WBA - away - match thread

[champs95]

Well, I think it should give a very rough idea of the relative quality of the squads. That obviously doesn't always relate to success, by any means, but I reckon those who say we should definitely be challenging for the top six - because we have one of the best squads - get a bit of a reality-check here. I suspect that sometimes fans make an assumption about a club because of history, but there we have Reading with a group of players worth more than ours.
One advantage for us is that we have a particularly good group of youngsters on the brink. I doubt that many clubs have that sort of quality coming though. That is just a guess, however, and that's one point I'm trying to make. It's easy to over-estimate your own players because they're the ones you always concentrate on.
In the end, I always come back to my philosophy of not drawing too many conclusions from one game, or even a series of games - and the same with individual players. At least half of the Championship clubs last year had roller-coaster seasons, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the same again.
I am hoping things begin to click for us in the next month, and I genuinely don't think we are that far away. Any team that puts two or three wins together will shoot up the table.

I'm not sure it tells me that? It tells me that almost all the Champ clubs are terribly run football clubs, amassing debt and stockpiling poor quality players at inflated prices. The sides who spend big down here like Derby and Forest generally don't go anywhere. And season after season they throw more money at the problem, and end up moving further away. How on earth can Derby not be cheating by signing Rooney on such astronomical wages? EFL doesn't dare punish clubs like Derby, but come down extremely hard on Bury FC. This whole league is bent actually, and I am finding it harder to be involved with it all in all honesty, with the current situation at Bury, it all feels wrong.
Yes Auks, we do have a good set of young players. Hardly any will actually make it. Barley anyone gets any game time, in favour of old has-beens like Elliott Bennett, or DG. Who just stunt the growth of any young lad hoping to break in. Its not like we are pulling up any tree's, we finished lower mid table last season. So I expected a majority of the older players to be moved on. The reality is, its mainly the experienced ones who play, knackered or not.
It has its advantages, we only need one player every 4 or 5 seasons to come through, and the fortune spent of the academy is made back in a transfer fee, and sell him.
I realise we have made some ok signings, and every signing is risky. And managers have poor signings alongside some good ones. But we haven't half wasted alot of money in recent times. In such a money saving era, what prompted that move for Brereton? For a club our size, and the money we have now, to spend all that on one player was crazy. And this whole league is full of duff signings and stupid prices paid, for basically crap second rate footballers. And like I say, personally I find it all very uncomfortable. Highlighted massively that my home town club no longer exists. I'd say the vast majority of Champ clubs should be out of business, and its wrong. This list above simply compounds that.
The decent sides in this division who end up getting promoted, generally have a pretty average side. Spend no money, and while I get you have your opinion, and it won't change, imo.... its the manager at this level that makes the difference. Not expensive signings. A good manager will get a tune out of a half decent side. Like Norwich, Sheff Utd ...Leeds etc. Burnley before them ....Hudd's aswell .....almost every season.
Spending money in this league means nothing for the most part. Of course there are exepetions.