Mr Chris Phillips and SUFC

[Tin Bath]

I think we can all agree, there are some elements of Chris Phillips article that we all agree with, mainly the frustraition in other clubs making signings and not us - I would have to agree I am one of those frustrated soles.

I think most would agree £275k (if true) what Huddersfield paid for Theo Robinson is a little over the top and out of our price range but I do think he will be a success up there.

There is no doubt trying to get the stadium built is costing us money as we had one of the higher average attendences in the league and after the sales of Bailey, Hooper, Harrold and MacDonald we really didnt spend much last year in buying other players in. I accept its a cost of trying to move the club on but I wish the powers at be just be honest about it. We arent the only club stuggling, even Arsenals second largest shareholder admitted they cant compete and they are a top 4 Champs league club. I feel sure we will see other team in our league file for adminstration over the next 12 months, hopefully not us

 

[Beefy]

Some of you guys get so touchy with anything slightly negative on here or in the Echo. Chris Phillips is a Blues fan and gives them plenty of positive stuff during the season - at the moment there is very little to be positive about and he is reflecting the majority view.

There's also very little to be negative about.

 

[Mick]

There's also very little to be negative about.

Okay, here's a start. For me our four most influential players over the course of last season were Dervite, Clarke, Robinson and Sawyer. All have gone. None has been replaced.

I'm sorry but the Echo article represents the view of a significant number of "rank and file" supporters. Not necessarily the view of the more "informed" supporter on here who fawns over every word of Ron's carefully crafted blogs.

The season starts tomorrow and I think the squad looks weak in a number of key areas. That is negative to me.

 

[fredheim_holm]

Okay, here's a start. For me our four most influential players over the course of last season were Dervite, Clarke, Robinson and Sawyer. All have gone. None has been replaced.

I'm sorry but the Echo article represents the view of a significant number of "rank and file" supporters. Not necessarily the view of the more "informed" supporter on here who fawns over every word of Ron's carefully crafted blogs.

The season starts tomorrow and I think the squad looks weak in a number of key areas. That is negative to me.

Not in my book it doesn't.

 

[Mick]

Not in my book it doesn't.

The season starts when we start playing matches. The friendly matches are to a) regain match fitness and b) mould the new season's players and integrate the new signings.

 

[fredheim_holm]

I agree, the season starts when we start playing matches that are worth points / going through into the next round.

Still got another month to go.

Friendlies are just extended training.

 

[fbm]

Okay, here's a start. For me our four most influential players over the course of last season were Dervite, Clarke, Robinson and Sawyer. All have gone. None has been replaced.

I'm sorry but the Echo article represents the view of a significant number of "rank and file" supporters. Not necessarily the view of the more "informed" supporter on here who fawns over every word of Ron's carefully crafted blogs.

The season starts tomorrow and I think the squad looks weak in a number of key areas. That is negative to me.

In fairness Dervite Robinson and Sawyer weren't our players in the first place.

 

[Mick]

In fairness Dervite Robinson and Sawyer weren't our players in the first place.

Regardless of their status, they still leave gaps that need plugging.

Whether they are replaced by permanent signings or more loanees is less important than whether they are replaced at all.

 

[Beefy]

Okay, here's a start. For me our four most influential players over the course of last season were Dervite, Clarke, Robinson and Sawyer. All have gone. None has been replaced.

I'm sorry but the Echo article represents the view of a significant number of "rank and file" supporters. Not necessarily the view of the more "informed" supporter on here who fawns over every word of Ron's carefully crafted blogs.

The season starts tomorrow and I think the squad looks weak in a number of key areas. That is negative to me.

But isn't losing players part of life at this level? I doubt that there will be many League One squads which don't look weak five weeks before a ball is kicked for real.

I'd argue about whether those four players were the most influential but regardless I think they cover two positions. Robinson was Sawyer's replacement. Ok, one was a striker and one a midfielder but when Sawyer left we lost our only creative player in the middle and so started to go long and that's when and why we brought Robinson in. For the last four months of the season we just hoofed it over the top for Theo to run onto. We're clearly crying out for some creativity in midfield and I'm confident that we'll bring someone in to fill that roll.

I'd have liked to have seen Robinson join but we already have six strikers and bringing in a seventh is quite rightly a low priority, regardless of what Chris Phillips says.

Barrett is the natural replacement for Clarke. Dervite is the player that we need to replace and I'm sure that that's exactly what we're trying to do.

I don't see anythnig different here to the situation at any other League One club. Ok we haven't signed anyone yet, but we also didn't release anyone so had fewer positions in the squad to fill than most others. Do we look like a Club who can challenge the top six? Not really, but with the Accounts the way that they are and the number of huge Clubs with big budgets in this league we could spend a million pounds on transfer fees and still would be unlikely to challenge. If we go up it won't be because we've bought a promotion it'll be because we've signed the right players and assembled a small squad with a good spirit.

There's a cloud of negativity over this Club and it baffles me as to why considering what we all went through between 1997 and 2005. These are the good times, people.

 

[fbm]

But isn't losing players part of life at this level? I doubt that there will be many League One squads which don't look week five weeks before a ball is kicked for real.

I'd argue about whether those four players were the most influential but regardless I think they cover two positions. Robinson was Sawyer's replacement. Ok, one was a striker and one a midfielder but when Sawyer left we lost our only creative player in the middle and so started to go long and that's when and why we brought Robinson in. For the last four months of the season we just hoofed it over the top for Theo to run onto. We're clearly crying out for some creativity in midfield and I'm confident that we'll bring someone in to fill that roll.

I'd have liked to have seen Robinson join but we already have six strikers and bringing in a seventh is quite rightly a low priority, regardless of what Chris Phillips says.

Barrett is the natural replacement for Clarke. Dervite is the player that we need to replace and I'm sure that that's exactly what we're trying to do.

I don't see anythnig different here to the situation at any other League One club. Ok we haven't signed anyone yet, but we also didn't release anyone so had fewer positions in the squad to fill than most others. Do we look like a Club who can challenge the top six? Not really, but with the Accounts the way that they are and the number of huge Clubs with big budgets in this league we could spend a million pounds on transfer fees and still would be unlikely to challenge. If we go up it won't be because we've bought a promotion it'll be because we've signed the right players and assembled a small squad with a good spirit.

There's a cloud of negativity over this Club and it baffles me as to why considering what we all went through between 1997 and 2005. These are the good times, people.

For some reason I can't give you green for that but if I could I would.

 

[GBJ]

We're crying out for another striker? Have a laugh.

But TBH we still haven't got a striker who can score 20+ goals a season, which every successful club has.

I wouldn't say we are "crying out" for a striker, but it would be nice to see Tilly doing some wheeling and dealing and ship out the useless, and bring in a big hitter

 

[GBJ]

The season starts when we start playing matches. The friendly matches are to a) regain match fitness and b) mould the new season's players and integrate the new signings.

We haven't got any :(

 

[GBJ]

But isn't losing players part of life at this level? I doubt that there will be many League One squads which don't look week five weeks before a ball is kicked for real.

I'd argue about whether those four players were the most influential but regardless I think they cover two positions. Robinson was Sawyer's replacement. Ok, one was a striker and one a midfielder but when Sawyer left we lost our only creative player in the middle and so started to go long and that's when and why we brought Robinson in. For the last four months of the season we just hoofed it over the top for Theo to run onto. We're clearly crying out for some creativity in midfield and I'm confident that we'll bring someone in to fill that roll.

I'd have liked to have seen Robinson join but we already have six strikers and bringing in a seventh is quite rightly a low priority, regardless of what Chris Phillips says.

Barrett is the natural replacement for Clarke. Dervite is the player that we need to replace and I'm sure that that's exactly what we're trying to do.

I don't see anythnig different here to the situation at any other League One club. Ok we haven't signed anyone yet, but we also didn't release anyone so had fewer positions in the squad to fill than most others. Do we look like a Club who can challenge the top six? Not really, but with the Accounts the way that they are and the number of huge Clubs with big budgets in this league we could spend a million pounds on transfer fees and still would be unlikely to challenge. If we go up it won't be because we've bought a promotion it'll be because we've signed the right players and assembled a small squad with a good spirit.

There's a cloud of negativity over this Club and it baffles me as to why considering what we all went through between 1997 and 2005. These are the good times, people.

But if you think about it, we didn't replace Gower/Bailey and that seemed to effect us badly at the start of last season, UNTIL we got the loanees in who did compensate for the loss. now we've lost those influential players we're back in the situation we was at the start of last season. No creative midfield, no width

 

[Bromley Blue]

But if you think about it, we didn't replace Gower/Bailey and that seemed to effect us badly at the start of last season, UNTIL we got the loanees in who did compensate for the loss. now we've lost those influential players we're back in the situation we was at the start of last season. No creative midfield, no width

This is true but despite Ron's claims of making earlier signings this year I always knew it would be this way. Last summer we had far greater gaps in our side to fill and ,as has already been pointed out, these were filled very close to the start of the season. This no doubt had an impact on our first month or so of the season as players took time to gel, etc.

The difference is this time is we have fewer players that are urgently required. We only really need 2 players (CB, LB) and I'm certain Tilly will bring in 2 or 3 loanees to plug gaps elsewhere in the squad.

Yes it will be more difficult given the new 7 sub ruling which is probably what made Tilly speak up about it in the press. However Tilson's surprised me in the amount of contacts he's built up in the game over the last 2 years and I'm confident we'll have a half decent squad by the end of the august.

 

[Rusty Lee]

Chris Phillips seems a nice bright fella, I think he is just pointing out the glaring obvious, we haven’t signed anyone and have released 6 or 7 players, and currently we only have 4 defenders on the books. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what’s going on, we won’t have any money for the team until we get the money from the lease of land around the new ground, so this season is a gamble, a dangerous one in my eyes, but some may argue we have no choice to survive.

 

[Beefy]

But if you think about it, we didn't replace Gower/Bailey and that seemed to effect us badly at the start of last season, UNTIL we got the loanees in who did compensate for the loss. now we've lost those influential players we're back in the situation we was at the start of last season. No creative midfield, no width

You're right, we didn't replace them. But how could we replace a Mark Gower or Nicky Bailey? How do we replace Dorian Dervite? We brought in Betsy and Christophe to play in those positions but they aren't true replacements in the same way as we never replaced Stan Collymore, Chris Powell or Freddy Eastwood. You don't replace players like that, you sign lesser players and you move on.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

I've quickly scanned through and can't see that anyone has picked up this from the 606 board yesterday. It's supposedly an e-mailed response from Chris Phillips to a criticism of his article from one of the posters. If true, I have to say that his second sentence worries me a bit.

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• 606 Homepage Please please please stop with these annoying article YES we know we need a few players which I am confident the club will sort out, and what gives you the right to say “they will also be frustrated at seeing their side looking at free agents from Estonia and Holland” we haven’t even seen them play yet so could be good players and if they are free why not have a look at them, all this does as you must know is stir up trouble and makes certain people agitated and in turn they hit out at the club, I for one would rather have a club to support in the lower parts of the league than have a club spending beyond its mean then running into admin then end up in league 2 or worse?? I will agree it has been frustrating waiting for new players but Theo (my favorite player who sat with us at the end of season do) wasn’t worth more than 125k I understand we are NOT struggling to find 50k (otherwise we wouldn’t of bid more than that for Theo) but simply the management Not the club don’t think he is worth 50k so please Chris (who I think is a Col u fan) stop writing bad (though some true) about our club and start looking at the positives, don’t mean to come across rude but I know myself and many other blues fans are struggling to look at the back of the Echo.

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comment by Re’v’elling In It (U10946450)
posted 23 Hours Ago
OK so i have had a reply and i might of been abit of a col ewe in my email Chris did replay though
Many thanks for your e-mail Chris.

What I have written is my opinion, doesn't make it right or wrong it's just what I feel at the moment.
It is correct that we are struggling to pay 50k for the Stockport player as I have had this confirmed by more than one person and what will happen in the next few weeks will prove that.
And as for me being a Colchester fan???!!! Haha!!!!
I have supported Southend since the age of seven so that's now 20 years. I worked for them for free at the start of my writing career and had a season ticket for years in the West Stand before working for them so I'm very much a supporter of the club.
That is where my passion comes from and why I feel frustrated at the way things are run at the moment, hence my article.
I too wish I could be writing positive stories but it is the job of the newspaper to report on what is actually happening.

Chris

 

[GBJ]

You're right, we didn't replace them. But how could we replace a Mark Gower or Nicky Bailey? How do we replace Dorian Dervite? We brought in Betsy and Christophe to play in those positions but they aren't true replacements in the same way as we never replaced Stan Collymore, Chris Powell or Freddy Eastwood. You don't replace players like that, you sign lesser players and you move on.

Quite possibly we'll never replace those players (well current climate anyway). But we need to try. No good in sitting around saying, "oh well they were brilliant players, we probably can't replace them, so move on." Those players make up a big part of the great memories we have, and to keep it going we need to be aiming at bringing in players who can deliver the goods. I know it's very difficult at the moment as there doesn't appear to be a great deal of money to spend, and for some reason we can't seem to attract many players. Maybe i'm being over-expectant, but i for one would hate to go back to the days where we had some real dross playing for us

P.S. I'm not trying to have a pop, or trying to get into some pointless mudslinging debate with you :)

 

[Hooly]

You're right, we didn't replace them. But how could we replace a Mark Gower or Nicky Bailey?

Erm! Fairly simple, we go and buy Barnet's player of the year. :angel:

 

[Andy_S]

It is correct that we are struggling to pay 50k for the Stockport player as I have had this confirmed by more than one person and what will happen in the next few weeks will prove that.

We're spending all our money on bringing Freddy back and therefore have none left over for Raynes?


In all seriousness, if we didn't have £50k to spend on Raynes, how come we bid £100k for Theo a few weeks before that.......