The Squad (Scary Viewing)

[Mystery Yellow]

It's not even a year and a half ago since we stuffed an in form Millwall heading for promotion at The Den. Only a couple of players short of at least being a play off team. Yet few of the players seemed to want to stay. Nor the manager. Nor the chairman. Two moronic managers later and a new chairman who has yet to show his worth and we are where we are. Has any club fallen so quick?

Nothing to do with our previous owner f-cking about behind the scenes also come out Christmas 2016 moaning about stadium & basically saying long term he’s looking stop investing in the club unless things change with Kassam (plus he’s big divorce fee), Appleton wasn’t backed in that January 17 when we needed 2-3 decent players to get into playoff which we missed out by only 4 points & knew he wasn’t going to get backed in the summer
so went, DE sold for the best deal for himself & not for OUFC otherwise we would of had massive investment from Santori & I think Mapp would of stayed

 

[NottsYellow]

What should the first team squad look like for a solid base, infrastructure and sustainable plan going forward to be successful. I reckon the balance should look like:-
12 good professional reliable experienced players on 2 or 3 year contracts. Experienced - say at least 60 games in current division or league above. Age Between 20 and 30. Good track record re injuries.
3 quality players on loan only if realistic chance of signing permanently.
3 youngsters from within the club
3 speculative purchases from lower/other leagues - eg Whyte, Norman and the likes Hoban.
This gives a squad size of 21, backed up by the U23's and options for loans if there are several injuries.
Once this type of squad is established the turn around in the transfer windows should only be about 4 in the summer and 2 in January.
In the past I've been against Director of Football, but I feel they have an important role to maintain the club entity in the squad and stop the manager (or head coach) buying his old mates.
There should be enough success from the 3 youngsters, 3 speculative, signing the 3 loans to promote to the first pool of 12 experienced players with the squad replenished in those groups of 3.
The continuity is then as much in the Director of Football as the manager.
The attributes of the manager? .. I'll leave that for the time being!

 

[guyellow]

Man for man we have a good bunch of players. But put them together and gaps start to appear. For example, we have a wealth of attacking options, but trying to fit them into a coherent and fluid front four is tricky.

I think this is key to our problem. Individual players who on paper can perform, but for whatever reason when put together it just isn't working. That is where KR and Co. need to make the difference.