THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Enough niceties. I've resisted a trademark 'Filthy Rant' since my return but I've had enough after tonight. It's time our fanbase started to put real pressure on Winkie/Sweeting and co to act in terms of bringing more quality additions in.

We just shouldn't be losing to Crawley - a team who finished 22nd and only survived relegation by 3 points. Not just beaten, but outplayed and outclassed. They played some nice neat football and made us look like the fourth tier side we are now.

Those two wins over Tranmere and Wrexham flattered us. Stats and a pair of eyes will tell you were were lucky. Possession, xG, pass success rate, everything but shots to goals ratios we lost out on.

I'm not sure what Alexander is aiming for with this squad. The amount of times every one in that back line decided to play an aimless long ball instead of passing it to someone closer - I lost count. If Alexander wants us to be more direct then many of this squad just aren't physically up to winning headers or bullying others.

There's a good half dozen or so of this squad that just aren't good enough, and tonight confirmed that for me for a couple of them. I'm still baffled by the decision to loan out Kemp and bring in Hunter, who so far has done absolutely nothing that Kemp wouldn't have done. Kemp scored tonight by the way.

Winkie gave his post-season interview and charmed all of us again. He got off too lightly with last season, as did Sweeting.

Two weeks of the window left and I'm not exaggerating when I say we need 3-4 top players who are starting XI worthy. No less. Whether we get them or not is a different matter, but that's what we need. In a perfect world we'd sign another couple on top of that, as our depth is shocking.

So whether it's the fan forum tomorrow, on social media, or at the next game or two, I hope we start to speak up more. We know the club read these forums and social media.

Yes the market is tough, but that's the reality - we have to adapt and if it means spending money then I'd rather we did that and got ourselves out at the first opportunity than rot in L2 for a few seasons. And with a fanbase so fragile and dependent on success when it comes to building attendances, that's the last thing we need - especially when we're not playing the attractive football we gained plaudits for.

We'll lose our best players at the end of this season if we don't go up, I guarantee it, and with the amount of strong teams at this level it's going to be even harder than the last two stints in this league.

I don't know exactly what the problem is but it's time to stop pissing about with our recruitment. Other clubs at our level are signing good players and have surpassed us in squad strength whilst we've been twiddling our thumbs. It's starting to mirror last summer where it was obvious we needed a striker and waited until the end of the window to get a lacklustre loanee who did nothing for our season.

I hope Toby Lock is on the same wavelength, he seems to read these forums too occasionally.

Perfectly put, Filthy.

Would love to know who signed off on Castore too. Why is the club shop so bad. They’ve lost a key part of the connection we have with the club. Buying a pin badge or a pen is a perfect little present for a kid, yet we can’t do it anymore. An MK Dons mug for your brother at Christmas. Nothing like this anymore. Why did we give castore a whole shop?!

Not even taking the piss when I say I expected more of a rant.

Poor by your standards.

2/5

_________________
GEORGE BALDOCK




ONE OF OUR OWN

Like everything else.cost cutting. But you are spot on, not everyone wants to buy a 55 quid shirt

Regret making it its own post tbh, who do I even think I am.

Sphere feel free to merge/delete.

One of the biggest things for me is the club shop. Its a soulless embarrassment of a place.

The lack of rotation is bizarre and surely all that will achieve is demoralising half the squad.

In my opinion 3CR's post match interviews are way too easy. Half of the questions they pretty much answer them for whoever they are asking them of. Nothing is direct or difficult. Toby Lock for the Citizen does seem to do a better job but I feel like he can't be too critical because if GA or the club were to say they won't give him interviews then he has lost his job.

In commentary 3CR say what we are thinking and saying here but then in the post match interview they never seem to push it.

I don’t buy the players aren’t good enough stuff myself. Our entire starting 11 tonight have either played lots at league 1 level or have been top performers in league 2. I think the woeful long ball tactics have a lot to answer for. Defending is hard work and it tires you out. Punting the ball back to the other team constantly and then having to defend us hard work. GA has successfully removed the one thing our team was good at (keeping the ball) and replaced it with aimless hoofs.

Ormeau rant time. The style of football will not lead to success. It won’t bring back season ticket holders. It won’t attract better players to the club. We are royally fucked.

Yes, we aren't playing to our strengths.

Said it in another post but we have a hybrid squad that isn't geared to play in a unifying way.

The club and recruitment department just haven't done enough to back Alexander's style of play. We haven't been aggressive enough in the market.

Either we go all in and back him to bring decent players in who can play his way, or Alexander needs to adapt his own style to accommodate our players.

As for players being good enough and being "L1 quality" - I think some are genuinely better than this level but there are definitely some players who have regressed and who aren't as good as we think. Players can go downhill.