The Relegation Fight

Top post tomcat

I look through the current crop of players and unlike teams of the past theres nobody that sticks out on the list that makes you think "hey we have Eze hes promising and we can build around him" this squad needs a complete rebuild in my opinion.

after all we spent 4 million on 2 duds in Dykes and Bonne and to make the fans happy weve gone out and got a crocked Charlie Austin just to lift spirits and yes its worked but who else in this squad can you say he can make us a contender?

lets look

Dieng (this is obviously just a stepping stone for better things doubt he will be here past end of this season we go down and its a space on a bench in premier league for him)
Kane (please liked him at first but confdence issues wouldnt have been helped being left out behind a very average kakay at begining of season)
Haamalainen (spelling isnt my greatest and i have nothin to say about him.....i saw him several seasons ago against sunderland in league cup he hasnt improved he was mash then and potatoe now why give him a 4 year contract hes league 1 at best....so he will be with us if we go down)
Kakay (slightly better than haamalainen but not much)
Wallace (if he plays 10 more games before he retires i will be suprised)
Barbet (ok at times but wouldnt look out of place in league 1 lets be honest)
Dickie (definatley the best of a poor bunch a good solid championship defender possible sheff utd or Fulham bencher? possible but can we build around him? hes a piece of a puzzle hes not gonna solve the drama)
Amos (injury prone and everytime ive seen him never noticed him on pitch....true story)
Carroll (for me our best midfielder was glad we got him in pre season but injured again will end up on someones physio table in the championship....prob ours for 2 more years i reckon)
Chair (great for us but too small if he made a mve especially to premier league would go missing think what happened to Luke Freeman but worse)
Adomah (cant say anything bad about fellow hoop but i expected better was wanting to sign him for years thats our problem we signed him too late he wudda killed to join us to at his height of form)
Willock (flashes of skills but again you notice him on a pitch? i think hes league 1 standard already)
Dykes (board love him and think he will be mustard....im thinking he will be with uss a long time and is poor version of Matt Smith who seemed to cause havoc every time he came off bench but wehn started like Dykes is was he as menacing short answer NO)
Bonne (never heard of him when we signed him and we see why hes worse signing weve made since connor Washington who iliked because unlike Bonne Connor always seemed to work his socks off)
Austin (i hope some more goals come but ive a feeling like last 2 games he will hobble around.....love him and just pray hes the one that gets us up the table a little...i jumped round the house like i was 11 again when he scored versus Luton) i think he will get injured this season and only be a bit part of a very poor play
Thomas (who u say? he was a who when we signed him and still is ive no idea what position he is either) he deffo should be lead singer in place of roger daltry thats all im saying
Cameron (i like him but lets face it its game over for him prob a great charachter in dressing room would deffo look like a steve palmer in league 1 likeable but how long can he run?)
Ball (younger version of cameron and more versatile but a nothing signing when we got him hes impressed in short bursts but when i see his name on the sheet i think league 1 waiting to happen)
De Wijs (just came from league 1 went down with Hull not seen anything about him before he signed lets hpe hes a monster like when leistner first came here)
Masterson ( ne very good player think he should be a regular not sure what MW sees in him that puts him off every game ive seen him play he dont put a foot wrong i would partner him with Dickie at the back)
Lumley (had moments when i thought ok hes alright u know but then last season happened and i havent been so nervous of a QPR keeper since Ademole Bankole the goalie LOL) i think league 2 is best for him
Kelly ( slightly better than Lumley but much worse than Dieng expected a lot more even at 50k i thought he was gonna be a bargain and possibly lookin at being scotlands number 1) not a bad keeper to be hnest but only bench material
Kelman (seen nothing to have an opinion yes its good hes so young but give him a chance)

cant think of any other players ive missed but in general itss a possible league 1 side we have espeically now Eze and BOS have gone

that 4 million we spent on Bonne and Dykes should have been spent on Jordan Hugill who did far more than both we signed instead

 do u know something this squad needs one player to make it quite comfy from relegation and we let him go to Swansea for 250k i would have played him every week and let him go for free at end of this season

to be honest and i may get shot down here but i would say Ryan Manning is the best left back weve had since Clive Wilson i saw him about 10 times last term and he was tremendous i remember in particular against Bristol City in mickey mouse cup he was like Gareth Bale but with a slighlty better haircut

I've said before (as have a few others) that going down could be a good thing, to help us reset

We all loved that period from 2001-2004, certainly a lot more than the last few years. Nothing beats a promotion season, no matter what the level

BUT

as others have said in counter to this there are no guarantees we come back.

If we go down we'll have to sell the likes of Dickie, Dieng and Chair. Austin won't stick around.

Sunderland and Ipswich probably said all this a few years ago that going down was nothing to fear and yet they are now as stuck in League 1 as we are stuck in the Championship.

 

will listen to the possibilty of Sunderland being a bigger club than us in saying that only because of the fanbase as for history since 1984 for example weve almost always been higher than them in the pyramid with the exception of peter reids Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips team.

Ipswich always been lower than us (mostly) or even and pompey with the odd exception of them being prem league and us champiionship

all 4 pretty similar truth be known

BTW your point about us having no money im not sure think we will have more than Holloway had to his disposal when he built us on free transfers and non leaguers and got help from the 2 brothers buying shittu and little doudou

the times of collecting in buckets (remember them days?)

they said we were all doomed back then but we hit the big time again

one thing i dont agree with in football is why were we not able to spend what we wanted without being punished the way we were?

Chelsea and Man City did it so why werent we allowed to try and shorten the divide?

@tomcat75 I've just been reading your excellent summary of our squad from yesterday and it's both funny but also scarily accurate. In a thread about relegation it proves what a pickle we are in.

We have too many sub standard and "ok" at best players, which your post highlights.

I think stoatey raised elsewhere last week about how many of our players would get in other teams in this division? As your post highlights, not many at all.