Scribble wrote:
FilthyDon wrote:
Play more of the fringe players. The first choice lot can't even get a point so nothing to lose with playing some of the fringe players that may be hungrier for game time and try a bit harder. Also if we go down, some of them will be more prominent next season I expect, so it gives them game time.
The likes of Rasulo, Tilney, Furlong, Sietsma, Kasumu, Asonganyi (if he's fit) etc starting games or at least getting 20-30 minutes.
Tilney and Asonganyi, yes, the rest I just don’t think are good enough or will be good enough, Sietsma, what I’ve seen of him in the U23 team playing at Brackley, simply is not a very good keeper, Rasulo has been hanging around for what seems an eternity without really showing any great improvement.
Haven’t seen much of Furlong or Kasumu, but neither seem to to be ripping up trees.
Relegation is going to be a disaster for this club, with little money to invest and relying on a pretty average looking fringe squad, I fear a long hard slog in league 2 if we fail to stay up, anybody thinking we’ll bounce straight back is deluded.
Not "a disaster" but I agree that, when people keep listing all the players we should offload if we go down and yet still talk as if it's going to be a fun promotion campaign, I do wonder who they imagine are going to lead us to the promotion. I personally think if we do go down we need to keep a good core of this current squad and just replace the current loans and the ones that opt to leave (eg Chuks) and the major weakness in our squad (CB)
If we offload plenty to save wages, I can't see us strengthening with many established league one/two players, and I agree with you that our fringe players are no certs for promotion.
We can still stay up of course but, if we go down, I'd like to see some of the younger players - Brittain, Jackson, Rasulo, Nombe, Thomas-Asante be regular members of the first team squad next year, but I wouldn't like to have to rely on them as key players. I'd prefer us to keep the likes of Nicholls, Williams, Walsh, Lewington, McGrandles, Upson or Gilbey, Pawlett, Nesbitt, Agard or Sow, and really have a launch at promotion with a good league two squad and give Dan's reign some much needed momentum, rather than fire them off and approach the season with a patched up squad and further rlsk the downward slide of the last 3 years continuing.
Yeah, I’d agree with that, the thing that bothers me is if we do offload key players and rely more on our youth, we do risk still being in decline, as you alluded to.
The rot has to be stopped and i sincerely hope PW will try to retain a core group that gives us a fighting chance