Squad Ins and Outs Discussion

[British_Empire 9,648]

Just now, 6superbarry6 said:

We have 46k season ticket holder and match day costs will be significantly reduced, I don’t think we’ll be too much worse off tbh, assuming season tickets sell out that is, think the big loss will be in home Europa league games so yes we’ll feel it there but hopefully the merchandise will compensate this 

Unless I've missed something, the season ticket money will still be banked. The fans will be seeing the games on TV if any games are missed. 

I don't think the profit margins of a few pies or programmes match days is going to mean the difference between signing a top target and not. 

As you say, you can off-set that against match day costs like stewarding, staff, police, leccy etc. Might even come out on top.

Hospitality would maybe be a kick in the balls. There's good money in that.

I think any real danger is having to repay season ticket holders, 46k of them, anything between £100-£200 each back for the games from last season (should they chose to request it) that's around 5-million (if my sums are correct)

[6superbarry6 14,618]

5 minutes ago, British_Empire said:

Unless I've missed something, the season ticket money will still be banked. The fans will be seeing the games on TV if any games are missed. 

I don't think the profit margins of a few pies or programmes match days is going to mean the difference between signing a top target and not. 

As you say, you can off-set that against match day costs like stewarding, staff, police, leccy etc. Might even come out on top.

Hospitality would maybe be a kick in the balls. There's good money in that.

I think any real danger is having to repay season ticket holders, 46k of them, anything between £100-£200 each back for the games from last season (should they chose to request it) that's around 5-million (if my sums are correct)

I wouldn’t expect many will be looking for a refund, surely not unless in severe hardship 

[Amato 3,101]

5 hours ago, BlueKnight87 said:

The current squad on it's day can beat anybody in scotland true.

But it's also showing it can't do it over the full course of a season.  2 years in a row we've been in good position pre winter break and falling apart post break. 

We need first team ready players that can improve on what we already have.

Transfer Market will be very different this summer for sure, but I still expect we'll do some business. 

We'll never know if they had what it took in the season just abandoned. Likely not right enough.

[BlueKnight87 17,897]

22 minutes ago, Amato said:

We'll never know if they had what it took in the season just abandoned. Likely not right enough.

Stranger things have happened. 

But based on the form we showed after the break it's highly doubtful this current squad had it in them to turn round the season. 

[Fredrick 54]

Hope the management team this year dont send us to dubai. Not sure what ever happened but clear it doesnt work, find best way to use the squad we have instead of square pegs round holes! 100% a half decent winger required and a striker to push alfie on. No fuckin lydon dykes tho 😂😂😂🤣

[British_Empire 9,648]

53 minutes ago, Fredrick said:

Hope the management team this year dont send us to dubai. Not sure what ever happened but clear it doesnt work, find best way to use the squad we have instead of square pegs round holes! 100% a half decent winger required and a striker to push alfie on. No fuckin lydon dykes tho 😂😂😂🤣

I know Dubai seems to be a running joke, but remember too the Tarriers also went to Dubai, they flew back and went on a long winning run (they also changed their tactics too which helped) - we did neither of those things.

I was actually at the game in Dubai and whilst I thought the team we played were on a par with a Dumbarton or Falkirk, it was a good run out and we looked sharp enough and scored some great goals.

Dubai's only a 7-hour flight, with the players in the premium class, all comfortable and well looked-after so I think Dubai is a massive red herring.

[BlueMe 25,327]

The issue wasn't going to Dubai, it was more about what we done when we were there tbh.

The "mini pre-season" was madness considering the amount of games we had already played. 

Hopefully lessons have been learned. 

[BlueKnight87 17,897]

1 hour ago, British_Empire said:

I know Dubai seems to be a running joke, but remember too the Tarriers also went to Dubai, they flew back and went on a long winning run (they also changed their tactics too which helped) - we did neither of those things.

I was actually at the game in Dubai and whilst I thought the team we played were on a par with a Dumbarton or Falkirk, it was a good run out and we looked sharp enough and scored some great goals.

Dubai's only a 7-hour flight, with the players in the premium class, all comfortable and well looked-after so I think Dubai is a massive red herring.

I don't think Dubai was the issue myself.

I think it simply comes down to mentality in the team.  These players bottled it again. We seen it last season after the break. When the pressure of chasing the title and needing to win every game was on, they couldn't handle it. 

It didn't help either that our manager just wouldn't change our formation. Even lennon was able to do this and he's hardly a managerial genius. 

[bluebell82 249]

24 minutes ago, BlueKnight87 said:

I don't think Dubai was the issue myself.

I think it simply comes down to mentality in the team.  These players bottled it again. We seen it last season after the break. When the pressure of chasing the title and needing to win every game was on, they couldn't handle it. 

It didn't help either that our manager just wouldn't change our formation. Even lennon was able to do this and he's hardly a managerial genius. 

I think it maybe as simple as when Morelos stopped scoring, our form went down the pan.

We can't be in the situation going into this season that we're reliant on Morelos for the bulk of our goals. Hoping we can get a quality striker in - someone in the mould of Dado Prso would be exactly the type of player we're missing imo (granted not easy to find).

[Fredrick 54]

2 hours ago, British_Empire said:

I know Dubai seems to be a running joke, but remember too the Tarriers also went to Dubai, they flew back and went on a long winning run (they also changed their tactics too which helped) - we did neither of those things.

I was actually at the game in Dubai and whilst I thought the team we played were on a par with a Dumbarton or Falkirk, it was a good run out and we looked sharp enough and scored some great goals.

Dubai's only a 7-hour flight, with the players in the premium class, all comfortable and well looked-after so I think Dubai is a massive red herring.

From what i heard it was like a pre season camp, 3 sessions a day etc really punishing at that time of year, be daft to rule it out. We downed tools and what we done in dubai defo caused our form to railroad, not all to blame in dubai but its a big chunk of thr issue

[British_Empire 9,648]

20 minutes ago, Fredrick said:

From what i heard it was like a pre season camp, 3 sessions a day etc really punishing at that time of year, be daft to rule it out. We downed tools and what we done in dubai defo caused our form to railroad, not all to blame in dubai but its a big chunk of thr issue

I've heard that too, but I also know folk that watched the training and said it was joking and relaxed but God knows. I just think too much is pinned on Dubai like the warm weather camp over there was a bad idea. It wasn't

If it's true they've been worked into the ground, then that's a massive black mark against our management and coaching staff but surely they're not that stupid. Especially Gerrard.

[BlueKnight87 17,897]

1 hour ago, bluebell82 said:

I think it maybe as simple as when Morelos stopped scoring, our form went down the pan.

We can't be in the situation going into this season that we're reliant on Morelos for the bulk of our goals. Hoping we can get a quality striker in - someone in the mould of Dado Prso would be exactly the type of player we're missing imo (granted not easy to find).

Overall mate I think its mentality of this side but I agree once morelos stopped scoring no one else stood up.

We are too reliant on alfie for goals.  I'd love another striker in the prso mould myself but I don't think that on its own will be enough. 

We need to start spreading the goals across the team. The scum have 4-5 players being able to hit double figures  in the league.  We need the same across our team.

Wingers and midfielders need to be providing more goals. 

[siamthedanger 2,913]

1 hour ago, bluebell82 said:

I think it maybe as simple as when Morelos stopped scoring, our form went down the pan.

We can't be in the situation going into this season that we're reliant on Morelos for the bulk of our goals. Hoping we can get a quality striker in - someone in the mould of Dado Prso would be exactly the type of player we're missing imo (granted not easy to find).

Would rather sell Morelos and get another two strikers in with the money. Providing we can still get a decent bit for him given how badly he let us down again last season. 

[STEPPS BOY 77,647]

@British_Empire only sticking up for Dubai as he is worried that his Winter break next year will be Gullane.

[British_Empire 9,648]

2 minutes ago, STEPPS BOY said:

@British_Empire only sticking up for Dubai as he is worried that his Winter break next year will be Gullane.

I was wondering if the Seychelles had a football team

[Born Sinner 298]

I reckon our forward line next year will be Kent, Hagi, Aribo, New striker. Morelos will be sold imo.

Ideally we would use the Alfie bonanza to bring in two high level players to play ahead of Kent / Aribo or rotate regularly with them. This won’t happen as SG likes Aribo and Kent and paid 7m for the latter.

Either that or the latter two get their fingers out and improve their numbers. Defensively we match that mob and Alfie can score / out score any of their forwards.

It’s midfield / attacking midfield that we lag behind them with goals / assists. It’s the key area needing a improvement.

 

[esquire8 45,326]

So Brewster is the next Liverpool loanee. Whoop diddy doo.

[Broxi 12,206]

I actually think Brewster would be a good signing. 4 in 11 in the Championship isn't bad, this would be him a little older as well, at a lower level most of the time and as a back up. 

Swansea fans also seem to rate him quite highly. Read comments about wasting his talent giving him no service and wishing they could keep him. 

If we aren't able to invest heavily in a striker and it was between Brewster and Kamberi then I would rather Brewster tbh. He could probably play across the front 3 as well

[Fredrick 54]

5 hours ago, British_Empire said:

I've heard that too, but I also know folk that watched the training and said it was joking and relaxed but God knows. I just think too much is pinned on Dubai like the warm weather camp over there was a bad idea. It wasn't

If it's true they've been worked into the ground, then that's a massive black mark against our management and coaching staff but surely they're not that stupid. Especially Gerrard.

Hes been while known to be an absolute fitness freak mate, own sports scientists in and all the training, he looks at fat levels and how much km uve run etc, think he learned alot of that under klopp.

 

not a bad idea in terms of modern football but have to have balance, i think at times he has made mistakes in that respect.

[Laudrup1690 1,064]

8 hours ago, Born Sinner said:

I reckon our forward line next year will be Kent, Hagi, Aribo, New striker. Morelos will be sold imo.

Ideally we would use the Alfie bonanza to bring in two high level players to play ahead of Kent / Aribo or rotate regularly with them. This won’t happen as SG likes Aribo and Kent and paid 7m for the latter.

Either that or the latter two get their fingers out and improve their numbers. Defensively we match that mob and Alfie can score / out score any of their forwards.

It’s midfield / attacking midfield that we lag behind them with goals / assists. It’s the key area needing a improvement.

 

Your living in dreamland if you think we are signing someone to play ahead of Kent next season 😂

[Born Sinner 298]

29 minutes ago, Laudrup1690 said:

Your living in dreamland if you think we are signing someone to play ahead of Kent next season 😂

Nah I said Kent will be in the forward line next season.

[plymouthranger 4,269]

12 hours ago, bluebell82 said:

I think it maybe as simple as when Morelos stopped scoring, our form went down the pan.

We can't be in the situation going into this season that we're reliant on Morelos for the bulk of our goals. Hoping we can get a quality striker in - someone in the mould of Dado Prso would be exactly the type of player we're missing imo (granted not easy to find).

The difference between us and the taigs is that they went 2 strikers up top after Xmas. TLB realised Eduoard was struggling mid Jan and brought Griffiths in. 
 

Say what you want, but they went from scoring around 2 goals per game to almost 4. Whilst Morelos went off form due to his own stupidity and we had no Plan B

[bluebell82 249]

11 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

The difference between us and the taigs is that they went 2 strikers up top after Xmas. TLB realised Eduoard was struggling mid Jan and brought Griffiths in. 
 

Say what you want, but they went from scoring around 2 goals per game to almost 4. Whilst Morelos went off form due to his own stupidity and we had no Plan B

Spot on. We need to be more flexible with formation/tactics, in some games where it wasn't going our way you could tell we were never going to score. Hopefully lessons have been learned.

[docspiderman 1,310]

We need midfield players who can play with their head up and be able to make quick first time passes rather than 5 touches then passing back or to the side. Our forwards and defence got hardly any help from our experienced midfield after the break

[hammer93 15,484]

The Dubai thing I honestly believed to be nonsense, I stick by the fact that we were buzzing after a difficult period in December with so many big games, yes we had the disappointment of losing the cup final but nobody could deny the performance was night and day....that performance and belief was the reason we were able to go to the piggery and win....where it went wrong for me personally was the winter break stopped us in our tracks stone dead...all the momentum we had built up was lost....nobody here is going to tell me that after the tims game that if we played St Mirren & Hearts within the week that we wouldn't have gubbed them and kept the confidence up....what we had was our next game being a lethargic Scottish cup tie 20 days later....momentum was gone and coupled with Morelos then being suspended the team woefully struggled to pick it back up....within the space of 2 games Hearts away & Aberdeen at home we dropped 5pts and with it the train would eventually hit the buffers...in theory the winter break didn't serve the same purpose for us as it did the tims....they needed the break to regroup and that's precisely what they did to great effect.