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What needs to happen for next season to be a success?

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rlb999 said:
I love a thread like this! There's plenty of quality in our squad - Powell's got us solid and picking up points without too much trouble, so I don't think it's a complete re-build. He will want to get a few of his own faces in, and he may want to get a few players out for reasons other than what we see on a Saturday. Contract situations may restrict him.

KEEPERS
I'd have thought that OXLEY and SMITH are ones we'd both want to retain unless Powell has someone he'd like lined up. Smith must want first team football soon to move his own career forwards.

DEFENDERS
WHITE is useful to have around whether in the first team or on the bench.
COKER I'd actually be happy to move on, although I suspect we've missed the boat in terms of getting a transfer fee, and Powell making him captain may mean he's one he wants to keep.
DEMETRIOU we'd surely like to retain even though he's not that solid defensively?
TURNER I'd retain if the physios think he's good for another season.
FERDINAND I think is under contract so moving him on may be tricky. Him and Turner at the back will catch up with us if we're not careful and for that reason I'd be happy to see him go.
KYPRIANOU should have ambitions of being much more involved in our team next season - a make or break for him.
KIERNAN needs to go unless physios would put money on him being actively involved.
HENDRIE release him

MIDFIELDERS
YEARWOOD should be under a long contract so we can hopefully get a season or 2 and then some cash.
WRIGHT is a nothing player for me, but seems to be rated by Powell so I suspect will stay.
TIMLIN should be retained as he's 100% committed and I don't think we'd find better on a free transfer.
WORDSWORTH is a quality player on his day but doesn't have his day often enough. A tough call for the management.
KIGHTLY is the best player in the league for me if we can play to his strengths.
McLAUGHLIN is one I'd be happy to move on. Good on his day, but inconsistent, and has never really hit the heights in his time with us.

FORWARDS
COX - like Kightly I think there's quality there which needs using correctly - we'd struggle to recruit better.
FORTUNE - has done a great job for us over the last couple of seasons but it's time for something new.
McGLASHAN - I think there's a player in there, but Powell clearly doesn't rate him so needs to drop a division I think.
LADAPO - probably still getting match fit to be fair, but there's better out there surely.
WABO - seen nothing to suggest he's a league 1 player.
ROBINSON - under contract, but if we can't get him scoring we need to move him on because he offers little else.

So in short that's Coker, Hendrie, Ferdinand, McLaughlin, Fortune, McGlashan, Ladapo, Wabo, out for me, if it can be achieved.
Possibly also Smith, Kiernan, Wordsworth, Robinson.
Leaves plenty of space for new faces!
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I agreed with all of this until..... "WABO - seen nothing to suggest he's a league 1 player." I can't agree with that. Were you at Sixfields for the Northampton match? Wabo came on for the last 20 minutes and scared Northampton witless. He showed strength, commitment, skill and pace (all four vurtues were lacking from the rest of our team that dismal afternoon). He'll be a star for us and earn us a pretty penny when he's sold on to a Championship team in three or four seasons time. Mark my words.
 
Barling Magna said:
Safety should concern you Tommy. We're not there yet and I can't see us getting any points out of our matches with Plymouth, Blackburn or Bradford City
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Plymouth and Blackburn I agree but why don't you think we'll get anything against Bradford? They're rock bottom of the form table having not won in their last 9 league matches, 10 if you include their cup match against League 2 Yeovil.
 
I think whilst it's not mathematically confirmed, I think we will be far enough away from the drop come end of the season so that doesn't concern me so much. On to next season, I think SCP has his work cut out. The squad needs refreshing big time, we have a lot of older players who pick up too many injuries during the season to warrant keeping around for another year. I think a lot will rest on the quality of player SCP is able to bring in during the summer because let's face it, though it could be purely because he didn't have a lot of time to get deals done, those he brought in during January have yet to really add anything to the squad.
 
If anyone is concerned about us staying up go stick £10 on us to go down 45/1 it 100% in my mind won’t happen and to be honest can’t beleave it’s even getting mentioned but it is for some strange reason, we have only lost 1 in 9 so why would we all of a sudden go and loose the next 8/9 games!!!
 
Feathers said:
"What needs to happen for next season to be a success?" Firstly the club needs to define what success is and build a squad accordingly.

Following promotion our goal was to maintain League One status. That was achieved so overall a successful season. Last season our goal was to consolidate our position in League One. Whilst it was frustrating to fall just short of the play-offs we exceeded the expectations of most so overall a successful season.

This season the bar was set higher with the play offs a clear target. Phil Brown also talked up our play off ambitions and the transfer policy of targeting fewer higher quality players (on paper at least) did not work. After flirting with relegation a top half finish could now be considered a success?

So what is a successful season for next year?
Click to expand...
Good post feathers, to be honest, with 9 games to go, For me, I think it's still too early to say.

It's all going to come down with who leaves and who we replace next season. IMO we do have a a few pieces of deadwood that are under contract for the next season or two.

However, at this stage, I personally think a 9th place finish is realistic for next season. I'm sure some might say auto's or play off's though.
 
bess30 said:
If anyone is concerned about us staying up go stick £10 on us to go down 45/1 it 100% in my mind won’t happen and to be honest can’t beleave it’s even getting mentioned but it is for some strange reason, we have only lost 1 in 9 so why would we all of a sudden go and loose the next 8/9 games!!!
Click to expand...

I do believe we won't go down either.....

However, if we lose our next 4 games (which is realistically possible on paper)...... looking at the Division One table, our current 8 point gap from the relegation zone, could radically change in less than 3 weeks!!
Even if you factor in the other teams that have games in hand over us.... Should they win them, we would be just 5 points away from the drop, that's without taking into account us not picking up any points against Rotherham (5th), Plymouth (6th), Gillingham (12th) & Blackburn (1st).

We are far from out of the woods yet.
 
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mattitouk said:
I do believe we won't go down either.....

However, if we lose our next 4 games (which is realistically possible on paper)...... looking at the Division One table, our current 8 point gap from the relegation zone, could radically change in less than 3 weeks!!
Even if you factor in the other teams that have games in hand over us.... Should they win them, we would be just 5 points away from the drop, that's without taking into account us not picking up any points against Rotherham (5th), Plymouth (6th), Gillingham (12th) & Blackburn (1st).

We are far from out of the woods yet.
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we will win Saturday then it’s job done there’s no way way the likes of Northampton and fleetwwood we go and win 4/5 games out of 9 and us take nothing you really are looking at a long shot and putting pressure on where there really is no need to
 
mattitouk said:
I do believe we won't go down either.....

However, if we lose our next 4 games (which is realistically possible on paper)...... looking at the Division One table, our current 8 point gap from the relegation zone, could radically change in less than 3 weeks!!
Even if you factor in the other teams that have games in hand over us.... Should they win them, we would be just 5 points away from the drop, that's without taking into account us not picking up any points against Rotherham (5th), Plymouth (6th), Gillingham (12th) & Blackburn (1st).

We are far from out of the woods yet.
Click to expand...

Some of those other teams below us play each other as well, so points will be dropped along the way. To be honest I have not looked at how many games but take Northampton for example they still have to play Fleetwood, Bury, Walsall and Oldham all below us.

Also seen Northamptons other games are against Shrewsbury, Charlton, Plymouth and Peterbourough.

Not many teams on 47 points with 9 games to go have been relegated as proven by the odds given by the bookmakers.
 
Powell brought in 18 players the season Charlton went up. Don't think we will see that. The nucleus of the squad is good IF (and a big if) we can keep the likes of Oxley, Coker. Back 5 is solid and you would expect that under CP, a fine defender himself. Turner and Anton are no spring chickens but have a wealth of experience. Complemented with White and Kiernan (hopefully) that's a good base. The midfield and strikers are the main problem. There is no playmaker in the centre and no real replacement for Leonard. I would keep Cox only out of the strikers. I feel we need a real strong targetman, the sort of player that has caused us problems all season.
 
Can't help but feel there's lots of sledgehammers being wielded around after a nut here. We're not far away from having a squad that can challenge.

There are plenty of very decent players in our squad and 14th in League One is about where a club of our size should be. That's not to say we can't aim higher, but it does tend to be a factor when trying to recruit players. We're not going to attract 30-goal strikers or proven top quality L1 players. Not unless they are somehow flawed or injury prone. I'd be very wary that many may think we can attract better than the ones we have, but we will end up with worse.

Personally I think we should be working hard to keep Cox, Oxley and Coker. Turner is worth another year, he is a calm presence at the back and a threat in both boxes. However, it may be that with Ferdinand here for another year, we may want to use his wages on someone younger and quicker and I can understand that.

Wordsworth's future is in doubt with Wright here for another year and Yearwood impressing. I'm not sure we can justify three attacking midfielders. I like him but he'll be sweating. I fear for Timlin also, but he could hardly have done more since Powell has come in, so I'd say he's ahead of Wordsworth.

Fortune has been great recently. He doesn't score enough goals but he does cause a lot of problems. Since Powell has come in he has been the pick of the forward players and will probably get another year.

It's never really happened here for McGlashan, who has turned out to be the player we expected. Plenty of pace and the odd moment of magic, but too inconsistent to be relied upon week-in, week-out. I'd also be surprised to see Ladapo stay, he hasn't really provided the spark we've hoped for.

The worry for me is not necessarily the players out of contract, but the ones on longer deals and possibly decent money who really haven't performed this year. Kiernan (hardly his fault but where was the due diligence before his big contract offer), Ferdinand and Robinson for example. If we are going to be able to compete for good players this summer we will need a bit of wriggle room in the budget.
 
Barling Magna said:
Do you really think we'll beat a Rotherham team that are fourth in the table? I hope you're right, but a draw seems a more realistic expectation.
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We beat Wigan, Charlton and Blackburn but lost to Northampton, Wimbledon and Fleetwood so we don't really tend to go with the form book.

I certainly wouldn't expect us to beat Rotherham but it seems we're more likely to pick up points against them than we are vs MK or Oxford.
 
mattitouk said:
Good post feathers, to be honest, with 9 games to go, For me, I think it's still too early to say.

It's all going to come down with who leaves and who we replace next season. IMO we do have a a few pieces of deadwood that are under contract for the next season or two.

However, at this stage, I personally think a 9th place finish is realistic for next season. I'm sure some might say auto's or play off's though.
Click to expand...

In this division, given the size of club we are, a good season would be top 10 with a little flirt with the playoffs along the way. Win more than we lose and enjoy some memorable games.

Football fans are generally guilty of basing everything on final league position. Of course it is the clearest measure of what constitutes a successful season, but a football season is 9 months long. A win against arch rivals, some memorable games and the joy of seeing a few good young players come through can all be a factor. I've enjoyed this season on the whole but I might not say the same if I'd been a regular at away games.
 
Was just over, 3 games I watched Lost 0-3, and 2, 0-0 draws, not great to watch. However, my last game was Bristol Rovers away, so much more encouraged. Never thought we would go down, as I knew if we kept loosing PB would be gone and we'd get a boost from the new manager. I think we have to get 2 or 3 quality forwards in for next season. That's our main problem. The pitch has not helped, need to move a few on, but must have the resources to bring a lot of new players in all throughout the squad. For the most part I'd be happy keeping most of the squad (minus forwards) if they stay healthy, the price is right and we add some young effective quality up front who can finish.
 
The question was What needs to happen to make next season a success. The simple answers are score more goals and concede fewer. How do we do that?

1) We need to sort the pitch out.

2) We have been conceding fewer goals since Chris took over - one reason is because we are conceding far fewer free kicks now and. Coker is also back. Turner and Ferdinand have been doing fine but they do lack pace and centre midfield has to cater for this and play quite deep to cover them. Will Kiernan play again and if he does reach the level he attained before?

3) One of our biggest shortcomings is getting enough players into the box quickly enough - often because they are too busy defending. Cox and Fortune don't have pace...Robinson doesn't have a brain - nor it seems does Ladapo. Kightly and Wordsworth have been injured too much. How often do we see a midfielder nearer than 12 yards from goal apart from set pieces? It's not just the front two who have let us down.

So where do we find some goals from -that's everyone's problem.

Any one decent under 24 will have a tribunal fee attached to them. Any one decent over 25 will need a decent salary -but really who are they. There's no one in league 1. There probably only Marriott, who Luton let go for a fee -because he couldn't get a game there, Bradley Dack ( £750k) and Pittman who is probably on a very good contract at Portsmouth who will get 20 goals this season. The rest of the League is just a level of mediocrity - shown by the facts that three teams at the top are so far ahead of the rest of the league, that 3 of the top 4 got relegated from the championship last season and with 9 games left its possible for anyone in the bottom half of the table to get relegated.

In league 2 the top scorers are a combination of unknowns snapped up from non league or youngsters with no previous form and old stagers who aren't good enough for League 1 any more.

Recruiting is a lottery - I can see why Brown recruited so many oldies - you know what you get - and in the end they will have kept us up. Somehow to improve we need to gamble on a few hunches for unknown youngsters and hope they come good with the core of very senior pros we will retain.

To my mind, given our size, fan base, and financial wherewithal the first level of success is not getting relegated from this League and staying solvent. Anything better is a welcome bonus. Apart from a few exceptions the current League 1 table pretty much reflects size of fan base.
 
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