chinapig

The confusing mess that has been the transfer window, meaning we started the season with an inadequate squad, the tensions that appear to have arisen between manager and owner, 3 defeats and 9 goals conceded, fixated on an expensive striker when both our current strikers scored today and with Agard approaching full fitness, no indication of current efforts to strengthen other areas. The momentum seems to have halted and the smooth professional operation suddenly looks rather less so. Shot and foot come to mind.

Thanks for clarifying. If we were taken aback it suggests that we didn't do much research. Given we were promoted in good time we should have been well prepared for the transfer window. Instead we seem to have been taken by surprise, with no guarantee we wil get the 2 or 3 we need. It amounts to saying "We had no idea what wages and fees were paid in the Championship". Surprised Steve admitted as much, as it belies the slick professional approach to recruitment we thought was now in place.

Quite. We have a bottom 6 budget. Doesn't mean that is where we will finish but it's a reasonable guide to what our expectations should be, including getting used to losing a lot more.

I'm still not clear what was said. Could you/somebody clarify please? Adam saying there is work to be done is stating the bleeding obvious. Did anybody actually say 2 or 3 signings are on the way or merely that we are hoping for that?

Perhaps he heard what Steve said backwards? Sometimes the stupidity of footballers is hard to credit , and Wade seems to be more intelligent than most.

Not to mention 2 against Chesterfield.

No Ray Savino? Sack Fred Ford I say. And that Atyeo is all very well being top scorer but he's crap at one-on-ones. Replace him with Terry Bush now.

JMW?

Pride in performance? More likely to be proud of their cars I suspect. This club is still a soft touch for any player who wants an easy life.

The point that this misses is that yet again the problem is crass errors by the same culprits not the brilliance of the opposition.

Remember the days when half the people on this board thought Orr, McAllister and McCombe weren't good enough? Since then we have had 5 managers who wouldn't know a good defender if they fell over one and the longest unbroken chain of crap central defenders on record. Players taking the piss while taking the fans' and Steve's money and getting away with it is now the established culture.

It seems to me it is likely to make little difference if defenders keep giving away goals with individual errors. An endless stream of signings by successive managers has improved nothing in that respect. I struggle to remember a period when we had so many bad defenders. That is what is likely to take us down again, not JET.

So you don't support the club policy of quantity over quality? Outrageous.

Whatever Jet's faults it's not him giving away goals every week. I'm not sure replacing him with another midfielder who won't defend will make much difference anyway.

Personally I think it's down to not enough centre halves in the squad. Time to bring in a couple more before the window shuts. If nothing else we could be the first to field an entire team of them, giving us an outside chance of a clean sheet.

Surely if he is the hugely inspirational figure we are told he is ad nauseam he should get the manager's job? With the also inspirational Harewood as assistant?

He doesn't seem to be a Mark Hughes type of player, nor a Stoke one. While SOD can allow him the luxury of strolling around because of his goals at this level. I've said elsewhere that he would be high risk for a Championship club given his track record at that level, much more so for a Prem club. Remember all the talk of Albert going to Swansea or whoever? Perhaps JET will join him at Boro?

I agree. Though he is going to have to find someone who can score goals at JET's rate, or 2 who score the equivalent number.

Because we make no effort to win? And because every team we play is apparently formidable opposition?

Did not SOD say some time ago that was exactly what he was looking for? Umpteen loans and short term signings, none a striker, later ....

It appears that SOD thinks every team in this league is better than us judging by his pre-match comments. He may be right.