2024 Released Players & City transfer rumours

It isn't just about cover for injury though. Everyone seems to be in agreement that we need better cover for Cook than Oliver, not just to cover for injury/suspensions but also to cover for drop in form and I don't see that as being any different at the other end of the pitch.

 

I have not renewed (again) as I still have zero faith in the club. That said this is one area I am happy to be proven totally wrong and end up wishing I had renewed as we celebrate being L2 Champions. If only my alarm clock would stop spoiling things .......

 

Spot on, it is nothing to do with numbers. I don't speak for anyone else and can only give my opinion. But if we had brought 5 quality players in who came in and improved the starting 11 no one imo would be complaining. When I look at the 5 that came in, Wright was here last year and other than that only Sarc improves the starting 11. I hope the defensive additions prove me wrong, but they don't scream improvement I'd rather last years defenders that finished the season and feel we are currently weaker in that area as a result. I'd hoped with the talk of investment we would bring in 2 or 3 quality CBs akin to what Mansfield did in Aden Flint, a big reason they were finally promoted, but alas those we have brought in don't fit that bill imo and the best of them is injury prone and maybe played out of his natural position because he won't dislodge Halliday.

 

I remember when we had Matt Duke challenging with either Jon McLaughlin or Ben Williams, cannot remember which combination now?

 

What is there to be positive about at this club? Serious question we are in the lowest league massively underachieving. Absent and disinterested owner who is unwilling to invest. In experienced CEO who has made countless *@?$ ups. We own nothing and have no serious plan. Once all the above is discussed openly and we see actions not words il give praise. I won’t hold my breath

 

I wouldn't be against another Keeper coming in, especially as I don't really rate Walker and think he might be found out a bit this season. It was more of a point that we shouldn't be short if we lost one to injury.

 

Well you won’t agree because you despise anything positive about the club but Rupp is about to buy the ground back but no doubt you’ll find a negative in that. We own nothing because of a catastrophic financial position in 2002 which eventually led to the ground being sold in panic without a buy back clause. As for Rupp being unwilling to invest we still haven’t paid back his £1.6 million interest free loan.

 

Duke & McLaughlin, and Williams & Pickford

 

Competition in the squad is key. Our two most successful sides of the modern era in 2013 and 2017 had plenty of rotation. In 2013, we tinkered every match almost to play the in-form man. I remember looking it up a while back and probably on paper our best outfield that season was Darby McArdle Davies Meredith - Thomson Doyle Jones Reid - Hanson Wells.... that team only played together twice, Burton 2nd leg and Northampton in the final. I think it was Hanson, McArdle and Jones who all started the most at 36 or 37 league games. But Atkinson, Ravenhill, Thomson, Hines & Reid all started about 20/25 games that season, Wells only started about half the season i think.

It wasn't as rotation in 2017 but it was still fairly regularly. The front line switching between Wyke, Hiwula, Clarke and Jones from Jan onwards. Cullen was with Dieng or Law played in the middle a few times, Vincelot had some time there, i think even McMahon played in the middle at one point? McArdle, NKP, Vince and Kilgallon having spells in defence.

 

I think you should go support Man City, because football at this level is about things clicking once and building on that, this is league two. A bit of realism is required. No-one is guaranteed success, no-one has the blueprint to continued success. Most clubs that go up usually come down after a few years and outside of the top ten in L1, the rest of L2 & L1 could be in a revolving door (as applies with the top 10 in L1 & the bottom 10 in the Championship and the same in the PL & Championship) because there is no blueprint to success and 95% of it is ducks falling in line once in a while.

If you want continuous success you need to support Man City or change sports to one that's not as competitive due to the cartel nature of it, like RL or RU.

 

A successful side will generally play the same way throughout the season and key personnel will play pretty much every game. We have a number of players on the bench who can interchange with little or no change to the overall set up, Key players for me are Cook and. Smallwood as I don't think we have a like for like replacement.

 

Rupp has something around £10million of his own money invested in this club, with what he paid originally, buying out Rahic and the interest free loans he provided to keep us going through covid. I don't see anyone lining up to replace him.

Not owning anything is a legacy of administration, Rupp can't do much to later than without more of his own money, which he indicated he is willing to do but can't do anything overnight.

Have you seen the plan ? What does it say, and does it have "not a serious plan" stamped on it ?

I won't argue with you on Sparks, but we have taken steps to limit his involvement to what he knows (and appears good at).

As for underachievement, that's subjective as we have no right to be higher in the league. The time will come, when we go up. That may be next season if GA has got his recruitment right to play the game he wants to play rather than the game you want him to play. Success at L2 level is about the sum of the parts, not the value of each individual part.

The cost of running a professional club is far more than the money it brings in. To succeed, most teams at our level need to have a lucky season rather than a well planned one. 90% of the teams in L2 plan for promotion but only 16.66% achieve that each year.

Other than Wrexham, who lets face it are just a vanity project for two massively wealthy blokes with an ego rather than a genuine passion and possibly only bought as they knew their Hollywood connections would make them massive amounts of money from Disney & the like, the teams promoted from L2 in the last five years, will almost certainly end up back in L2 at some point soon.

 

I know what you mean in central midfield. We kind of have Walker, Pattison & Sarcevic who have a similar skillset based off their careers to date. Then Gilly is kind of our only box to box type, Smallwood is our only real defensive midfielder and i don't really know what to class McDonald as anymore, legs have certainly gone. So it's like half of it can be interchangeable and covered, the other half is a mixed bag where you cant really rotate out and expect to keep the same shape or tactic.

Up front, I wonder if this is the point? And this summer we move on Oliver and that leaves Cook as our only real "unit" by design. Maybe we start the season off with Cook up top and Kav & Young as those narrow strikers? As the season progresses, we start to phase Cook out if age starts to show itself and its maybe Pointon Young Kav in some for of a 2 wide and 1 up top or 2 up top and Pointon floating behind? Cook is turning 34 early into the season, bound to catch up with him at some point? But the rest of the attackers are very different and its making me think if that's the idea? And we try quicker younger options from 2025 regardless of the league we are in.

 

Some good points made. Judging by the condition Cook looks to be in I can see him having an influential season.

 

I think you could be right about the front 3. I remember GA in the Radio Leeds show talking about how exciting fans should be with an attack of Kav, Young and Wright. I wondered if it was just a slip that he didn’t mention Cookie but that might be the longer aim especially if Cookie struggles.

 

One of our issues over the last few seasons has been that when Cookie doesn't score then the team doesn't score.
Fix that issue and it will go a long way to helping us get promoted.

 

Sorry to be such a pedant but if you didn't have a season ticket last year then renewing wasn't even an option. You didn't renew last season. You've merely just chosen not to purchase one this time.

 

Good post! Self inflicted torture is what a lot of us do. City is in our blood and fortunately ALL struggling clubs have great fans like that. It's what separates us from all those fans that "supported" ManU in places like Torquay and have now probably switched to ManC and all of these new Wrexham supporters.

 

By pledging his support - which many people would rightly interpret as putting money in. Here's the quote so you can refer to it.

"I pledge my support to ensure we are now able to compete in the transfer market, giving us a greater chance of having a closer fight with teams at the top end of the table next season"