Most liked posts in thread: Off pitch

My memory isn't great but I don't think players like Wells, Reid, Davies, Jon Mc/Duke, Thompson played every game.

I think we are only really missing Donaldson from who would be classed a key player. We need key players but for the formation/tactics employed by Bowyer we don't have these key players, we have players that can play in a position.

Riley, Mellor, Reeves, Devitt, Pritchard, Ismail or Palmer come to mind when you think about players who have been injured - I don't see any of them being key players.

 

Everyone's confidence in Devitt that he can turn us around and be a creative spark is confusing me? Did he do anything in the games he's played for us this season. Don't remember him getting a kick of the ball in the games I saw him before the injury. If the ball bypasses the midfield like it has been is he going to be much use?

 

At times but let’s not pretend there wasn’t a lot of dross in the league similar to what we’re seeing now. Who can forget teams like Colchester and Yeovil going onto do the double over us before being relegated. Or Rotherham away, Exeter away or the best watching Bristol City show is how to play football ,when we still had hopes of playoffs until the 6-0 spanking. The only time I’ve really enjoyed league games on a regular occurrence in the 21st century was in the 16/17 under McCall, most league games have been a slog regardless of manager.

 

Of those you could really only say Devitt and that's because he hasn't had the chance to be mismanaged yet.

 

And we still keep coming back for more. It was laughable at times how bad teams/games were and still is.

 

Devitt has been built into the saviour without actually playing. Some were even demanding he start after a long term injury. The lad needs to time to adjust back to first team action and we shouldn't expect too much.

 

I posted similar but my opinion is although we are super defensive, we get the ball into midfield a lot. It's not like we are playing complete hoof ball but when it gets to midfield it's either sideways or backwards, their is no intent to carry the ball forward or pick a forward pass. Devitt is a different type of midfielder to Reeves/Palmer and I think he can offer something we haven't really seen this season.

 

They were great days under Geoffrey, no doubt about it and we were heading for financial ruin under the Dave Simpson board whom Geoffrey took over from. You just have to weigh up wether the price we paid for 4 years of hope,ambition and glory were worth the aftermath which has crippled the club over the years with no owned ground and trapped in the lower divisions indefinitely. On balance I'm glad we had the Geoffrey years as we would have bumped along in the lower two divisions throughout the 90s. Just wish he hadn't been greedy and not took rediculous share dividends, didn't lumber us with the upper tier of main stand and north west corner which crippled us and let Paul Jewell sign the players and not himself. We could have stayed an average 2nd tier side similar to Bristol City, Norwich, Brentford. It galls me to see the likes of Brighton and Bournemouth plodding along in the top flight. Teams we used to beat easily in the 80,s and 90,s.

 

Fully agree I have followed the club for more than half its existence and most of the time it has been frankly very poor stuff. So to see going toe to toe with the best for two years was something I never thought I would see. And the games leading up to getting there are a special memory. We did pay a big price for it and it’s a bitter regret how we went about our second season but I can say we played in the premier league.

 

Brighton and Bournemouth are plodding along in the top flight due to £100's of millions of investment. Just like we did to a lesser extent under BFG. Its hard to say for definite but i wager that had Richmond not come along this club would just bumbled along aimlessly like it has done for most of its history. Chances are we would have been in league 2 just like we are now just minus the 25,000 seater stadium. Wether we would have still owned the stadium is open to question.

 

There was a strong rumour a while ago that person(s) were interested in buying the club but Rupp was asking for the amount he had put in to purchase the club plus some extra. They were not prepared to pay that amount for a club that had just been relegated and appeared to be in disarray. Whether they might still be interested now the club appears to have been stabilised is a very good question. I wonder if anyone has asked them?

 

Rumour has it Rupp wanted £10m. You buy City what are you buying? Football League golden share, the IP associated with the name and badge and a dozen mainly hopeless players in contract at the season end. I’m not even sure it’s a stable club, it needs shit loads spending on it.

 

I think your right @Rogered Tart ,the late 90s would almost certainly have been further struggle without Richmond intervention. We were heading for the rocks under the Simpson board, he was a nice bloke but him and his board were out of their depth. Just wonder why we couldn't have attracted the investment that Bournemouth and Brighton managed to attract. We have potential, a good support base, certainly Bournemouth don't have that ,yet we just get local interest that will never get us to take off or unfortunately an eccentric German who became a very disruptive influence who has fortunately gone. Just have to hope that Rupp who is loaded can see some potential in us and invest similar to Richmond in the 90s.

 

Looks like Will Buckley but I thought he was at bolton

 

When we had 1 win in 21 we were in a new division where the generally accepted target was to consolidate and we were still sat in the top half. 1 win in 21 is never good but we were still ticking along with lots of draws and achieving what we were expected to do.

You seen to be trying to directly correlate Bowyers style with PPs just because they both like to have a target man but it's literally the only similarity. It's like saying McCall's style correlates with Pep's because they both like to play from the back. Its chalk and cheese.

 

Do you mean Ashley Ward? We had Westwood in division 1 and he wasn’t exactly experienced. I struggle to believe we bought someone from Crewe when we were in the second tier and paid them that much in the 90’s.