This is the worst southend side ever

[Colchester and proud!]

Team confidence must be at a very low point, this can make good players look much worse than they really are. Also if there are any unpopular players in the squad, this can undermine a lot of what Sol will be trying to achieve, a united dressing room is everything in football in terms of performance and team spirit. I am sure Sol will be assessing all aspects of the squad both on and off the pitch, and a few new faces in January may well be enough to win you a lot more points. Offloading players could be difficult/expensive though because many are contracted until mid 2021 so they may just decide to stay and take the money even if they are not playing. I think Theo may come back to you in January, we have got Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe back from his season long loan spell with Derry City. Despite being injured for a while, he still ended up the leading scorer in the League of Ireland premier division, so he will become an extra striker for us.

 

[defender05]

I can take watching a team of players who aren't technically the best if they give it everything out on the pitch every week but currently too many of the players just give up when things start to go wrong. If I was Sol I would already be trying to sort out some loan deals for when the window opens and telling some of the players agents to find them moves in January.

 

[Colchester and proud!]

John White must be ready to come back soon, I always rated John as a steady defender who is a lot better than many people give him credit for. He is the type who will help other younger players and with his vast experience settle the defence.

 

[GBJ]

Been going for 24/25 years. This is easily the worst I’ve known it.

And the stats back that up; 57 goals conceded in 21 games. Just 5 points from a possible 51. The heaviest league defeat, at home, in our history. One clean sheet in 11 months.

I know it’ll get better one day, but for now, my hostility towards this club & the ****e inhabiting it, is at an all-time low

 

[GDM]

GK:
Mark Oxley - 2021
Nathan Bishop - 2021 (option until 2022)


We are going to be stuck with these 2 next season – no one will want to buy them and I don’t see us cancelling their contracts…Can we afford to get a new keeper and keep these on? We didn’t seem to when we released

DEF:
Jason Demetriou - 2021 (option until 2022)
Rob Kiernan - 2020 (option until 2021)
Harry Lennon - 2021
Harry Kyprianou - 2021
Nathan Ralph - 2021 (option until 2022)
Elvis Bwomono - 2020 (option until 2021)
John White - 2020 (option until 2021)
Joe Shaughnessy - 2020 (option until 2021)
Liam Ridgewell - 2020 (option until 2021)

We are stuck with Lennon and Ralph for next season…again no one will want to buy them and I don’t see us cancelling their contracts….however I hope our recruitment is good next season and these are purely back up options!

I like Demetriou and not quite sure why he hasn’t replaced Elvis yet…I guess I’m in a minority here

Not sure what to think on Kyprianou


MID:
Mark Milligan 2020 (option until 2021)
Stephen McLaughlin - 2020
Sam Mantom - 2020 (option until 2021)
Timothee Dieng - 2020 (option until 2021)
Luke Hyam - 2020 (option until 2021)
Isaac Hutchinson - 2021
Sam Barratt - 2020

Phew, only Hutchinson will still be in contract


FWD:
Simon Cox - 2020
Theo Robinson - 2020 (on loan at Col Ewe)
Stephen Humphrys - 2021
Tom Hopper - 2021
Charlie Kelman - 2021
Brandon Goodship 2021 (option until 2022)


We are stuck with 4 strikers here…think we’ll be ok with these in league two, just depends if anyone want to buy them, Hopper most likely to be bought but we should try to hang on to these.


So that is 13 players out of contract of which zero are worth a new deal…I hope Sol is still around and I hope he knows how to build a squad – the jury is out on that as he has no experience of doing that…oh for a Paul Sturrock in these times…

 

[Bolton Shrimper]

Definitely the worst I've known and I've been going since 1966!

Me too since 67. Just everything is lacking at the mo.

 

[Ex-Member1]

I keep reading about 'kick starting' the season. If I had a motor bike that took this long to get started I would have chopped in in for a new one ages ago. This January I fear that this will be the only way forward. I pray for a miracle. COYBB

 

[MK Shrimper]

I keep reading about 'kick starting' the season. If I had a motor bike that took this long to get started I would have chopped in in for a new one ages ago. This January I fear that this will be the only way forward. I pray for a miracle. COYBB

It'd be bigger one than Lazarus trouble is we've been dead longer and started to smell and go a bit funny round the edges.

 

[Southminster Shrimper]

We are desperate for January and hopefully we will bring in the right players and ship as many out as we can. ANY points whatsoever until then will be a bonus.

 

[Robert Baldwin]

The new management team have impressive credentials, give them a chance, it won’t happen quickly, but keep the faith. It’s always darkest before the dawn.

 

[Smudger]

Sadly, I feel this lot would lose to the collection of waifs and strays Rob Newman inherited/assembled when we had no money and were a mid-table league 2 side (at best) regularly getting sub 3,000 person attendances. By comparison to those days we have a huge budget and a much bigger and better following....it shouldn't be like this.

This team is without doubt the most gutless, **** poor bunch of players I have seen since I started watching Southend as a little boy in the mid to late 80s. Totally gutless and sadly hugely lacking in talent and skill....it's a dynamite combination. Respect to Sol Campbell for taking us on - he doesn't need the money and has no option but to put our sub-standard teams every week. Our best hope is to limp our way to January and then offload as many as possible/change out what we can....although as has been said before we cannot expect many takers on the current bunch or contracted players to forego what they are legally due. It's going to cost us a lot of money whatever happens......

 

[Smudger]

So does anyone think if Ron had appointed a manger within 2 weeks.....Results would be a lot better?

Not really - it's the lack of quality in the squad that is the main problem. We cannot put 3 passes together.......

 

[wakes123]

Been going for 24/25 years. This is easily the worst I’ve known it.

And the stats back that up; 57 goals conceded in 21 games. Just 5 points from a possible 51. The heaviest league defeat, at home, in our history. One clean sheet in 11 months.

I know it’ll get better one day, but for now, my hostility towards this club & the ****e inhabiting it, is at an all-time low

-31 goal difference in just 3 months of the season. 9 worse than Bolton who played with a bunch of 16 year olds for half their games.

 

[Lambs Beret]

27-28 years for me, is this the worst team in terms of ability? For me no. Is this the worst team in terms of application and effort? Yes.
I've seen some dross, the Alvin Martin teams, awful. The bottom half Division 3 days that followed, ability wise crap but at least they gave a ****, hell even Gordon Connelly tried.

The marked thing for me with this squad is the disunity. I was incredibly lucky to be involved with a sponsorship group from 2002-2009 which meant spending a fair bit of time with the players during the season.
Our promotion seasons those guys loved each other, I mean every last one them. They all socialised with each other. Even the other seasons when we weren't as good the difference between those squads and this one is night and day harmony wise.

Just speaking to this bunch after games you can see and tell something is not right and that there are big splits in this squad. Until that is sorted I don't think it matters who the manager/coaches/physio/owner is. As many have said January and the summer is the make or break point for the club. We need a mass clear out and I really hope Sol will stay through all of it and make it his own.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I have seen a lot of players worse than what we have got at the moment , And I have seen technically worse teams , however all of those teams , however poor, had fight a talisman and someone who could get a goal out of little, so we did get the occasional decent display and there was always hope

Performance wise this is the lowest in my 52 years , it could be the increase in years adding to the pessimism, but I don't even have hope before a game now.

You see I'm not actually so pessimistic. I can now see light at the end of what has been an incredibly dark tunnel. What has been painful is watching us sleepwalk into it from 2013-18. Our struggles since were an inevitable consequence of the short-term approach the club took during that period when no foundations for the future were laid.

But since then we've taken steps that will serve us better in the long term and we're already starting to see the fruits of that.

Tom Hopper is a someone we can build around. His work-rate and attitude is excellent and he is a goal threat with service.

Elvis, having gone through the growing pains under Chris Powell, has emerged the other side of it a better player for it and is a clear player of the season for us to date.

Isaac Hutchinson given more responsibility under Sol is emerging as a real talent and as he gains experience should become more consistent.

Charlie Kelman got injured at a bad time but looks a real prospect.

Then there are a whole string of players with potential who may or may not make it - Nathan Bishop, struggling at the moment, but has potential; Matt Rush and Emile Acquah - it's early days but it's great that they are being given a proper opportunity and there's Terrell Egbri too; Sam Barratt and Lewis Gard if they return from injury; Harry Lennon - I may be in a minority but I believe there's a player in there and Stephen Humprhys when I'm probably lower on him than most but there is talent there, maybe even Brandon Goodship or Michael Klass if his loan spell at Bromley goes well. They aren't all going to make it but we'd be unlucky if we didn't get at least a couple of players from that lot and the experience they'll get now will stand them in good stead.

We're due to clear a lot of the deadwood off our books this summer - with Demetriou and Oxley the only players on the wane who'll still be under contracts rewarding them for their performances in their prime.

We'll need to sign a dominant centre-half and a dominant centre-mid. That's easier said than done but if we can they'll immediately start to make those around them look better.

So we're not out of the woods yet but after years of trending downwards we may just finally be bottoming out.

 

[Fairport]

I don't think this is the worst set of players ever at this club, I can remember seasons when we were in the bottom six of what is now Division 2. However this squad is the worst ever with regards to their ability to cope in the division that they are competing in. At least twelve of them are not up to Division One standard. Although Sol Campbell may have improved the organisation and fitness of the team he has got almost no chance of success with the squad at his disposal.

 

[Shrimper]

So does anyone think if Ron had appointed a manger within 2 weeks.....Results would be a lot better?

Better, yes. If we had gotten Campbell instead of ****ing around with Larsson then I reckon we would have gotten more points in the games against Accrington/Tranmere/Gillingham and Wimbledon altogether.

 

[rigsby]

Better, yes. If we had gotten Campbell instead of ****ing around with Larsson then I reckon we would have gotten more points in the games against Accrington/Tranmere/Gillingham and Wimbledon altogether.

We may have got more points if we ad kept Bond. We may have more if we had signed Larsson.

What we do know is these players have failed under 5 managers if you include Ricky Duncan

 

[wildheart]

You see I'm not actually so pessimistic. I can now see light at the end of what has been an incredibly dark tunnel. What has been painful is watching us sleepwalk into it from 2013-18. Our struggles since were an inevitable consequence of the short-term approach the club took during that period when no foundations for the future were laid.

But since then we've taken steps that will serve us better in the long term and we're already starting to see the fruits of that.

Tom Hopper is a someone we can build around. His work-rate and attitude is excellent and he is a goal threat with service.

Elvis, having gone through the growing pains under Chris Powell, has emerged the other side of it a better player for it and is a clear player of the season for us to date.

Isaac Hutchinson given more responsibility under Sol is emerging as a real talent and as he gains experience should become more consistent.

Charlie Kelman got injured at a bad time but looks a real prospect.

Then there are a whole string of players with potential who may or may not make it - Nathan Bishop, struggling at the moment, but has potential; Matt Rush and Emile Acquah - it's early days but it's great that they are being given a proper opportunity and there's Terrell Egbri too; Sam Barratt and Lewis Gard if they return from injury; Harry Lennon - I may be in a minority but I believe there's a player in there and Stephen Humprhys when I'm probably lower on him than most but there is talent there, maybe even Brandon Goodship or Michael Klass if his loan spell at Bromley goes well. They aren't all going to make it but we'd be unlucky if we didn't get at least a couple of players from that lot and the experience they'll get now will stand them in good stead.

We're due to clear a lot of the deadwood off our books this summer - with Demetriou and Oxley the only players on the wane who'll still be under contracts rewarding them for their performances in their prime.

Well need to sign a dominant centre-half and a dominant centre-mid. That's easier said than done but if we can they'll immediately start to make those around them look better.

So we're not out of the woods yet but after years of trending downwards we may just finally be bottoming out.

Well I for one hope your right, but I've watched this club for 55 years and the writing has been on the wall for sometime. You can dress it up how ever you like, choose to pretend your being suitably entertained. This club is in serious danger in falling off a precipice. Ron has led us to this point with poor judgement and dilly dallying, trying to juggle business development with running a football team. Maybe it will turn out alright? But while this catastrophe is played out in front of us week in week out, we (the paying fan) are expected to turn up full of enthusiasm and cheer this diabolical collection of poor footballers on while they wear the shirt of our beloved club!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Well I for one hope your right, but I've watched this club for 55 years and the writing has been on the wall for sometime. You can dress it up how ever you like, choose to pretend your being suitably entertained. This club is in serious danger in falling off a precipice. Ron has led us to this point with poor judgement and dilly dallying, trying to juggle business development with running a football team. Maybe it will turn out alright? But while this catastrophe is played out in front of us week in week out, we (the paying fan) are expected to turn up full of enthusiasm and cheer this diabolical collection of poor footballers on while they wear the shirt of our beloved club!

Well there's still short term pain to go through because of the damage done several years ago. This isn't going to be an overnight turnaround.