sadoldgit

It makes you wonder how clubs used to manage before “preseason” became a thing. Was fitness on issue last night? To me it looked more like a bunch of players who hadn’t played with each other before. I lost count of the number of times that we gave the ball away in the second half. With the exception of probably Downes and Larin the rest looked like they had caught Captain Jack’s brain fart virus.

I seem to remember Mike Channon doing ok when he came back. Not every returning player is going to fail. The trick is to bring the right one back. As for being points adrift. We are only two league games in to a very long season. How far were we behind when we started our unbeaten run last season? Yes, it is not ideal starting off with a lot to do, but being 10 points behind Millwall in August is not the end of the world.

Last night we didn’t even have a player who could pass it to a teammate 5 yards sideways.

We would be leaving ourselves a lot to do if we were doing nothing up to now. The club clearly have a number of irons in the fire and are waiting to see which options pan out and which don’t. The whole window thing is a nonsense. It used to work fine when the window eventually slammed shut in March. Why change it? Now, with two short periods of business, clubs can be left high and dry by last minute changes. This only benefits the bigger clubs or those with some proper money to spend. Clubs like us are held to hostage in the last days and are totally reliant on what happens elsewhere. You can’t blame player’s agents for waiting to see what the best offer is for their client, but if you keep the transfer window open for most of the season this becomes less of an issue. The ridiculous premium on half decent home grown players is another issue, but then transfer fees in general have long been beyond ridiculous. Five year contracts are also a nonsense. They only last three years in many cases because of the danger of players running their contracts down and leaving for nothing. The whole thing needs a reset.

We didn’t achieve what we did because “he cheated”. The unbeaten run was down to getting the most out of the players available, plus some luck. You are another one who has fallen for Gibbo’s guff.

That’s the spirit!

How is Bowen still at WH?

No Larin no glue up front

Looked like he was pushed in the back to me

Didn’t Chelsea buy him for £30m? Not a bad return for them given he didn’t set the world alight there.

He has come off the bench though and played the second half against Burnley. Odd that he is missing.

Yes

Equals…Victory

repeat

We didn’t “cave” on the fee for Charles. Why would we “cave” here?