| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) 19:21 - Mar 27 with 2059 views | ITFC_Jenx |
It looks very likely we will be doing a 3rd season in L1. However:
1. Cook has a chance to do a total rebuild in the summer. I think there will be enough players that will want to play for him that he can sign. (Lee Evans, Gavin Massey) I think Evans will back him, if not I think Cook would resign rather than let his career stagnate. If Cook quits, then Evans will face a media storm and even more intense calls to quit.
2. Doing a total rebuild in League One is more forgiving than in the Championship. A Championship rebuild smacks of the Hurst season. From what I've read, Cook teams start slowly but when they click they go to another level. Doing that in League 1 is easier and then there is good momentum after the promotion season.
3. Remaining in League One makes us a distressed asset and more likely to be taken over. Hard to read Evans, but if he was holding on to see if we would be promoted and ask for more money, that strongly looks like backfiring.
4. Cook's 4231 will actually bring a footballing identity to our club for the first time in years.
Whatever the case I just want to fast forward to August. Bring on next season! [Post edited 27 Mar 2021 19:23]
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:25 - Mar 27 with 1561 views | chrismakin |
There are 1000 out of contract players this summer.
Regardless of peoples thoughts on Evans he has shown he will support managers when it comes to wages. Free agents etc. So as long as paul shops carefully we should be in a much better position player wise come July. |  |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:26 - Mar 27 with 1562 views | Stewart27 |
I actually agree with this.
So much hinges on point 1 though. |  | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:27 - Mar 27 with 1550 views | UB9Blue |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:25 - Mar 27 by chrismakin |
There are 1000 out of contract players this summer.
Regardless of peoples thoughts on Evans he has shown he will support managers when it comes to wages. Free agents etc. So as long as paul shops carefully we should be in a much better position player wise come July. |
The speedway season will have started | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:27 - Mar 27 with 1540 views | chrismakin |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:26 - Mar 27 by Stewart27 |
I actually agree with this.
So much hinges on point 1 though. |
I can imagine Paul's already got 4 or 5 players on verbal pre contracts. | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:28 - Mar 27 with 1547 views | Pique |
Evans won’t back him, because Evans doesn’t back anyone.
Cook will have to offload to bring in new players (which is fine by me), but he’ll be working within a budget that may allow a couple of small fees to be paid, but will mostly mean cast off freebies. Again.
Agree that Cook may quit.
Had to laugh at the idea of Evans facing a media storm. From where, exactly? The local media might create a mild breeze; the national media won’t care, if they even know who he is in the first place.
Evans will go when Evans wants to go; all we can do is wait for this dark era in our history to pass. |  | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:31 - Mar 27 with 1522 views | chrismakin |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:28 - Mar 27 by Pique |
Evans won’t back him, because Evans doesn’t back anyone.
Cook will have to offload to bring in new players (which is fine by me), but he’ll be working within a budget that may allow a couple of small fees to be paid, but will mostly mean cast off freebies. Again.
Agree that Cook may quit.
Had to laugh at the idea of Evans facing a media storm. From where, exactly? The local media might create a mild breeze; the national media won’t care, if they even know who he is in the first place.
Evans will go when Evans wants to go; all we can do is wait for this dark era in our history to pass. |
Very good of the loanee clubs given us players for free.
And also all these players weve signed over the years to play for free and sign for free.
For now. Ignore the league above.
For league 1. We will be in a very promising position budget wise for PC to rebuild better than weve been able to in the last few years.. | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:38 - Mar 27 with 1506 views | Pique |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:31 - Mar 27 by chrismakin |
Very good of the loanee clubs given us players for free.
And also all these players weve signed over the years to play for free and sign for free.
For now. Ignore the league above.
For league 1. We will be in a very promising position budget wise for PC to rebuild better than weve been able to in the last few years.. |
‘All these players’ may not have been playing for free, but yes, many were signed for free. | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:38 - Mar 27 with 1502 views | ITFC_Jenx |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:28 - Mar 27 by Pique |
Evans won’t back him, because Evans doesn’t back anyone.
Cook will have to offload to bring in new players (which is fine by me), but he’ll be working within a budget that may allow a couple of small fees to be paid, but will mostly mean cast off freebies. Again.
Agree that Cook may quit.
Had to laugh at the idea of Evans facing a media storm. From where, exactly? The local media might create a mild breeze; the national media won’t care, if they even know who he is in the first place.
Evans will go when Evans wants to go; all we can do is wait for this dark era in our history to pass. |
I agree that Evans will be stubborn to the end. However I think he is communicating more and making himself more visible in the last few years as a response to more fan discontent.
Particularly at the end of Lambert era more national newspapers were writing about the decline of Town under him. Think it was The Athletic that wrote about an unhappy marriage. | | | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:40 - Mar 27 with 1489 views | Pique |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:38 - Mar 27 by ITFC_Jenx |
I agree that Evans will be stubborn to the end. However I think he is communicating more and making himself more visible in the last few years as a response to more fan discontent.
Particularly at the end of Lambert era more national newspapers were writing about the decline of Town under him. Think it was The Athletic that wrote about an unhappy marriage. |
The national media have been paying a little more attention to our plight of late, that’s true.
The idea that Evans might face a media storm is pretty funny though. | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 20:20 - Mar 27 with 1415 views | chrismakin |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:38 - Mar 27 by Pique |
‘All these players’ may not have been playing for free, but yes, many were signed for free. |
Signing on fees. Agent fees etc. So again not free | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 20:39 - Mar 27 with 1381 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
The thought of another year in this league, playing the likes of Fleetwood, Accrington Stanley etc is still pretty depressing. | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:00 - Mar 27 with 1346 views | The_Realist_09 |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 20:39 - Mar 27 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
The thought of another year in this league, playing the likes of Fleetwood, Accrington Stanley etc is still pretty depressing. |
Will never be better than mid-table Champ under this current Evans 'strategy' | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:04 - Mar 27 with 1325 views | Meadowlark |
And all those nice away grounds that we haven't been able to visit yet! |  | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:13 - Mar 27 with 1304 views | Seablu |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:27 - Mar 27 by chrismakin |
I can imagine Paul's already got 4 or 5 players on verbal pre contracts. |
We can all imagine things.
We don’t all feel the need to fart every single thought into print though.
Calm down dear. |  | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:30 - Mar 27 with 1268 views | DinnernotTea |
Only following our trend for the last 14 years but I just can't see it ever being as simple as "At least Cook can have a huge rebuild."
A) that would mean his ex players would want to relocate 200 miles and play in the third tier again
B) Marcus Evans will always be Marcus Evans. Do you trust this man getting 13 players through the door?
C) his trusted troops might well be in their 30s now and not the same players as before
For me, it was suicidal letting Paul Cook join with no assistant. He and Richardson could've signed a pre contract to start 1st July with Gill Walker running it until May.
Clough not the same without Taylor
Burley not the same without Roberts
Lambert not the same without Culverhouse
Cook not the same without Richardson | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:37 - Mar 27 with 1241 views | bournemouthblue |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:25 - Mar 27 by chrismakin |
There are 1000 out of contract players this summer.
Regardless of peoples thoughts on Evans he has shown he will support managers when it comes to wages. Free agents etc. So as long as paul shops carefully we should be in a much better position player wise come July. |
It is true on the free transfer market, not that we really exploited it very well in 2020 is going to be a lot busier than ever
There are good rebuilds, there are bad rebuilds and then there's a Paul Hurst rebuilds which basically undid any of the progress MM had made with the better players he had left us with
It has set us back years
I still don't have a problem with MM going, he probably had taken as far as we could go and we needed fresh ideas
Paul Hurst was a fairly conservative gamble, he certainly wasn't a name people were touting before it became obvious he was the likely candidate
From memory I think his Shrewsbury side scored something like 60 goals and conceded 45 that season. They were an unfancied side and a bit of a surprise package but it's not like they had torn up the league with those stats either
Hurst quickly proved, he didn't understand the Championship but the damage was done unfortunately [Post edited 27 Mar 2021 21:39]
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:44 - Mar 27 with 1203 views | chrismakin |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 21:30 - Mar 27 by DinnernotTea |
Only following our trend for the last 14 years but I just can't see it ever being as simple as "At least Cook can have a huge rebuild."
A) that would mean his ex players would want to relocate 200 miles and play in the third tier again
B) Marcus Evans will always be Marcus Evans. Do you trust this man getting 13 players through the door?
C) his trusted troops might well be in their 30s now and not the same players as before
For me, it was suicidal letting Paul Cook join with no assistant. He and Richardson could've signed a pre contract to start 1st July with Gill Walker running it until May.
Clough not the same without Taylor
Burley not the same without Roberts
Lambert not the same without Culverhouse
Cook not the same without Richardson |
Not having Richardson has been my 1 concern. If he doesn't join. A good 40% of my support of cooks tenure as manager will have evaporated. Only because you can not ever underestimate the assistant manager of a team. | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:00 - Mar 27 with 1172 views | Pique |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 20:20 - Mar 27 by chrismakin |
Signing on fees. Agent fees etc. So again not free |
I think you know I wasn’t suggesting Evans provides a budget of £0.
I said he doesn’t back his managers financially (or at least he hasn’t for the last ten years).
Paying agents’ fees is not really the same thing. | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:17 - Mar 27 with 1138 views | bournemouthblue |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:00 - Mar 27 by Pique |
I think you know I wasn’t suggesting Evans provides a budget of £0.
I said he doesn’t back his managers financially (or at least he hasn’t for the last ten years).
Paying agents’ fees is not really the same thing. |
In fairness to Evans, we did pay the wages under MM, the wage budgets were competitive
But by rarely paying transfer fees, we did ended up shopping in the bargain bin and rarely picked up players at the right age or with clean injury records etc
No one was saying going and blaze millions on players, just the odd sensible investment was all we were asking for and it never really happened
He is was clearly stung by the reckless spending of Keane and Jewell and refused to back any managers since, including MM when he really should have done
I always wonder if MM himself saw the need to invest in the January window before we scraped into the playe-offs or did he get it wrong himself?
We will simply never know but it's been downhill from there really | |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:26 - Mar 27 with 1109 views | Pique |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:17 - Mar 27 by bournemouthblue |
In fairness to Evans, we did pay the wages under MM, the wage budgets were competitive
But by rarely paying transfer fees, we did ended up shopping in the bargain bin and rarely picked up players at the right age or with clean injury records etc
No one was saying going and blaze millions on players, just the odd sensible investment was all we were asking for and it never really happened
He is was clearly stung by the reckless spending of Keane and Jewell and refused to back any managers since, including MM when he really should have done
I always wonder if MM himself saw the need to invest in the January window before we scraped into the playe-offs or did he get it wrong himself?
We will simply never know but it's been downhill from there really |
Exactly, well put, thank you.
The reality is that Evans won’t be paying fees, and so Cook will be shopping in the bargain bin just like his predecessors. | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:33 - Mar 27 with 1080 views | istanblue |
This 'rebuild' you talk of will consist primarily of free transfers and loans. I wouldn't really call that 'backing' from Evans given the savings he'll make in all the released players who are out of contract at the end of the season. We won't go out and sign a Clarke-Harris or a Wyke because ITFC have no ambition or drive under Evans. Until he goes there is no optimism. |  | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:37 - Mar 27 with 1070 views | Reuser_is_God |
Reasons not to be optimistic:
1. Marcus Evans. |  |
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:43 - Mar 27 with 1052 views | radiogaga |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 19:25 - Mar 27 by chrismakin |
There are 1000 out of contract players this summer.
Regardless of peoples thoughts on Evans he has shown he will support managers when it comes to wages. Free agents etc. So as long as paul shops carefully we should be in a much better position player wise come July. |
This seems like a pretty fair point to make.
There will be a lot of good free agents out there, not to mention that contract lengths are likely to be shorter/ salaries reduced at least for several years as clubs recover from the hammering they have taken from the pandemic with hugely reduced revenues. There's no shame in looking at free agents if they do improve us, there will be players out there who will do that/ would be interested in coming here (similar to 2013, when we pretty much built the nucleus of a good team together with 5 or 6 free transfers, at a higher level nonetheless). [Post edited 27 Mar 2021 22:49]
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| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 23:40 - Mar 27 with 952 views | ITFC_Jenx |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 22:33 - Mar 27 by istanblue |
This 'rebuild' you talk of will consist primarily of free transfers and loans. I wouldn't really call that 'backing' from Evans given the savings he'll make in all the released players who are out of contract at the end of the season. We won't go out and sign a Clarke-Harris or a Wyke because ITFC have no ambition or drive under Evans. Until he goes there is no optimism. |
I think Wyke is out of contract (according to transfer market.com) so that's more possible. | | | |
| Reasons to be optimistic (after the season ends) on 23:43 - Mar 27 with 945 views | Mach_foreignBlue |
Reasons to be optimistic after this season.......Evans to sell off the club otherwise we will never progress under his tenure. |  | | |
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