What I reckon went wrong

[Roth0-1Roch'99]

Don't usually post on here but read every now and then. Was interesting to read a debate between two posters over the Dexter Blackstock signing, recruitment, wages, Stubbs etc... Got me thinking what went wrong.

If I remember correctly this was our best 11 when we achieved promotion (feel free to correct me):

Collin

Skarz, Morgan, Arnason, Brindley?

Pringle, Smallwood, Frecks, Tavernier

Agard, Revell/Vuckic

I understand there are some loanees chucked in there, but one particular loanee was in my opinion, our best player - Tavernier. The core of our squad was Arnason, Frecks, Tavernier, Pringle, Agard. It could be debated that Morgan, Revell and Smallwood were core players, but if we're honest, easily replaceable.

What happened when we achieved promotion is a shambles, we have had too many players come in for me to remember the names of. When I look at that 11 and consider players we have had since that squad this is the 11 I would go with:

Camp

Newell, Broadfoot, Morgan, Tavernier

Arnason, Halford

Pringle, Frecks, Brown

Ward

With that 11 (which I believe is not unrealistic), there are several formation options but what is evident is that we needed new fullbacks and to keep our star players, who in league 1 formed our identity and made us competitive. How do you keep your star players? Pay them what they're worth and quickly. What did we do with our money? Spent it on s***. I'm not going to blame managers, I have no inside knowledge. Organisations such as Capita and ASOS who have high turnover in staff get a bad reputation, which is what consequently happened to us as a club. So who the hell would want to play for us now? This is what went wrong I think, we messed about with our 11 too much with a ridiculous recruitment strategy.

To conclude, I reckon we relegated ourselves ages ago, it's been nothing short of a miracle we're in our 3rd season in the championship. Recruitment, spending, scouting, is where we failed. Players will network among each other, with our turnover we gained a reputation and were unable to attract quality. We have Frecks and Smallwood left of the 11 that got us promoted inside 3 seasons, because we spent our money on weak players to replace players we should have spent the money on. Talking in hindsight is not hard and there are many elements of football I have not considered, but I believe we would have an even better starting 11 than the one I stated above my previous paragraph, had we recruited, spent and scouted correctly as other clubs seem to do in an experienced and effective manner.

Sorry if this is doom and gloom and me just posting the same old... It's an opinion and I hope it's thought provoking at least. Please do not relate my lack of posts to my level of support for the club. My username relates to my first millers game, I am not a Rochdale fan haha...

[Yak]

That's a good assessment of what's happened.

[Lolmorgan]

Don't usually post on here but read every now and then. Was interesting to read a debate between two posters over the Dexter Blackstock signing, recruitment, wages, Stubbs etc... Got me thinking what went wrong.

If I remember correctly this was our best 11 when we achieved promotion (feel free to correct me):

Collin

Skarz, Morgan, Arnason, Brindley?

Pringle, Smallwood, Frecks, Tavernier

Agard, Revell/Vuckic

I understand there are some loanees chucked in there, but one particular loanee was in my opinion, our best player - Tavernier. The core of our squad was Arnason, Frecks, Tavernier, Pringle, Agard. It could be debated that Morgan, Revell and Smallwood were core players, but if we're honest, easily replaceable.

What happened when we achieved promotion is a shambles, we have had too many players come in for me to remember the names of. When I look at that 11 and consider players we have had since that squad this is the 11 I would go with:

Camp

Newell, Broadfoot, Morgan, Tavernier

Arnason, Halford

Pringle, Frecks, Brown

Ward

With that 11 (which I believe is not unrealistic), there are several formation options but what is evident is that we needed new fullbacks and to keep our star players, who in league 1 formed our identity and made us competitive. How do you keep your star players? Pay them what they're worth and quickly. What did we do with our money? Spent it on s***. I'm not going to blame managers, I have no inside knowledge. Organisations such as Capita and ASOS who have high turnover in staff get a bad reputation, which is what consequently happened to us as a club. So who the hell would want to play for us now? This is what went wrong I think, we messed about with our 11 too much with a ridiculous recruitment strategy.

To conclude, I reckon we relegated ourselves ages ago, it's been nothing short of a miracle we're in our 3rd season in the championship. Recruitment, spending, scouting, is where we failed. Players will network among each other, with our turnover we gained a reputation and were unable to attract quality. We have Frecks and Smallwood left of the 11 that got us promoted inside 3 seasons, because we spent our money on weak players to replace players we should have spent the money on. Talking in hindsight is not hard and there are many elements of football I have not considered, but I believe we would have an even better starting 11 than the one I stated above my previous paragraph, had we recruited, spent and scouted correctly as other clubs seem to do in an experienced and effective manner.

Sorry if this is doom and gloom and me just posting the same old... It's an opinion and I hope it's thought provoking at least. Please do not relate my lack of posts to my level of support for the club. My username relates to my first millers game, I am not a Rochdale fan haha...

Only one name for that but a hero to some(Brin).S/E screwed us mate & its all there in your post.

[Monkey46]

Barnsley have kept mainly the players that got them promoted, and a settled winning team is defo the way forward, just add a few tweaks in transfer windows, and try to keep the best, not rocket science is it. UTM!!

[Roth0-1Roch'99]

Only one name for that but a hero to some(Brin).S/E screwed us mate & its all there in your post.

We did go through a lot of players in the Evans years, yet everything seems to be the managers fault in football which is something I disagree with. Stubbs brought in several players which were not good enough also, that's why in my post I highlight recruitment, scouting and spending as our reasons for downfall. The responsibility of these 3 factors must fall to several staff members, not just the manager.

[millermanic]

Only one name for that but a hero to some(Brin).S/E screwed us mate & its all there in your post.

What a load of tosh, if it wasn't for SE we would still be in league 2, fact...and if we still had SE we wouldn't be the shambles we are now...

[caytonmiller]

from the past 4 seasons 7 of your best 11 were not in the squad that got us into the championship. from the 4 that remained 3 had the chance to stay with us but choose to go elsewhere (pringle, tavs and arni) so were left with frecks.

i get what your saying about changing the squad to quickly but by your own logic we would have had to anyway.