Big Job For Slade In The Summer?

There have been a couple of previous threads with fans compiling lists of players to be retained for next season. I think mine was by far the shortest and I’m sticking with that list. Slade has got a massive job to do in the summer to transform us into a promotion winning squad, one that finishes in the top three or not only gets into the play-offs but emerges the winner.

We’re lucky in a way that loan players are going back to their parent clubs, veterans are heading for retirement and other players are out of contract. It does leave us with two or three who will be contracted that have to be offloaded, but then that’s down to Slade’s man management skills to persuade these players that they won’t be getting any game time. This does scare players into getting their agent to find them a new club at this level.

In a perfect world that would leave us with some really good young talent to work with, Osborne, Mills, S. Jones, Asante, Bolarinwa, Browne, Rose along with Clement who has had little support from the players around him. Hopefully we can persuade Danny Andrew to stay and we inquire about Vose and Dyson, but that’s where it ends for me as a starting point to build a promotion chasing squad from what we’ve got.

Like I said that’s a perfect world scenario. We’re never going to be in that position due to budget constraints and maybe the club’s appetite to accept that its overall acquisitions over the past year have been enough to secure League status for another season but nowhere near the quality needed for a strong promotion push next season. God knows where we could have been without Omar’s goals this season.

Maybe it’s too much to ask second season. Maybe the best we can hope for is a proper flirt with the play offs next season with just a few changes, but I hope for us fans that we aim for higher than that. It will be down to Slade’s ability as a manager of a football club. It can be done but is there the will to do so?

I’ve got problems in my head with areas in the team where others don’t think there needs to be changes. We obviously need to replace Omar somehow, we need wide players and central midfield certainly needs looking at but it is central defence and the keeper that also needs a serious overhaul to take us to the next level. Macca, a thirty six year old, a slow whole hearted player and Boyce? Not the starting point for a promotion winning side and one addition won’t make the difference needed.

We can look at this season by thinking if only we could have won a couple of more games. I actually think we’ve scrapped away to get more points than our football has deserved. When you think about it, we’ve only played really well in about half a dozen games out of forty six The consistency hasn’t been there and that’s been down to a lack of ability, pace and physicality in the squad more so than who has been managing them.

I’d like us to have a really good clear out in the summer, a proper refresh. We should do with a new manager and I hope he will be strong and adept enough to do it. That’s what he’s paid for. I think we’ll eventually get a halfway house and we’ll have a better season with a little less frustrations than this but without radical decisions being made we could come up short again. And maybe that will be sufficient for now.

It’s coming to that time of the season when fans are going to put those retained lists together and I hope this season when they do, they will keep in mind that CDAJATL gets you mid-table, no more, no less.

I'm yet to be convinced we have the right manager, never mind players. Agree with your assessment though that the squad needs a massive overhaul. Too many just not up to it.

After watching the Cheltenham and Barnet matches, Slade has got a lot to prove that he is the right man for the job and that he can get players to play for him.  All i've seen so far is a lack of a plan an a lack of effort.

I hope i'm wrong but I predict a lower finish next year than this.

I too think there will be significant changes over the summer. Need more athleticism and pace. Need to be able to get about the pitch better and get some genuine pace ( not just out wide).

Wouldn't be shocked to find many of those under contract are told they can go if that can get fixed up.

Mills, Andrew, Osbourne and Jones as a base.

Quoted from TheRealJohnLewis

After watching the Cheltenham and Barnet matches, Slade has got a lot to prove that he is the right man for the job and that he can get players to play for him.  All i've seen so far is a lack of a plan an a lack of effort.

I hope i'm wrong but I predict a lower finish next year than this.

I think a plan is the least we can expect from slade, like him or not he knows the game will have good contacts so no real reason why we will finish lower than this season imo

In principle I agree with what Bigdog is saying but I do think that there is so much to do that realistically if we made the play offs next season it would be an achievement rather than a minimum expectation.

Purely my view but look at yesterdays starting line up

Macca - We need better and proper cover if we are serious
Davis - Past his best
Andrew - Might stay & would be 1st choice
Shaun - Great lad, looking at the 1st goal yesterday & @ Cheltenham he has a to improve a bit.
Collins - See above re Andrew but with a pacey partner
Clements - Needs an energetic terrier with him to buy him space & time, McAllister?
Dis - Might be pushed out if we cant move on some 2 year dead wood.
Comley - Thanks & good luck, in the right side/club he should be decent though
Osborne - Play maker but needs to be more central IMHO
Jones - Despite a good start is not a striker and needs to go back into attacking mid field
Vernon - A decent option against sides where we need a hold up/link man.

And the subs.....

Bolarnwa - I would loan him out for the first half of the season so he can work on his end product
Vose - Would like him to be playing each week in a side with Osborne, can't see it though TBH
Boyce - Great attitude, squad player
Dyson - Have we room for a developing player if we want a proper tilt? Maybe maybe not.
Jones D - Who knows, he hasn't played enough
McAllister - Good background and reputation, can we get him fit for 30 odd games?
Youssef - See point re Jones    

When you look at the masses that where bot involved yesterday how many are 1st choice certs or proven at this level enough to contribute to a promotion? You can debate that till the cows come home.

Then.............(sharp intake of breath) you have to move out a couple at least and in reality add decent proven quality in a number of positions.

So I think that in reality next season could turn out to be another work in progress, hopefully one that sees a happy camp playing some decent football and improving month on month, which just might lead to an exciting last few games I hope so as dead rubbas are really frustrating.  

Saw the title of this thread and thought he was going to Lincoln

Calling Shaun Pearson a slow, whole-hearted player is ridiculously harsh.

I've got no expectations for next season. Had too many seasons of disappointment to get enthused and what will be will be. We have just spent 10 years going backwards and one season forwards to be exactly where we were when Slade first came here all those years ago. Just hope he has more tricks up his sleeve this time.

Quoted from TheRealJohnLewis

After watching the Cheltenham and Barnet matches, Slade has got a lot to prove that he is the right man for the job and that he can get players to play for him.  All i've seen so far is a lack of a plan an a lack of effort.

I hope i'm wrong but I predict a lower finish next year than this.

Slade was on record this week about his team selections. His intention was to see as many squad players as possible in first team scenarios. Obviously the side he put out yesterday was not what he would call his best XI as there were also injury issues and illness in the case of Pearson. He will know as well as you or I the big weaknesses of the squad, hence the trialist the other day. There is no "plan" in those situations. You just put players in positions and tell them to play a simple formation. Then you judge them on that. You can't judge the judge after 4 games with a weirdly unbalanced squad he only met less than a month ago.

I was keen on MB's positivity but one of his faults was constant changes week by week over a long period that clearly unsettled the squad. It often looked like experimentation for its own sake.

This isn't the case with RS. There is a sensible point to his changes and he made that public in the GT the other day. He will have learned a lot over the last 4 games. We need to see what his summer wheeling and dealing brings and how his side performs in the first 10/12 games before making judgments about motivation, tactics or anything else really.