustain that now."
Almost word for word what I predicted you'd say. "We haven't won 2 in a row" would become "we haven't had a run of results" once we won those two in a row. And here it is.
These up-coming games need to be taken on their own merit, not having the results diminished by lobbing them in with our early results before the team had gelled. If we're showing sustained improvement, even whilst playing better teams, that will be enough to me to show we're going in the right direction and Cook should stay.
Once again you're looking at the league table and don't seem concerned about what's happening on the pitch. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:19 - Oct 27 with 781 views | tractorboy1978 |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:13 - Oct 27 by The_Flashing_Smile |
Which has only had 14 games together (only 7 since Morsy's league debut). |
I agree with that point and gave it some initial leeway but we are a third of the way through the season now and need to kick on and show the exceptional quality we have. We look to have turned a corner now - people being happy with 6 points from the next 5 is mad regardless of opposition. | | | |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:22 - Oct 27 with 776 views | pennblue |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:11 - Oct 27 by TooManyCooks |
We are in the very early days of a huge transformation of the club, both on and off the pitch, I think I just have a bit more empathy with those tasked with turning the names on the team sheet into points and success, it is far more nuanced than simply assembling, on paper, some good players at this level. If anything, the succession of managers and players we've had in the Championship and League 1 should have highlighted that fact. |
It will be tough for sure, but if you subscribe to the club working to a proper process, then you can be less worried about the outcome of the next 5 games.
The worse case scenario is the players don't show up, are not good enough, and we lose all 5 games. The best case scenario is we win all 5. But regardless of the outcome, we should feel comfortable with the way the club is now being run, and safe in the knowledge that if players don't show up, tactics are wrong, then tweaks will be made until success is achieved.
I am looking forward to my first visit to Home Park, followed up by a visit to Adams Park next Tuesday.
Let's do our bit, and sell out our allocation down at Plymouth. 1,700 would be quite a remarkable following given the distance. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:30 - Oct 27 with 746 views | Illinoisblue |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:11 - Oct 27 by tractorboy1978 |
Carroll, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin. And Evans, Harper, Penney, Edwards have well over 100 Championship games between them too.
Edit - and Coulson! [Post edited 27 Oct 2021 14:22]
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Wonder if Carroll regrets coming here. Barely had a look in. |  |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:36 - Oct 27 with 736 views | TooManyCooks |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:22 - Oct 27 by pennblue |
It will be tough for sure, but if you subscribe to the club working to a proper process, then you can be less worried about the outcome of the next 5 games.
The worse case scenario is the players don't show up, are not good enough, and we lose all 5 games. The best case scenario is we win all 5. But regardless of the outcome, we should feel comfortable with the way the club is now being run, and safe in the knowledge that if players don't show up, tactics are wrong, then tweaks will be made until success is achieved.
I am looking forward to my first visit to Home Park, followed up by a visit to Adams Park next Tuesday.
Let's do our bit, and sell out our allocation down at Plymouth. 1,700 would be quite a remarkable following given the distance. |
I absolutely believe we are now set up to succeed from an ownership perspective for the years to come. They are a bunch of smart guys, who have football knowledge and are clearly under no illusion about the task ahead. I too am looking at this project for the longer term and I believe we will see promotion to the Championship certainly within a couple of seasons and will be well placed to progress from there.
A section of fans seem to think we have failed if promotion doesn't happen this season, but it's a ludicrous expectation IMO, of course it could happen and I'd be delighted, but I don't "expect" it.
I hope you enjoy your games and will be keeping fingers crossed for good results, we should at the very least be competitive and able to get you jumping around in celebration a few times  | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:36 - Oct 27 with 738 views | tractorboy1978 |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:30 - Oct 27 by Illinoisblue |
Wonder if Carroll regrets coming here. Barely had a look in. |
I think he's been injured the last 3-4 weeks, but he could well struggle to get back in at the moment. He's an example of our riches though - over 100 Premier league games under his belt, by all accounts QPR's best player in the first half of last season before injury, 29 (you'd argue prime age) and he's not a guaranteed starter in L1! [Post edited 27 Oct 2021 14:37]
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:42 - Oct 27 with 684 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:19 - Oct 27 by tractorboy1978 |
I agree with that point and gave it some initial leeway but we are a third of the way through the season now and need to kick on and show the exceptional quality we have. We look to have turned a corner now - people being happy with 6 points from the next 5 is mad regardless of opposition. |
I'm not putting a number on the points we should get. It's too simplistic IMO. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:46 - Oct 27 with 675 views | Herbivore |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:36 - Oct 27 by TooManyCooks |
I absolutely believe we are now set up to succeed from an ownership perspective for the years to come. They are a bunch of smart guys, who have football knowledge and are clearly under no illusion about the task ahead. I too am looking at this project for the longer term and I believe we will see promotion to the Championship certainly within a couple of seasons and will be well placed to progress from there.
A section of fans seem to think we have failed if promotion doesn't happen this season, but it's a ludicrous expectation IMO, of course it could happen and I'd be delighted, but I don't "expect" it.
I hope you enjoy your games and will be keeping fingers crossed for good results, we should at the very least be competitive and able to get you jumping around in celebration a few times |
Expecting promotion this season is far from "ludicrous". Go and have a chat with the players who signed to get us out of this league and tell them you think promotion is a ludicrous expectation, go and tell Cook that, go and tell the owners that, then come back to me with their responses. |  |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:52 - Oct 27 with 660 views | homer_123 |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:30 - Oct 27 by Illinoisblue |
Wonder if Carroll regrets coming here. Barely had a look in. |
but was beginning to look very good before he got injured. |  |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:52 - Oct 27 with 662 views | Illinoisblue |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:36 - Oct 27 by tractorboy1978 |
I think he's been injured the last 3-4 weeks, but he could well struggle to get back in at the moment. He's an example of our riches though - over 100 Premier league games under his belt, by all accounts QPR's best player in the first half of last season before injury, 29 (you'd argue prime age) and he's not a guaranteed starter in L1! [Post edited 27 Oct 2021 14:37]
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The squad is ridiculous for L1. This might even be the season we see a bit of a cup run given our strength of resources. A glorious failure to a big club a la 91-92 on way to promotion would do very nicely. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 14:57 - Oct 27 with 655 views | TooManyCooks |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:46 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
Expecting promotion this season is far from "ludicrous". Go and have a chat with the players who signed to get us out of this league and tell them you think promotion is a ludicrous expectation, go and tell Cook that, go and tell the owners that, then come back to me with their responses. |
Brett Johnson:
"While Johnson is hoping the Blues can achieve promotion this season, he says it’s not the end of the world if it takes longer than that."
“From my perspective, obviously we have a healthy impatience,” he said. “Everyone wants the same thing and we want it as quickly as possible. But at the end of the day, you have to be realists.
“I don’t think we want to give up the chase ever, but that being said we have to recognise that it might not happen this first season. There’s no expiration date in terms of any of our commitments or involvements with this, this is absolutely a very long term play.
That's the owners view, a realist who doesn't expect promotion this year. No different to me, I'd love for it to happen, but don't expect it this season.
Ashton stated in his post transfer window interview that he believed it would take time for the team to gel and felt a need to be realistic about promotion chances this year.
I can't speak for Cook.
It seems that the majority of people that are invested financially and emotionally in the club are realists, but there's a noisy minority of unrealistic fans demanding instant success, condemning anything other as a failure, sorry, but that is ludicrous. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:02 - Oct 27 with 639 views | Herbivore |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:57 - Oct 27 by TooManyCooks |
Brett Johnson:
"While Johnson is hoping the Blues can achieve promotion this season, he says it’s not the end of the world if it takes longer than that."
“From my perspective, obviously we have a healthy impatience,” he said. “Everyone wants the same thing and we want it as quickly as possible. But at the end of the day, you have to be realists.
“I don’t think we want to give up the chase ever, but that being said we have to recognise that it might not happen this first season. There’s no expiration date in terms of any of our commitments or involvements with this, this is absolutely a very long term play.
That's the owners view, a realist who doesn't expect promotion this year. No different to me, I'd love for it to happen, but don't expect it this season.
Ashton stated in his post transfer window interview that he believed it would take time for the team to gel and felt a need to be realistic about promotion chances this year.
I can't speak for Cook.
It seems that the majority of people that are invested financially and emotionally in the club are realists, but there's a noisy minority of unrealistic fans demanding instant success, condemning anything other as a failure, sorry, but that is ludicrous. |
"we have to recognise that it might not happen this first season" is a world apart from it being "ludicrous" to expect promotion. Acknowledging we may not achieve what we expect to achieve is not the same thing as thinking said expectation is "ludicrous". This isn't difficult stuff. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:16 - Oct 27 with 615 views | TooManyCooks |
| Very tough league games ahead on 15:02 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
"we have to recognise that it might not happen this first season" is a world apart from it being "ludicrous" to expect promotion. Acknowledging we may not achieve what we expect to achieve is not the same thing as thinking said expectation is "ludicrous". This isn't difficult stuff. |
This is quite ironic, as the "ludicrous" part was my opinion, the giveaway was the "IMO" I put in there. Don't let that stop you attempting to spin the conversation the way you want it to go though, which is invariably away from the facts that show you to be an unrealistically fuelled fan.
What we know to be true, stated on record and has been highlighted to you, is those persons within the ownership and management structure of ITFC have stated that a realist wouldn't "expect" promotion this season and guide towards thinking about the longer term project. I think any level headed person with even the feintest grasp of the huge transformation that has taken place within the club, after 13/14 years of fundamental damage to it, would accept and appreciate that it's likely to take a bit of time to heal. Those same sorts would also be willing to get behind the new owners and management and back them to the hilt in the task at hand, which for a supporter, is to get behind the team, get to games if you can and support through the rough and the smooth. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:35 - Oct 27 with 586 views | Herbivore |
| Very tough league games ahead on 15:16 - Oct 27 by TooManyCooks |
This is quite ironic, as the "ludicrous" part was my opinion, the giveaway was the "IMO" I put in there. Don't let that stop you attempting to spin the conversation the way you want it to go though, which is invariably away from the facts that show you to be an unrealistically fuelled fan.
What we know to be true, stated on record and has been highlighted to you, is those persons within the ownership and management structure of ITFC have stated that a realist wouldn't "expect" promotion this season and guide towards thinking about the longer term project. I think any level headed person with even the feintest grasp of the huge transformation that has taken place within the club, after 13/14 years of fundamental damage to it, would accept and appreciate that it's likely to take a bit of time to heal. Those same sorts would also be willing to get behind the new owners and management and back them to the hilt in the task at hand, which for a supporter, is to get behind the team, get to games if you can and support through the rough and the smooth. |
What a load of b0llocks. | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:38 - Oct 27 with 585 views | TooManyCooks |
| Very tough league games ahead on 15:35 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
What a load of b0llocks. |
I thought you'd say something like that  | |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:48 - Oct 27 with 576 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:46 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
Expecting promotion this season is far from "ludicrous". Go and have a chat with the players who signed to get us out of this league and tell them you think promotion is a ludicrous expectation, go and tell Cook that, go and tell the owners that, then come back to me with their responses. |
It's a desire of course, but you can't just expect it. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:50 - Oct 27 with 574 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 14:57 - Oct 27 by TooManyCooks |
Brett Johnson:
"While Johnson is hoping the Blues can achieve promotion this season, he says it’s not the end of the world if it takes longer than that."
“From my perspective, obviously we have a healthy impatience,” he said. “Everyone wants the same thing and we want it as quickly as possible. But at the end of the day, you have to be realists.
“I don’t think we want to give up the chase ever, but that being said we have to recognise that it might not happen this first season. There’s no expiration date in terms of any of our commitments or involvements with this, this is absolutely a very long term play.
That's the owners view, a realist who doesn't expect promotion this year. No different to me, I'd love for it to happen, but don't expect it this season.
Ashton stated in his post transfer window interview that he believed it would take time for the team to gel and felt a need to be realistic about promotion chances this year.
I can't speak for Cook.
It seems that the majority of people that are invested financially and emotionally in the club are realists, but there's a noisy minority of unrealistic fans demanding instant success, condemning anything other as a failure, sorry, but that is ludicrous. |
Well said. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:53 - Oct 27 with 559 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 15:02 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
"we have to recognise that it might not happen this first season" is a world apart from it being "ludicrous" to expect promotion. Acknowledging we may not achieve what we expect to achieve is not the same thing as thinking said expectation is "ludicrous". This isn't difficult stuff. |
You're certainly making it difficult. You can't EXPECT anything in life.
EXPECTING to roll over teams in this division is probably partly why we've thrown away so many points from winning positions. You've got to earn it, not expect it, regardless of how good you think you are. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 15:55 - Oct 27 with 553 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Very tough league games ahead on 15:35 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
What a load of b0llocks. |
I think you're fairly intelligent Herbs, so I don't believe you genuinely think that's "a load of b0llocks." | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 17:12 - Oct 27 with 507 views | BlueBadger |
We're playing in the third division. None of the games are 'hard', we've just been dreadfully managed in it. |  |
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| Very tough league games ahead on 17:21 - Oct 27 with 492 views | HighgateBlue |
| Very tough league games ahead on 13:26 - Oct 27 by Herbivore |
Genuinely amazed that some fans would happily take 6 points from this next batch of games. It's a great chance to make up some ground and none of these teams are actually good in the grand scheme of things, they're just less rubbish than most of the dross in this league. We've got a 5 game run coming up where if we take just 6 points it leaves us on 26 points from 19 games. That's a really poor position to be in for a side with promotion aspirations. Had we been offered that at the start of the season we wouldn't have taken it and I suspect most would have said it's the kind of start that would see Cook in trouble, and rightly so. |
I wouldn't take 6 points, but it has to be acknowledged that we haven't beaten a team threatening the top end of the table yet, and so we can't truly know what level we're at yet. We'll know a lot more after these 4 games.
The next two games are away against the top two sides in the division. Personally, I wouldn't be distraught with a win and a loss from those two, given our league form over the season to date. |  | | |
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