| Luton 21:27 - Feb 12 with 4572 views | ringwoodblue |
Bottom of the Championship now. How has it gone so wrong for them? |  |
| |  |
| Luton on 22:40 - Feb 12 with 3868 views | Scuzzer |
Hopefully not a demonstration to us for next season. |  |
| |
| Luton on 23:40 - Feb 12 with 3719 views | Bad_Boy_Mark |
| Luton on 22:40 - Feb 12 by Scuzzer |
Hopefully not a demonstration to us for next season. |
Off course it won't be, we're still going to be in the Premier League  |  | | |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 with 3615 views | HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |  | | |
| Luton on 03:56 - Feb 13 with 3435 views | itfc_bucks |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |
Well, this is a take...
The performances have been there and but for some bizarre officiating and unique individual errors, we would very conceivably have notably more points.
From this perspective alone, we've been terribly unlucky.
There are still sufficient games this season to make a first of it. Conducting a mid season post mortem and claiming to have been"let down" is just entitlement writ large. |  | | |
| Luton on 06:13 - Feb 13 with 3336 views | Blue_Heath |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |
So many variables but very strange what is happening to Luton. | | | |
| Luton on 07:32 - Feb 13 with 3170 views | hoppy |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |
“Despite spending a lot less”…
In other words, hoping they’d do just enough to stay up, but not really being prepared for the Championship. The money we’ve spent has largely been on some of the better championship players, so if we should go down, have a more championship ready squad than they had assembled.
Maybe they just like the roller coaster of going up and down the divisions… never a dull season for them! |  |
| |
| Luton on 08:02 - Feb 13 with 3077 views | Garv |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |
Not a criticism but I'd suggest their ground was a tougher place to play, with a better atmosphere, than Portman Road
Barkley was also massive for them. I wonder how our season would have gone if we'd had someone like him in the middle of the park. |  |
| |
| Luton on 08:05 - Feb 13 with 3063 views | PrideOfTheEast |
| Luton on 08:02 - Feb 13 by Garv |
Not a criticism but I'd suggest their ground was a tougher place to play, with a better atmosphere, than Portman Road
Barkley was also massive for them. I wonder how our season would have gone if we'd had someone like him in the middle of the park. |
And this season they held onto Edwards for a very long time, and I gather he changed their style having lost a lot of the quality (Barkley) they had last year. | | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Luton on 08:41 - Feb 13 with 2889 views | BlueNomad |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |
We are future-proofed for the Championship. Why not compare us with Sheffield United and Burnley? |  | | |
| Luton on 09:29 - Feb 13 with 2703 views | baxterbasics |
We have a second string which whilst there's no guarantees of a quick return, should at least be competitive in the Championship. Even if we sell most of our 'stars' I'm confident we won't do a Luton. |  |
| |
| Luton on 09:31 - Feb 13 with 2686 views | tonybied |
| Luton on 08:02 - Feb 13 by Garv |
Not a criticism but I'd suggest their ground was a tougher place to play, with a better atmosphere, than Portman Road
Barkley was also massive for them. I wonder how our season would have gone if we'd had someone like him in the middle of the park. |
Kalvin Phillips was supposed to be that midfield star signing, dragging that area of the pitch up to the level required. Unfortunately, that just hasn't happened so far. Still hopeful that he'll find his groove and that it'll happen for him here but time is starting to run out for that to be the case. |  | | |
| Luton on 09:31 - Feb 13 with 2688 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
| Luton on 00:40 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
At this stage of the season, they had 25% more points than us. 25% more points. 20 compared with 16. Despite spending a lot less. And look at them now.
I do think that any reasonable, rational, analysis of McKenna's performance needs to take those facts into account.
By and large the fanbase have been immense this season, and we have been let down. If we think that the current Luton scenario is impossible for us, we are deluded. I don't say that it is likely, but given how much worse than them we're doing, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are special and different. |
I think it's fair to say we got our recruitment wrong and we overspent on many of the players we have had. You could argue that Luton not spending or recruiting well, and not backing their manager, has landed themselves into a double relegation scenario, whereas you hope we wouldn't be that weak but I certainly am not deluded enough to rule it out.
Next season we'll be without Delap, maybe Davis, and the likes of Cujuste will have returned. We'll need to replace players who have had bad injury records, and players who will be a few years too old for a promotion push, but we do have some players who should be fine in the Championship. |  |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
| |
| Luton on 09:50 - Feb 13 with 2575 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Luton on 09:31 - Feb 13 by SaffronWaldenBlues |
I think it's fair to say we got our recruitment wrong and we overspent on many of the players we have had. You could argue that Luton not spending or recruiting well, and not backing their manager, has landed themselves into a double relegation scenario, whereas you hope we wouldn't be that weak but I certainly am not deluded enough to rule it out.
Next season we'll be without Delap, maybe Davis, and the likes of Cujuste will have returned. We'll need to replace players who have had bad injury records, and players who will be a few years too old for a promotion push, but we do have some players who should be fine in the Championship. |
The whole getting our recruitment wrong depends entirely on what the target actually was..
KM clearly knows his stuff, so I wouldn't put it past him being really honest with the board and MA and saying look we've got next to no hope in staying up, we'll fight and give it a go, but we are way way way off the promoted sides let alone the rest of the league.
The league is kinda backing that up although we have imo now caught up with Southampton off the field and on it, despite the differences in points totals this season to last in head to head fixtures, but the game itself did show we've matched them and not been controlled by them..
So, our recruitment kinda falls into the 'lets get ready for 25/26 then,
We've got 3 of the best left 10s you could ask for at champ level,
3 top end champ r10s
2 injured at moment, but absolutely two championship ready wingers in burns and ogbene
Defenders, we've got 4 of the most solid top champ and doing ok prem level cb's options
and now we have 3 keepers, two of which are very solid pros, one who could be but i think may well go into the epic stat fail pot personally.
Was recruitment good enough to stay up, I don't think so, Jan didn't really change that view either esp philogene,
But the way we have recruited really doesn't say to me we're making this team good enough for prem survival, it does imo look like a squad built for a 1 season out and back up squad and then hit the summer sales bringing in that extra quality for a prem stay up campaign. |  |
| |
| Luton on 09:55 - Feb 13 with 2527 views | Kieran_Knows |
| Luton on 09:31 - Feb 13 by SaffronWaldenBlues |
I think it's fair to say we got our recruitment wrong and we overspent on many of the players we have had. You could argue that Luton not spending or recruiting well, and not backing their manager, has landed themselves into a double relegation scenario, whereas you hope we wouldn't be that weak but I certainly am not deluded enough to rule it out.
Next season we'll be without Delap, maybe Davis, and the likes of Cujuste will have returned. We'll need to replace players who have had bad injury records, and players who will be a few years too old for a promotion push, but we do have some players who should be fine in the Championship. |
Why does everyone to seem to think we're already down for? There's 14 games left ffs. |  |
| |
| Luton on 09:56 - Feb 13 with 2511 views | Garv |
| Luton on 09:31 - Feb 13 by tonybied |
Kalvin Phillips was supposed to be that midfield star signing, dragging that area of the pitch up to the level required. Unfortunately, that just hasn't happened so far. Still hopeful that he'll find his groove and that it'll happen for him here but time is starting to run out for that to be the case. |
True. I don't think we're going to get anything different from Phillips than what we've seen already, realistically. I'm sure he'll contribute and could prove really important, but his game isn't going to change much and if I had to make a prediction, on the basis that we stay up, I would say Morsy will have been more influential. | |
| |
| Luton on 10:00 - Feb 13 with 2454 views | gainsboroughblue |
Luton didn't really sign the players that would either stay for another year if relegated or future proof them in the event of relegation.
We have a bit of a Championship all stars squad who I should imagine we'd retain enough of in the summer to be in good shape. |  |
| |
| Luton on 10:03 - Feb 13 with 2415 views | vapour_trail |
| Luton on 09:55 - Feb 13 by Kieran_Knows |
Why does everyone to seem to think we're already down for? There's 14 games left ffs. |
Probably because it’s two from us, wolves and Leicester, and wolves look to have much more about them. |  |
| |
| Luton on 10:07 - Feb 13 with 2365 views | Steve_M |
| Luton on 09:50 - Feb 13 by FrimleyBlue |
The whole getting our recruitment wrong depends entirely on what the target actually was..
KM clearly knows his stuff, so I wouldn't put it past him being really honest with the board and MA and saying look we've got next to no hope in staying up, we'll fight and give it a go, but we are way way way off the promoted sides let alone the rest of the league.
The league is kinda backing that up although we have imo now caught up with Southampton off the field and on it, despite the differences in points totals this season to last in head to head fixtures, but the game itself did show we've matched them and not been controlled by them..
So, our recruitment kinda falls into the 'lets get ready for 25/26 then,
We've got 3 of the best left 10s you could ask for at champ level,
3 top end champ r10s
2 injured at moment, but absolutely two championship ready wingers in burns and ogbene
Defenders, we've got 4 of the most solid top champ and doing ok prem level cb's options
and now we have 3 keepers, two of which are very solid pros, one who could be but i think may well go into the epic stat fail pot personally.
Was recruitment good enough to stay up, I don't think so, Jan didn't really change that view either esp philogene,
But the way we have recruited really doesn't say to me we're making this team good enough for prem survival, it does imo look like a squad built for a 1 season out and back up squad and then hit the summer sales bringing in that extra quality for a prem stay up campaign. |
"But the way we have recruited really doesn't say to me we're making this team good enough for prem survival, it does imo look like a squad built for a 1 season out and back up squad and then hit the summer sales bringing in that extra quality for a prem stay up campaign."
I don't think you are quite right in your last paragraph. We bought players to try to stay up but on the basis that if we failed to do so, then we were well placed for next season.
Talk of overpaying for players is, in most cases, far too early bu then reactionaries are going to react. |  |
| |
| Luton on 10:16 - Feb 13 with 2292 views | hoppy |
| Luton on 10:03 - Feb 13 by vapour_trail |
Probably because it’s two from us, wolves and Leicester, and wolves look to have much more about them. |
Wolves still just have 3 more points than us… | |
| |
| Luton on 10:16 - Feb 13 with 2293 views | Churchman |
| Luton on 10:00 - Feb 13 by gainsboroughblue |
Luton didn't really sign the players that would either stay for another year if relegated or future proof them in the event of relegation.
We have a bit of a Championship all stars squad who I should imagine we'd retain enough of in the summer to be in good shape. |
I think you are right about Luton. I’d add that in the Championship, their game was very much based on team spirit, up and at em, hit it long, bully them. I didn’t see them in the PL, but suspect they ambushed a few teams for points here and there. Their miserable little ground would have helped them too. But there was nothing much underneath it all, unlike Sheffield Utd and Burnley.
So are we going to do a Luton or SU/B, assuming the worst? I think we are more likely to challenge and challenge strongly, especially if come what may KM concentrates on building a true team for the rest of this season and in pre season. It’s how Sheffield Utd looked last night despite being smashed every week last season.
It’s too soon to review hits and misses on the transfer front. That’s for the end of the season, but with that many signings not all were going to work out and building a proper team in such a tough league was always going to be hard.
I agree with you Gainsborough. We should be in good shape going into next season. |  | | |
| Luton on 10:26 - Feb 13 with 2205 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
| Luton on 09:55 - Feb 13 by Kieran_Knows |
Why does everyone to seem to think we're already down for? There's 14 games left ffs. |
We don't have the mental fortitude for the relegation scrap. If you turn up looking beat, when you are a point from safety, against the worst team in the Premier League historically and play the way we did, lose, and look accepting of it at full-time, there is no way we're staying in this league. I hope I am wrong but we won't pick up enough points from the odd draw we may get to come close to staying up after those 14 games.
We must look to next season, and what happens beyond that if we do come back up again, which is never a given, especially for Ipswich. | |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
| |
| Luton on 10:34 - Feb 13 with 2131 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Luton on 10:26 - Feb 13 by SaffronWaldenBlues |
We don't have the mental fortitude for the relegation scrap. If you turn up looking beat, when you are a point from safety, against the worst team in the Premier League historically and play the way we did, lose, and look accepting of it at full-time, there is no way we're staying in this league. I hope I am wrong but we won't pick up enough points from the odd draw we may get to come close to staying up after those 14 games.
We must look to next season, and what happens beyond that if we do come back up again, which is never a given, especially for Ipswich. |
I think you're being overly harsh about the southampton game.
I did feel we have up after southampton scored their winner, I didn't like that.
But the game itself, we had plenty of chances to score, Broady should have had a hattrick for example. we just didn't put the game to bed and we saw far far to much greediness when simple passes were on | |
| |
| Luton on 10:39 - Feb 13 with 2079 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
| Luton on 09:50 - Feb 13 by FrimleyBlue |
The whole getting our recruitment wrong depends entirely on what the target actually was..
KM clearly knows his stuff, so I wouldn't put it past him being really honest with the board and MA and saying look we've got next to no hope in staying up, we'll fight and give it a go, but we are way way way off the promoted sides let alone the rest of the league.
The league is kinda backing that up although we have imo now caught up with Southampton off the field and on it, despite the differences in points totals this season to last in head to head fixtures, but the game itself did show we've matched them and not been controlled by them..
So, our recruitment kinda falls into the 'lets get ready for 25/26 then,
We've got 3 of the best left 10s you could ask for at champ level,
3 top end champ r10s
2 injured at moment, but absolutely two championship ready wingers in burns and ogbene
Defenders, we've got 4 of the most solid top champ and doing ok prem level cb's options
and now we have 3 keepers, two of which are very solid pros, one who could be but i think may well go into the epic stat fail pot personally.
Was recruitment good enough to stay up, I don't think so, Jan didn't really change that view either esp philogene,
But the way we have recruited really doesn't say to me we're making this team good enough for prem survival, it does imo look like a squad built for a 1 season out and back up squad and then hit the summer sales bringing in that extra quality for a prem stay up campaign. |
I don't think Ashton would have recruited for relegation this season, despite us being ahead of the plan. I also don't think Ashton or the investors would drop £100mil if they didn't think it would give us a good shot of finishing 17th. I think we didn't appreciate that the players we did recruit from Hull, Blackburn, Burnley, and Sunderland would not be able to step up, or be coached into being better players. We obviously paid way over the odds for most of them, to get them here too. We got it wrong, no shame in that aspect, it is everyone's first time doing this, however, we cannot make that mistake if we ever get this opportunity again.
People forget that our "League One" squad was already a level below what they were capable of when we were in that league. Players like Walton, Davis, Clarke, Morsy, Mass, Hirst, Broadhead and Chaplin were already good enough for that level in the Championship and did not need much coaching or as much supplementing last season, to make that grade.
The players we have recruited have not done badly, but they have not done on average much better than the players we already had. Muric, O'Shea, Greaves, Johnson, Jack Clarke, Ogbene, Hutchinson, Philogene, and Szmodics are Championship level players. Liam Delap has stepped up and thrived, but the others have not managed that much of a jump.
Let's learn and move on, but accept we have made mistakes. | |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
| |
| Luton on 10:42 - Feb 13 with 2030 views | HighgateBlue |
| Luton on 09:31 - Feb 13 by SaffronWaldenBlues |
I think it's fair to say we got our recruitment wrong and we overspent on many of the players we have had. You could argue that Luton not spending or recruiting well, and not backing their manager, has landed themselves into a double relegation scenario, whereas you hope we wouldn't be that weak but I certainly am not deluded enough to rule it out.
Next season we'll be without Delap, maybe Davis, and the likes of Cujuste will have returned. We'll need to replace players who have had bad injury records, and players who will be a few years too old for a promotion push, but we do have some players who should be fine in the Championship. |
Just looking at our performance so far in the Premier League, if the only problem has been recruitment, does that mean that (a) we have made our team worse having spent £120m (in which case, that really is some incredible waste of money). or (b) Luton got promoted with a better squad than we did?
I really don't believe that the Luton squad that got promoted through the playoffs was as good as our squad which finished 2nd. If that's right, and if our recruitment didn't actually make our team worse, I struggle to see why we're doing worse than Luton were at the same stage. Surely some of it has to do with factors other than recruitment?
I am confident that, if we get relegated (and we're still in the fight, I acknowledge), we will do better in the Champ than Luton are currently doing. But I do think we have underperformed thus far, given how much was spent, and I'm interested in thinking about the reasons for that. | | | |
| Luton on 10:53 - Feb 13 with 1959 views | JakeITFC |
| Luton on 10:42 - Feb 13 by HighgateBlue |
Just looking at our performance so far in the Premier League, if the only problem has been recruitment, does that mean that (a) we have made our team worse having spent £120m (in which case, that really is some incredible waste of money). or (b) Luton got promoted with a better squad than we did?
I really don't believe that the Luton squad that got promoted through the playoffs was as good as our squad which finished 2nd. If that's right, and if our recruitment didn't actually make our team worse, I struggle to see why we're doing worse than Luton were at the same stage. Surely some of it has to do with factors other than recruitment?
I am confident that, if we get relegated (and we're still in the fight, I acknowledge), we will do better in the Champ than Luton are currently doing. But I do think we have underperformed thus far, given how much was spent, and I'm interested in thinking about the reasons for that. |
I do think that had we have gone up with our back-to-back promotion squad and left it as is then we would have found the next season in the Championship much harder. Regardless of what happens this year I think we've moved the whole club forward massively via this promotion. |  | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
