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5 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Think we’re in for a nasty shock in the summer. Don’t think the players we all want will materialise- bloated contracted squad with too many on big wages, who are nowhere near the squad and difficult to shift. 

Why would this be the case. We will go into next season with 15/17 players. Obviously we will be able to recruit. 

Just now, JoeP said:

 

He is an issue if he's being "a bully" (Latics phone-in, Wednesday) and we're spunking a significant amount of our budget on a player, rather than a team...

Ah, it’s a being a bully to demand high standards these days. My bad. 
 

He and the clubs he has played for have done fine with this bullying. 

Started well, strange goal to concede looked a foul on Norwood at the front post. 

19 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Here's one for you all going in to today's game.

 

Todays defence have scored 1 goal from 132 combined appearances this season.

 

Todays midfield and forwards bar Norwood have scored 5 from 95 combined appearances this season.

 

That's 6 from 227.

 

Only three scorers in the line up.

 

Average age of the outfield players is just short of 29, what a fucking charity case we are.

 

Yet Norwood is the issue according to some! He’s the only one with a goal in him within the whole squad. 
 

Says a lot when we sign Dallas who has always been a 1 in 2 striker in this league, yet he can’t score for us. 

11 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Bit of a head scratcher given you are also trying to absolve Mellon of any blame, not sure all three points can co-exist.

Cool. 
 

Bet you have the lube out praying for another Mellon loss today don’t you. 

16 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

The recruitment has been shite but the players are good enough?

Well yes, I think individually the players are good enough, with some exceptions. But like I said in my post, we have suffered from a poor recruitment strategy and lack of any plan. 
 

Is that okay mush ? Can you get your little head around that concept ? 

8 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

You don't think we have a mountain to climb?

We have some serious deficiencies, but we arnt a million miles away. 

People are reading way too much into this MM interview. The recruitment has been absolutely shite, majority of which was before he came in. He tried to make signings but it’s clear with the 30+ players we have he has limited resources to change things. He’s signed some absolute dross, or players not fit, due to the budget constraints which isn’t his issue. 
 

The squad is so unbalanced and we can’t play a system which doesn’t result in 3/4 players either being out of position, or simply not good enough. 
 

We are going to have a core of about 15/17 players going into next season. We will have the ability and resources to sign 5/6 quality players.

The majority of these players are good enough, we just need some pace, creativity and a clear system. 
 

The players we have has let him down, along with the board and recruitment strategy, he probably is pissed off. 

Considering he’s scores about 30% of our total goals, we would be fucked without him. 

1 minute ago, IanMarshall's Mullet said:

He seemed to admit that Sachdev was a mistake saying he’s a wing back really but thought he might do a job at right back -paraphrase.

Considering he’s a wing back, he takes no players on 

Thought Mellons interview is fair and not surprised he’s fed up. He really can’t be judged until we have a right back, wide players and a creative midfield player. 
 

We must be one of the most predictable teams in the league in terms of how we play. 

1 hour ago, mick26 said:

Wasn't even training so might be injured!

Hopefully his mum and dad have picked him up and taken him back to Vale. Or to L’Oréal studios. 

1 hour ago, yarddog73 said:

I'm not debating whether Mellon gets next season or not because that's a given and rightly so but what alarms me is the frequency in which his teams get absolutely drubbed and played off the park, it's almost like every other game now and that's after we supposedly strengthened in January to help us at the business end of the season.

 

Say what you want about Unsworth but his teams didn't roll over and have their bellies tickled at the same frequency as Mellons lot. 

 

This for me is the biggest worry next season alongside him failing to spot where we are desperately short and him being a tactical dinosaur, it's 2024 and we still play seven at the back out of possession which is just soul destroying particularly as we keep very few clean sheets. 

we had zero control of games under Unsy, even when we was winning. 
 

Let’s not praise this fraud. 

1 hour ago, JoeP said:

Interesting phone-in last night.  Couple of points caught my attention:

 

"The Fylde players thought our fans were toxic". 

 

With respect to Fylde players, it's a bit different to the one man and his dog who watch them.  Also, define "toxic" - angry that we're 3-0 down within 20 minutes in a crucial game?  And not strictly true - as mentioned on the phone-in, it MMBWA was being sung at 3-1.  I think it is poor form if the fans effect the players so much.  Is fan negativity helpful?  No.  But why do the players really give a shit what a load of beer-swelling, pie-eating numpties, who've probably never kicked a ball in their life think?  They need a thicker skin to an extent..

 

"Only us and York use Statbomb". 

 

Get rid of it.  Let the manager bring the players in.  it might work for Arsenal, but it's a different sport down here.  A simpler one.  So keep it simple!

 

"Allegedly an experienced manager has said he wouldn't have James Norwood near his team because of his bad attitude and because he's a bully"

 

I'll expect the aggressive counter arguments, but not surprised if there's truth behind this. There's "being nasty" in a positive way for the club and there's just "being nasty".  Our downturn in form has coincided with his return to the team.  Also, he hasn't scored from open play since Oxford at home!  Blimey!  I didn't realise that.

One manager likes a player, the next doesn’t. It’s a game of opinions, it’s not fact because some manager has said they would rather not want him. 
 

59 minutes ago, andy_b_100 said:

I think we create our own issues, I would love to see a back 4 of Kitching Hobson Raglan Sachdev with a midfield three of Conlon Gardner and Hopwood and a front three of Norwood Dallas and Fondop .....  A mix of youth and experience .. leaving a decent bench of Sheron Garner Hogan Hope Walker leaving us options everywhere. ... I know Big Mike is not available but just for a game I would like to see what the shape and passing would be like ...... 

 

I expect Norwood to be off in the summer thats why Garner has signed (opinion only)  and of the defenders Id like to see Raglan stay as he is the only ball player in there. Im sure there are reasons why the tem selections appear a little bizzarre at times .... these reasons could quite easily be shared. 

Why would you shove Norwood out wide. Drop Fondop and play a winger. 
 

Hopwood, hope he can pass. 

26 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

Do we really know what Gardners injury is and can it be treated with a 3 months pre season break?

He’s our best midfield player by a mile, always said he has been, but it’s time for him to go. 

10 minutes ago, Lee Sinnott said:

Just this season alone, we signed Freeman and Sachdev...

See my post above 

27 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

We’ve signed 2 they just haven’t worked out. 
 

Freeman - played at a much higher level. Looked decent at times. Then just disappeared. Fitness? Personal reasons? 
 

Sachdev - looks dodgy on occasion, looked good on occasion. Seemingly out of favour now. Not sure why. 
 

It’s a position that we can’t get wrong this summer. 

3 minutes ago, GlossopLatic said:

 

We've signed 2 right backs this season in Freeman and Sanchev it's just that neither have nailed down the position.

 

Abit like the midfield situation we've signed enough players in that time to have solved the problem in the last 2 years but its still a weak area.

 

So it's not like the problem area's haven't been acknowledged the solutions haven't been right. 

 

 

I’m sorry but signing a player who hardly played for two years on a short term deal, and a young right back who had never played a professional game, is not them trying to solve the problem, they

panicked. 
 

Our right back situation is incompetent, at best. It’s bloody criminal and pathetic. 

1 hour ago, GlossopLatic said:

 

I think we need to understand exactly what went wrong with the recruitment before we come to any conclusions on how to fix it. Its easy to sit their and say that it was all down to the fact that data analysis is wrong and we didn't do that int thee olden days without seeing exactly how and why players were signed. Some of the signings looked good on paper and haven't come good. 

 

Their is also a danger of flip flopping from one strategy to the next it's important we find a consistent approach that works for us. 

 

We still haven't dome anything as brain dead as signing Queensy Menig on £13.5k a week but we certainly need to get more value for money than we have been doing.

I think not signing a right back for the last 2 years to 18 months is just as bad as the Menig situation. It’s beyond incompetent at this point. 

2 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Aye.
 

We were told 18 months ago there was a proper recruitment plan/strategy. . . It’s culminated in 56 strikers, 36 midfielders, and one left back

It’s a shambles really, it’s beyond poor. 
 

If DR is involved, let him focus on the operations side of the club, get someone in to do the recruitment. 
 

Didn’t DU want praise for putting in a proper recruitment team, appears they are shite. 

Whatever we have been doing for recruitment for the last 18 months, we need to be doing the complete opposite. 
 

If that means DR or whoever has to step away from recruitment, then do exactly that. 

Mellon should create the plan of how he wants his team to look and we should recruit to that. Just work to a pissing plan. Oh and buy a right back. 

24 minutes ago, GlossopLatic said:

Dallas has bagged 20 goals at NL level in the last 2 seasons he's a gun striker at this level. We didn't see any evidence of that for the first month or so but I see why  . The fact him and Norwood haven't scored in a while tells us that their is a problem in the build up abd our patterns of play. We had quite abit of the ball yesterday with McGahey Conlon and Gardner who did a solid enough job of making sure we had good possession yesterday but they are allvplaying 15-20 yards behind the striker. None of them can break the lines and get into the penalty area to support Norwood so he became isolated and started to brood.

We have two proven strikers who are struggling to score goals and some fans will still claim it’s the strikers fault. We have fuck all service. 
 

I’ve resigned to the fact we are shit. Unsworth didn’t like creative players and it’s absolutely fucked us.  

1 minute ago, Lee Sinnott said:

It's been a very bad run of form for a sustained period of time. All since his mate was ostracised. It could just be a huge coincidence, but there was no sign of this dip in form before then when Kitching had been excellent pretty much every week...

Rightly or wrongly, the Reid situation has impacted him, I have no doubt. 
 

If my close mate was axed and left out the squad, I’d be pretty disappointed and annoyed with the manager. Regardless if it was for the correct reasons. They travelled together and spent / spend a lot of time together, it defo has impacted Kitch. 
 

Considering he was the only one able to create chances for us for the first 6 months, it’s no surprise we are shite now. 

I like Mellon, but I am absolutely puzzled with the bench yesterday. 
 

We played a wide 2, but our bench consisted of Sheron, Lundy and Ward. Yet we kept Walker out the squad ? We also kept Hammond out the squad who could do a better job than the other 3 out wide. Very very strange decisions. Killed us from making and impact subs. 
 

Give the armband to Raglan and play Hobson over Hogan, he’s dump. 
 

Sign a pissing right back. 

45 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

It could go either way with him. I think he's shown glimpses but nothing consistent. He's young though, so what we see now will probably not be reflective of his whole career.

I suppose, but when I look at young midfield players I look at the technical ability. He’s not great on the ball and doesn’t look comfortable running with the ball at all. - I’d much prefer a Harry Vaughan type. 
 

He brings much needed energy to this team, but that’s about it. I don’t think he’s good enough.