| The season gone and the season to come 13:20 - Jun 15 with 2246 views | Bromley_Blue |
I think it is possible to believe that the club is in a much better state under the new owners, note the progress made and still be critical of the performances last season and also be concerned about some of the decision making both on and off the pitch. A few not particularly well structured thoughts and apologies for the rambling.
Last season exposed a weakness in McKenna for not being able to set up the team to see out games and there seems to be a pattern of bringing on substitutes far too late. Whilst it is great to have a manager in demand last season we lost the advantage of automatic promotion as the club set about keeping the manager and this put back work on transfers. KMcK has been great for this club and I am sure last season will have been a massively steep learning curve and I hope he is here to stay for some seasons yet. I don't think he will go to Brentford as I think Brentford put their very successful system above everything including the manager and this limits the role and scope of decision making of whomever has that role at the club. I think KMcK would want a club where he has much more control and also I think it would be very difficult to kick Brentford on to the next level after the excellent tenure of Thomas Frank.
I think recent transfer windows have shown how far the scouting and analysis departments at the club were decimated under the previous owner and the work to improve them is going to take a very long time. Once we lost access to Tony Blooms magic spreadsheet our more recent signings on the whole have not had the impact of the windows before but then the level the club is at has increased significantly so it is a harder task. This upcoming window is going to one of the most challenging with comings and goings. Cajuste is a player that was fantastic last season but I do worry about his failed Brentford medical and his managed game time with us suggests that there is an underlying problem there and will be able to play the long hard winter months of Saturday- Tuesday Championship football I hope so as he would be an immense signing. I also hope we can ship off players such as Jack Clarke who is simply out of his depth at the top end of the Championship let alone the Premier League.Also I was always worried about the quality of Slicker simply based on what you see when the squad warm up for games and his recent performance for Scotland is further cause for concern. Again is this an indicator of poor off field work as I understand the goal keeping analysis was outsourced. Ali Al-Hamidi looked like he had won a competition to be a footballer, he is not quite at the level of performance Best and Reo-Coker turned in for us but he is definitely a player we should look to move on. Off the field I think the chief operating officer Luke Werhun needs replacing and I would like to see a director in place with more experience something lacking since Mike O'Leary left
More generally I worry about the American ownership in the longterm. So far there have been huge levels of investment but a pension fund will want a significant return on that spending and I am not sure of what their exit strategy is. I suppose you have to judge them on their actions so far which have been excellent but I do have this worry in the background but maybe that is unfair.
Overall though if I look back to the club five years ago we are in a great place the work to become a category 1 academy and the new training ground are really positive and hopefully will be great assets for the future of the club. It is exciting to be thinking about players we might be signing rather than scrambling around in the bargain bin of windows long past. Central midfield, right back and an additional striker should be the focus. Morsy has been a great player and captain but the legs are going. [Post edited 15 Jun 13:22]
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| The season gone and the season to come on 12:21 - Jun 16 with 184 views | chicoazul |
Interesting in what you say about off the field since it seems to me that every ITFC employee off the record moans about what an awful place it is to work now. |  |
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| The season gone and the season to come on 12:33 - Jun 16 with 159 views | WeWereZombies |
| The season gone and the season to come on 12:03 - Jun 16 by billlm |
The same jack Clarke who could easily be our player of the season,
The Guy can't have watched jack much, |
The OP has already admitted in a later post that he meant Harry Clarke, now all there is to do is to learn how to edit the first post (that yellow pencil is a clue) so that those of us coming fresh to the thread are no longer thrown by the apparently bizarre opinion on what is otherwise a reasonable and detailed post for the most part.
[edit: and I now notice that the Op has been edited - but not for the Jack Clarke gaffe. Manager needs to have a word about not tracking back effectively...] [Post edited 16 Jun 12:36]
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| The season gone and the season to come on 13:22 - Jun 16 with 109 views | bluefunk |
Well I agree that it was rambling and not well structured- that’s as far as it goes, the rest is pretty much nonsense, particularly the bit about the return in investment for “the pension fund” - they paid £30m or so, and yes, invested many millions but still sold a 45% (?) stake for £110m., which valued the club at around £240m. Therefore, I’d guess, the current net cost of the investment is pretty close to zero, so stop worrying, they’ve made a profi. [Post edited 16 Jun 13:25]
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