League one forever

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.

Agreed, there will be changes in the summer yes- but I struggle to see us turning it around under Mellon with a large group carried over from this season. I’m not going into the summer with any hope and that’s depressing.

1 win in 11. On the plus side - we’ve beaten last seasons points tally with 3 games to go- if that isn’t a sign of progress I don’t know what is.

He accepted a contract that his league one club wouldn’t match. He was happy to drop two divisions to take the money. . and then spends a lot of time seemingly surprised and frustrated that players two divisions below aren’t as good.

Aye. First game for ages I’m not bothering with.

Aye, fair point. But Irrespective of the football, I don’t want any manager who is just picking up his money.

Yeah, he just looks beaten with it . . which is disturbing given he’s only been here 6 months. There’s more and more little digs coming out- I wonder whether there’s some friction between him and the board about how many are tied down and how much movement he has. All just feels, ‘it’s shit and we can’t change it.’

Does anyone think Mellon has lost interest and is going through the motions?

New idea for the sign. You may think you can shit on our fans, but you’ll never shit on me!

Some of your best work.

Have you made a sign yet? Maybe something like - 5PM- you’re having a laugh. Or 3 months of failure and still they back him! Or Simply Mellon out.

Your desperation for him to fail is palpable.

Aye, probably. I didn’t expect to get promoted this season, but playoffs was the absolute minimum to call it a good season and tangible progress. Over the course of last season - we did ok. Over the course of this season - we’ve done ok. Ok isn’t progress to me- but that’s only my opinion. Oh- and I was buzzing with being 5th, I sang eieieo every chance I could. Just want it to last a little longer than a few weeks.

Yeah, I think we underestimate how good/consistent you have to be to get out of this league- especially with only two up. Your point above illustrates that- very good/very bad/average for parts of the season will get you in the playoffs but ultimately isn’t enough. (I know they’re exceptions on occasion) It’s the mentality of the grind and churning wins that sees you promoted.

If we’re going down that road, ST contributed to being 5th as well as Mellon. It’s all semantics though. To my mind being excited for a couple of weeks in Feb is nowhere near to getting promoted. Dave- a caller on the phone inn last night, made a great point. Sides that can sustain a playoff push throughout the whole season are serious contenders. This season that’s Bromley and Barnet. They don’t have runs of 1 win in 10, and they definitely don’t have two runs like that in a season. We are pretenders at the minute, not contenders.

We didn’t pay a fee, so we’d be reliant on someone paying fee to claw back his wages and I don’t see anyone paying a fee for him at this stage of his career.

Aye. It’s better than last season, but being 5th in Feb isn’t close to promotion.

Yep, we need 4 wins, we won’t get 4 wins. So it’s a bit meh now. Just want the season over, so we can start again.

He was there before, which shows the youth team was producing players before Frank and co and they didn’t have to start again or wait years for the youth team to bear fruit. It’s not a competition and I wasn’t comparing BP to Mellon and Co, I just know he watches a lot of youth team football and has spoken highly of a couple- it would be nice if we could develop a couple. We’ll never know, if we never give them a go. One was Forshaw I think, and I can’t remember the other lads name. In your opinion- Do you think a profitable youth team is important for the club. Or do you think it’s just a nice to have? Personally I’d love to see some of our own come through and sold for profit- that hopefully would be re- invested in the first team. We can’t just rely on Frank pouring money in, the club needs to look at every avenue to make money.

Yep- I’m not wedded to stats bomb either way. What’s important - (and it’s what I said earlier in the thread) is it a club thing where the manager has to work with it. Is it causing friction between DR and the manager? Everyone from top to bottom has to buy into the same process- as far as I can see we’ve got different ideas and objectives which is leading to muddled decision making with the squad.

Brad made a very interesting observation on the phone inn last night- only us and York use stats bomb and both clubs have seen big budgets blown on bloated underperforming squads. . . Matt speculated that he thought Mellon might be talking to the board- with ‘I know what a good player looks like’ Everything about the club barring the actual team performance is great, but it’s obvious with the size of the squad and its under performance that something isn’t right, and it’s a collective responsibility.

How can you can state something as fact, when you have no idea how long it takes? We had a one player who got sold in the owners first season- where did he come from? Oh- the youth set up. According to BP we have at least one or two who at the very least could be in and around the first team and given some minutes. (In a side desperate for some pace and energy) How on earth have we found them in so little time under the owners. . ??

It depends what he club is set up as or what it wants to be. When DR came in - he, in my opinion set up a vision, he talked about the youth set up, stats bomb, it gave the impression of a very detailed top to bottom analysis of what the club needed on the football side. It felt like a Swansea/Brentford/Brighton/ Peterborough type- where the incumbent manager would be required to work within the parameters of what the club want. All good. In reality it has just become- back the manager with whatever he feels is necessary. That’s isn’t made up or guesswork that’s what has happened, and we are left we an awfully imbalanced squad. The panacea being- two managers haven’t felt it necessary to sign a right back for a side aiming for promotion. (Freeman and Sav are stop gaps) Shouldn’t that alarm the club? Should they be sanctioning another midfielder or striker?? When we leave everything to the manager. . what are we left with??? In my opinion there is nothing wrong in saying to a manager please will you include one or two youth players in the set up on a regular basis, and try to blood them in lesser games so we can have a look. Kofi Moore has had a few minutes . . . that’s it. Not very good for a club who needs to maximise their youth set up.