May Contain Nuts

The stated aim is to be an 'established Championship club' (which to me means one looking to kick on / start thinking about a further promotion) within 5 years of the takeover - so by the end of the 2026/27 season we should be thinking of aiming toward the 2027/28 Championship play-offs. Admittedly it does depend what you think Clowes means by an established Championship club, but I don't think I'm being unfair to suggest that a club with ambition should be looking at these timescales. To do that, realistically we either need to get promoted this season or next. If we got promoted this season I'd expect that to take the form of 2024/25 - Struggle (but succeed!) in a battle against relegation (18th-21st) 2025/26 - Safe in lower mid table (13th-17th) 2026/27 - Upper mid table finish (8th-12th) = Fully achieving the target If promoted next season instead 2025/26 - Struggle (but succeed!) in a battle against relegation (18th-21st) 2026/27 - Safe in lower mid table (13th-17th) = Still good, a little behind my intepretation of the target but we have something to build on If we fail to gain promotion by the end of 2024/25 (or get promoted this season, but come straight back down) it's 2025/26 - Get promoted from League One (/again) 2026/27 - Struggle (but succeed!) in a battle against relegation (18th-21st) = falling short of the target. In simple terms though, you just don't appoint Warne as manager and give him all the fanfare unless you expect him to be able to get us promoted at the earliest convenience.

Exactly, and the evidence points to it working, at least against this level of defence, hence no real issue with it in the short term, but a hope it evolves. I'm only basing mine on the noises coming out from the club. The talk pre-season was that we expected to be challlenging for promotion, and that the manager has been given a suitable budget to make that achievable. He's been apppointed on the strength of his experience at doing just that. What job do you suppose is expected of him other than to be challenging for and ultimately achieving promotion? Why should I expect any less? Especially when looking at the state of most of our opponents. If we have a promotion worthy budget, and someone brought in due to their expertise in achieving promotion, then not achieving promotion must be falling below expectation. It's not the end of the world if we don't go up this season, but it would be bitterly disappointing to face another season at this level. If we were runaway leaders at the top of the league I'd say he's achieving something above expectations, but we're not.

Not at all. It depends on the job they've been given to do, the difficulty off it, the level of competition they're up against, the spending power of direct competitors, outside (or insde!) interference ie how much they've been backed by the board (not just moneywise), and a whole lot of of other things. Not even a handful, just a couple. Harry Storer Jnr & Arthur Cox. And even then, getting promoted from Division 3 wouldn't put him in pantheon of Cox or any other manager who's got us promoted into the top division. That would be the excess or undue credit I mentioned. He's started doing the job expected of him, no more, no less, after his 15th month in charge.

I think that's a good point and I can definitely get on board with that line of thinking. I've not really got a problem with how play tbh, I just see it as very much a means to an end. If the plan is to evolve it into something more all-ecompassing that would be great. I'm just not convinced from what I've seen that that is the plan but being ever more effective buys more time to prove me wrong.

Aye, he's clearly a fan as he stated before our game at the start of the season that Wigan (probably) have the best front 4 in the division. Not sure if he singled him out though. Then again, that would also mean he's a fan of Callum McManaman, which is hardly a promising sign! Nor is the paltry 2 goals and 2 assists he's managed in the league so far this season - although he was much, much more productive in the 2021/22 season (15 goals, 10 assists) so clearly has a lot ot offer at this level. I'm not sure why his numbers are so low this season?

Rather that than give someone undue and excess credit when they haven't actually achieved anything with us. It's all set up for him to succeeed, and if he fulfills his remit of getting us up and keeping us up he'll receive all the credit due, at least from me. Until then, he's proved nothing.

I'd say the first goal was the result of good pressing and opportunism - I do think we work better now as a unit in that regard as last season and early this it didn't seem like a very organised press at all - but not cohesive or rehearsed attacking play, the passes are players on the stretch getting what they can on the ball, not 'fancy flicks', it wasn't a planned move to my eyes. The third goal is all about Bird running down the channel and pulling it across, I still just about Include that goal as one fom a wide area tbh (it's teetering on the verge of 'down the middle'), just because it wasn't from outside the box doesn't mean it wasn't still a cross. I do agree things are improving in the manner you say though, generally.

We've just furthered our transformation to 2021-22 Rotherham is all, if Bradley had worked out as intended we'd probably be there by now. Yes we can knock the ball around playing the odd triangle here and there and apply pressure more consistently, so we aren't just 'lumping it to the wings' (we only ever really resorted to that out of desperation anyway) but make no mistake the vast majority (I'll call it 70/80%) of our play is still (and moreso than last season) centered around working the ball out wide and it's still very predictable - just more effective. You'd still be hard pushed to say we look like a cohesive attacking unit when doing anything other than working it wide, our good play still tends to 'break out' from from otherwise mediocre performances rather than feeling fully rehearsed, and our best moments still come from individual players proving their class in ways other League One teams simply can't deal with.

Pretty sure I've never criticised Collins so guess I'm going hungry.

Whereas we put a video up with some morose music at half time with names written so small nobody can read them.

Our unbeaten run.

Talk about an overreaction. The tone of my first post clearly wasn't all that serious and is mainly me taking the piss out of myself. However I do mention a "level of twattery" which refers to certain elements of the crowd's behaviour which put me off the idea of going to watch it live, and I stick by that description. Large groups of pissed up 'lads' (wherever they may be) can be amongst other things: borish, mindless, raucous, disrespectful of others. If you go to watch the darts you know that there will be plenty of this type of behaviour and more than any other sport it actually seems to be actively encouraged. It doesn't follow that I think everyone involved is, or that I'm personally calling anyone out as, a t***. As for 'pathetic and embarrassing' that's a comment specifically about the Yaya/Kolo Toure chant - I find it utterly cringeworthy as I do pretty much all 'orchestrated participation', doubly so when there's no apparent rhyme or reason behind it. Again I don't think that's an inaccurate description but again I'm not using those words to describe the people chanting it.

Plus he clearly doesn't want to leave Bristol (the place) as he waited around so long after his release from City to sign for Rovers.

Azaz has been excellent for Plymouth this season alongside Whittaker, oozes class and they feed off each other brilliantly.

Pathetic and embarrassing, is what it is. Especially when the explanation / justification for it is basically that it's suitable for 4 year olds.

We could probably have done with some more ex-Rotherham tbh, it would have made our transition toward emulating their play-style a bit quicker than the 15 months it's taken so far.

Reckon someone would need to double that before Plymouth even bothered to respond.

Failing to even reach the playoffs, by however small a margin, would be a massive failure and I'm not sure how anyone could say with good faith (only blind faith) that they'd trust him to carry on and achieve promotion the following season. He will get us in the play-offs at the very least though, so it's a moot point.

I like playing darts, or at least I did until I reached the limit of my abilities and realised I was still s***, worse still the frustration of it seems to play into me being ever s******. i was racking up the 180s a few years ago (I've got the keyrings to prove it 😆) , not that being able to hit 180s makes you a good player, fat chance of me hitting one now. I own about 70 different sets, because they're a bit of a design marvel and its fun to throw different barrels. I don't have much interest in actually watching it though, don't really get much chance anyway as I don't have Sky Sports, and the idea of attending an event and being surrounded by a crowd of that level of twattery, coupled with the lack of any decent beverages, makes it a no-no. Still chanting irrelevant s*** about about Kolo and Yaya Toure in 2023/24? Really? Besides I think the players are just too good nowadays. It used to be a rare and special thing for someone to hit a 9 darter now they seem ten a penny. A player being out-of-this-world good at 16 years old... not gonna lie I'm bloody jealous. Naturally gifted people piss me off lol.

I was just going to set this to start at his goal but thought it was a rather enjoyable match all-round and he's involved quite a lot. Will probably be disappointed he only scored one tbf. Not sure there are many players out there who can strike a ball so cleanly but we saw that here - it's the power he gets behind his shots I don't think we were witness to.

There's a point in there somwhere

100% agreed. Essentially, IMO, some people trust Warne to provide that, some don't

As always I don't include your good self in comments about told you so's etc. My issue is with the blind faithers who, given opportunity to put considered arguments forward for why the doubters should keep faith, could never really come up with a substantiated answer but have seen recent good form as cause to feather their nest and "s*** on the b******* below" as it were and take the high ground. Again, you have never been part of that group and you're a poster who's opinion I value, you've never resorted to any of the underhand b******* a few specialise in.

I get where you're coming from but I'm looking at Cashin in isolation. As you say some stuff can simply be put down as experience, but I think Cashin is proving that class is permanent, I think that (to a degree) the idea that he's improved is based on him having a poor spell of form earlier this season under Warne and sometimes people forget how good he was last season. I'm not sure I agree the mood has turned, I've not read any proper slaggings off on the back of today, just reasoned analysis. I haven't seen anything that matches the "told you so's" which have come from some quarters with our good form, I just think it's served as a reminder that not all of the criticisms of Warne's overall performance should be dismissed and thrown under the a blanket with 'haters' embroided on it.

What is it you think he's doing better now than he was under Rooney when playing against a higher level of opponent? IMO he looked good enough on first appearance for a top end Championship club and he still looks like a top end Championship CB now.