Retained List

It may cost the club money either subsidising wages or buying off contracts but they are not all lemons, If we could shift 5 or 6 of the worst then am sure the rest with proper coaching and managing can be an asset

 

The other day you listed 5 players you wanted to keep. 5.

Now you want to keep the majority?

What’s unrealistic and foolish is demanding automatic promtion back from League 2 and expecting the bulk of that to be achieved by a squad handed its Arse every week in League 1.

 

he's been their manager for a while now and it isn't making any tangible difference to the players, what is going to magically change over the summer?

 

Some of the right players we need in the right positions alongside them

 

who are right players that we currently have that we realistically would keep?

 

Well he did it at BLACKPOOL he must be good.

Lower standards of football.

Mate, it's like saying Huddersfield have to get rid off all their player. It's not going to happen. It doesn't happen it football.

We've had a poor season and we have 16 contracted players. We can't afford to get rid of them all.

 

The gap between top league 2 and bottom league one is very marginal Fordy, it's not like we're talking champions league and conference is it?

 

It's enough mate.

 

But he took a team from promotion and it's basically his team that's gone on to do well this year.

 

He won't get rid of them all, he'll get rid of the ones who are either aren't good enough, can't play with the players he'll keep or can't play in the system he wants. With loans going back and out of contract players we'll be without about 10 of this seasons squad anyway.

 

A combination of Pep, Klopp and Poch couldn't do much with this bunch, simply because as we all know and Bowyer keeps telling you we lack pace and power and most importantly confidence. All these three didn't hit the ground running - two years ago Pep was getting quite a bit of criticism as when that Man City team, did their best at times not to qualify for the Top 4

And in n fairness to Bowyer performances are better, i.e. there was nothing much wrong with Saturday's performance - but we can see what a difference pace made when a, probably, 75% fit Scannell came on and created the type of chance every other team in the division would have gobbled up

I'm suspicious of managers who have an instant impact, it nearly always never lasts. Our legends are Jewell and Parkinson, who made terrible starts (21 years ago almost to the day some of us were 'kicking the cat', after we'd lost 5-0 at Crewe - Jewell shrugged his shoulders, bought the chief architect of that defeat, Gareth Whalley and the following season was, er, a bit better )

I'm delighted with Bowyer. He should have been signed up last summer, but clearly wouldn't have come as he'd had seen Edin as another Oyston

 

This sums it up nicely, but still a few with head in the sand.

 

I'll put my neck on the line and state, that most (not all) could do a promotion job in League 2, provided we get the correct additions. We haven't seen two of them and like it or not McCartan and particular Reeves weren't that bad in L1, with the former now poised to have two consecutive L2 promotions with different teams and having played a big part

I think it's an error to think that a player who was rubbish this season, will always be rubbish. Robbie Blake was frankly terrible and then suddenly Jewell got him to click and for me he's the most skillful player I've ever seen in a City shirt (apart from Chris Waddle) and my all time favourite. I'd had sent around the men in white coats, if in April 1998 you'd had told me how good Blake would become. But he's another player, who could be flaky temperamentally. Jewell's man-management skills got the best out of him. Surely there will be equivalents at this level in the current squad

We forget and I think lots of managers forget this also, they need to actually manage those players who are a bit flaky and get the best out of them. Bowyer seems to like that side - hence his 'warm words' about Reeves. Hopkins didn't like it - he seemed to expect players to be ready for his way and didn't seem interested in why they might not be

Us humans are a complicated bunch!!

 

The only equivalents I really see are those set to leave in the summer.

Butterfield is a very talented footballer - who hasn't really shone because we have no ball winner, nor wingers for him to feed, nor quality striker leading the line.

Ball - skillful player who could be very effective with wingers stretching teams and opening up opponents.

LOB won't be back. Nor will Payne. Akpan has some talent but is a complete pansy - and that'll be an even bigger issue in League 2.

There's a sprinkling of talent which is massively undermined by the lack of balance and quality in key areas. But i see very little in this group (i.e. longer term contracts) that give me optimism for next season.

 

The problem is, the players we would build around (Ball, Butterfield, Payne, O'Brien) won't be here.

The back four must change. Two seasons in a row our back four has been awful. NKP must go, O'Connor is dog dirt.

Who are wr building round?

O'Donnell and Doyle?

Either way, the first xi will be drastically different if we want our form to be drastically different.

 

I'm not actually criticising Bowyer, or questioning his ability - I'm just curious how he can suddenly turn the lazy bunch of wasters we have, and have lost 5 on the spin into a team that'll run through brick walls over the course of one summer.


I'm fully aware we won't be able to get rid of everyone - I've never said we will, I'd like us to but I'm well aware it can't happen for financial reasons.

 

I honestly don’t think you can underestimate the long lasting effect Edin had on the club from top to bottom. The new season is a fresh start for everyone and some of the players might surprise us all. It’s like anything in life, instability and negativity which hounded this club under Edin is slowly being repaired but will take a long time! All will be forgotten though with a strong start to next season.

 

Obviously we don't know what our wages budget will be for next season, but there must be a very considerable saving just from returning the loan players, in fact there would be a big saving just from Jack Payne. If we can move on a few more hopefully that would give us a bit to spend even if the budget is reduced. Maybe even enough to offer Chicksen a new contract

 

I just hope we can shift out Anthony O'Connor some how. I never want to see him playing in Claret and Amber ever again. unless its for Motherwell.