Article in The Athletic

With regard to PL clubs giving kids time at Div 2 level, this season Aston Villa have leant Kane Hayden to Swindon for the first half of the season where he received MOM a few times, before moving him to MK Dons for the second half of the season and then gave Swindon Louie Barry who earnt fame scoring against Liverpool in the Cup last season when Villa played a youth team due to covid. So it does happen that PL clubs are prepared to allow players to come down to Div 2. Apparently clubs wanting to have such players have to make a presentation as to how they will improve the player whilst he is with them. Apparently on some occasions various clubs have made presentations and a choice is made as to where the player goes.

 

Can you imagine Adams doing that

 

The fascinating thing is, we only just sneaked into the play offs. In hindsight that side should have won automatic. We could say the cup was a distraction but we had some decent reserves. Back line of Darby, Meredith, McCardle and Davies is top League 1 / Championship. Jones/Doyle league 1. Hanson/Wells? Maybe it was our wingers and forwards who weren't top notch?

 

The key there is Swindon play football, so do MK. Not long distances as well so could probably commute from Brum.

 

We were solid but a touch weak in front of goal. We drew too many games. Wells had his breakthrough season and was a solid 1 in 2 man. Hanson was never prolific and was a 1 in 4 man. We didn't get many from elsewhere though. Jones and Doyle ran games but they weren't prolific. 4 league goals between the pair.

To be fair, it was the first season that the group were together. It went from strength to strength from there.

 

yep. I think you are spot on. Not much goal threat or assists from the full backs either as much as I rate them both highly

 

I've always said that we were the best team in the division that season but the cup runs (we played 4 FA cup matches and 3 paintpot trophy) cost us points in the league. For the League Cup out of 8 matches we played, we only managed to pick up 4 points out of 24 from the subsequent L2 matches.

 

true but when I think of it we had the likes of, Ravenhill, McHugh, Thompson, Atkinson etc. We had a fairly decent 7 or 8 to come in.

 

I think we were the best team in the division that season, when we played on the front foot. We only really did that consistently after the Exeter game in March when it seemed like we had nothing to lose.

I remember being slaughtered by other City fans at the time for saying we were underachieving, I actually think we sometimes brought the backs to the wall mentality from some of the cup games, where it was needed, to league fixtures where it wasn't.

Given our status in this league we are never going to succeed playing reactive football, we need to stick our chests out, play proactively and have players who understand that and who can handle the expectation.

That's why Adams was never the right fit, and it doesn't mean he won't necessarily take Morecambe back up next year playing like he wants to, it just won't work here.

 

The majority of those backup players would walk into our first team right now.

 

The sum of the individuals of that team was greater than the ability of the individuals itself. Take Nahki out of that team and it doesn't get promoted. The defence was solid but was based on a predominately defence based side, talk of it being a championship standard defence is just ludicrous. The side that got promoted was a good side but also looked pretty ordinary at times, it's the reason we ended up sneaking in the playoffs.

 

In terms of technical ability, you're probably right. The character, heart and drive of that team matches anything I've ever seen in a City side. They were moulded in Parky's image. Maybe a more progressive coach could have found another gear in terms of footballing ability and flair. The back 4 were certainly top end League 1. A fit Andrew Davies could have played in the Championship and Meredith could too (well, he did). McArdle would have been found out, as would Darby, but you'd definitely have had both around and in the squad.

It still breaks my heart when I think back to how close we came to the championship. I was gutted after that Millwall game because I knew that was our chance and that we'd fall away after that. I just didn't realise how much we'd fall away

 

I disagree about Darby but in the championship we would have brought Championship players and if if we went straight back down we would have still be there or there abouts to go straight back up in div 1. That Millwall defeat and Edin & Rupp being lazy gits set us back years and years. To be midtable in Div 2 under Rupp watch is nothing short of a disgrace hence why he still needs to go.

 

I don't think Darby was good enough on the ball or going forward to play in the Championship.

 

Didn't Parky get us to a Championship play off with many of that promotion winning side even without Nahki.

 

The back four benefitted from playing under Parkys tactics. I wouldnt have said any of them would have stood out in a side playing a more progressive style. That's not being disrespectful, it's an observation that arguably Meredith apart, the others were more at home in a physical based set up. And I agree with you regarding Millwall, the club was ready for the springboard to the next level. But as we all know it would have taken that next level of backing to push us over the line and apart from Richmond we've never had and probably never will have that kind of backing again.

 

Same principle Dave. Substitute Nahki for Burke and Cullen and we have the same ending, that team would get nowhere near the playoffs without them. A team has to have those standout players amongst the average standard players, it's why we currently find ourselves lower league 2 because we have no standout players.

 

We could never replace a Nahki Wells goal wise yet we managed to make the play offs.
Your examples are correct if you lose someone like Nahki and his goal contribution then we have to be stronger in other areas of the team and make sure the opposition are reduced to the odd few chances, and certainly the likes of Cullen Burke, Evans and Pickford did make that difference in quality.

 

Even though he did with Bolton under Parkinson

 

Played for Liverpool and Bolton. Think he was good enough back in the day.

Full back have changed now and I agree based on todays game then a question mark. Our current full backs are all shite.