Dusic

Its obvious we didn't have a good enough squad to stay up in August - not enough goals and likely to concede quite a few. But managers both should have got a little more from them to make for less embarassing season. Martin had us playing 'nice' football that with a few tweaks he was unwilling to make could have got us level with Ipswich, Leicester. Juric has just been a disaster and seems to have fragmented a squad that was already low on confidence.

Notice they have all gone quiet too. Rudderless. All we can do is trust in Spors that he makes a good decision in the summer.

We have definitely become worse under Juric than we were under Martin (except for perhaps the last game). He is even more inflexible and clearly doesnt have the players needed to play his way, hence ending today with a back of a RB who couldnt get in our team in the Champipnship, an attacking midfielder and a player who hasnt played for 2 years. Madness.

Aside from perhaps the very end of RM's tenure it definitely is worse. There is no sense of playing to any kind of plan (whether a popular or unpopular one) and nothing positive ever happens under managers to whom this applies. It was always going to be very tough for any manager who came in at that point to be a viable option for next season, but with every passing game the chance of Juric still being here gets ever smaller.

Juric plays a different style so would of course have signed some players of a different profile. But as pointed out further up, pretty much every fan wanted us to sign THB and Downes. Wood was a low risk £3m signing so will likely be very useful next season and clearly wasn't signed to be a key player. Fraser was a poor signing but also cheap, its not like we signed him instead of getting someone for £20m. BBD and Archer on the other hand were obviously signings seen as starting XI options. Just because we signed them it doesnt mean they were #1 on RM's list (they weren't). It means they were the deals the club was able to get done. Swap Delap for Archer and we definitely have more physicality and more points. My question would be why did Delap prefer to go to Ipswich over Saints? Why did they find £25m for a goalkeeper when we could have signed one on loan and spent that cash on a proper attacker? Why didn't they stump up 500k to bring Welington here in the summer? Why didnt they replace Wilcox properly when he left? These are SR questions not RM ones.

Usually you are fairly balanced and reasonable but this is an odd one. RM was the manager but he wasn't the person negotiating signing players and wasn't the Head of Recruitment. I doubt any of our genuine first team signings were first choices, we already know most of them weren't because we were clearly in for players like Delap, Carvalho, Clarke (just off the top of my head). Its fairly likely many were quite far down the list. The blame for recruitment clearly lies at the door of Sport Republic. They failed RM in the summer, as much as he messed things up himself. Re Juric...seems odd in our situation to get a manager who is very fixed in terms of formation when we knew we didnt have some profiles for his setup.

Why would anyone want to get rid of Smallbone FFS? He was very good last season, a key player in a promotion season. Has been injured most of this so hardly to blame for anything. Players like him who actually care a bit about the are exactly the ones who we do need for next season.

Why on earth he would think we would sell him to Ipswich a few months after he turned them down to come here is bizarre. Really poor from him.

Feel like he has a long way to go to build any kind of rapport with fans to the point where many will feel he is the right man for next year. He just comes across as being a bit cold and uninspiring.

Yeah very good news he will be based at Staplewood! Lets hope he stays for more than a season.

The Göz are nailing it on and off the pitch - and have done since Ankersen took over as Chairman.

If he can't actually be physically present at Staplewood to lead the football side of the club is he actually the right person?

Would probably go with Summer 2024 tbh, largely based on the fact that if Kamaldeen keeps showing a bit we might actually get some cash for him in the summer. Onuachu we massively overpaid for but we got our cash back for Alacaraz, Bree still features and Orsic was at least a cheap flop. Summer 2024, aside from Fernandes was woeful and just seemed so badly organised. Signed a RB to start (Sugawara) and LB cover (Taylor) when we needed the opposite. Went after Delap who was the profile we needed then signed a totally different type of forward in Archer. BBD, Fraser, Cornet all a waste of space. Wood, Edwards not able to help the team now. Lallana I don't mind, the issue is he ended up (under RM at least) being more important on the pitch due to the lack of quality in the squad. Even Ramsdale. Good signing but a.) Why did it take all of pre season and the first few games to see AMC wasnt up to it? and b.) If we had a spare £25 why didnt we use it on an attacking player instead and find a loan keeper better than McCarthy? All round shambles and still IMO the biggest cause of relegation? Have we had a worse window than this?

Biggest thing by far is to get the DoF position sorted and have some essence of a plan going into the summer. Really no excuse given they have been able to plan virtually a year ahead for next season!

Aside from half the summer signings having left or been frozen out, another indicator of how shambolic we are is the likely scenario we only use one of the PL loan spots - these are key for newly promoted sides and we have known Cornet was leaving since December.

With SAA, the galling bit is the permanency of it. Why not loan him out to the league we will be in next year, see how he does and wait til the summer with more known? Its just a bit illogical, like most of our summer signings were.

Re Sam Amo, big questions to be asked on how his 'development' has been handled. Why wasn't he let out on loan at the start of the season, or 2nd half of last season? Why did he go from training all the time with the first team to back to U21s recently? Must have been so demoralising to have dross like BBD, Fraser, Cornet take your squad space and then be kept to play U21 football he has already proven to have outgrown. The actual decision to sell now rather than assessing in the summer after a loan would be nice to have explained by one of the off field leaders at the club but sure instead we will have the usual "we wish Sam well" copy and paste statement. (Re the bizarre post a couple up...he didn't ever give off any vibes of arrogance. Not sure where that and ABK similarities comes from...)

Interesting exchange here: Surely no chance we would let him go to Ipswich as will be competing with them again next season but certainly something not quite right with him. Recall his partner being pregnant, perhaps just generally unsettled?

I meant result comparisons are pointless because Juric is played 7 lost 6 so his results are also poor but there is clearly sign of improvement as explained. Comparisons to past seasons are tough because the overall strength and spending of the smaller teams grows every year but clearly novody expected we would have this few points. It was clear before a ball was kicked that it would be hard to stay up and once the likes of BBD, Cornet and to a lesser extent Archer showed absolutely nothing it was clear we totally messed up the summer window and certainly in attacking areas justdidn't have enough quality to really compete at this level. I'm absolutely certain if we had Delap or £40m Cunha, Evanilson, Joao Pedro etc then we would have more points and likely be around where Ipswich and Leicester are. Take a look at the striker section on the OS profiles - its Adam Armstrong, Cameron Archer and Paul Onuachu. That doesn't win you many PL points unfortunately.

Results comparisons etc are pointless. RM was poor but equally the club completely failed to recruit a competitive PL team, proven by the fact that so many of the summer signings have already been bombed out. Especially in attacking areas we just completely fucked up the summer business and will clesrly be relegated because of it. That said, what I like about Juric is that he seems more open to using the players in a way that suits them. Kamaldeen a primary example has done more under Juric than in 2 years prior. He knows that in the PL as a lower side you need a threat on the break to create chances. Equally has got more from Lesley, Onuachu, arguably Fernandes too. Whether he stays next season or not, he has been kind of refreshing in his honesty and by not making it all about him like many managers do. The fact he openly wants to stay next season is good in that it should keep motivation high til the end of the season and if he does stay he will know what he wants for next year.

He was asked again about bringing players in e.g using PL loan spot and he basically said he has told the club whats needed and its over to them.

Would be quite the admission of recruitment failure if BBD, Taylor, Edwards, Cornet and Archer end up moving after less than 6 months, whilst Fraser and Lallana can't get a game in a team with 6pts in January and Wood is behind a RB who was a sub in the Championship. Jesus.

Will we even bother using our 2nd PL loan spot now? Unless it were someone who makes a clear difference or has potential to sign in the summer then it seems a little pointless. I doubt any other incomings now unless we revisit maybe Garcia from Reading? If we feel he is worth signing and could eventually be a first XI player then it seems a bit pointless to miss out over a 500k squabble. Will be interesting to see where Sam Amo goes and if we do loan out Bazunu or see him as a better option than McCarthy whilst Ramsdale is injured.

KWP not interested in moving to Turkey and will leave as a free agent in the summer where a host of PL teams want him. Probably the least suprising news of the window. Will end up at Brighton IMO.

Probably unlikely but wonder if there is any feasibility in the summer with a player like Fernandes to tell him he can leave on loan but won't be sold and will return if we manage to get straight back up. Logic being that Dibling will go for big cash so surely we won't be that desperate for another fee, and he will likely be worth even more the following summer anyway. Seeing as he signed a 5yr deal there would be little pressure on that side of things. So hard to find these kind of gems at the fees we pay so really frustrsting to then have to try and find one all over again after just a season.