| Town,Saints and Foxes. 11:58 - Jan 26 with 1924 views | OldFart71 | What is your take on why Town, Southampton and Leicester aren't all in the top three. Oh course I know Town are third, but in no way looking certainties for Promotion, whilst Saints and Foxes have both struggled this season. |  | | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 11:59 - Jan 26 with 1644 views | NedPlimpton | Possibly because Coventry and Middlesborough have more points than them? |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:02 - Jan 26 with 1620 views | thebooks | You get a lot more churn when you're up and down. Plus Leicester and Southampton have both been in bad places for a while now. Football is still unpredictable enough that the richest team won't just win. Championship clubs also seem pretty rich. Obviously not PL rich, but able to compete with the other European leagues and buy high quality players. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:05 - Jan 26 with 1576 views | homer_123 | Because that's football. Without being flippant - see our season in the champ. It's not about having the best players, it's about the best team, ethos, confidence and all the other stuff that goes along with it. |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:15 - Jan 26 with 1468 views | bluefunk | Leicester have been hamstrung by FFP, going back to Brendan Roger’s failure to deliver Champions League football in successive seasons, despite being in contention each time. Southampton have had a succession of managers fail to deliver, which probably speaks to their lack of a clear vision for the team and what they are looking for from their manager. The appointment of Eghart would also indicate they sacked Still without a clear process to find his successor. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:16 - Jan 26 with 1455 views | Reuser_is_God | Questionable recruitment in the summer. Thankfully ours was only a few players, whereas Leicester & Saints made poor managerial choices too. |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:16 - Jan 26 with 1451 views | BloomBlue | Confidence or rather lack of it. All three teams had so many defeats last season its still impacting their confidence. Which is why all 3 teams have struggled this season to win games after the oppo take the lead. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:22 - Jan 26 with 1392 views | FrimleyBlue | Poor Summer planning and execution All three of us had a bad summer, we've taken time and got over it, but have had to sacrifice and change some of our intentions.., nunez as a 10 when he wasn't signed as one, akpom not being selected, taylor playing instead of cajuste when he couldn't manage games well enough.. Kipre coming in as back up but becoming partner to oshea. Can't say much on southampton other than they appear to have internal issues and leicester are all over the place with the owner. IF we had planned summer better and executed it better, we wouldn't have had such a bad start and be playing catch up imo. Some posts about 'this is football' etc are correct. However none of the three relegated clubs were ready for what this season was to bring. Hopefully in our case, we can sort the away form out and we will be ok for autos. |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:25 - Jan 26 with 1367 views | Linners |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:05 - Jan 26 by homer_123 | Because that's football. Without being flippant - see our season in the champ. It's not about having the best players, it's about the best team, ethos, confidence and all the other stuff that goes along with it. |
Exactly this. Having £££ and decent players obviously gives you an advantage, but being a 'team' is worth more. No way we were one of the strongest squads in 23/24, but we had the team thing in spades. If KMcK gets us up again then he's created the team thing again, which will be very impressive, in spite of the financial advantage. |  | |  | Login to get fewer ads
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:27 - Jan 26 with 1353 views | bsw72 | Because teams which go up and come down have to recruit for promotion and then lose a number of those players at relegation and have to rebuild for the championship as well. It disrupts the squad and takes time to build that level of understanding and teamwork. I would suggest that a number of the championship sides who have been close but not made promotion have been able to stablise their squad in their last couple of years and have recruited sensibly - notably Cov and Boro, but also sides like Bristol CIty and Millwall continue to demonstrate they have what is required to disrupt and challenge for top 6 with a core settle squad. I know we spent a lot of money in the summer, but it does not equate to odds on promotion. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:38 - Jan 26 with 1265 views | Sharkey |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:25 - Jan 26 by Linners | Exactly this. Having £££ and decent players obviously gives you an advantage, but being a 'team' is worth more. No way we were one of the strongest squads in 23/24, but we had the team thing in spades. If KMcK gets us up again then he's created the team thing again, which will be very impressive, in spite of the financial advantage. |
This is what Phil Parkinson has done four years in a row. When his budget was bigger than those around him's, he seemed to manage always to recruit a group of players who were on average about one league better than the opposition, but who also seemed to know 'what the league was about'. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:55 - Jan 26 with 1180 views | Blueschev |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:22 - Jan 26 by FrimleyBlue | Poor Summer planning and execution All three of us had a bad summer, we've taken time and got over it, but have had to sacrifice and change some of our intentions.., nunez as a 10 when he wasn't signed as one, akpom not being selected, taylor playing instead of cajuste when he couldn't manage games well enough.. Kipre coming in as back up but becoming partner to oshea. Can't say much on southampton other than they appear to have internal issues and leicester are all over the place with the owner. IF we had planned summer better and executed it better, we wouldn't have had such a bad start and be playing catch up imo. Some posts about 'this is football' etc are correct. However none of the three relegated clubs were ready for what this season was to bring. Hopefully in our case, we can sort the away form out and we will be ok for autos. |
Are we to finish in the top two come the end of the season, I'd say that we had a very good summer. It's too early to tell. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 13:00 - Jan 26 with 1145 views | ThatMuhrenCross | The rest of the teams have adapted. For a few seasons, the relegated clubs have outmuscled everyone else through finance alone, but as time has gone on, the rest of the teams have figured out a way to frustrate and beat those teams who have better resources than them. It's resulted in some pretty horrible looking games with time wasting, play acting and overly physical play. Teams have started to find small margins in things such as set pieces, pressing and deep defending. Credit where it's due though - teams won't just roll over. |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 13:02 - Jan 26 with 1124 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 12:55 - Jan 26 by Blueschev | Are we to finish in the top two come the end of the season, I'd say that we had a very good summer. It's too early to tell. |
I don't think we could TBH, it would be much more in spite of not because of |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 13:15 - Jan 26 with 1041 views | Smoresy | Leicester was a predicted outcome this season, largely attributable to the cost of gross misspending. They saddled themselves with players earning multiple times their fair value, whom they could only "afford" to pay with a top 6 PL finish, but instead were relegated. Spectacular fail. They've been ducking and diving in the courts ever since because of those financial breaches, couldn't spend a transfer fee this summer, and points deduction clouds continue to loom large. Not an environment conducive to repeat promotion pushes. Southampton is more surprising. They were fancied, no financial constraints, invested much like us. Proves that just because your budget is three or four times bigger than your rivals, competence or lack thereof can be a real leveller. The top two have achieved brilliant bang for their buck, in fairness to them, in extracting their blend of players + coaching on a relative shoestring. Much like we did two years ago. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:11 - Jan 26 with 839 views | OldFart71 |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 13:15 - Jan 26 by Smoresy | Leicester was a predicted outcome this season, largely attributable to the cost of gross misspending. They saddled themselves with players earning multiple times their fair value, whom they could only "afford" to pay with a top 6 PL finish, but instead were relegated. Spectacular fail. They've been ducking and diving in the courts ever since because of those financial breaches, couldn't spend a transfer fee this summer, and points deduction clouds continue to loom large. Not an environment conducive to repeat promotion pushes. Southampton is more surprising. They were fancied, no financial constraints, invested much like us. Proves that just because your budget is three or four times bigger than your rivals, competence or lack thereof can be a real leveller. The top two have achieved brilliant bang for their buck, in fairness to them, in extracting their blend of players + coaching on a relative shoestring. Much like we did two years ago. |
Should we therefore question recruitment ? The likes of Philogene and Clarke have been massive successes. But then you look at Akpom, Azon, McAteer,Szmodics and even Egeli although the lad is still pretty young and has time on his side. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:14 - Jan 26 with 822 views | Pippin1970 | Ipswich have never been trigger happy. Ipswich had a blip Saturday but be back on track. The other two clubs panic on a set of results short term rather than long term. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:28 - Jan 26 with 772 views | Blueschev |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:11 - Jan 26 by OldFart71 | Should we therefore question recruitment ? The likes of Philogene and Clarke have been massive successes. But then you look at Akpom, Azon, McAteer,Szmodics and even Egeli although the lad is still pretty young and has time on his side. |
At the start of the season, Clarke and Philogene were rated, as signings, in much the same way as Akpom and McAteer are now by many. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:40 - Jan 26 with 731 views | giant_stow | Because its not easy being a yoyo team, despite how it looks when skint. |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:43 - Jan 26 with 717 views | bournemouthblue |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 14:40 - Jan 26 by giant_stow | Because its not easy being a yoyo team, despite how it looks when skint. |
Norwich seemed hack the system and found a way to make it look easy I suppose you could say similar for Burnley, what wasn't so easy was to take the next step and stay there Sunderland seem to have worked it out, Leeds have given it a good go too but I expect both to have trickier second halves to the season |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 15:25 - Jan 26 with 631 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 13:02 - Jan 26 by FrimleyBlue | I don't think we could TBH, it would be much more in spite of not because of |
That's just being ultra-critical. In effect you're saying that if we fail to make the top two, it's because of bad management (in the broad sense) and if we finish top 2, then it's because of luck and despite the management. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 15:32 - Jan 26 with 612 views | WestSussexBlue | Russell Martin is a fraud with very little consistency to his managerial stats, replaced by a couple of hit and hope appointments at Southampton. Maresca left Leicester and since that their manager appointments have been poor. We have stayed consistent with KMc and it’s proving beneficial. We are in with a great chance of promotion once again. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 15:59 - Jan 26 with 551 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 15:25 - Jan 26 by SuffolkPunchFC | That's just being ultra-critical. In effect you're saying that if we fail to make the top two, it's because of bad management (in the broad sense) and if we finish top 2, then it's because of luck and despite the management. |
If we fail to get promoted yes it's poor from all involved in the recruitment process in the summer, it gave us a horrid start and we were always playing catch up. If we get promoted it's because we've used january to fix our away form issue by reinforcing the squad. Without the jan window, this side doesn't finish in the promotion places. imo |  |
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 16:04 - Jan 26 with 537 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 15:59 - Jan 26 by FrimleyBlue | If we fail to get promoted yes it's poor from all involved in the recruitment process in the summer, it gave us a horrid start and we were always playing catch up. If we get promoted it's because we've used january to fix our away form issue by reinforcing the squad. Without the jan window, this side doesn't finish in the promotion places. imo |
Disagree with your final point (depending on injuries), but what actually is your point about the transfer window? Isn't that precisely what the January transfer window is about - strengthening as needed (for all clubs) for the push in the 2nd half of the season? Your really do seem to be trying to conjure up ways to be negative. Oh well, each to their own I guess. |  | |  |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 16:09 - Jan 26 with 518 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 16:04 - Jan 26 by SuffolkPunchFC | Disagree with your final point (depending on injuries), but what actually is your point about the transfer window? Isn't that precisely what the January transfer window is about - strengthening as needed (for all clubs) for the push in the 2nd half of the season? Your really do seem to be trying to conjure up ways to be negative. Oh well, each to their own I guess. |
"Conjuring up ways to be negative"................... you're the one who asked me a question and I answered it. The OP asked why the three relegated clubs weren't in the top three, I along with others replied. You then asked for further input Don't ask questions and then try turn around and say someone is just trying to be negative. Yes the transfer window is to add to your squad if needed But having spent what we have and did in the summer, we shouldn't be going into the jan window needing a starting CM, a new striker, another 10 etc etc, we signed those in the summer but they've been so poor we've got no choice but to bring other versions of them in. [Post edited 26 Jan 16:13]
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| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 16:12 - Jan 26 with 507 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Town,Saints and Foxes. on 16:09 - Jan 26 by FrimleyBlue | "Conjuring up ways to be negative"................... you're the one who asked me a question and I answered it. The OP asked why the three relegated clubs weren't in the top three, I along with others replied. You then asked for further input Don't ask questions and then try turn around and say someone is just trying to be negative. Yes the transfer window is to add to your squad if needed But having spent what we have and did in the summer, we shouldn't be going into the jan window needing a starting CM, a new striker, another 10 etc etc, we signed those in the summer but they've been so poor we've got no choice but to bring other versions of them in. [Post edited 26 Jan 16:13]
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I didn't ask any question - I made two statements. |  | |  |
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