| The journey 10:02 - Oct 28 with 2249 views | wrightsrightglove |
Seeing Hirst score and celebrate with Chappers on the weekend really made me realise that we’re still very much on a journey and we haven’t reached our destination yet. And what a monumental journey it’s been.
People said Hirst wouldn’t score in the Championship, he’s now a premier league goalscorer and doesn’t look out of place
Chappers dropped to league one, he’s now captained a premier league team
Burns was plying his trade with Fleetwood, sold for £60k, he’s now a premier league player
Wolfie was on the way out of a league one side having been deemed not good enough or too lazy, he’s now a premier league defender
Burgess was deemed a back up league one defender, he’s now up against some of the best strikers in the world
Morsy was deemed surplus to requirements at Boro, he dropped down a league and two promotions later, he’s a premier league captain
Leif was deemed a massive signing but he cost us £1million, he’s now getting asked questions about playing for England
We actually signed a loan player that we all fell in love with on a 5 year contract, he’s our own player now
And these milestones are going to keep popping up throughout this season and beyond. I’m incredibly proud of my club and the players, it’s so easy to lose sight of that when results aren’t going our way but we’ve got to keep backing the team, it’s what they deserve |  | | |  |
| The journey on 11:58 - Oct 28 with 2041 views | ozzy_itfc |
what you have described is exactly right.
I think the frustration starting to creep in is that we have signed a lot of players, for a lot of money, who are supposed to be improvements, but in the vast majority of cases that is yet to translate into the pitch. Greaves / Delap probably the only exceptions so far.
The core of the team over the past few years is good enough, and has shown that, now we need to see those new players step up. | | | |
| The journey on 12:18 - Oct 28 with 1940 views | norfsufblue |
I think the up arrows are confirmation that this is a widely held veiw.... we all moan and voice our opinions but honestly what set of supporters have enjoyed a better 3 years than we have..... I mean City are expected to win the whole caboose every year so apart from the "ooh we won!" ... where is the excitement and expectation in that?...... [Post edited 28 Oct 2024 12:22]
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| The journey on 12:19 - Oct 28 with 1936 views | Bent_double |
That is exactly the kind of post we need on a Monday morning, thank-you. 
It's gonna be a tough old season, but we need to keep remembering how far we've come in such a short amount of time, and even if we are relegated next May, we'll be in a much stronger place than we could ever have imagened 2 or 3 years ago. |  |
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| The journey on 12:21 - Oct 28 with 1919 views | HighgateBlue |
| The journey on 11:58 - Oct 28 by ozzy_itfc |
what you have described is exactly right.
I think the frustration starting to creep in is that we have signed a lot of players, for a lot of money, who are supposed to be improvements, but in the vast majority of cases that is yet to translate into the pitch. Greaves / Delap probably the only exceptions so far.
The core of the team over the past few years is good enough, and has shown that, now we need to see those new players step up. |
Agreed. My 10 year old son has been saying for a while that we should never have got rid of Hladky and Sarmiento.
He's rarely if ever right, but it would be fascinating to know how many points we would have with last season's finishing squad (including those two plus Hutch and Moore).
I was very excited about Muric, but that has waned somewhat to say the least. It's pretty scandalous that we binned Hladky, although I appreciate we don't know the full story. Thoughts of that league cup game against Fulham do not inspire too much confidence in Walton as the calming presence we need I'm afraid. |  | | |
| The journey on 12:31 - Oct 28 with 1810 views | wrightsrightglove |
| The journey on 11:58 - Oct 28 by ozzy_itfc |
what you have described is exactly right.
I think the frustration starting to creep in is that we have signed a lot of players, for a lot of money, who are supposed to be improvements, but in the vast majority of cases that is yet to translate into the pitch. Greaves / Delap probably the only exceptions so far.
The core of the team over the past few years is good enough, and has shown that, now we need to see those new players step up. |
Absolutely, and I fully get the frustration, but also when we look at the age and profile of those players we’ve brought in we were always going to have to be patient with them and trust the club’s judgement. As long as we’re still within touching distance come 1st January then I’ve got faith we’ll have a good enough second half of the season to keep us up | | | |
| The journey on 13:00 - Oct 28 with 1724 views | TractorFrog |
In my opinion, we should have stuck with the championship promotion team more at the start of this year. If you look at the team that played against Liverpool, it was almost exactly the team that was promoted with the exception of Delap for Hirst (forced), Walton for Hladky (sort of forced, but he should have kept him) and Greaves for Burgess (by choice). That was one of the best performances of the season.
Then we started quickly bringing in all the new signings, and the team if anything regressed. I think this is because, while they are perhaps better players on paper, they are not a better team yet. Leicester, Southampton and Leeds all had better squads than us on paper last season, but we stayed with them because of how well our squad played as a team, and we need to get that spirit from last season back, which seems lost at the moment.
So I personally would have kept the likes of Chaplin, Luongo, Woolfenden, Walton, and in fact Burgess as well in the team at the start of the year by default, and made the likes of Szmodics, Clarke, Phillips, O'Shea, Greaves and Muric sit on the bench initially, and then slowly try to force their way into the team like Hutchinson and Tuanzebe did last year. Rather than the other way around with the new signings as the default players and the promotion squad forcing their way back in, which appears to be what has happened. |  |
| They'd all laugh at me if they knew what I was trying to do. To create a new strain of super-wine in half-an-hour with a fraction of nature's resources and a FOOL for an assistant. 'Bernard Black, he's mad,' they'd say, 'he's insane, he's dangerous.' Well I'll show them! I'll show them all! | | Poll: | Who should start in CM with Cajuste? |
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| The journey on 13:04 - Oct 28 with 1704 views | victorysquad |
| The journey on 13:00 - Oct 28 by TractorFrog |
In my opinion, we should have stuck with the championship promotion team more at the start of this year. If you look at the team that played against Liverpool, it was almost exactly the team that was promoted with the exception of Delap for Hirst (forced), Walton for Hladky (sort of forced, but he should have kept him) and Greaves for Burgess (by choice). That was one of the best performances of the season.
Then we started quickly bringing in all the new signings, and the team if anything regressed. I think this is because, while they are perhaps better players on paper, they are not a better team yet. Leicester, Southampton and Leeds all had better squads than us on paper last season, but we stayed with them because of how well our squad played as a team, and we need to get that spirit from last season back, which seems lost at the moment.
So I personally would have kept the likes of Chaplin, Luongo, Woolfenden, Walton, and in fact Burgess as well in the team at the start of the year by default, and made the likes of Szmodics, Clarke, Phillips, O'Shea, Greaves and Muric sit on the bench initially, and then slowly try to force their way into the team like Hutchinson and Tuanzebe did last year. Rather than the other way around with the new signings as the default players and the promotion squad forcing their way back in, which appears to be what has happened. |
It sounds logical, but it could have easily gone the other way. The team become outclassed / out played and confidence quickly eroded. | |
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| The journey on 15:13 - Oct 28 with 1469 views | Vic |
| The journey on 13:04 - Oct 28 by victorysquad |
It sounds logical, but it could have easily gone the other way. The team become outclassed / out played and confidence quickly eroded. |
And we wouldn't have been able to strengthen soon enough when that happened. Hindsight is easy isn't it and truth is we just won;t know. For me, I'm happy that they club invested as they did - it shows intent and goodness knows we hadn't seen that for a good few years! |  |
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| The journey on 15:31 - Oct 28 with 1419 views | ReusersTown |
| The journey on 13:00 - Oct 28 by TractorFrog |
In my opinion, we should have stuck with the championship promotion team more at the start of this year. If you look at the team that played against Liverpool, it was almost exactly the team that was promoted with the exception of Delap for Hirst (forced), Walton for Hladky (sort of forced, but he should have kept him) and Greaves for Burgess (by choice). That was one of the best performances of the season.
Then we started quickly bringing in all the new signings, and the team if anything regressed. I think this is because, while they are perhaps better players on paper, they are not a better team yet. Leicester, Southampton and Leeds all had better squads than us on paper last season, but we stayed with them because of how well our squad played as a team, and we need to get that spirit from last season back, which seems lost at the moment.
So I personally would have kept the likes of Chaplin, Luongo, Woolfenden, Walton, and in fact Burgess as well in the team at the start of the year by default, and made the likes of Szmodics, Clarke, Phillips, O'Shea, Greaves and Muric sit on the bench initially, and then slowly try to force their way into the team like Hutchinson and Tuanzebe did last year. Rather than the other way around with the new signings as the default players and the promotion squad forcing their way back in, which appears to be what has happened. |
I agree with your general sentiment, but Hladky and Luongo were never viable options. To an extent proved by the absence of Morsy over the weekend who I think has done fine and I would rather keep him in the team for both leadership and sentimentality, but there was a clear improvement in the mobility of the team with Phillips / Cajuste, and Morsy is a lot quicker than Luongo. | | | |
| The journey on 20:17 - Oct 28 with 1133 views | RonFearonsHair |
| The journey on 12:31 - Oct 28 by wrightsrightglove |
Absolutely, and I fully get the frustration, but also when we look at the age and profile of those players we’ve brought in we were always going to have to be patient with them and trust the club’s judgement. As long as we’re still within touching distance come 1st January then I’ve got faith we’ll have a good enough second half of the season to keep us up |
Newly promoted teams often seem to make strong starts and then fall away in the second half of the season when they get found out. I am hopeful that our pattern will be the opposite and we will continue to improve. |  | | |
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