Tweet
For me the biggest single failing this year was our summer recruitment and our failure to learn the lessons from the second half of last season. Aside from the start of MB's term we have been awful since the beginning of 2022. From the outside looking in the problems were obvious and twofold. The team last season lacked steel and had a fragile mentality. Secondly we did not have the players to have a meaningful plan B. We were too reliant on Chair and Willock producing the goods which is a huge ask over a tough, long season and left us vulnerable if they got injured and/or lost form. We had no other creative sparks and we needed that as with those two not producing we carried very little threat.
What we should have concentrated on in the summer is getting some character into the team and recruiting players that would allow us to change the way we play when we needed to. It was obvious last season we were slow, ponderous and predictable. Nothing was done to change that. It is clear from interviews recruitment was a joint thing between MB and Les so to me they were both at fault for failing to learn from last season. This isn't hindsight. It was obvious. What then happens? We lose a few games, confidence crumbles never to return and we then have an injury nightmare. This side have no ability to dig deep and grind out results and you need that when things go against you. Chair and Willock get injured and lose form, we have no creative players in reserve either as direct replacements or to maybe offer something a little different. Neither NC or GA have been able to do anything with this lot. The second coming of Christ could happen and he could take charge of this side and I think he would look to be airlifted back to Heaven by a couple of angels asap to escape.
The bigger picture is we have now been on our overall plan of developing players and looking to bring our own through for a while now. The coaching doesn't seem to be working. The value of most of our better players has gone down over the last couple of years. The only youngsters to have made any impression have been Eze and Chair. Only other one is Kakay who is a squad player. We should by now have a handful of youngsters in or around the match day squad and say three as regular starters. Our youngsters seem to go out on loan to lower league clubs, make little impression there let alone look good enough for first team here. Armstrong looks like he has potential but that is about it. Where are the players we are developing and where are the youngsters coming into the first team? What is going on? I don't expect the club to tell us anything before the end of the season but come end of season we deserve some answers if the club seriously expect fan buy in going forwards. However well intentioned and however good it looks on paper what we have been doing and what we have in place has not worked.
The club need to have a long, hard look at things in the summer and I think make some hard decisions and hopefully communicate with us what the plan is after that. Things can change quickly in football and things could look a lot better by say Christmas once we are properly into a new season with what will inevitably be a much changed side but whatever lessons were not learned after last season need to be learned now and acted on. No more platitudes and BS.
This is not a sack evil Les post. I have no problem with club having a DoF or with him in role if we can have some honesty and a clear plan going forwards. With proper support I am happy with GA as manager. Nobody survives in the professional game as a manager for the time he was with Wycombe without having something about them and we need him to repeat what he did with Wycombe on a slightly bigger stage. He has even now said himself the team lacks leadership and has a fragile mentality so at least recognises the main problem he has to overcome next season.
What we should have concentrated on in the summer is getting some character into the team and recruiting players that would allow us to change the way we play when we needed to. It was obvious last season we were slow, ponderous and predictable. Nothing was done to change that. It is clear from interviews recruitment was a joint thing between MB and Les so to me they were both at fault for failing to learn from last season. This isn't hindsight. It was obvious. What then happens? We lose a few games, confidence crumbles never to return and we then have an injury nightmare. This side have no ability to dig deep and grind out results and you need that when things go against you. Chair and Willock get injured and lose form, we have no creative players in reserve either as direct replacements or to maybe offer something a little different. Neither NC or GA have been able to do anything with this lot. The second coming of Christ could happen and he could take charge of this side and I think he would look to be airlifted back to Heaven by a couple of angels asap to escape.
The bigger picture is we have now been on our overall plan of developing players and looking to bring our own through for a while now. The coaching doesn't seem to be working. The value of most of our better players has gone down over the last couple of years. The only youngsters to have made any impression have been Eze and Chair. Only other one is Kakay who is a squad player. We should by now have a handful of youngsters in or around the match day squad and say three as regular starters. Our youngsters seem to go out on loan to lower league clubs, make little impression there let alone look good enough for first team here. Armstrong looks like he has potential but that is about it. Where are the players we are developing and where are the youngsters coming into the first team? What is going on? I don't expect the club to tell us anything before the end of the season but come end of season we deserve some answers if the club seriously expect fan buy in going forwards. However well intentioned and however good it looks on paper what we have been doing and what we have in place has not worked.
The club need to have a long, hard look at things in the summer and I think make some hard decisions and hopefully communicate with us what the plan is after that. Things can change quickly in football and things could look a lot better by say Christmas once we are properly into a new season with what will inevitably be a much changed side but whatever lessons were not learned after last season need to be learned now and acted on. No more platitudes and BS.
This is not a sack evil Les post. I have no problem with club having a DoF or with him in role if we can have some honesty and a clear plan going forwards. With proper support I am happy with GA as manager. Nobody survives in the professional game as a manager for the time he was with Wycombe without having something about them and we need him to repeat what he did with Wycombe on a slightly bigger stage. He has even now said himself the team lacks leadership and has a fragile mentality so at least recognises the main problem he has to overcome next season.
Comment