Pre-Match Thread Southend United v Wycombe Wanderers - Saturday 13 April 2019

[Jai]

This season has been a couple of years in the making. Our transfer policy has for the last few years been to sign prove quality players with baggage (ie injury issues) and gambling on those players staying fit. This season has seen it totally unravel.

 

[RHB]

Interesting that Gareth Ainsworth hasn't named an unchanged side for months. Neither have we. Both teams are on terrible runs. Coincidence? The inability to pick a settled side, and still not knowing our best 11 as a result, is for me the main reason we're in this position.

The really interesting thing is that Ainsworth still has a job at Wycombe. He'd have been dead meat on here weeks ago.

 

[onceknownasrab]

This season has been a couple of years in the making. Our transfer policy has for the last few years been to sign prove quality players with baggage (ie injury issues) and gambling on those players staying fit. This season has seen it totally unravel.

The sad thing is we could see it coming and no level of hindsight was necessary. Yes, the risk of aged. experienced and injury prone players, may have paid off but the high level of risk was one I did not subscribe to. You reap what you sow.

 

[Bromley Blue]

The really interesting this is that Ainsworth still has a job at Wycombe. He'd have been dead meat on here weeks ago.

Too true.

Only once our relegation is confirmed will people realise that Chris Powell had an almost impossible task on his hands this year.

I don’t think we’ll properly sort ourselves out til the summer. I’m just praying we can scramble a couple of scruffy 1-0 wins to stay in this league, but I really can’t see it unfortunately. We get a decent result and then follow it up with more injury woes and the subsequent awful home performance.

Prove me wrong Blues, prove me wrong.

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Too true.

Only once our relegation is confirmed will people realise that Chris Powell had an almost impossible task on his hands this year.

I don’t think we’ll properly sort ourselves out til the summer. I’m just praying we can scramble a couple of scruffy 1-0 wins to stay in this league, but I really can’t see it unfortunately. We get a decent result and then follow it up with more injury woes and the subsequent awful home performance.

Prove me wrong Blues, prove me wrong.

Ainsworth has done a good job for Wycombe in the long run on a budget much smaller than Powell's and also got the club promoted so has that under his belt.

 

[RHB]

Ainsworth has done a good job for Wycombe in the long run on a budget much smaller than Powell's and also got the club promoted so has that under his belt.

So did Phil Brown.....................

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

WWFC official site said that they'd sold 631 tickets about 3 hours ago.

Chris Stevens' website says we've sold 6396 so hopefully we're looking at a 7500+ crowd tomorrow for this big game

 

[Tommy2holes]

This season has been a couple of years in the making. Our transfer policy has for the last few years been to sign prove quality players with baggage (ie injury issues) and gambling on those players staying fit. This season has seen it totally unravel.

Spot on.

Kiernan should never have been signed despite his obvious quality.

Lennon has a questionable injury record.

Hyam has several seasons of being injured. He was signed instead of Wordsworth who managed about 25 games a season but ultimately scored 10 goals + from midfield.

There have also been others have been a huge disappointment, the biggest of which is kightly. A 3 year deal as the club's highest paid player in Our history and has given terrible value.

 

[Tommy2holes]

The really interesting this is that Ainsworth still has a job at Wycombe. He'd have been dead meat on here weeks ago.

Maybe you are right but id wager that the remit for him at Wycombe is to stabilise the club in league 1 and avoid relegation. Their budget will undoubtedly be much smaller than ours. Probably bottom 5. Our budget is top five and I'm sure that Powell would have been tasked with aiming for a play off birth.

Poles apart in that respect.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Quality players with baggage? Injuries this year, Coker, Hopper, Demi, Lennon, Barrett, Oxley. I wouldn't put any of those in that bracket.

Ironically, the two "quality" players we did sign in Turner and Kightly have just been awful, not injured.

Injuries didn't help Powell, but his faliure was mostly down to only have 3 forwards in the squad and to decimate the midfield and fill it with Mantom and Dieng.

 

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United manager Kevin Bond will not recall Stephen Humphrys to the Shrimpers starting line-up until he is completely ready to return to action.

More...

 

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United defender John White is refusing to put too much importance on tomorrow’s clash with Wycombe Wanderers at Roots Hall.

More...

 

[Evening Echo]

SIMON Cox wants dropping into the bottom four to be a wake-up call for Southend United.

More...

 

[Jai]

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Quality players with baggage? Injuries this year, Coker, Hopper, Demi, Lennon, Barrett, Oxley. I wouldn't put any of those in that bracket.

Ironically, the two "quality" players we did sign in Turner and Kightly have just been awful, not injured.

Injuries didn't help Powell, but his faliure was mostly down to only have 3 forwards in the squad and to decimate the midfield and fill it with Mantom and Dieng.

Giving the 31-year-old Kightly a three-year contract was madness. Turner is now 35 and is way past his best. Bunn has also got an injury history and has been in and out all season, Hyam also. The constant niggly injuries have been almost as damaging as the long-term ones.

Mantom in particular is a perfectly good player when he's not having to play in a different formation and with different players every single week.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

We could do with a bit of luck for a change this weekend - maybe a penalty and/or a sending off for them. These things are supposed to even themselves out over a season but there's been little evidence of an evening out so far

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

So did Phil Brown.....................

True. Brown had more to be disgruntled about than Powell. The time of the change was spot on for Brown yet it should of been done earlier for Powell in my opinion.

 

[RHB]

We could do with a bit of luck for a change this weekend - maybe a penalty and/or a sending off for them. These things are supposed to even themselves out over a season but there's been little evidence of an evening out so far

We went out last Saturday night, does that count @Spaceman Spiff?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

We went out last Saturday night, does that count @Spaceman Spiff?

I was thinking of making a similar comment RHB, after I read my post back

 

[Chrisb]

We could do with a bit of luck for a change this weekend - maybe a penalty and/or a sending off for them. These things are supposed to even themselves out over a season but there's been little evidence of an evening out so far

I don't think a sending off for the opposition always turns out to be a good thing.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

I think on this game, ticket sales will either go through the roof (hopefully), or plummet...for the remainder of the season, esp Walsall away and, of course, the Sunderland home match