| The most important thing we've done... 13:44 - Oct 12 with 1712 views | Bury_St_Emersonn |
Was to make sure we got promoted back last season.
1st season in prem, i think was an absolute shock to everyone involved. coming up from a few years in league 1 with a strong league 1 squad was never going to be anything more than "don't go back down and build a base in champ to continue growth" from 99.9% of realistic supporters/staff (i would assume)
what we did that 1st season in the champ was ridiculous and i'll never forget it.
But it did put us up too early for all planning/timings etc
I'm glad we took the experience well, and went down with the "let's get back up and do what we would've wanted to, had we planned it" type approach
recruitment this summer has been off the chart.
who, in their right minds would think we'd ever attract a player like Palacious? I mean honestly this is cheat mode FM type signing
Enciso - I'm so glad he enjoyed his time here before as he's gonna be a mainstay for us
Ouattara - so much potential
Fatawu - (when not diving) is just the right winger we need to replace Burns
Maeda - time will tell but he's set a calibre of signings that is a bar we should now be looking at
Lukic - been a big fan of his for a while and so glad he's here. If he keeps Azor on the bench then we can't complain as Azor was most people's player of the season.
Emersonn - Raw but there is one hell of a player in there if we can get him playing to his potential, and with the players around him now, no reason not to see that
There just is a different vibe in the air this time, last time it was first day at "big school"
this time, it's more a "we deserve to be here" feeling and i'm all for it |  | | |  |
| The most important thing we've done... on 14:02 - Oct 12 with 1587 views | ITFC_Essex |
When you break down the issues in 2024/25, it’s not just the case that we had “League One” players, as I would say; in fairness to the likes of Walton, Davis, Burgess, Woolfenden, Morsy, Broadhead, and Hirst, they weren't any worse than any of the new players for us that season.
For me, the key moments that relegated us were:
1. Kalvin Phillips not working out, spending a king's ransom on his wages, and still having to rely heavily on veterans like Mass and Morsy to carry the middle alongside a then classy-looking Cajuste.
2. Not getting Philogene done in the summer and having to bring him in mid-season.
3. Muric arriving late, and starting against Manchester City. Set the tone for mistakes and supporter angst that followed him all season.
4. Injuries to key backbone players in Axel T, Clarke, Burns, and Chaplin. Those guys' work rate was missed; sometimes you can make up for some of the quality gap with hard work rate, and losing them all had a huge impact on us.
5. New signings such as Sam S and Graves found form and then got injured.
6. Ben Godfrey desperation signing.
7. Liam Delap: noise around England and Chelsea, an unwelcome distraction, and he knew he was off |  |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 14:44 - Oct 12 with 1425 views | Garv |
Lukic is so different to what I thought he was (could just be that he's grown his hair since being at Fulham). Thought he was a stopper and nothing else but he's a classy footballer and he seems to me the one, alongside Palacios, that is driving us forward late in games. Clearly has character and if he was our captain you probably wouldn't mind.
As you say if he's keeping out Azor (and Luis) then something's gone pretty well. I can still see Azor playing a good part this season, we shouldn't forget how good he was last season. He made Sam Morsy look like a weak tackler. |  |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 14:47 - Oct 12 with 1412 views | Bury_St_Emersonn |
| The most important thing we've done... on 14:02 - Oct 12 by ITFC_Essex |
When you break down the issues in 2024/25, it’s not just the case that we had “League One” players, as I would say; in fairness to the likes of Walton, Davis, Burgess, Woolfenden, Morsy, Broadhead, and Hirst, they weren't any worse than any of the new players for us that season.
For me, the key moments that relegated us were:
1. Kalvin Phillips not working out, spending a king's ransom on his wages, and still having to rely heavily on veterans like Mass and Morsy to carry the middle alongside a then classy-looking Cajuste.
2. Not getting Philogene done in the summer and having to bring him in mid-season.
3. Muric arriving late, and starting against Manchester City. Set the tone for mistakes and supporter angst that followed him all season.
4. Injuries to key backbone players in Axel T, Clarke, Burns, and Chaplin. Those guys' work rate was missed; sometimes you can make up for some of the quality gap with hard work rate, and losing them all had a huge impact on us.
5. New signings such as Sam S and Graves found form and then got injured.
6. Ben Godfrey desperation signing.
7. Liam Delap: noise around England and Chelsea, an unwelcome distraction, and he knew he was off |
can't disagree
could potentially argue that the quality of the players injured is questionable, solely as we don't know how they'd have played if not injured.
I know a lot of the time in 24 it felt like men vs boys
but without hindsight and a crystal ball we don't know how well we'd have done with everyone fit.
going up in 24/25 was needed for us to be here now though, that's for certain.
I do remember thinking Kalvin Phillips should've been THE signing...
turns out, getting Enciso for the 2nd window technically was
would we have had such a good chance of getting him, then maybe others if we didn't have him first time round? | | | |
| The most important thing we've done... on 15:09 - Oct 12 with 1302 views | norfsufblue |
| The most important thing we've done... on 14:47 - Oct 12 by Bury_St_Emersonn |
can't disagree
could potentially argue that the quality of the players injured is questionable, solely as we don't know how they'd have played if not injured.
I know a lot of the time in 24 it felt like men vs boys
but without hindsight and a crystal ball we don't know how well we'd have done with everyone fit.
going up in 24/25 was needed for us to be here now though, that's for certain.
I do remember thinking Kalvin Phillips should've been THE signing...
turns out, getting Enciso for the 2nd window technically was
would we have had such a good chance of getting him, then maybe others if we didn't have him first time round? |
It sort of goes to prove what KM said at the time about finding a way to make the marginals fall in our favour... we started quite well and actually had 1 defeat less after 6 games... BUT no wins.... 4 points v 9 now...
Our recruitment now means we have the players to go for it and achieve those upgrades in results even if we lose a few more doing it! |  | | |
| The most important thing we've done... on 15:21 - Oct 12 with 1239 views | SomethingBlue |
Yes, we had to do it and it didn't really matter how. This season would have been one hell of a slog down there. Now we need to do the really hard part in staying up and, if we do, I think this club transforms beyond the scope of what most people can imagine. |  |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 15:22 - Oct 12 with 1221 views | ITFC_Essex |
| The most important thing we've done... on 14:47 - Oct 12 by Bury_St_Emersonn |
can't disagree
could potentially argue that the quality of the players injured is questionable, solely as we don't know how they'd have played if not injured.
I know a lot of the time in 24 it felt like men vs boys
but without hindsight and a crystal ball we don't know how well we'd have done with everyone fit.
going up in 24/25 was needed for us to be here now though, that's for certain.
I do remember thinking Kalvin Phillips should've been THE signing...
turns out, getting Enciso for the 2nd window technically was
would we have had such a good chance of getting him, then maybe others if we didn't have him first time round? |
I think we would have done much better if our core players had been fit. Hirst was also making a big step up and had only just recovered from a nasty injury himself.
A few new players needed time to bed in as well, O'Shea and Clarke who are vital now, looked pretty lost at times last times, clearly good signings but didn't deliver in the Premier League last time. | |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 15:24 - Oct 12 with 1209 views | ITFC_Essex |
| The most important thing we've done... on 15:21 - Oct 12 by SomethingBlue |
Yes, we had to do it and it didn't really matter how. This season would have been one hell of a slog down there. Now we need to do the really hard part in staying up and, if we do, I think this club transforms beyond the scope of what most people can imagine. |
The potential is limitless if we stay up. Going down could see us do a Watford, Norwich or West Brom, thats how vital it is we stay up this time. | |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 15:44 - Oct 12 with 1099 views | Kievthegreat |
| The most important thing we've done... on 14:47 - Oct 12 by Bury_St_Emersonn |
can't disagree
could potentially argue that the quality of the players injured is questionable, solely as we don't know how they'd have played if not injured.
I know a lot of the time in 24 it felt like men vs boys
but without hindsight and a crystal ball we don't know how well we'd have done with everyone fit.
going up in 24/25 was needed for us to be here now though, that's for certain.
I do remember thinking Kalvin Phillips should've been THE signing...
turns out, getting Enciso for the 2nd window technically was
would we have had such a good chance of getting him, then maybe others if we didn't have him first time round? |
Not sure if Enciso's biggest draw was playing here 2 years ago or Gary O'Neil being his coach in Strasbourg. I'd probably lean more to the latter IMHO. |  | | |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 16:54 - Oct 12 with 757 views | homer_123 |
| The most important thing we've done... on 15:24 - Oct 12 by ITFC_Essex |
The potential is limitless if we stay up. Going down could see us do a Watford, Norwich or West Brom, thats how vital it is we stay up this time. |
It's not limitless as such. Staying up makes it financially easier to complete with other Premier league clubs, no question.
However, the cold reality is that we can never compete with the likes of Liverpool, either Manchester Club, Arsenal, Chelsea or even Spurs.
We will forever be playing in their shadows, financially. Football is no longer an even playing field and it hasn't been for a long time.
Without wanting to be negative as such, if we stay up we will become much like other mid to lower Prem teams, complacent in our Prem status and wanting more, unrealistically. Not saying that aspiring to always improve and be better and challenge isn't something we should do. We just won't remain grounded. |  |
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| The most important thing we've done... on 21:31 - Oct 12 with 338 views | LA_Tractor_Boy |
So important that we got promoted last season, so that we could afford to right our wrongs in the transfer market. Szmodics, Ogbene, McAteer etc.
It really was fine margins and I think we got a bit lucky that results went our way towards the end of the season. Millwall failing to beat an already relegated Leicester for example.
But that's history now. We've taken advantage of any good fortune and the club have delivered a superb transfer window. | | | |
| The most important thing we've done... on 22:52 - Oct 12 with 165 views | Swansea_Blue |
| The most important thing we've done... on 14:44 - Oct 12 by Garv |
Lukic is so different to what I thought he was (could just be that he's grown his hair since being at Fulham). Thought he was a stopper and nothing else but he's a classy footballer and he seems to me the one, alongside Palacios, that is driving us forward late in games. Clearly has character and if he was our captain you probably wouldn't mind.
As you say if he's keeping out Azor (and Luis) then something's gone pretty well. I can still see Azor playing a good part this season, we shouldn't forget how good he was last season. He made Sam Morsy look like a weak tackler. |
With all due expect to Azor, a seasoned PL pro was always going to keep him out. I think we've been a bit guilty collectively of over-rating our own players. And now we're over-rating a lot of the incomers, who are just normal PL players. Lukic is an average PL player. It's just that we've for ages not seen what an average holding PL midfielder looks like (Sam Morsy certainly wasn't despite his legendary status).
Don't get me wrong - he's a huge upgrade. And so are all the other new arrivals. But they needed to be and they're still only at the level you'd expect to see at most clubs in this league. We're catching up. |  |
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