‘People say we’re destroying football – I think it’s absurd’ - Humphrey in the Independent

[PG7]

Saw a video of Holloway speaking when Palace manager. Think we can learn a lot from what he's saying next season in terms of expectations. I'll post if I can find it

[Wrexy]

Originally Posted by Cymro

Somebody explain to me how we tell the players "don't try too hard lads, we only want to be tenth". They will, and must, go out to win every game and, if that means we are fighting for promotion, then all the "no training facility, three sided ground" stuff will go out of the window. Fans will get excited, players will push harder and our owners will have huge grins on their faces.
Let's go again!

Exactly - good luck telling the likes of Mullin and McClean that the club will be happy with mid-table. These guys are winners. Back-to-back promotions and they will be desperate for the hat-trick.

The bonus pot increasing again will help of course. This year's is more than double last year's apparently with over 500K to be divvied out.

[PG7]

Originally Posted by PG7

Saw a video of Holloway speaking when Palace manager. Think we can learn a lot from what he's saying next season in terms of expectations. I'll post if I can find it

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGexSTVNv/

[rob_the_red]

Originally Posted by Cymro

Somebody explain to me how we tell the players "don't try too hard lads, we only want to be tenth". They will, and must, go out to win every game and, if that means we are fighting for promotion, then all the "no training facility, three sided ground" stuff will go out of the window. Fans will get excited, players will push harder and our owners will have huge grins on their faces.
Let's go again!

Nobody is suggesting that ..... but the point it, there will be 23 other teams in the league who will also be trying their hardest and will have significantly better talent than the teams we've faced this past season . it's not about not trying it's about being realistic about being in a much tougher division facing some teams with significantly bigger & better resources than we have ... AND in that context, finishing 10th would be a perfectly acceptable first season in league 1 - setting us up nicely to push on in the following season or 2 to challenge for promotion

[fezbob]

Originally Posted by rob_the_red

Nobody is suggesting that ..... but the point it, there will be 23 other teams in the league who will also be trying their hardest and will have significantly better talent than the teams we've faced this past season . it's not about not trying it's about being realistic about being in a much tougher division facing some teams with significantly bigger & better resources than we have ... AND in that context, finishing 10th would be a perfectly acceptable first season in league 1 - setting us up nicely to push on in the following season or 2 to challenge for promotion

I was just going to post something very similar. Of course, the team will be instructed to try and get promoted and will want to. However, the reality of the other teams around us is very different in League One, hence a midtable finish would be fine.

[DenbighRed]

Originally Posted by Wrexy

Exactly - good luck telling the likes of Mullin and McClean that the club will be happy with mid-table. These guys are winners. Back-to-back promotions and they will be desperate for the hat-trick.

The bonus pot increasing again will help of course. This year's is more than double last year's apparently with over 500K to be divvied out.

Obviously they'll be desperate to win every game and it's not like Parky will tell them not to win. But our current squad is not good enough to win most weeks in League One anyway.

I think there'll be a definite change in the transfer strategy. Until now our policy has been to sign players who should be at the top end of the league you're trying to get promoted to. Mullin, Tozer, Hayden etc were the best of League 2 in the National League and last year Evans and McClean would've been very good League 1 players dropping to League 2.

I can't see us signing top end Championship players to get us out of League 1, at least not at this point. It's not a sustainable model in the long term.

I think we'll sign more younger, high potential players with room to grow.

We'll be competitive but the days of blowing our competition out of the water by simply buying better players are over.

[Dougie Davies]

Originally Posted by DenbighRed

I posted a few weeks back about the club needing to engage in some expectation management ahead of next season and a few people called it silly. That's exactly what Humphrey is doing here.

Getting us into the Championship with a three sided ground and no permanent training ground would make it almost impossible to have a serious assault on getting to the Premier League, which is the ultimate objective.

We need 2-3 years to catch up with ourselves and make the club sustainable.

They also need to protect Parky. His win percentage will start to drop and people need to expect that and not kick off when we're losing more than we're winning.

Rob and Ryan wont say it, but Humphrey is telling us to expect a season or two of consolidation.

Great post. Top half finish next season will be a success in my eyes

[Wrexy]

Originally Posted by DenbighRed

Obviously they'll be desperate to win every game and it's not like Parky will tell them not to win. But our current squad is not good enough to win most weeks in League One anyway.

I think there'll be a definite change in the transfer strategy. Until now our policy has been to sign players who should be at the top end of the league you're trying to get promoted to. Mullin, Tozer, Hayden etc were the best of League 2 in the National League and last year Evans and McClean would've been very good League 1 players dropping to League 2.

I can't see us signing top end Championship players to get us out of League 1, at least not at this point. It's not a sustainable model in the long term.

I think we'll sign more younger, high potential players with room to grow.

We'll be competitive but the days of blowing our competition out of the water by simply buying better players are over.

...but what if the rumours of a 5 million summer transfer kitty are actually true?

[rob_the_red]

Originally Posted by Wrexy

...but what if the rumours of a 5 million summer transfer kitty are actually true?

They may well be true, but look at the transfer budgets and existing squads of Peterborough , Birmingham , Oxford, Charlton , Wigan , Lincoln , Barnsley , Huddersfield , Reading ....


... it's not just about us , it's about the other teams in the league next season - this is going to be a very, VERY competitive league