Glass half full!

[Foreveram]

2 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

What exactly do you think I have my head in the sand about.

[Caerphilly Ram]

Just now, Foreveram said:

What exactly do you think I have my head in the sand about.

Your own opinion and it not matching the opinion of other vocal posters of course! 

[RoyMac5]

5 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

What exactly do you think I have my head in the sand about.

I didn't say you did. I was replying to your can you stop gif with a I'll put my head in the sand gif. 👍

[LeedsCityRam]

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Of course that's the aim but might not necessarily the target that Clowes has set Warne.

Not sure why you think we should be comfortably in the top 2, what are you basing that on? We finished 7th last season and lost our best player.

The Pearson comparison is ridiculous, he has us sat in the bottom 3, not one place outside the play offs.

I would agree with @Millenniumram that the quality of this division is weaker than in recent years & that we should therefore be a lot closer to the top 2 than we currently are.

Firstly, of the 3 relegated teams from the Championship two of them have had points deductions & sit bottom half as things stand. Ordinarily recently relegated sides would be top 6 contenders - for example us, Barnsley & Peterborough last year. That removes 2 threats.

Secondly, two well resourced teams in Sheffield Wednesday & Ipswich have left the division so removing two further threats - we are now competing with clubs with far lower revenue than ourselves based purely on crowd numbers - at this level in the absence of meaningful TV money, that is the key differential. Hence I would struggle to believe Oxford or Portsmouth have a larger wage bill than Derby on average crowds of 18k and 9k respectively & with far inferior corporate entertainment facilities.

To illustrate the point about the general quality of the division, Stevenage were promoted from League Two in May but currently sit in 4th place - 5 points ahead of Derby & only 3 points off top two. Their average crowds are below 5k - again, I don't think anyone could seriously argue their budget is comparable to ours or that they would have been anywhere near 4th at this point last season.

It surprises me how many of our fans seem content with a mere playoff push given the opportunity this season presents & how long Warne has had in post to shape his team & tactics. You mention we lost our best player in the summer but the overall squad is now much better balanced, hence I don't accept 7th on goal difference is anything other than a sub-par performance as things stand.

[Jimbo Ram]

4 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

You’ll no doubt be able to find a couple of rare examples but I’m not sure many sane football owners would think about sacking the manager when the team, at this stage of the season, is sitting outside of the play off positions on goals scored alone even if the bookies did had the team as favourites for auto’s.

Eustace at Brum springs to mind…

[Dean (hick) Saunders]

19 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

I would agree with @Millenniumram that the quality of this division is weaker than in recent years & that we should therefore be a lot closer to the top 2 than we currently are.

Firstly, of the 3 relegated teams from the Championship two of them have had points deductions & sit bottom half as things stand. Ordinarily recently relegated sides would be top 6 contenders - for example us, Barnsley & Peterborough last year. That removes 2 threats.

Secondly, two well resourced teams in Sheffield Wednesday & Ipswich have left the division so removing two further threats - we are now competing with clubs with far lower revenue than ourselves based purely on crowd numbers - at this level in the absence of meaningful TV money, that is the key differential. Hence I would struggle to believe Oxford or Portsmouth have a larger wage bill than Derby on average crowds of 18k and 9k respectively & with far inferior corporate entertainment facilities.

To illustrate the point about the general quality of the division, Stevenage were promoted from League Two in May but currently sit in 4th place - 5 points ahead of Derby & only 3 points off top two. Their average crowds are below 5k - again, I don't think anyone could seriously argue their budget is comparable to ours or that they would have been anywhere near 4th at this point last season.

It surprises me how many of our fans seem content with a mere playoff push given the opportunity this season presents & how long Warne has had in post to shape his team & tactics. You mention we lost our best player in the summer but the overall squad is now much better balanced, hence I don't accept 7th on goal difference is anything other than a sub-par performance as things stand.

Agree with all this. But I think there is a difference between being “content” and wanting Warne sacked (give up and roll the manager dice again hoping for a 6 instead of a 2). 
 

I am not content (expect better) but accept being patient for now.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Dean (hick) Saunders

[RoyMac5]

22 minutes ago, Dean (hick) Saunders said:

Agree with all this. But I think there is a difference between being “content” and wanting Warne sacked (give up and roll the manager dice again hoping for a 6 instead of a 2). 
 

I am not content (expect better) but accept being patient for now.

Out of interest how long is 'for now' and why? After it's too late to change this season, or after another season, or ... ?

[Ram-Alf]

38 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

To illustrate the point about the general quality of the division, Stevenage were promoted from League Two in May but currently sit in 4th place - 5 points ahead of Derby & only 3 points off top two. Their average crowds are below 5k - again, I don't think anyone could seriously argue their budget is comparable to ours or that they would have been anywhere near 4th at this point last  season

I'm not a fan of Steve Evens but boy o boy he knows how to get the best out of what he has, Whether he bully's/cajoles players or knows a player that can fit into his system, Or just a good coach, This is not a fluke he knows what to do and he does it well.

Now look at PW I'd wager he has more recourses as in wage budget, A ground and training facilities to die for, Gates averaging 25k + and more backroom staff.

So why is SE doing better than PW after a 3rd of the season...5 points ahead...but we have 2 games in hand that we have to win to leapfrog Stevenage.

Makes one wonder 😉

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, LeedsCityRam said:

I would agree with @Millenniumram that the quality of this division is weaker than in recent years & that we should therefore be a lot closer to the top 2 than we currently are.

Firstly, of the 3 relegated teams from the Championship two of them have had points deductions & sit bottom half as things stand. Ordinarily recently relegated sides would be top 6 contenders - for example us, Barnsley & Peterborough last year. That removes 2 threats.

Secondly, two well resourced teams in Sheffield Wednesday & Ipswich have left the division so removing two further threats - we are now competing with clubs with far lower revenue than ourselves based purely on crowd numbers - at this level in the absence of meaningful TV money, that is the key differential. Hence I would struggle to believe Oxford or Portsmouth have a larger wage bill than Derby on average crowds of 18k and 9k respectively & with far inferior corporate entertainment facilities.

To illustrate the point about the general quality of the division, Stevenage were promoted from League Two in May but currently sit in 4th place - 5 points ahead of Derby & only 3 points off top two. Their average crowds are below 5k - again, I don't think anyone could seriously argue their budget is comparable to ours or that they would have been anywhere near 4th at this point last season.

It surprises me how many of our fans seem content with a mere playoff push given the opportunity this season presents & how long Warne has had in post to shape his team & tactics. You mention we lost our best player in the summer but the overall squad is now much better balanced, hence I don't accept 7th on goal difference is anything other than a sub-par performance as things stand.

There are arguments for and against the quality of the division, completely subjective but I take your points on board. 

Personally, I dont think its any better or any worse than last season from what Ive seen.

We are probably a better balanced team, when we have all of our players fit, which has hardly been the case so far.

 

[Carl Sagan]

On 18/11/2023 at 16:35, Paultheram said:

Sorry if this post has already appeared on here but I just want everyone’s thoughts on our league form!

My personal view is that we are just around the play offs and with a good win on Saturday we could be in the play offs with a gap forming to the teams behind!

Players back from injuries, International break to give players a rest.

John Jules could be a secret weapon!

Are we happy with play offs this season or we think autos should be the aim?

Not finishing top 2 this season would be a clear failure, and we have given ourselves a mountain to climb. Such a failure would partly be mitigated by winning promotion via the playoffs. Simply reaching the playoffs isn't good enough. I hope everyone at the club is working to these expectations, and aware of the price of failure.

[TomTom92]

Ambition is the word of the day. 
 
Sitting outside the play offs isn’t bad at all in isolation. We have no devine right to get automatic promotion and there’s murmurs of Barnsley fans not happy with Collins whose record is the same as ours. 
 
Personally I’ve seen enough to not like Warne as a manager. Tactically average at best. Recruitment poor on his watch. Plus the football is a mix bag.

I was all for wanting him gone before our upturn in fortunes. In fact I still want him gone but it would be an odd decision to do it now. It should’ve been done after Stevenage. 
 
Think we’re stuck with him until the end of the season. If we get promoted great. If not I hope he either walks or gets the sack and I doubt many fans would disagree.

[Tamworthram]

27 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Not finishing top 2 this season would be a clear failure, and we have given ourselves a mountain to climb. Such a failure would partly be mitigated by winning promotion via the playoffs. Simply reaching the playoffs isn't good enough. I hope everyone at the club is working to these expectations, and aware of the price of failure.

By price of failure do you mean financial or PW getting the sack? If we reach the play offs but fall short, I’d be very surprised if PW was sacked. My feeling is that DC may well be disappointed but I somehow doubt it’s promotion or the sack this season.

[Tamworthram]

12 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Ambition is the word of the day. 
 
Sitting outside the play offs isn’t bad at all in isolation. We have no devine right to get automatic promotion and there’s murmurs of Barnsley fans not happy with Collins whose record is the same as ours. 
 
Personally I’ve seen enough to not like Warne as a manager. Tactically average at best. Recruitment poor on his watch. Plus the football is a mix bag.

I was all for wanting him gone before our upturn in fortunes. In fact I still want him gone but it would be an odd decision to do it now. It should’ve been done after Stevenage. 
 
Think we’re stuck with him until the end of the season. If we get promoted great. If not I hope he either walks or gets the sack and I doubt many fans would disagree.

I agree with everything except your final sentence. I can’t see why he would walk (and walk away from a lucrative contract unless it was “by mutual consent” which is really jumping before being pushed but with financial benefits). Whether he gets the sack or not will probably depend on how close we come to promotion. I wouldn’t think (or expect) losing out in the playoffs to be enough to see him gone. 

[Mucker1884]

I'm a big fan of the "We are only 8 points off second place/Auto promotion after 16 games, and there's plenty of time/30 games remaining for us to pull that back" viewpoint.

 

... But... If I were to start drinking the Devil's Advocaat... it could be fairly argued that we have lost ground by 0.5 points per game thus far.  Carry that through to the season's end, and we could finish up being 23 points off the Auto spots.  

The latter, I'm not such a big fan of!  😲

[Van der MoodHoover]

10 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

I'm a big fan of the "We are only 8 points off second place/Auto promotion after 16 games, and there's plenty of time/30 games remaining for us to pull that back" viewpoint.

 

... But... If I were to start drinking the Devil's Advocaat... it could be fairly argued that we have lost ground by 0.5 points per game thus far.  Carry that through to the season's end, and we could finish up being 23 points off the Auto spots.  

The latter, I'm not such a big fan of!  😲

Lose the next game and our 1.5 ppg average is maintained.

That's 69 points over a full season and unlikely to see us threatening the playoff places.

[Blondest Goat]

22 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

By price of failure do you mean financial or PW getting the sack? If we reach the play offs but fall short, I’d be very surprised if PW was sacked. My feeling is that DC may well be disappointed but I somehow doubt it’s promotion or the sack this season.

In an interview before the start of the season Warne said he expected to be out of a job if we didn't get promotion.

[Tamworthram]

5 minutes ago, Blondest Goat said:

In an interview before the start of the season Warne said he expected to be out of a job if we didn't get promotion.

Warne says a lot of things in interviews that make little sense, to try to make a joke or just for effect.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Tamworthram

[Dean (hick) Saunders]

1 hour ago, RoyMac5 said:

Out of interest how long is 'for now' and why? After it's too late to change this season, or after another season, or ... ?

Barring a big losing streak I’m probably ok to the end of the season. 

If we’ve made playoffs and lost unluckily then I may be ok for another summer window. But a lot depends on what happens from now to then.

Fingers crossed for a good playoff push leading to victory and promotion.. 🐏

[Premier ram]

1 hour ago, RoyMac5 said:

Out of interest how long is 'for now' and why? After it's too late to change this season, or after another season, or ... ?

And how long would you give a new manager to turn it around if / when they sack Warne?

[TomTom92]

44 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

I agree with everything except your final sentence. I can’t see why he would walk (and walk away from a lucrative contract unless it was “by mutual consent” which is really jumping before being pushed but with financial benefits). Whether he gets the sack or not will probably depend on how close we come to promotion. I wouldn’t think (or expect) losing out in the playoffs to be enough to see him gone. 

Think losing in the play offs leave his future 50/50. Warne by his own admission has said he’’d expect to be shown the door if we didn’t go up. 

Depends how much DC wants to not let outside influences affect his judgement. Personally keeping him on with a major percentage of the fan base against him is a poor decision. But so far DC has shown he doesn’t care about that issue.