[Exharboroughspireite]

dim view, on 01 September 2017 - 03:26 PM, said:

You've not been very often then. I wouldn't have either Gardner or Nolan back.

You've obviously not seen McCourt

[Snowflake McBedwetter]

MDCCCLXVI, on 01 September 2017 - 04:50 PM, said:

So are we agreeing January's signings weren't Caldwell's, my friends?

I honestly have no idea mate.

But the club shipped out Aryibi, O'shea, Liddle etc and replaced them with cut price unknowns, basically a money saving exercise.I can only assume that Caldwells brief was to start from scratch in the bottom tier and 'build'. DA was never going to invest in the type of players we needed to stay in lg.1.

It was my opinion at the time, and remains so, that DA/AC were happy for us to go down. With the intention of starting from scratch with a lower wage bill. The fans would be more likely to come back to watch a side winning in lg.2 than just keeping their heads above water/drowning in lg.1.

[Snowflake McBedwetter]

Spire-Heights, on 01 September 2017 - 04:24 PM, said:

And how do we judge him so far after four games, any different to the previous 21 games. As it got better this season from the end of last season?

In terms of points. No. Quality of football on show is better, more entertaining.

I think he's been unlucky with injuries. JBW was a pivotal element of the side in particular, and Rowley. Again, not convinced he's the right man, but I think with a bit more luck we'd be doing ok. This side, and style of play needs confidence. He needs to be given until January unless something drastic happens. The 'project' he's embarked on needs a full season I reckon.

[dim view]

KevinArnottsGoldenBoot, on 01 September 2017 - 05:16 PM, said:

I honestly have no idea mate.

But the club shipped out Aryibi, O'shea, Liddle etc and replaced them with cut price unknowns, basically a money saving exercise.I can only assume that Caldwells brief was to start from scratch in the bottom tier and 'build'. DA was never going to invest in the type of players we needed to stay in lg.1.

It was my opinion at the time, and remains so, that DA/AC were happy for us to go down. With the intention of starting from scratch with a lower wage bill. The fans would be more likely to come back to watch a side winning in lg.2 than just keeping their heads above water/drowning in lg.1.

I think that's spot on.
But doing it and having the confidence to say you are doing it are 2 different things.

[Spire-Heights]

KevinArnottsGoldenBoot, on 01 September 2017 - 05:21 PM, said:

In terms of points. No. Quality of football on show is better, more entertaining.

I think he's been unlucky with injuries. JBW was a pivotal element of the side in particular, and Rowley. Again, not convinced he's the right man, but I think with a bit more luck we'd be doing ok. This side, and style of play needs confidence. He needs to be given until January unless something drastic happens. The 'project' he's embarked on needs a full season I reckon.

Some good points, however, do we have a full season if we're still bottom say come end of October. With the squad he's got, we should be no where near the bottom two. I give him another 6 games and we need 12 points.

[Sammy Spireite]

KevinArnottsGoldenBoot, on 01 September 2017 - 05:21 PM, said:

In terms of points. No. Quality of football on show is better, more entertaining.

I think he's been unlucky with injuries. JBW was a pivotal element of the side in particular, and Rowley. Again, not convinced he's the right man, but I think with a bit more luck we'd be doing ok. This side, and style of play needs confidence. He needs to be given until January unless something drastic happens. The 'project' he's embarked on needs a full season I reckon.

If he is given until January, and he maintains his dismal win ratio, we'll be relegated, DA won't get a tenth of his £15M asking price and it'll take us years to recover.

Giving him until January is a MASSIVE gamble, imho.

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

KevinArnottsGoldenBoot, on 01 September 2017 - 05:16 PM, said:

I honestly have no idea mate.

But the club shipped out Aryibi, O'shea, Liddle etc and replaced them with cut price unknowns, basically a money saving exercise.I can only assume that Caldwells brief was to start from scratch in the bottom tier and 'build'. DA was never going to invest in the type of players we needed to stay in lg.1.

It was my opinion at the time, and remains so, that DA/AC were happy for us to go down. With the intention of starting from scratch with a lower wage bill. The fans would be more likely to come back to watch a side winning in lg.2 than just keeping their heads above water/drowning in lg.1.

Fair comments, my friend, but you suggest Carson and Allen have a plan.

Other than cashing-in and cutting I've seen no evidence of any such plan for three or more seasons.

[Snowflake McBedwetter]

MDCCCLXVI, on 01 September 2017 - 05:29 PM, said:

Fair comments, my friend, but you suggest Carson and Allen have a plan.

Other than cashing-in and cutting I've seen no evidence of any such plan for three or more seasons.

I think 'the plan' is to start from scratch, manageable wage bill, get us into lg.1 and sell that summer. Which I think matches the cashing-in/cutting scenario. Whether it'll work is a different matter. It's looking unlikely to happen this season, but not impossible.

Agree with other posters that if we're looking stranded or close to being then there needs to be some reconsidering done. Still too early imo. But the nature of the football being played and the need for the skill (as mentioned above) and the confidence to play it means it could go either way. I wouldn't rule out play offs at this stage, but then again I wouldn't rule out a nail biting relegation struggle either. But tto take this squad down would be a monumental management fail.

We have some good players. Just need them to gel and for the manager to be a bit more adaptable.

This post has been edited by KevinArnottsGoldenBoot: 01 September 2017 - 05:54 PM

[ELTON 2020]

danblue, on 01 September 2017 - 02:24 PM, said:

I'm a Caldwell fan (dives for cover lol )
and I can see in patches the sort of football he is trying to create at Town.
I've seen in passages of play some nice passing, movement and attempts on goal. On the flip side, I've seen some awful midfield play and defensive suicide. BUT I SEE THE POSITIVES with the bits of good stuff.

Now, the transfer window. I think he has identified that defensively, we should not be shipping in that amount if goals. He has brought in some defenders which look good. The lad from Shrews, albeit not played for them, has Scottish league experience and in his own words is quick and aggressive.
The lad who is ex Fulham looks like he is a Binnon Williams type, so should have pace prob playing LWB.
I read on another thread that its possible to then move Hird into midfield (cover a position which needed attention). He played there for Doncaster I think.
And then we have some tricky feet with Diego. Maybe the ruthless finisher we probably need as Dennis can't do it all by himself.
Flores looked the business when I saw him. A quality player.

Thing is, you HAVE to give a manager time. Sometimes its glaring obvious (Dean Saunders) that a manager had to go. But with GC I can see its not far off. I've said before, when it clicks on the pitch, we will climb the table. I think he has added quality and competition for places so I expect an upturn in fortune on the pitch.

We'll basically have another new team compared to the friendlies in early July - SO TWO NEWISH /NEW TEAMS in 2 months!

MDCCCLXVI, on 01 September 2017 - 03:13 PM, said:

Caldwell's record is far, far worse than Saunders'.

Its worse than anybody's?

[danblue]

Goku, on 01 September 2017 - 03:06 PM, said:

Hope you're right and we do begin to climb the table because he's been abysmal so far.

It's alright mentioning what you believe are the positives but you've not touched on our manager signing four central midfielders and none of them particularly impressing so far, leaving central midfield our most troubled area (in most fans minds).

Midfield I see as:

Lou Reed as a bit of a give and go type midfielder but looks small/light weight

Weir as the break up the play, defensive midfield ( the player Liddle should have been)

McCourt as a 'hard nut' but too reckless, needs to calm it down

Flores a quality player. Good work on left and cutting in.

Rowley looked good until injury. Attacking midfielder.

Sinnott I like. Got goals in him but dodgy passes at times

Brewster attacked cum winger. Good to chuck on? Not sure

Mitchell the forgotten man

Hird, has played in midfield before and could be pushed in there due to new defenders coming in.

As centre mid partnership goes, prob Weir and Reed at ATM for me

MDCCCLXVI, on 01 September 2017 - 03:13 PM, said:

Caldwell's record is far, far worse than Saunders'.

But Saunders track record history was and is failure

This post has been edited by danblue: 01 September 2017 - 06:38 PM

[danblue]

Exharboroughspireite, on 01 September 2017 - 03:23 PM, said:

Allow me to retort..

1. Tactically naive and stubborn to boot
2. Hugely unbalanced squad
3. No wide players
4. Awful central midfield - worst I've seen in 25 years
5. Generally poor record in transfer market
6. Players do not appear as if they particularly want to win for him.

1. His tactics and forcing his stamp on his brand of football won him promotion
2.Transfer window dealings have hopefully sorted this
3. Mitchell still here, Flores played out on the left and looked good
4.That's just folly
5.That's just folly
6.That's just folly

[dim view]

danblue, on 01 September 2017 - 06:21 PM, said:

Midfield I see as:


McCourt as a 'hard nut' but too reckless, needs to calm it down

Hird, has played in midfield before and could be pushed in there due to new defenders coming in.

I wish folk would decide whether Hird is indispensable in defence or not.

This post has been edited by dim view: 01 September 2017 - 06:56 PM

[Looker-on]

Steve Kendall 1982, on 01 September 2017 - 06:06 PM, said:

We'll basically have another new team compared to the friendlies in early July - SO TWO NEWISH /NEW TEAMS in 2 months!

There'll be so many new players that they'll have to go to Portugal for a week, to gel.

[Westbars Spireite]

Sammy Spireite, on 01 September 2017 - 05:27 PM, said:

If he is given until January, and he maintains his dismal win ratio, we'll be relegated, DA won't get a tenth of his £15M asking price and it'll take us years to recover.

Giving him until January is a MASSIVE gamble, imho.

I hope they see more to believe in than we do. He has to have something surely?

[Blue5]

Looker-on, on 01 September 2017 - 06:45 PM, said:

There'll be so many new players that they'll have to go to Portugal for a week, to gel.

Upgrading the Cessna to an A380.

[Tha Knows...]

dim view, on 01 September 2017 - 06:41 PM, said:

I wish folk would decide whether Hird is indispensable in defence or not.

Depends on the new signings. He can do holding midfield but we need a specialist

[spireitetoo]

All we need now is a manager to get them to play as a team

[whittman]

dim view, on 01 September 2017 - 06:41 PM, said:

I wish folk would decide whether Hird is indispensable in defence or not.

What about trying Hird and Weir as the 2 midfield holding players tomorrow and building from there?

[Spireite-Karl]

KevinArnottsGoldenBoot, on 01 September 2017 - 05:41 PM, said:

I think 'the plan' is to start from scratch, manageable wage bill, get us into lg.1 and sell that summer.

All going to plan then

I had a weird dream the other night that they're selling everything they can and using clever folk to move monies around to get as much out of us whilst they can. Once that has dried up or Allen has at least his money back he'll sell up for whatever he can get, and they don't give a monkeys how much debt they leave us with and to how far we've fallen...

Woke up with a cold sweat I did

[The Black Triangle]

dim view, on 01 September 2017 - 06:41 PM, said:

I wish folk would decide whether Hird is indispensable in defence or not.

You need to let this Hird thing go.