I've just had that sinking feeling looking at our squad - as in players actually contracted to OUFC.
When you see whats been cobbled together here over the summer, and now with an element of hindsight, it's plain to see we're in real trouble here:
Loaned Players...likely to all be returning to parent clubs eventually; disinterested on the whole.
3 DF Luke Garbutt (on loan from Everton)
9 FW Sam Smith (on loan from Reading)
10 MF Marcus Browne (on loan from West Ham United)
11 MF Samir Carruthers (on loan from Sheffield United)
12 MF Ricky Holmes (on loan from Sheffield United)
41 GK Jonathan Mitchell (on loan from Derby County)
Youth Players...some may come good and hold their own.
23 DF Sam Long (despite his age is still not considered a 1st team regular)
25 MF Tsun Dai
26 MF Shandon Baptiste
27 GK Jack Stevens
42 FW Owen James
43 FW Fabio Lopes
44 MF Slavi Spasov
Crocked...to the extent it's unlikely we'll see them play again.
7 FW Robert Hall
13 GK Scott Shearer
From the remaining squad they can be sorted into the following groups (with pushing for a play-off spot in mind):
Unproven/Not good enough
2 DF Cameron Norman
4 DF Rob Dickie (still unproven imo)
19 FW Jamie Mackie (semi-crocked)
20 FW Jon Obika
22 DF Charlie Raglan
14 MF Josh Ruffels (useful squad player among better players)
8 MF Cameron Brannagan (still relatively unproven at this level and hasn't been standout)
15 DF John Mousinho (Makes too many mistakes on a consistent basis)
29 DF Tony McMahon
Play-off Quality
1 GK Simon Eastwood (Injured)
5 DF Curtis Nelson (Highly likely to be leaving on a free)
6 MF Jamie Hanson (Poor so far but has played at a higher level)
16 FW Gavin Whyte (Unproven, but of all looks like the one who could perform at this level)
17 FW James Henry
This is why if we don't strengthen significantly during Jan, we could be in trouble...I can now picture looking back at this squad and thinking "no wonder we went down", which is a big concern.
I hope we will be safe, but even if we are there's a massive rebuild here.
Good post.
My thoughts as I see it today. Players can improve and can get worse. Maybe utilising a player to his best attributes makes him very useful and actually much better than currently rated.
Loan Players...
Most are very unlikely to want to stay beyond Jan.
Michell will be gone when Eastwood comes back to fitness
Smith, Browne and Garrett will slip off back to their respective clubs. None of them are good enough to play for their home clubs but having said that Browne seems to have had the quality drained from him. So maybe we haven't seen the best of them.
Carruthers will be sold to the highest bidder, which will not be us.
Holmes might stay due to his seemingly undying man crush on Robinson. But I can't see him lasting beyond a couple more defeats. The loss at home to Plymouth will be his last game.
Youth Players...
Forget everyone except Baptiste (See play-off quality) he's nearly first name on the first team sheet. But not this weekend and he can't be expected to be on top form every week.
Crocked...
I can't see Hall being fit until next season. Even if he recovers from the op he'll take a long time to get back to fitness.
Not good enough...
Obika
McMahon
Mackie
Average Squad Players...
Norman
Dickie
Raglan
Ruffles
Brannagan
Mousinho
Henry
Hanson
Play-off Quality....
Nelson - Will be gone in Jan
Eastwood - Will be a target in Jan, but is settled in the area so might stay
Whyte - Our best asset and even though he's only been here a short time we'll be lucky to hang on to him in Jan.
Baptiste
We are in massive trouble! How we will strengthen in January is beyond me. Who will want to come to a club rock bottom of the league.
Robinson has failed massively with his signings in the summer. We're a really poor, unbalanced side with little threat going forward, weak in midfield and a leaky defence. When Tiger said exciting season I thought he meant promotion chasing not relegation battle.