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Reply | Woolwich fanbase
at 21:21 20 Apr 2025
Obviously have very short memories as just a few months ago they flooded the radio phone ins and launched a coup against Michael Oliver because a similar foul by Lewis Skelley against Wolves was deemed to be a red card. Those that I know personally and have spoken to are furious with Davis and how our fanbase reacted to it, which is peak levels of irony |
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Thread | Woolwich fanbase
at 21:08 20 Apr 2025
Such a grounded, humble and likeable bunch weren’t they |
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Reply | The difference between now and any time in the past
at 11:36 23 Feb 2025
We needed 2 perfect transfer windows to give ourselves a serious chance of getting 35 points plus this season. I think you will find that this squad in the championship will be very fun to watch and be very well equipped to make a swift return (with inevitable midfield recruitment and 2/3 departures including Delap). However, the transfers haven’t been good enough to bring us to the level we need to be in now.
It is what it is, we knew that this year would be very difficult to survive and we have not been good enough. The only reason we have had a glimmer of hope this season is because Wolves’ ownership have cheaped out for the last 3 years.
Still a lot to be positive about moving forward, but this is the 4th wealthiest league in world sport. What we’ve spent on players is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the rest. Just a step too far, no disgrace in accepting that situation. [Post edited 23 Feb 11:39]
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Thread | Are things really that bad?
at 22:31 3 Feb 2025
I know that Southampton was bitterly disappointing, and among many it seems to have now turned the narrative considerably in terms of our chances of staying up and also how good/ bad the recruitment has been. There’s no hiding/ dismissing how poor Saturday was in terms of the result and second half.
We have beaten teams such as Chelsea and Spurs when they have been at their relative strength in terms of available players, and against Villa/ Fulham (twice)/ United/ Leicester we would very much have been good value for wins in those games. We were also agonisingly close to a good away point at Brentford. We have dropped 17 points from winning positions, 5 1 goal losses. Against Bournemouth one moment of madness that sent us spiralling at the end cost us another really good result. We have not been a complete and utter car crash. You have to take the wallopings by Newcastle, City and Liverpool with a pinch of salt as they are in another league entirely, but the point I am making is that we have generally been really competitive for large spells. If Palmer can be an error free no frills GK between now and May, even that will potentially save us some points. Clearly we have been a nearly team at times, but we certainly haven’t given an awful account of ourselves in what has been one of the strongest recent time premier leagues, with us very much finding our feet within this cluster of teams. There is room for improvement obviously, but also a lot of encouraging things.
Staying up will now be a massive ask in the current position and with Wolves seemingly now on the rise. I think we can be sure that the group will give every game their best between now and the end, & we need to back them as best we can. I have no doubt that we will continue to be competitive, even if we do need a lot of things to go our way to get results which is what we are ultimately up against as a ‘new’ club at this level.
Factoring in relegation if it happens, and taking most likely departures (Leif, O Shea, Delap) out of the equation along with the loanees, we would have a great platform to work with, assisted by parachute payments & transfer fees
GK:
Palmer, Muric, Walton, Slicker
DF:
Townsend, Greaves, Woolfy, Burgess, H Clarke, Johnson, Baggott
MF:
Morsy, Luongo, Taylor, Humphreys
(CLEARLY the area that needs most addressing)
Attacking positions:
Chaplin, Broadhead, Omari, J Clarke, Burns, Ogbene, Philogene
Hirst, Szmodics, Al Hamadi
We have undoubtedly improved the calibre of players, albeit clearly I think there needs to be more of an effort to have a settled team and system which I trust McKenna has a good plan for, in terms of how to play Clarke/ Omari/ Philogene in particular. [Post edited 3 Feb 22:33]
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Reply | Horlock gone from Needham I see
at 17:03 2 Feb 2025
Much like us, they are battling at overdrive to compete in a much stronger league than they are used to playing in. I’ve seen them a few times this season as they’re up the road from me, most recent game was Chester at home (now the leaders), game with very little in it that they lost 1-0 to a late goal. Not sure if that sounds familiar. |
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Reply | I'm surprised no one has questioned the GK coach
at 16:27 2 Feb 2025
This is up there with one of the weirdest takes I’ve seen on this forum in the last 24 hours (and there has been some competition). KM definitely got lucky last season with our promotion from the champ, scraping it with a mere 96 points and 6 defeats all season. |
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Reply | Lack of goals
at 09:09 2 Feb 2025
Annoys me how imbalanced we look, as we have strengthened pretty well both in the forward positions and on the centre back front. We have then signed a goalkeeper who I personally rate as being really good technically but clearly his confidence is shot to pieces even when we signed him (which we as a collective have not helped with, nor has he always helped himself).
We have constantly seeked to upgrade positions when the opportunities arise and balanced sentiment with necessity, but McKenna has still then persisted with Morsy over Kalvin Phillips which I genuinely cannot understand from a footballing sense. The Midfield’s protection of the backline, and support to the forwards (their 2 biggest responsibilities) has been woefully lacking. As much as I love Cajuste, he can drift out of games as he did against Brighton. We have failed to sufficiently improve the midfield with what was required in order to compete at this level.
I think the club is very well run, and as you say we have a group of players that even after inevitable departures should really have too much for the champ, but football is so confidence driven. That in itself will be a massive coaching challenge for the rest of the season after yesterday, which could still result in us staying up. We cannot give up on that, but there can be no doubting how damaging yesterday was in terms of how everyone (fans, players, staff) perceives our chances for the rest of the season. It has been that overall togetherness that has kept us believing this season we can do it, and the sad thing about yesterday is that bubble visibly has burst. [Post edited 2 Feb 9:13]
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Reply | Cam Burgess
at 08:42 2 Feb 2025
Axel has an option to a further year (at least that was my understanding), which I would be amazed if we did not trigger.
Agree that Burgess would be a good player to retain should we be relegated. However, weirdly despite the goals conceded this season, we are pretty deep on the CB front and with Woolfy signing a new contract recently I do wonder if at least one CB goes should we go down. I suspect O Shea would go in that case, as I think he’ll command a lot of interest and a good transfer fee from a PSR angle. [Post edited 2 Feb 8:52]
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Reply | Imagine spending £120m and being a worse team than last year.
at 02:25 2 Feb 2025
We’ve probably got recruitment for this season wrong, relative to the level we are at right now and if the ambition was that we MUST stay up, which is most certainly not the case. My mate is a Sheffield United fan and pre warned me that the Prem is a horrible experience and that unless you flagrantly cheat the league as Forest did, a newly promoted club stands little chance of staying up, which is hard to disagree with him.
The one that vexes me the most is that Kalvin Phillips has, with respect, been a total waste of wages and a loan space as McKenna continually plays Morsy ahead of him/ he has had no chance of building a decent run of momentum when he is in and out of the team like he has been. Hindsight is a marvellous thing, but when you see Ramsdale in goal for them yesterday there is a sense that we missed a big opportunity by not going in for him on a season long over spending £8m-£10m on Muric - I have considerable sympathy for Muric - he’s not been good enough but the current situation is also far from his fault alone.
As dark as it feels in this moment, as there is a lot of anger and disappointment after yesterday, I have to at least trust that the current squad (less inevitable departures such as Leif and Delap/ the loanees returning, and hopefully some sensible recruitment around that) should really give us a strong chance of doing really well in the championship next season, and in reality the group of last season was unlikely to repeat what they achieved last season again. Guys like Philogene and Jack Clarke will look totally different players at that level. This season was all about giving it a go to stay up whilst also having one eye on ‘going back down with a squad that natural ability wise has a higher ceiling’.
The money spent doesn’t concern me so much - transfer fees are grossly inflated now, so in the grander scheme it’s not an outrageous sum in relation to where we are. If we didn’t invest, fans would also have been annoyed. Delap will recoup a decent amount of money, as will Leif if and when we go down. All our signings are of a good age, and on the whole the transfer fees we’ve paid do not scream of being horrendously overpriced (O Shea at £10m, Szmodics at £10m, Jack Clarke at £10m certainly next season will prove to be fair value, Philogene at £20m was very impressive for Hull last season and it’s too early to judge that one but I’m also not sure he brings a lot for the rest of this season sadly, Hutchinson is an England U21 and will undoubtedly have suitors. Greaves has struggled at collective spells in the Prem but again will be another that should thrive next season. Ogbene when fit and running again will be a really good low risk signing that will comfortably be a good champ player and £8m was not ridiculously inflated for a guy that played regularly for Luton last year). A lot has to go wrong next season for us to not strongly challenge to go back up. The fact that 2 bench and bit part players have gone on loan to the championship on loan very easily (1 to the 2nd placed team and goes straight into the team, and the other to Stoke having had a move to a play off challenger break down) goes to show that we have a lot more muscle for next season than we perhaps realise when we keep coming up against the quality on players we are facing this season. There will however be a lot of pressure on Ashton and Co in the summer.
Saying “pocket the money would have been better” I simply cannot agree with this. As a club we have tried to be resourceful by signing the best champ players and also relegated players who played well in poor teams last season. No disgrace in that. The reality is grim, that this league is just now very very hard to break through the ceiling to survive and grow. It’s important that next season or 2 after relegation we make it back up, in which case the money we have spent this season will have proven to not be a bad spend.
We need to take a moment to breathe and accept that two windows to evolve a team that conceded 57 goals in the championship last season into a team capable of staying in the premier league has been a step too far. The Prem is depressing to watch your team struggle week in week out, but next season should be a very different scenario in a lot of respects. It hurts that we are not good enough at this moment in time, and fans are allowed to feel disappointed. [Post edited 2 Feb 3:07]
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Reply | Muric??
at 18:22 1 Feb 2025
I’ll never get why fans revel in the downfall of our own team in order to prove a point… |
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Reply | Brexit five years on
at 17:11 31 Jan 2025
Just imagine the public outcry and endless riots by the public that would be happening if Labour had been the architects of Brexit… |
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Reply | fair to say Rachel Reeves is no fan of bats and newts
at 13:00 30 Jan 2025
A fair bit of satire (I can only assume that’s what it is) in this thread. How on earth people with a straight face can pull Labour completely apart after 6 months in office, off the back of this country being left on its knees with a completely broken NHS, a ruined economy (the self harm assisted considerably by hauling us out of the single market and separating us from our closing trading partners), crumbling infrastructure, a laughing stock reputation around the world, parties in Downing Street whilst members of the public get fined for having a cup of coffee with their families. It’s quite incredible.
As many people on the now disgruntled side were quick to point out when the conservatives got (many) things wrong, “they’re all as bad as one another”. |
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Reply | No away point for Coventry apparently
at 19:50 27 Jan 2025
It is possible for something to be agreeable and also open to disagreement. I completely agree with your sentiments in respect of the current away points system as it will always favour those who already have the most points to get even more. That, however, is also its purpose in a lot of ways. I dislike the term ‘closed shop’ as among those on the most points is a really good number that go to almost every away game and were doing so even during the dark league one/ Marcus Evans pre Covid days, whose loyalty is rightly rewarded by this system.
I personally disagree with the ‘no point’ for this game. I will be going to Coventry regardless, but I understand people’s frustration. For the cup games (home and away), points should be added only for members who purchase with 15-17 points or less, so they have some form of opportunity to catch up. Club would then give those currently out of contention a reason to feel that buying a ticket membership is remotely worthwhile. For as long as people in those lower points tiers keep buying the memberships, nothing will change is the reality I think it’s fair to say. [Post edited 27 Jan 19:53]
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Reply | Anfield is a class stadium in a decent little city
at 19:29 26 Jan 2025
I’m going to be devils advocate here, and say/ suggest it is highly unlikely that any away game for us at one of the “big clubs” will ever have a top atmosphere, especially when we turn up and barely attack/ the home team races into a comfortable lead.
The atmosphere at our game against Bristol Rovers was fairly quiet and not at all noisy despite being a big crowd. In the same way we all turned up just to watch a comfortable home win against an inferior opponent, the Liverpool fans will have turned up yesterday with the same mentality. We are just not a big fish to them at all, we didn’t earn the right to make them raise the volume and urge the team on.
FWIW Anfield is a really impressive stadium with all of the recent upgrades and was much better than the Emirates for atmosphere. They did have some spells where they made a lot of noise, but in their defence the game was over by half time. [Post edited 26 Jan 19:31]
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Reply | Southampton game season defining.
at 17:54 26 Jan 2025
Could not agree more with this post. They’ve been taken the lead a few times of late, first goal is really important I think. Of late we’ve really lost the nack of scoring first which is what was generally giving us a fighting chance in games earlier on in this season.
They are nowhere near as poor as their points total suggests they are. I think all of the bottom 4 arguably deserve to be on more points than they are, I think there is a very real argument that the quality of this season’s premier league has been as impressive and ruthless as it’s been for some time (even City have struggled badly/ clubs like Bournemouth, Forest and Brentford have been dramatically better. As bad as United and Spurs have been, their “worst” is still never going to embroil them into a relegation battle). |
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