Championship 2018-19

[JacknOry]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Ipswich after Gestede in January according to Daily Telegraph

Haha - no way they can afford that. Stranger things have happened I suppose.

[frosty]

6 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Something worries me a bit about the way Mowbray is saying this is a work in progress etc. Of course, this is true , but this season was/is one where we had momentum coming in from League 1, plus we have Dack. I think we had/have a really good chance to break into the top 6, if only we got a couple of bits of business right during the summer and were a bit braver in games. 

It's just I don't really see whats stopping us from plodding along in midtable next season as well , or worse if Dack leaves. It's not like we have youth players coming through who are going to revolutionize our first 11 in the next year or two. Then you have the likes of Rothwell who should be ready now, but isn't getting on. Reed is a loan, if we don't sign him, that's another area we will be weaker. 

I am just starting to get a feeling that this year might be one we look back on with a bit of regret if we don't start taking points that are on a plate. 

Good post.

It's all well and good saying that you aim to be at this stage or that in however many transfer windows, but having more transfer windows doesn't necessarily make you stronger. It'd be great if it was that easy, but unfortunately it isn't. Mowbray's transfer record is mixed in terms of players who have gone in and made an impact on the team, with only Reed being a regular starter from this summer's signings. If Dack leaves say next summer, plus key players Graham and Mulgrew being a year older, then recruitment is going to have to be good. 

If this time next year we're challenging in the top six with a team that is better all over the park then the current one then great - Mowbray will have got it right and a mid-table finish this season would have been a good base to work from.

What I don't want to happen is a year or two from now to be reading things like 'we're only seven points from the play offs with a game in hand'. We had enough of that in Bowyer's second season when the previous 18 months had shown that we simply weren't capable. 

[47er]

5 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

No doubt we are competitive. It just feels like we show worse teams too much respect, then play some of the perceived better teams off the field only to, on a number of occasions, absolutey collapse under pressure at the back. We always look nervous at the back when ahead. 

If you put a Sol Bamba a centre half instead of Lenihan and a proper winger on the left, we would be in the play off places I have no doubt. Armstrong should be happy to be deputising for Graham. He shouldn't be our first choice winger. 

Anyway, I'm rambling. Just starting to get a niggling feeling this season might be as good a chance as we will get the way things have panned out. 

Reads like criticism of the manager to me!

[JHRover]

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Ipswich after Gestede in January according to Daily Telegraph

But what about those wages? Or can we not compete with Ipswich?

[JHRover]

2 hours ago, frosty said:

Good post.

It's all well and good saying that you aim to be at this stage or that in however many transfer windows, but having more transfer windows doesn't necessarily make you stronger. It'd be great if it was that easy, but unfortunately it isn't. Mowbray's transfer record is mixed in terms of players who have gone in and made an impact on the team, with only Reed being a regular starter from this summer's signings. If Dack leaves say next summer, plus key players Graham and Mulgrew being a year older, then recruitment is going to have to be good. 

If this time next year we're challenging in the top six with a team that is better all over the park then the current one then great - Mowbray will have got it right and a mid-table finish this season would have been a good base to work from.

What I don't want to happen is a year or two from now to be reading things like 'we're only seven points from the play offs with a game in hand'. We had enough of that in Bowyer's second season when the previous 18 months had shown that we simply weren't capable. 

Yes. I can absolutely buy into the long term plan if that genuinely is what is taking place and the owners are buying into that and will support it, and they will fight to keep the assets and will support Mowbray with serious cash for new players. My concern comes in that these owners have thrown their toys out of the pram before when a 'long term' plan failed to secure promotion after a couple of attempts, they then pulled the plug and it has taken nearly 4 years to recover back to where we were under Bowyer.

As you say, long term plans are lovely if everything works out as hoped and planned for, but in our case all it takes is the seemingly inevitable Dack departure and aging to Mulgrew/Graham and we've a huge job on our hands in just replacing those boys.

If they'll throw another couple of Armstrong and Brereton fees into the mixer then that should enable us to compete financially at this level but Mowbray needs to get the signings bang on. These are the sort of owners who seem to work on bizarre 'trust' lines and are completely unpredictable and inconsistent which is why we might need to strike whilst the iron is hot rather than run the risk of them 'losing interest' again as they have previously.

[Bigdoggsteel]

11 hours ago, 47er said:

Reads like criticism of the manager to me!

And? 

[47er]

11 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

And? 

I thought you were ticking us off for doing that and assuming we wanted his head!

[frosty]

Boro must be dire at the moment. Beaten 0-1 at home to Burton in the QF of the Carabao Cup.

[AAK]

5 minutes ago, frosty said:

Boro must be dire at the moment. Beaten 0-1 at home to Burton in the QF of the Carabao Cup.

If that was rovers they'd have conceded, oh they did. 

[RevidgeBlue]

23 hours ago, JHRover said:

But what about those wages? Or can we not compete with Ipswich?

Why would we want to anyway? He'll never be out of the treatment room.

Would be a massive risk for Lambert to gamble Ipswich's Championship life on Rudy's glass knees.

[Vinjay]

Haven't followed Sheffield Wednesday's position closely enough (probably because some owners can make mistakes which are misguided rather than ludicrous or outright antagonistic especially Blackpool) but owner looking to sell. Sick and tired of FUP by the sounds of it. UEFA...the biggest European pandemic since Spanish Flu. 

https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-wednesday/breaking-sheffield-wednesday-chairman-dejphon-chansiri-puts-the-owls-up-for-sale-1-9501774

Edited December 20, 2018 by Vinjay17

[JHRover]

Sums FFP up really as Sheffield Wednesday's owner has invested fortunes in them since he took over a few years ago. For the first couple of years they reaped the rewards of that by getting into the play-offs twice, but then they are now suffering as a result.

No complaints from me really as we were screwed over by FFP penalties so the more rivals that get the same treatment the better. They knew the rules before they started throwing silly money at Rhodes etc. but it shows the problem here that a seemingly legitimate wealthy owner who wants to spend more cannot do so due to these rules and it now seems is trying to sell them as he's fed up with it all. The alternative could be that they end up with a dodgy owner or one with no money who won't invest or will asset strip them but that would be fine for the Football League as long as he doesn't break FFP rules.....

See the EFL are still scaremongering with this supposed points deduction going Birmingham's way. Lets suppose we get to March and Birmingham are 3 points off a play-off position, are the League really going to go down that route and try and dock them points and open the door to all the legal issues stemming from that? No chance.

[Mattyblue]

Had 5 live on. Paul Hurst was being interviewed saying he was disappointed by the standard of the Championship. 

How bad must his lot have been then!

[JacknOry]

4 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Had 5 live on. Paul Hurst was being interviewed saying he was disappointed by the standard of the Championship. 

How bad must his lot have been then!

He needs to reword it that the Championship was disappointed by the standard of Paul Hurst

Edited December 21, 2018 by JacknOry

[47er]

Kalanic to join Villa on January 1.

[Norbert Rassragr]

A goalkeeper called Kalinic I think, not Nickolai.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

What a comeback from Leeds at Villa.

[Tom Stinny]

Watching Leeds fight back against Villa away has really made me question why some of the academy players or why players such as Rothwell cannot get into the team?

 

The standard this year seems to be attack every team and go for the win and most teams that do that usually end up winning near the end of games. 

 

Also makes me ask why players from league 1 or league 2 who are a class above have not been looked at from what it appears.

 

Would love the likes of Rothwell, Travis and Rodwell to name a few to be given game time. I also think the fitness levels of the team are not up to a standard they should be. 

[OldEwoodBlue]

During the Villa game on Radio 5 they were discussing when Ron Saunders won the league title with a squad of 14... included Gordan Cowans

Them were the days

[Sparks Rover]

3 hours ago, Franky said:

During the Villa game on Radio 5 they were discussing when Ron Saunders won the league title with a squad of 14... included Gordan Cowans

Them were the days

Now they are all crippled from pain killing injections, forced to play

[DE.]

Ipswich looking doomed at this point. 1-0 up at half time against Millwall at home, then threw it away and ended up losing 3-2. Now ten points adrift so it's looking like mission impossible. I wonder if Lambert will stay on for their League 1 campaign, or decided to once again move on to pastures new?

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Notlob battered 6-0....players been payed?

Not good for them.

[SBlue]

2 minutes ago, DE. said:

Ipswich looking doomed at this point. 1-0 up at half time against Millwall at home, then threw it away and ended up losing 3-2. Now ten points adrift so it's looking like mission impossible. I wonder if Lambert will stay on for their League 1 campaign, or decided to once again move on to pastures new?

I’d be astonished if he stays till the end of the season. He’ll probably walk.

[DE.]

3 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

I’d be astonished if he stays till the end of the season. He’ll probably walk.

He's got a contract until 2021 so he'll be leaving some money on the table if he does. Plus you can only walk away from a club after failing so many times before interest in your services from decent clubs vanishes. 

[Exiled in Toronto]

I see we are 8 points ahead of Wigan, who are four points and two places from the drop zone and have lost over half of their games. Maybe their summer recruitment was even more disastrous than ours.

It’s also of note that we have played 9 of our 12 games against the top 6, which means other teams around us could well be facing 7 or 8 against them.