Quote Originally Posted by animallittle3 View Post
It's inconceivable in my opinion that this current team ( squad ) would take any points off the three promoted sides from last season .

I just can't imagine ourselves right now doing the double over Wednesday including a pulsating 4-2 victory at Oakwell , a statement 3-0 home victory over leaders and champions elect Plymouth Argyle or even going to Portman Road and getting a point .

I can't even contemplate this group beating a play off rival such as Derby County 4-1 at Oakwell and cementing our place in the top six and a serious potential play off winner .

I read many comments about this team on other online platforms that we've got this many points compared to last season and we've scored this many more goals too which in reality is an attempt to portray that everything is rosey in the garden and there's nothing to moan about .

The truth is and many posters on here have picked up on it is the fact the league is a shocking standard and if you added last season's promoted teams to this season's league one we'd probably have 9 less points .

Why does this matter ?

It matters because as ever it calls in to question once again the club's ideology , we sell our best players and we become weaker as a consequence , just like we have done on several other occasions in the past .

Selling our best players is something most of us accept , no problem but as ever the recruitment strategy to replace them is the issue .

The quality of player you need to get out of this league and give yourselves at least half a chance of staying up in the championship is easy to identify because we've seen the required standard in successful league one season's of the past .

You need the Sam Winnall's , Connor Hourihane , Marc Roberts , Alfie Mawson , Adam Hammill , Josh Brownhill , Josh Scowen , Ethan Pinnock , Liam Lindsay , Alex Mowatt , Kieffer Moore , Cauley Woodrow and Jacob Brown .

The players currently at this club are a mile away from those standards and that's not how this model was supposed to work .

We might get lucky in the January window with four good loans and retaining the best of this squad and win a play off final .

That's probably the best outcome that we can currently achieve but that's not how this model was meant to work .

These people running this club seriously don't have a clue .
We are going over old ground here - but hey ho - it’s Christmas.
Totally right up to the comment - ‘why does it matter’.
After that IMO you get it wrong.
In other words your diagnosis is spot on - but the prescription you give is wrong.

As said previously - we have ample evidence that shows the recruitment system works.
Sales bringing in £££millions over the last 4 or 5 years underpins that.
So why some supporters are looking for faults within the recruitment system is beyond me.

So to put your post in summary - the latest batch of recruits are rubbish (or words to that effect).
And the players that did well last season are also not as good as what they were last season - hence the dire football being served up.

In my opinion it’s ridiculous to believe that the problems lies with the players.

I wished this wasn’t the case - but I believe the problem lies at the door of the HC.
I obviously hoped Collins would succeed - but he hasn’t.

So my view of the January window is this:
1) Get what we can and sell the players that won’t sign an extension to their contract. Recoup money ready for a recruitment drive next season.
2) Bring a few loans in.
3) If the board want to retain Collins until the end of the season to give him a chance then that’s fine. But sorry to say if things don’t change we need a new HC at the start of next season.