We absolutely have "reset". We have cleared out all our better, valuable, expensive players, and are now a "balance the books" lower championship side and squad. Scott couldn't have been cleared about how he accepted we are, and that we should be proud to be, a championship side. Promotion for every one of the 24 clubs should be the target on day one, but I don't think for one minute the Board are expecting or demanding it. However as you've pointed out, we may not even be a championship side next year, and there is no way they will accept that prospect....
It's a shame you still believe this, but I wont labour the point as time will reveal the true intentions of those running the club. It's not a reset, it's an owner who doesn't want to invest anymore. There's no resetting there. It's a question of sell whatever you can to service a debt. Nothing else matters. No one can really believe anything that comes out of SD's mouth. I'm surprised you've used him in your point. If we go down the rhetoric from him will be, we want to be the best League One club and are one of the top 50 clubs. All he's doing is adjusting downwards every season.
I'm not sure what you understand by the word "reset" but what you've described above, is pretty much the definition of a reset. Sale of all our good players, pay down debt, no more investment/external funding for a promotion push. We don't have to "believe" him, we've seen it happen. "Reset" doesn't need to mean a positive thing.
My e-mail to the club Whoever thought it was a good idea to give the microphone to that announcer on Saturday needs to have a rethink. Her voice was so high pitched I swear I heard dogs howling in the adjacent streets. Shorty was excellent as was Emma, so it's not a gender thing. Regards (a rather unimpressed Season ticket holder)
I have disagree. Reset means 'start again' doesn't it? We're not starting anything again, we're in a continued downward trend. Year on year we're assembling a worse squad than the one before it. It's a continued process of cloth-cutting and diminishing team expectations.
If you count Sierralta as a DM we have only 3 CBs - do other squads not at least have more players than that, even if they're not as good as the first choices?
Yes that's what it means. We are starting again as a cheap sustainable champ club. Gone are the days of prem tv money, huge loans to try to stay in the prem league or bounce back first time. We've cashed in our assets to pay our huge debts. If you genuinely see no difference between our squads and aspirations this year vs the last few years, well I'm surprised. However if Gino/Scott feel that VI is incapable of even keeping us in the champ, I don't doubt for a second they will replace him.
If we play the best formation for our squad it isn't as thin as everyone thinks... the problem is, as ever, the mis-match between what the head coach is trying to do and what the recruitment team is doing. (plus Livermore) This is actually not that bad. The trio behind the striker are all interchangeable, for instance Ince or Chak could go central or the wingers can swap. If we need to go more defensive we could put Louza in the no. 10 and add Kayembe or Kone (or even Livermore) in the double pivot. An out-of-form central defender (looking at Porteous) could be replaced by Sierralta. The formation can go from sitting back in a 4-5-1 to going gung ho in a 4-2-4 without having to change the team and shape that much. Yes, our strikers are still crap and the full backs lack experience, but it's not a team that should be in a relegation scrap by any means. Compare that to what VI is trying to do (our current Plan A): (plus Sema, Healy) Not terrible.. but here we already have some problems. We can't fit in all our best players and we need to convert a center back into a DM. Now we're relying on Livermore or Pollock if we want to change a center back. To create any attacking threat we need the full backs to bomb forward and Louza is hard to get involved in this formation as we've seen time and time again. ...and then there's what VI ideally wants to do (our current Plan B): (plus Sema, Livermore, Ince, Martins) Clearly, the 3-4-1-2 solution is a total disaster with the squad that we have. VI seemed to realise that at the start of the season and came up with the hybrid 4-1-2-3 solution (our current plan A) which is OK-ish, but not ideal. Then he panicked for the Boro game and it went **** up. As long as we keep swapping head coaches with different preferred styles and formations the squad will never fit. The best fit we've had between squad and coach recently was Bilic, who was also a bit more pragmatic, I guess.
So I guess we have 4 plus and then we are down to the U23s ? Plus I'm sure Livermore is tall enough and slow enough to play CB !
The trouble with this ideal is that Louza is far too lazy/unbothered to play at full speed and track back as much as needed, and TDB game and willing but seemingly still incredibly green and perhaps even naive when it comes to physical battles and carrying the ball into alleys - the two of them as a central midfield pairing get waltzed through every single time, surely.
That depends on the opposition, I think. Against Leeds, Leicester, etc, sure. Then you would probably play Kayembe and Kone in the two, and maybe play Ince in front of them and drop Louza altogether. The point is that it's a flexible shape that fits the squad.
There is no aspiration. It's all smoke and mirrors. They just package it to be the most appealing version possible. Sadly, and you're not the only one by any means, far too many still believe what the hierarchy tell them. That's not a criticism btw, it's testament to wanting the best and believing what you're being told will happen. But there comes a time, when even the most trusting of supporter will suddenly wake up and really see what's going on.
TUT's right. Last year's aspiration was promotion. This year's aspiration is stabilising in the Championship with a much lower cost base. That's a reset. The fact the aspirations have gone downwards doesn't override that. Not all resets are created equal - this is very much a negative reset. The problem of course is the over-optimistic fans who want to believe everything's hunky dory and over state the aspirations or present every action must be upward looking. Gino or Duxbury throw them some crumbs with some vague business-speak comments and they lap it up.
Every time we sack a manager/head coach it's a reset. It's meaningless to think it's anything more than BAU continuing along the same downward path we've been walking since 2019. There is no reset, certainly not a tangible one which is going to change the direction of the club.
I believe in facts. They said they will reset and they have. I don't buy all the positivity. It's sad that we've had to reset. It's not a good thing but it was unavoidable as the alternative was a real risk that we would go into administration.
That's still a real risk....administration that is. If we go down, which is a very possible scenario given where we are right now. Look at the plight of Udinese? The situation is dire if these clubs get relegated.
I heard booing at the end of the Boro match, but I'm most likely to, sitting as I do among the UGT ultras.
Oh I agree, and we'd have to cut costs even further. "£1m for Louza anyone?" "Andrews for $1.5m?" "Asprilla for £3m?" Buy 2, get one free ? That is why Pozzo will get very itchy fingers if it looks like relegation is a real possibility.
It's the most obvious, clearest reset we've seen in their time at the club. The clearout of players was the most significant, the profile of players brought in was a significant shift, both in standing and cost. Our wage bill will be as healthy as it's been in a decade. With that, comes a dramatic realigning of realistic expectations we, and the owners, can have from the team. I'm hoping that Gino knows this, and wouldn't delude himself that we're currently underachieving. We're not. We now have the budget, playing squad, attendance, stature, of a 7th-21st second tier club, and that's exactly how we look on the pitch.
Yes, but we are in danger of looking like a 22nd-24th team if we lose the next 2 games, and that's the problem Gino will see.
11 games is significant. That's almost 1/4 of a season gone and if we're in the bottom three on just 9/10 points, Gino will pull the trigger...it's inevitable. It's not as though we've had a hard run of fixtures. 6 from 9 have been at home, and apart from Leeds away, we've not had what I would call a difficult fixture yet. It's extremely bleak looking. He was at the game on Saturday, and would not have been impressed. He would have seen all the hallmarks of a chaotic team in turmoil set up in an extremely naive way.
This is all well and good, but if the moron sacks the manager after 11 games after giving him a bottom 8 squad then it undermines any thoughts of a new approach. It’s just some Pozzo idiocy except with zero money. (Except for Pozzo stooges of course who still do very nicely irrespective of catastrophic fall in stature, revenue and ambition.)
Then it’s mild underperformance and he should be given time to work with the garbage Pozzo has left him with. It’s not as if we will be 6 points adrift is it? What is wrong with giving the manager time? We have to get away from these childish sackings from the pampered daddy’s boy.
Be utterly pointless really wouldn’t it unless someone really came in and suddenly got us defending well and being competitive in midfield which with our squad seems unlikely. And ofcourse it would be another way of playing for the squad to understand. We all saw what a disaster a sudden change in shape and tactics Saturday was!
Oh I agree but I'm trying to see it how he might see it. He will be worried about the direction of travel, esp if we have just lost 4 on the bounce.
The same ‘pampered daddy’s boy’ appointed the latest yes-man. It’s hard to reconcile backing that decision just because we want the merry-go-round to stop. Equally it’s hard to #ImagineIf any replacement appointed by the same person being up to the task. But with Ismael, who we’ve been told by supporters of other clubs that when it goes off the rails it stays off, we’re sliding fast.
