TheTinMan

He clearly said a couple of my players so this isn't just about Max Bird. He sounded to me like a man who is fed up with what has happened in the transfer window so far and I just get the nagging feeling he a bit like some of us may have misinterpreted what Clowes meant by a 'competitive' budget. The word short used a lot, sounded like a plea to the man at the top to me, I might be wrong. 

I thought Warne was big into sports psychology? Didn't sound it with those comments in public. Only going off the highlights but I thought Waggy looked quite lively and does genuinely give us another dimension to the attack. 

He clearly said a couple of my players so this isn't just about Max Bird. He sounded to me like a man who is fed up with what has happened in the transfer window so far and I just get the nagging feeling he a bit like some of us may have misinterpreted what Clowes meant by a 'competitive' budget. The word short used a lot, sounded like a plea to the man at the top to me, I might be wrong. 

Its the style he wants to play with the players he has available that concerns me. Talk of working harder when most of the squad are the wrong side of 30 and have dodgy injury profiles and don't have the legs. Over-committing players forward when we have no pace in the defensive side of our team. We are a car crash waiting to happen on the break when we lose it and it doesn't even take much quality to exploit the weakness. 

Forget the concerns about what's going on in attack, having just caught those highlights and I couldn't watch the game as I was working I'd be gravely concerned about the tortoise and the slug partnership in the centre of our defence, route one easy as you like every time in behind. Doesn't matter what lack of quality there is in the opposition if we gift that option to any side in this league, you don't need quality to use it just pace and its not even really quick just comparatively quick. We cannot play a high line with the likes of Bradley and Cash. 

If someone's head is being turned by Shrewsbury then we have got far bigger problems than I ever imagined.

Its the style he wants to play with the players he has available that concerns me. Talk of working harder when most of the squad are the wrong side of 30 and have dodgy injury profiles and don't have the legs. Over-committing players forward when we have no pace in the defensive side of our team. We are a car crash waiting to happen on the break when we lose it and it doesn't even take much quality to exploit the weakness. 

if you want your answer:
 
wigan starting 11 age:
21
25, 19, 20, 26
21, 22
32, 24, 25
30
average age: 24
 
derby starting 11 age:
27
30, 31, 21
34, 32, 32, 22, 27
31, 32
average age: 29
we have 3 players under 30 and we wonder why we get outrun by a team with 2 players over 30? it feels like it happens in every game, last season we relied on superior quality

The striker situation is seriously depressing to be honest and we just seem to keep banging the same drum of looking at veterans who have fitness issues, are past their best and will be on silly wages still and they'll just move on once the contract ends and we're back to square one with rebuilding the team. Yes it worked for a season with Didzy but he's not that long out of the PL whereas Rhodes, Waghorn etc have been lower Championship players for years now. Nigel Clough barely had a pot to pee in but still unearthed some good signings from the lower leagues and Scotland. Do we even have a scouting team? 

The striker situation is seriously depressing to be honest and we just seem to keep banging the same drum of looking at veterans who have fitness issues, are past their best and will be on silly wages still and they'll just move on once the contract ends and we're back to square one with rebuilding the team. Yes it worked for a season with Didzy but he's not that long out of the PL whereas Rhodes, Waghorn etc have been lower Championship players for years now. Nigel Clough barely had a pot to pee in but still unearthed some good signings from the lower leagues and Scotland. Do we even have a scouting team? 

The striker situation is seriously depressing to be honest and we just seem to keep banging the same drum of looking at veterans who have fitness issues, are past their best and will be on silly wages still and they'll just move on once the contract ends and we're back to square one with rebuilding the team. Yes it worked for a season with Didzy but he's not that long out of the PL whereas Rhodes, Waghorn etc have been lower Championship players for years now. Nigel Clough barely had a pot to pee in but still unearthed some good signings from the lower leagues and Scotland. Do we even have a scouting team? 

Does anyone remember the season we got relegated to what is now the Championship and were playing Reading 1st game at home who'd just been promoted from what is now League 1 and we had Ravenelli and Rob Lee and Warren Barton and some others playing and beat them by a good couple of goals 3-0 I think, songs about them only coming to see the champions play etc.... fast forward 45 games and we'd finished in the bottom half and they made the playoffs. Don't forget Ipswich were quite slow starters last season and must have been well adrift of Wednesday and Plymouth at one stage. Saying that we need attacking options asap we can't rely on Collins and Washington solely. 

if we can get Washington fit it would be a start 

Half-full in that we've still got a club and we'll be a top 8 club regardless of how the season goes we're too strong not to be. Last season was a free hit as we were all delighted to have a club still. Now the reality bites that we've got significantly better resources than most in this league and I do include most of the playing squad in that bracket and the right manager to get out of the league so naturally you expect a bit more. Half-empty in that I'm not confident at all of top 2 because last season the top 4 sides all got over 80 goals and we only got 67 which was less than Charlton and marginally more than Exeter and we've lost our top goalscorer and replaced him with somebody who wasn't fit enough to feature in pre-season. Generally goals get promotion and I don't see 70 goals in this squad never mind 80. 

On the sustainable theme I've seen somebody else mention this, our transfer policy is getting in players in their 30s, past their best, no resale value and probably won't extend their contracts. I'm struggling to see what is sustainable about that and where this cycle ends if there isn't a constant production line of decent talent breaking through from the academy we can sell on and not be shafted over like we always seem to be. 

Yeah I've got no sympathy for him either. I don't agree with the way the club treated Lawrence and Bennett seperately and sadly hes spot on about his assessment of why they weren't sacked but that doesnt change the fact they are all professional athletes getting paid a small fortune. Part of that luxury has a sacrifice that you don't do things which significantly impact on your physical health. Ironically I suspect the club would have had every justification to sack Keogh had he been the driver fleeing the scene not the passenger. The fact they didnt sack the other 2 significantly undermined their case vs Keogh. 

Theres bits of his story i dont buy personally 

Theres bits of his story i dont buy personally 

Theres bits of his story i dont buy personally 

Theres bits of his story i dont buy personally 

Theres bits of his story i dont buy personally 

Yeah I've got no sympathy for him either. I don't agree with the way the club treated Lawrence and Bennett seperately and sadly hes spot on about his assessment of why they weren't sacked but that doesnt change the fact they are all professional athletes getting paid a small fortune. Part of that luxury has a sacrifice that you don't do things which significantly impact on your physical health. Ironically I suspect the club would have had every justification to sack Keogh had he been the driver fleeing the scene not the passenger. The fact they didnt sack the other 2 significantly undermined their case vs Keogh. 

I highly doubt we'd get 15m if the entire squad and youth team was sold off in all honesty. Whatever squad we have left would be almost irrelevant anyway if worst case scenario we get the -21, frankly who honestly cares about this season if that happens? 

He seems to have matured into quite a statesman since that young slapper stuck her backside into his snoozing face.
Thats got to go down as the most bizarre business coaching course I have ever heard of.......?

They've got no chance I'm sick of all this unlucky Wycombe nonsense. They were dreadful bar a handful of games at the end of the season. Never higher than 21st in the league, didn't win until the 9th game of the season. They didn't start playing until they were all bar down because their goal difference meant they were never going to overhaul us. Even if we'd lost to Sheffield Wednesday in the last game of the season they wouldn't have stayed up, there was no scenario on the last day of the season where they could survive.