I’ve seen a couple of people say get rid of Purrington, which is mad. He’s not a world beater but he’s absolutely a L1 left back, and he’s proven he’s capable of being an important player in a promotion L1 side. We should definitely be trying to get someone better than him, but there’s no sense in getting rid of players just for the sake of it. We’ll struggle to find a better backup LB than him and he cost us, what, £75k? If we’ve got players in contract we should be keeping them and upgrading, ensuring there’s more money to be spent on the players we want rather than just replacing everyone and hammering our budget
Nice guy and should be treasured for Wembley but we need better than him, please.
Not as a backup left back in a league one we don’t. Need to be realistic about some of the options we will have in our squad. Cedric Evina was second choice left back when we won League One, just for comparison.
Personally for me, only Inniss is good enough of those four to be playing consistently for a title winning team. Would be happy enough with Amos, Matthews and Purrington in the squad.
Going forward, only Stockley strikes me as being one of the “star” players we’d need. Sprinkle in 3-4 more Inniss/Stockley types, retain contracted players for continuity.
You don't need brilliant full backs. You need good ones. We have good ones. Obviously the better they are the better but you could 100% win league 1 with Purrington and Matthews as your first choice full backs.
Equally you won't ever win league 1 because Purrington and Matthews are your first choice full backs.
PWR - we need a whole new team if we want to go up automatics next season. 80% aren’t good enough.
We missed the play offs on goal difference despite being managed by someone who had, as you said "lost the plot" for 4 months.
How does that equate to 80% not being good enough and needing a whole team?
Hand on heart the only team I have seen with "better players" than us, as a whole team, were probably Peterborough and they had been playing like that for a whole season, in a squad designed to play like that.
Hull certainly aren't a team that are all better than our players. A few yes, 80% no where near.
This league is absolutely pony, if you don’t think we need a total clear out, you will be in for a rude awakening next season.
About 2 points a game, since the start of March suggests we aren't absolutely pony though. Unless you now think we had no decent players and Bowyer performed a miracle to keep us that close?
Also what I think about it won't actually influence what happens, so no I won't be in for a rude awakening either way.
Name me 5 FIRST TEAM players we should keep that will win us the league.
Name you five players that we currently own, that could be first choice in a title winning team?
Amos, Purrington, Matthews, Inniss, JFC.
Name 10 player that could be in a title winning squad? Easy.
Name 15 players that could be in a title winning squad, a bit harder but I think they are there.
Name 5 players that would be the best 5 players in a title winning team. No I can't. But that's very different to 80% not being good enough.
If you added BFG, Cullen, Beilek, Aribo and Taylor (only 5 players) to this squad it would have won the league. Easy.
You have seen our defence this season right? Surely you don’t think 4 out of 5 of them are good enough to win you the league next year?
You have two, Innis and JFC (who is out of contract next month)
How many games have a back 5 of Amos, Matthews, Innis, xxx, Purrington actually lost out of interest?
Amos Matthews and purrington have played regularly enough this season to make a educated opinion that they are not at the level needed to be in a team wanting to win the league.
Winning the league is going to be a heck of an achievement, we just need to build a squad capable of finishing top 6, hopefully squeezing automatically.
For the record I agree we don't have many players who stand out but I don't think promotion is impossible with players like Amos and Purrington playing regularly. Ideally I want a new GK and LB to push both of them but let's not pretend they are bad players. Amos has been decent in the last two League 1 campaigns and nobody was calling Purrington shit when he came in and helped transform our defence into a promotion winning one.
I think Matthews is good enough, with a good enough midfield to mean we aren't just facing waves of attacks. But I'd love a young, fast, mobile fullback to compete with him.
Some of our fans have dog poo in their eyes I swear?
Matthews not a first team player? He was one of our best players in the champ when fit and not many wingers gave him the runaround! If it was Gunter being spoken of then I would most definitely agree!
I’ve seen a couple of people say get rid of Purrington, which is mad. He’s not a world beater but he’s absolutely a L1 left back, and he’s proven he’s capable of being an important player in a promotion L1 side. We should definitely be trying to get someone better than him, but there’s no sense in getting rid of players just for the sake of it. We’ll struggle to find a better backup LB than him and he cost us, what, £75k? If we’ve got players in contract we should be keeping them and upgrading, ensuring there’s more money to be spent on the players we want rather than just replacing everyone and hammering our budget
Nice guy and should be treasured for Wembley but we need better than him, please.
...which is exactly what I said. We should be looking for a first choice left back over him, but the suggestion by some of chucking a decent L1 backup left back to replace him with another backup L1 left back makes me very glad our fans aren’t involved in transfers
I’d love for us to sign Michael Morrison again on a free transfer, his mate Johnnie Jackson can bend his ear if Adkins wants him. Our defence was never really the same in the Roland years once he left us.
Matthews is definitely good enough, but I think at least one of our fullbacks needs to be more attacking and able to overlap and get crosses in. Matthews is okay but it’s not his strongest suite. Maatsen but a bit more dependable defensively, although Maatsen actually had a very good game today.
PWR - we need a whole new team if we want to go up automatics next season. 80% aren’t good enough.
We missed the play offs on goal difference despite being managed by someone who had, as you said "lost the plot" for 4 months.
How does that equate to 80% not being good enough and needing a whole team?
Hand on heart the only team I have seen with "better players" than us, as a whole team, were probably Peterborough and they had been playing like that for a whole season, in a squad designed to play like that.
Hull certainly aren't a team that are all better than our players. A few yes, 80% no where near.
This league is absolutely pony, if you don’t think we need a total clear out, you will be in for a rude awakening next season.
About 2 points a game, since the start of March suggests we aren't absolutely pony though. Unless you now think we had no decent players and Bowyer performed a miracle to keep us that close?
Also what I think about it won't actually influence what happens, so no I won't be in for a rude awakening either way.
Name me 5 FIRST TEAM players we should keep that will win us the league.
Name you five players that we currently own, that could be first choice in a title winning team?
Amos, Purrington, Matthews, Inniss, JFC.
Name 10 player that could be in a title winning squad? Easy.
Name 15 players that could be in a title winning squad, a bit harder but I think they are there.
Name 5 players that would be the best 5 players in a title winning team. No I can't. But that's very different to 80% not being good enough.
If you added BFG, Cullen, Beilek, Aribo and Taylor (only 5 players) to this squad it would have won the league. Easy.
You have seen our defence this season right? Surely you don’t think 4 out of 5 of them are good enough to win you the league next year?
You have two, Innis and JFC (who is out of contract next month)
How many games have a back 5 of Amos, Matthews, Innis, xxx, Purrington actually lost out of interest?
Amos Matthews and purrington have played regularly enough this season to make a educated opinion that they are not at the level needed to be in a team wanting to win the league.
Winning the league is going to be a heck of an achievement, we just need to build a squad capable of finishing top 6, hopefully squeezing automatically.
For the record I agree we don't have many players who stand out but I don't think promotion is impossible with players like Amos and Purrington playing regularly. Ideally I want a new GK and LB to push both of them but let's not pretend they are bad players. Amos has been decent in the last two League 1 campaigns and nobody was calling Purrington shit when he came in and helped transform our defence into a promotion winning one.
Surely we should be aiming higher than Top 6, considering that even after the awful problems off the field at the start and terrible run in the middle, we still finished 7th this season, 1 point from 6th
It’s a shame that Gunter has the two year deal and not Matthews, as the decision would be straight forward. I do agree that I would like a more attacking full back. Hoping we can keep Matthews and shift Gunter.
PWR - we need a whole new team if we want to go up automatics next season. 80% aren’t good enough.
We missed the play offs on goal difference despite being managed by someone who had, as you said "lost the plot" for 4 months.
How does that equate to 80% not being good enough and needing a whole team?
Hand on heart the only team I have seen with "better players" than us, as a whole team, were probably Peterborough and they had been playing like that for a whole season, in a squad designed to play like that.
Hull certainly aren't a team that are all better than our players. A few yes, 80% no where near.
This league is absolutely pony, if you don’t think we need a total clear out, you will be in for a rude awakening next season.
About 2 points a game, since the start of March suggests we aren't absolutely pony though. Unless you now think we had no decent players and Bowyer performed a miracle to keep us that close?
Also what I think about it won't actually influence what happens, so no I won't be in for a rude awakening either way.
Name me 5 FIRST TEAM players we should keep that will win us the league.
Name you five players that we currently own, that could be first choice in a title winning team?
Amos, Purrington, Matthews, Inniss, JFC.
Name 10 player that could be in a title winning squad? Easy.
Name 15 players that could be in a title winning squad, a bit harder but I think they are there.
Name 5 players that would be the best 5 players in a title winning team. No I can't. But that's very different to 80% not being good enough.
If you added BFG, Cullen, Beilek, Aribo and Taylor (only 5 players) to this squad it would have won the league. Easy.
You have seen our defence this season right? Surely you don’t think 4 out of 5 of them are good enough to win you the league next year?
You have two, Innis and JFC (who is out of contract next month)
How many games have a back 5 of Amos, Matthews, Innis, xxx, Purrington actually lost out of interest?
Amos Matthews and purrington have played regularly enough this season to make a educated opinion that they are not at the level needed to be in a team wanting to win the league.
Winning the league is going to be a heck of an achievement, we just need to build a squad capable of finishing top 6, hopefully squeezing automatically.
For the record I agree we don't have many players who stand out but I don't think promotion is impossible with players like Amos and Purrington playing regularly. Ideally I want a new GK and LB to push both of them but let's not pretend they are bad players. Amos has been decent in the last two League 1 campaigns and nobody was calling Purrington shit when he came in and helped transform our defence into a promotion winning one.
Surely we should be aiming higher than Top 6, considering that even after the awful problems off the field at the start and terrible run in the middle, we still finished 7th this season, 1 point from 6th
We probably will be aiming higher but look at the clubs who will be doing exactly the same. If someone offered me 6th now I'd take it. There's going to be some decent teams who miss out on the play offs next season thats for sure.
For me, people calling for 15/16 new players are being completely unrealistic, no way can we afford that. We just need to add 6/7 quality players and a few squad players on top.
I am curious on what the off-season acquisition strategy is going to be? How much of a loss is TS willing to absorb next given his ambition? Are our expectations too high on what the transfer budget will be? Do we blow our budget on a couple of relatively big signings primarily at the higher premium attacking positions and then backfill with players on a free or will there be more value based transfers at lower dollar values. It is exciting to speculate about this for the first time in years.
I’d love for us to sign Michael Morrison again on a free transfer, his mate Johnnie Jackson can bend his ear if Adkins wants him. Our defence was never really the same in the Roland years once he left us.
This really is the Keyser Söze myth. Morrison was, rightfully, forth choice behind TBH, Gomez and Andre Bikey.
Now the world and his wife knew that Gomez would leave at the end of the season, TBH was only here for a year and Bikey was liable to self distruct at any moment.
100% Morrison shouldn't have been playing, 100% we shouldn't have tried to flog him to some half bake Romanians. 100% we shouldn't have given him away, when we did. 100% he would have been 1st choice the following season. All 4 of those 100% can be true at the same time.
Another example of piss poor management but the story that we gave our best center half away is false narrative. The fact he would have been our best center half in 6 months time is a different story.
I’d love for us to sign Michael Morrison again on a free transfer, his mate Johnnie Jackson can bend his ear if Adkins wants him. Our defence was never really the same in the Roland years once he left us.
This really is the Keyser Söze myth. Morrison was, rightfully, forth choice behind TBH, Gomez and Andre Bikey.
Now the world and his wife knew that Gomez would leave at the end of the season, TBH was only here for a year and Bikey was liable to self distruct at any moment.
100% Morrison shouldn't have been playing, 100% we shouldn't have tried to flog him to some half bake Romanians. 100% we shouldn't have given him away, when we did. 100% he would have been 1st choice the following season. All 4 of those 100% can be true at the same time.
Another example of piss poor management but the story that we gave our best center half away is false narrative. The fact he would have been our best center half in 6 months time is a different story.
No that's just your opinion.
I would have had him over Bikey that's for sure, it was obvious he could have become a solid championship regular for years. Like you say Bikey could self destruct so he should have got more game time especially as Gomez played RB for a chunk of the time.
I think to myself, how many of our players would get into the current Millwall team? Maybe Innis, with Stockley (not ours yet) and a fit Chucks. No one else. That's really shocking!!! We need a complete new build, especially the spine of the team. We are lumbered with Watkins/Gunter/Schwartz/maybe Pratley who I think will all be bit players next year. DJ, Washington and Gilby should be okay. But where are our promising starlets? Henry might break through and Maynard-Brewer, anyone else?
Imo the GK position is not a necessity at this stage. Amos is pretty decent so no need to start looking elsewhere atm.
From the loanees I'd like to keep Stockley & Famewo and then offer a contract to Shinnie. Don't think much of Millar or Maatsen & reckon there is better out there in Leagues 1 & 2 (ie, Wilkes is far better than Millar so players of that ilk are around).
I don't think Aneke will sign even if we offer him a new contract. Washington decent for this league & Schwartz should be given a season to see what he can do. Poor bloke hasnt even had more than 45 mins in a match ffs. I say this every season but you need a 20 goal a season striker to get promoted (well we certainly always need to). Bolton had 2 players this season who knew where the goal was.....Peterborough pipped us in September for the type of striker we need. If Aneke can't be trusted to play 35-40 league games in a season (that means playing 75+ mins in those games) then forget him & move on.
Pains me to say it, but I'm in the Chuks out camp I think. It's hard because he has scored a fair few goals, but his fitness woes add to not being able to play a decent settled side. Nothing I've heard would suggest Chuks will ever be fit for long spells, and we can't afford that.
Pains me to say it, but I'm in the Chuks out camp I think. It's hard because he has scored a fair few goals, but his fitness woes add to not being able to play a decent settled side. Nothing I've heard would suggest Chuks will ever be fit for long spells, and we can't afford that.
Yup. Let's not be distracted by his goals-per-minutes return this season.
He is historically a 1-in-4 man at League 1 level. And he will always get injuries. He is not an athlete.
If we pin our promotion hopes on the likes of Aneke ... well, we will not get promoted.
The midfield Guv'nor who will allow us to boss League 1.
Watson with pace ... and a passing range greater than 3 metres.
Elsewhere ... who is the 20+ goal striker?
Is out-of-contract Defoe worth a punt at 38?
How about Jordan Rhodes?
Stockley is the striker. 8 goals in 20 starts. Only 2 players got over 20 goals this season. Piggot was third with 20, 5 of which were pens.
Full season of stockley + 15 from aneke off the bench + 10+ from Washington + 1 new recruit is more than enough fire power.
My knowledge of league 1 midfielders isn't very high though so will just have to trust gallen and Adkins to find them and I believe they will. They are aware of the qualities we lack given Adkins recent comments on the type of player he wants.
Need to keep matthews, get him signed up and make sure he’s number one right back next season.
Gunter is contracted next season. Don’t think we’ll be able to offload him. Are we comfortable with our top right back options being Matthews and Gunter?
Ideally I’d like Matthews and another but it’s more likely going to be Gunter and another.
Need to keep matthews, get him signed up and make sure he’s number one right back next season.
Gunter is contracted next season. Don’t think we’ll be able to offload him. Are we comfortable with our top right back options being Matthews and Gunter?
Ideally I’d like Matthews and another but it’s more likely going to be Gunter and another.
I agree, Matthews with a new signing replacing Gunter would be ideal. I think a squad with those two competing is good enough though, as long as Matthews is first choice.
We supposedly had a few bids turned down for him in January, so if Adkins likes him then we will surely be back in for him given that Exeter didn't even make the play offs.
Lots of people suggesting loan players might stay. This doesn't happen that often and we probably only retained Cullen as we were promoted. I'm sure their clubs will be hoping to send Millar, Famewo and Maatsen to The Championship next season and Preston will look to sell Stockley, maybe to us.
I'd like to see us retain Amos. Did well for two thirds of the season, his dip in form being at the same time that Bowyer was changing his central defenders every week, which probably affected his confidence in them.
PWR - we need a whole new team if we want to go up automatics next season. 80% aren’t good enough.
We missed the play offs on goal difference despite being managed by someone who had, as you said "lost the plot" for 4 months.
How does that equate to 80% not being good enough and needing a whole team?
Hand on heart the only team I have seen with "better players" than us, as a whole team, were probably Peterborough and they had been playing like that for a whole season, in a squad designed to play like that.
Hull certainly aren't a team that are all better than our players. A few yes, 80% no where near.
This league is absolutely pony, if you don’t think we need a total clear out, you will be in for a rude awakening next season.
About 2 points a game, since the start of March suggests we aren't absolutely pony though. Unless you now think we had no decent players and Bowyer performed a miracle to keep us that close?
Also what I think about it won't actually influence what happens, so no I won't be in for a rude awakening either way.
Name me 5 FIRST TEAM players we should keep that will win us the league.
Amos ..Inniss Famewo Gilbey JFC Watson Matthews DJ Washington Ronnie S Morgan
Some of our fans have dog poo in their eyes I swear?
Matthews not a first team player? He was one of our best players in the champ when fit and not many wingers gave him the runaround! If it was Gunter being spoken of then I would most definitely agree!
Just reading through this thread and am glad someone beat me to it, but am I really in that small of a minority who thinks Matthews is actually really quite good?
Edit: Have caught up and seen a few more people stick up for Matthews, phew I'm not crazy!
He gets forward and back well and has looked particularly good overlapping/breaking forward down the right, has a good touch, is mobile. Only thing I can personally say I've not seen much of from him is crossing ability, which isn't to say it's bad. Compare him to Purrington, who I also think we should keep, when Matthews receives the ball out right it doesn't feel half-as-much like a dead end.
As someone said with Purrington though, yes he's had a shaky season - I think particularly when it comes to standing off people running at him, but it's only really been when playing next to a combo of Deji/Pearce/Pratley. I still think we'd be very, very lucky to have him as a backup at this level but should have ambitions of getting in a better starter.
Gunter in my opinion is okay, but I'd keep Matthews over him in a heartbeat.
Comments
Equally you won't ever win league 1 because Purrington and Matthews are your first choice full backs.
For the record I agree we don't have many players who stand out but I don't think promotion is impossible with players like Amos and Purrington playing regularly. Ideally I want a new GK and LB to push both of them but let's not pretend they are bad players. Amos has been decent in the last two League 1 campaigns and nobody was calling Purrington shit when he came in and helped transform our defence into a promotion winning one.
For me, people calling for 15/16 new players are being completely unrealistic, no way can we afford that. We just need to add 6/7 quality players and a few squad players on top.
Now the world and his wife knew that Gomez would leave at the end of the season, TBH was only here for a year and Bikey was liable to self distruct at any moment.
100% Morrison shouldn't have been playing, 100% we shouldn't have tried to flog him to some half bake Romanians. 100% we shouldn't have given him away, when we did. 100% he would have been 1st choice the following season. All 4 of those 100% can be true at the same time.
Another example of piss poor management but the story that we gave our best center half away is false narrative. The fact he would have been our best center half in 6 months time is a different story.
I would have had him over Bikey that's for sure, it was obvious he could have become a solid championship regular for years. Like you say Bikey could self destruct so he should have got more game time especially as Gomez played RB for a chunk of the time.
The midfield Guv'nor who will allow us to boss League 1.
Watson with pace ... and a passing range greater than 3 metres.
Elsewhere ... who is the 20+ goal striker?
Is out-of-contract Defoe worth a punt at 38?
How about Jordan Rhodes?
From the loanees I'd like to keep Stockley & Famewo and then offer a contract to Shinnie. Don't think much of Millar or Maatsen & reckon there is better out there in Leagues 1 & 2 (ie, Wilkes is far better than Millar so players of that ilk are around).
I don't think Aneke will sign even if we offer him a new contract. Washington decent for this league & Schwartz should be given a season to see what he can do. Poor bloke hasnt even had more than 45 mins in a match ffs. I say this every season but you need a 20 goal a season striker to get promoted (well we certainly always need to). Bolton had 2 players this season who knew where the goal was.....Peterborough pipped us in September for the type of striker we need. If Aneke can't be trusted to play 35-40 league games in a season (that means playing 75+ mins in those games) then forget him & move on.
It's hard because he has scored a fair few goals, but his fitness woes add to not being able to play a decent settled side.
Nothing I've heard would suggest Chuks will ever be fit for long spells, and we can't afford that.
He is historically a 1-in-4 man at League 1 level. And he will always get injuries. He is not an athlete.
If we pin our promotion hopes on the likes of Aneke ... well, we will not get promoted.
Stockley is the striker. 8 goals in 20 starts. Only 2 players got over 20 goals this season. Piggot was third with 20, 5 of which were pens.
Full season of stockley + 15 from aneke off the bench + 10+ from Washington + 1 new recruit is more than enough fire power.
My knowledge of league 1 midfielders isn't very high though so will just have to trust gallen and Adkins to find them and I believe they will. They are aware of the qualities we lack given Adkins recent comments on the type of player he wants.
Ideally I’d like Matthews and another but it’s more likely going to be Gunter and another.
only players I can actually see being offered a new contract
Amos
Matthews
JFC - out of loyalty and will be on a contract where basic wage is low until he is fit.
I think the rest will be released.
I believe we will try to sign Stockley, if he comes or not is another matter.
we just need to get realistic on who we are actually going to sign.
The best players of league one is our market, ones that are hungry and ambitious.
We supposedly had a few bids turned down for him in January, so if Adkins likes him then we will surely be back in for him given that Exeter didn't even make the play offs.
Edit: Have caught up and seen a few more people stick up for Matthews, phew I'm not crazy!
He gets forward and back well and has looked particularly good overlapping/breaking forward down the right, has a good touch, is mobile. Only thing I can personally say I've not seen much of from him is crossing ability, which isn't to say it's bad. Compare him to Purrington, who I also think we should keep, when Matthews receives the ball out right it doesn't feel half-as-much like a dead end.
As someone said with Purrington though, yes he's had a shaky season - I think particularly when it comes to standing off people running at him, but it's only really been when playing next to a combo of Deji/Pearce/Pratley. I still think we'd be very, very lucky to have him as a backup at this level but should have ambitions of getting in a better starter.
Gunter in my opinion is okay, but I'd keep Matthews over him in a heartbeat.