Let the inquest begin.

[basilrobbie]

Obviously I have little (no) insight to offer on this. However, I would be interested in your answers to two questions :

 

a) how ready do you think the club is for a return to the EFL?

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

[PeteG]

2 minutes ago, basilrobbie said:

Obviously I have little (no) insight to offer on this. However, I would be interested in your answers to two questions :

 

a) how ready do you think the club is for a return to the EFL?

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

If we had a team good enough to win promotion we would be ready for a return to the EFL, we are still a much bigger club than most sides in League 2 and we would gain a lot of momentum. The problem is, the team isn't good enough hence why we are where we are. There is no blessing in disguise in this season's failure. We've thrown a lot of the budget at it and I honestly believe the longer you are down here the harder it becomes. We were 2nd favourites last summer, i can't see us being in the first 6 in the betting for the title this time around. Obviously the bookies prices are only a guide and we may well do much better next season but realistically we are looking at managing expectations once again.

[AndyB2]

10 minutes ago, basilrobbie said:

Obviously I have little (no) insight to offer on this. However, I would be interested in your answers to two questions :

 

a) how ready do you think the club is for a return to the EFL?

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

It could prove to be a blessing in disguise. Hard to see it right now and these things often only appear in hindsight.
 

The blessing could be that we aren’t kidding ourselves going into next. We went into this season having been fooled into thinking we might be able to mount a challenge as we had had a good second half of the season (results wise) when there was no pressure. Lulled us into a false sense of security. No danger with that in the coming close season.  

 

 And we were not ready to go up and probably didn’t expect to. But we wanted to see that the building blocks (on the pitch) were in place to challenge for the title next year. They most certainly are not. 
 

the anger is really directed at the fact that we are no better placed now than we were this time last year. We face at least two more years in this league 

Edited April 19 by AndyB2

[Dave_Og]

12 minutes ago, basilrobbie said:

Obviously I have little (no) insight to offer on this. However, I would be interested in your answers to two questions :

 

a) how ready do you think the club is for a return to the EFL?

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

I'm very confident that if we'd somehow scraped up this season we'd have found a way of finishing no lower than third bottom in L2

[AndyB2]

1 minute ago, Dave_Og said:

I'm very confident that if we'd somehow scraped up this season we'd have found a way of finishing no lower than third bottom in L2

But I’d rather have a couple more seasons in this league to ready ourselves properly for l2 so we can maintain good progress, as many do when they get out of the NL.

 

no one flukes going up. Obviously we weren’t ready to go up as we finished 9th/10th. The questions answers itself 

[JoeP]

4 minutes ago, AndyB2 said:

But I’d rather have a couple more seasons in this league to ready ourselves properly for l2 so we can maintain good progress, as many do when they get out of the NL.

 

no one flukes going up. Obviously we weren’t ready to go up as we finished 9th/10th. The questions answers itself 

 

Get up at the first opportunity.

 

Build our charge through the leagues in the division above.

 

It's a hell of a lot easier surviving in League Two than trying to get promotion out of the National League.

[JoeP]

24 minutes ago, basilrobbie said:

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

 

Failure has never turned out to be a blessing for us.  Many have predicted our last four (FFS!) relegations would be a chance to rebuild and come back stronger.  It's yet to happen...

[yarddog73]

34 minutes ago, basilrobbie said:

Obviously I have little (no) insight to offer on this. However, I would be interested in your answers to two questions :

 

a) how ready do you think the club is for a return to the EFL?

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

They are probably linked and it's no coincidence our form dropped considerably and Mellon turned Unsworth overnight when he realised he had 17 players he'd have to carry forward in to next season.

 

That's my opinion on it, honestly for League 2 I wouldn't be keeping more than about two players and one of them I dislike.

 

Saying all that you should never turn down any opportunity to progress which it looks like we have this season.

Edited April 19 by yarddog73

[AndyB2]

19 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

They are probably linked and it's no coincidence our form dropped considerably and Mellon turned Unsworth overnight when he realised he had 17 players he'd have to carry forward in to next season.

 

That's my opinion on it, honestly for League 2 I wouldn't be keeping more than about two players and one of them I dislike.

 

Saying all that you should never turn down any opportunity to progress which it looks like we have this season.

Don’t think we have turned down an opportunity to progress. The league table does not lie. 

[yarddog73]

32 minutes ago, AndyB2 said:

Don’t think we have turned down an opportunity to progress. The league table does not lie. 

I think we have, 5th with nine games to play suggests we've bottled it as well.

[GlossopLatic]

1 hour ago, basilrobbie said:

Obviously I have little (no) insight to offer on this. However, I would be interested in your answers to two questions :

 

a) how ready do you think the club is for a return to the EFL?

 

b) linked to the above, to what extent is this season's "failure" a potential blessing in disguise?

 

A) we are ready as a club but from a footballing point of view we have little problem of getting the 11 men on the pitch to kick the round thing in the goal more than other 11 men.

 

Depends what lessons are learned from it I'm hoping we do learn from this.

[Littlemoor Lad]

3 hours ago, AndyB2 said:

But I’d rather have a couple more seasons in this league to ready ourselves properly for l2 so we can maintain good progress, as many do when they get out of the NL.

 

no one flukes going up. Obviously we weren’t ready to go up as we finished 9th/10th. The questions answers itself 

Ask yourself this question and I'm sure many fan's like myself will do the same

How in hells name did we ever end up from where we've been, with team's of player's who left everything on the pitch and more, up against sides league's above and taking them all the way, to this pathetic, roll over, can't be arsed natured entity of a club?

We shouldn't be down here full stop and any acceptance of it is an insult to everything that went before,

We need to be back in the football league as a matter of urgency, no more false dawn's, it needs doing and if manager's heads roll and player's get binned off in order to achieve this.

Then so be it!

 

 

[sjk2008]

If people want to put most of the blame on Mellon then that’s their choice. Whilst I disagree completely, I can’t say they’re wrong. It’s an opinion at the end of the day.

 

But what I’m really struggling to understand is, how can so many of our players - most who start games regularly - not have enough bollcoks, self respect, ambition, pride or whatever you want to call it, to not want to go on that pitch and give 100% - especially when not so long ago we were sat in 5th. 
 

That Gardner penalty last night really hits deep. The lack of excitement across the players when he scored was extraordinary. That’s a group of players (bar one or two) who absolutely could not give a fuck about this club or its fans.

[AndyB2]

3 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

I think we have, 5th with nine games to play suggests we've bottled it as well.

Table doesn’t lie 

[AndyB2]

55 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

Ask yourself this question and I'm sure many fan's like myself will do the same

How in hells name did we ever end up from where we've been, with team's of player's who left everything on the pitch and more, up against sides league's above and taking them all the way, to this pathetic, roll over, can't be arsed natured entity of a club?

We shouldn't be down here full stop and any acceptance of it is an insult to everything that went before,

We need to be back in the football league as a matter of urgency, no more false dawn's, it needs doing and if manager's heads roll and player's get binned off in order to achieve this.

Then so be it!

 

 

This is a circular argument. You go up if you are ready to go up. If you aren’t, you don’t 

[Pidge]

17 hours ago, PeteG said:

It also needs balls to see it through and not pander to the naysayers when you hit a rough patch. It means having the right people in place in the first instance. We appeared to be doing this and I understand mistakes will be made and some people will need to be replaced such as Unsworth but we seem to have ripped up the whole plan completely by getting rid of the recruitment team at the same time. We chased players like Willoughby Lundstram and the lad from Gateshead (can't even think of his name now) yet then went and signed Norwood and Raglan last minute because they were too good to turn down and there agents no doubt came knocking looking for a payday. I'm not saying these weren't decent players but they weren't in the plan and resulted in the above players and the likes of Reid and Nuttall getting little time to play or settle in. Who knows what that did to the squad morale? Suddenly the plan was out of the window and were throwing anything and everything at it. We need a clear plan now and we need to hear from the club officially what it entails so we can all buy into it. Start again but I'm fearful it will be on a much reduced budget now. We've lost 2 years and a lot of potential momentum and goodwill.

You are completely ignoring the fact that most recruitment occurs in the off-season. During the season you will be lucky if teams release their “good and physically reliable” players. 
 

Why don’t you reserve your criticism of the club in this regard until we see how they perform this summer. 

[PeteG]

1 hour ago, Pidge said:

You are completely ignoring the fact that most recruitment occurs in the off-season. During the season you will be lucky if teams release their “good and physically reliable” players. 
 

Why don’t you reserve your criticism of the club in this regard until we see how they perform this summer. 

I'm not sure whether you get this thread? It's titled - Let the inquest begin! We are discussing what went wrong this season and i'm actually referring to the recruitment during last summer. I've not mentioned 1 signing during the season and also cited other reasons imo why it went so badly wrong.

[yarddog73]

2 hours ago, Pidge said:

You are completely ignoring the fact that most recruitment occurs in the off-season. During the season you will be lucky if teams release their “good and physically reliable” players. 
 

Why don’t you reserve your criticism of the club in this regard until we see how they perform this summer. 

Oh dear the apologist has turned up, as a 'club' they've performed piss poor in this regard since Frank walked in the door two years ago, you want to give them another summer without anybody asking a question or receiving any answers?. Something is fundamentally wrong with the recruitment of players yet we appear to be just ploughing down the same route again and again, what's changing this summer then?.

[Pidge]

13 minutes ago, PeteG said:

I'm not sure whether you get this thread? It's titled - Let the inquest begin! We are discussing what went wrong this season and i'm actually referring to the recruitment during last summer. I've not mentioned 1 signing during the season and also cited other reasons imo why it went so badly wrong.

My apologies, so you were critical of the Unsworth regime. Fair enough. I thought the inquest was about the more recent failure to stay in the playoffs. 

[deyres42]

3 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Oh dear the apologist has turned up, as a 'club' they've performed piss poor in this regard since Frank walked in the door two years ago, you want to give them another summer without anybody asking a question or receiving any answers?. Something is fundamentally wrong with the recruitment of players yet we appear to be just ploughing down the same route again and again, what's changing this summer then?.

We've got the guy who knows what good looks like.

[oafc1955]

22 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

We've got the guy who knows what good looks like.

I know what good looks like too!!

[LightDN123]

10 hours ago, sjk2008 said:

If people want to put most of the blame on Mellon then that’s their choice. Whilst I disagree completely, I can’t say they’re wrong. It’s an opinion at the end of the day.

 

But what I’m really struggling to understand is, how can so many of our players - most who start games regularly - not have enough bollcoks, self respect, ambition, pride or whatever you want to call it, to not want to go on that pitch and give 100% - especially when not so long ago we were sat in 5th. 
 

That Gardner penalty last night really hits deep. The lack of excitement across the players when he scored was extraordinary. That’s a group of players (bar one or two) who absolutely could not give a fuck about this club or its fans.

That last bit is so so true. They didn’t even celebrate when we still had a chance of playoffs. This group of players all gave up other than Gardner and Raglan. 

[deyres42]

4 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

That last bit is so so true. They didn’t even celebrate when we still had a chance of playoffs. This group of players all gave up other than Gardner and Raglan. 

The Aldershot result on Wednesday virtually ended any hope, you'd look a bit of a wally charging about celebrating in a stadium that was like one sixth full.

[Littlemoor Lad]

Come summer, we'll go from being a team full of lemon's to a team full of Mellon's, that's if he's still here.

Will it be a shit or bust third season in for Frank? Then what?

[oafc1955]

21 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

Come summer, we'll go from being a team full of lemon's to a team full of Mellon's, that's if he's still here.

Will it be a shit or bust third season in for Frank? Then what?

The Rothwell’s are here for the long haul, I’m sure of that, but there will now be a realisation of the size of the job they’ve took on.

The close season should be interesting to say the least.
There are no guarantees with Mellon and if we set off poorly next season it would be a massive decision to keep him on under what will no doubt be fierce criticism and huge pressure from the terraces.

 

Edited April 20 by oafc1955