Immediate thoughts.....

[RonnieWaldock]

Not disagreeing as such, with any of the above posts, but big investment does not always work. Our nearest and dearest, and the universally loved Leeds and Forest, have proved that. On the other hand, in many cases it does e.g. Wolves, Brighton, Bournemouth, Leicester and plenty of others, are obvious examples of “small” or “medium sized” clubs “over achieving”.

One thing is sure though, that in the way English football is currently structured, limited investment makes “success” (however you define it) extremely difficult to achieve. Indeed, practically impossible!

[shorehamoldboy]

quite right ronnie but its just frustrating we have a manager that with proper backing will get us to the premier league but it just wont happen unless a new investor comes in

[tomytony]

Which teams have sailed through TT? Not many - for most it takes a while to build up the momentum/investment to get to the land of milk and honey from life in the championship

Didn't the great man, Adkins, for one, do that with Soton?

Not expecting us to sail through at all but the mentality of hanging around and building has no guarantees either.

We need to sieze the day, take the opportunity because 'consolidating' can backfire. Imagine supporting a team that got to the play off final twice, spent loads of money and are now nearer relegation than the top six.

As for spending money not being the only answer is there anyone on here who would not trust CW to spend it more effectively than many, many others?,

[shorehamoldboy]

now now tt behave stop trying to upset our porky neighbours chris will learn a lot from this season but this season aint over yet by a long way starting with smashing the weedscum next saturday !!

[Blade for Life]

Does anyone think we are overloaded in midfield but are struggling at left wing back (neither Enda or Kyle are good enough) and we look very average up front without Brooks. Teams have sussed out our 3 5 2 formation and nullify it. They also see we cannot cope with speed of pass and movement. We are where we are with the squad and money so a change of formation is surely the way forward. We need to try and get Fleck, Holmes, Evans, Duffy and Leonard in the same team including Brooks when fit.

[shorehamoldboy]

away from home go with 1 striker and we can play all those 5 thats the answer and we would be a lot more solid imo

[LiverpoolBlade]

Nearly everyone is praising Evans. But his defending for the first two goals was pretty pathetic. Too slow to react for the first and lacking commitment in the challenge for the second. Different challenges would have made it much more difficult for them to score. Disappointing. We have got used to 100%

[endhouseblade17]

wow ??? I was looking at start of season hopefully 5th from bottom and thinking no spanking from the FILTH AS IT TURNS OUT they are where I thought we would be and we are short of where I thought they would be {top two} so to me we are ok ,learning curve this season ,we should be as supporters very happy at this point of the season UTMB ftp

[GrayBlade]

Well that was awful. Absolutely awful. Let’s get the fact that wolves are decent out the way and let’s evaluate our current 1st choice 11.

Moore - shocking. Hand should have been stronger for their second. We need a better no.1
Baldock- ran the channels as always. I like him.
Onconnell - bit of a none game for him as they played a lot of the ball on the deck. He’s a big header.
Stearman- not good enough. Needs replacing.
Basham- not good enough. Needs replacing.
Stevens- not good enough. Needs replacing.
Evans- none game. No runners to feed in.
Fleck - worst game I’ve seen him have. Loose passes all night.
Holmes- ran his nuts off but I fear he’s not good enough for this level.
Clarke- shocking again. Won’t get better.
Wilson- tidy at times. His first touch is woeful.

The bottom line is this. If we are to challenge then we need better. That’s the way the game is going and the clubs who spend will be the clubs who do it. I fear the days of the outsider getting promoted have gone.

Emotional and frustrated. Will be interesting to see what wilder says tonight and does for Leeds next week.

The season is still alive but I can’t see it now. Looks like the lads have lost a lot of confidence.

Wow we were taught a lesson there.

So now you’ve had time to reflect B.B, where did you really expect us to finish this season on our budget and did you mean to replace them IF we want to make a promotion push next season? They’re obviously good enough to keep us comfortably in this division and only two weeks ago at Norwich most thought we had a very good team compared to most in this league (Wolves being the obvious exception).

[boltonblade]

So now you’ve had time to reflect B.B, where did you really expect us to finish this season on our budget and did you mean to replace them IF we want to make a promotion push next season? They’re obviously good enough to keep us comfortably in this division and only two weeks ago at Norwich most thought we had a very good team compared to most in this league (Wolves being the obvious exception).

Hello

Realistically i didn't expect top 6. I did think top half because we had a half decent side & momentum from last season. Hence the good start.

I stand by that we need to replace those players to mount a serious promotion challenge. We could maintain our championship status with the current squad but who just wants that? i don't.

I'd also add now on reflection...Look at the players over 30 who probably wont be here in 2 years time. Sharp, Clarke, Donaldson, Stearman, Wright, Holmes, Duffy...7 players. They'll need replacing with better, younger & probably costlier. Will that happen? If He's not backed to do that then Chris will walk.

Finally....i think we've caught Leeds at a bad time for them so im convinced of a victory Saturday. No manager or confidence see's a comfortable Blades home win. Sharp, Duffy & Laffs in for Wilson, Holmes & Stevens.

The season is by no means over. I'm looking at the rest of it with a complete open mind and no expectation now...

BB