Ominous...

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Saints gone.
Leicester on the brink.
Ipswich look doomed.
Three up, three down.
If we do go up we must NOT sell our best players again.
Trafford, Egan Riley, Esteve MUST be kept.
Edwards, Flemming, Anthony and of course Brownhill MUST be secured on long term contracts.
Come on Alan you know it makes sense.

[kritichris]

No chance of keeping Trafford after all those clean sheets, as the Pet Shop Boys sang Let's make lots of money..

[mnrht]

I agree with your sentiment BT though I'm not convinced we need to keep Flemming and Anthony. Anthony is a low "efficiency" player imo,
does not have good shot, rarely beats a man cleanly. Flemming is slow for the EPL, doesn't head well, can't dribble at all. Where do get
players with that little bit of extra from? Those young top team "cast offs" offer one solution, nothing guaranteed unfortunately.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I agree with your sentiment BT though I'm not convinced we need to keep Flemming and Anthony. Anthony is a low "efficiency" player imo,
does not have good shot, rarely beats a man cleanly. Flemming is slow for the EPL, doesn't head well, can't dribble at all. Where do get
players with that little bit of extra from? Those young top team "cast offs" offer one solution, nothing guaranteed unfortunately.

We need a 25 man squad for the EPL mnrht. Flemming & Anthony will do just fine.

[ballcock]

I agree with your sentiment BT though I'm not convinced we need to keep Flemming and Anthony. Anthony is a low "efficiency" player imo,
does not have good shot, rarely beats a man cleanly. Flemming is slow for the EPL, doesn't head well, can't dribble at all. Where do get
players with that little bit of extra from? Those young top team "cast offs" offer one solution, nothing guaranteed unfortunately.

Have you not learnt anything from our last stint in the Premier league. Kompany ripped our promotion squad apart and destroyed the team spirit by dumping the players who won promotion

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Have you not learnt anything from our last stint in the Premier league. Kompany ripped our promotion squad apart and destroyed the team spirit by dumping the players who won promotion

I think we are in a better place financially now ballcock and as I am constantly remined the likes of Berge, Amdouni & Odobert all had escape clauses built in to their contracts. Going up is different in all aspects to going down.

[ballcock]

I think we are in a better place financially now ballcock and as I am constantly remined the likes of Berge, Amdouni & Odobert all had escape clauses built in to their contracts. Going up is different in all aspects to going down.

I doubt they would have come but for the escape clauses, so I would expect more of the same if we go up this time.

What I would like to see is a more pragmatic approach to recruitment though. Not the scatter brain approach of recruiting wide players or anyone young

[sinkov]

At the moment the best of last years promoted clubs, Ipswich, are 13 points off safety. That's the sort of improvement we have to make to stay up, and we have to find a decent striker and replace 5 loan players just to more or less stand still. As BT says in the thread title, it's looking 'ominous'.

[mnrht]

I am well aware that team spirit is important Ballcock. I have watched Ipswitch several times this season and I think their team spirit is good.
They also have a good striker in Delap. The are almost certainly going to be relegated though. My point was that some players are never going
to be effective in the EPL. Of course we will all differ on who they are.

[ClaretinBudapest]

I am well aware that team spirit is important Ballcock. I have watched Ipswitch several times this season and I think their team spirit is good.
They also have a good striker in Delap. The are almost certainly going to be relegated though. My point was that some players are never going
to be effective in the EPL. Of course we will all differ on who they are.

In my humble opinion we have two players who could be effective in the PL-Esteve and Edwards,possibly Egan Riley the rest are Championship journeymen.Sorry but that is how I see it.