Any optimism has gone

Quoted from Civvy at last

I have to be honest. My view as well. Alarmingly similar to last year in my book.  We think we are safe (any play off hopes this year were always a dream) then players get shipped out to cut wages
I thought we already had a smaller squad than last season although I’m not certain on that one
Still, whenever I look at the renovated floodlights I can be grateful for the cup run !!!!

I have no idea if this is correct but looking at our squad I would assume that Welsh,Thomas and Wooly are 3 of our top earners with only Thomas starting regular and I would be suprised if Town are not looking to ship Welsh out due to his lack of game time? We are very powederpuff up top and this needs addressing and we seem to lack width which if we had any would give the Manager another option tactically. We look nailed on for midtable obscurity and sadly as a long term supporter I am happy to settle for that this season. Very soon the tried and trusted renew your season ticket pack will drop through the letter box promising to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.Like you say floodlights look nice.

Quoted from Kris2

Lol another person rambling on about past glory. People need to accept that we are a small club not cut out for the modern age of football. We'll always be punching above out weight in L2 because we can't compete with the budget and ambition of other clubs in the league. We got lucky and saw the club play in the championship for a few years because it was enough to find a few gems who would play well for less money but now it's all big wages and foreign imports taking over even in the championship and league one. We'll always struggle to stay in L2, we have for years now.

Just accept that we are a non league club that managed to get into the league but we'll always be lower mid table at best. Time to get over stuff that happened before a lot of town fans were even born lol. Move on, stop talking like we are a huge club   that's been done some sort of injustice by slipping down the leagues. We aren't Rangers or something

Sadly, this is more of a sad indictment of what our football club has become over the past twenty years rather than a full on wind up. Before this century records placed us as a top half League One / bottom half Championship club based on average seasonal performance in our history. For anyone aged thirty or below our average seasonal performance is exactly what Kris has pointed out over the past twenty years and the worst bit is that he can't see past the club being run in any other way than in its present guise or picture us ever being a Mansfield, Doncaster or Rotherham let alone a Bournemouth. It just highlights how we've not managed to keep up with the football world and it seems like we're not even trying to catch up for the foreseeable future. Sad times off the pitch, and yes, it impacts fully on what goes on on the pitch, highlighted by five having to go out from an already skinny squad to get three in this transfer window ..

We'll never become a regular Championship member in this modern era. It's now all about money and therefore attendance, so it isn't possible to punch over your weight for a long time - at least not without a sugar daddy bankrolling you.

By 'size' of the club, we ought to be able to establish ourselves as a League One outfit with the odd dabble in the division above and the odd drop to the division below. As it stands, we've been punching below our weight for some years now.

Whether new owners would make a difference, I don't know, but a new stadium would probably help as it has with many clubs of similar size to ourselves.

I would imagine it is equally frustrating for Jolley working to our budgets and the geographical problems in attracting players to the club. Apparently for Pringle it was an absolute "no brainer" to join Tranmere once he knew of there interest and whilst geography may had something to do with it - it is more indicitive of our brand value as a struggling mid to lower team in the table. I'm  afraid however that is exactly where we are.
Current formation questions aside the bright spot for me is having a young manager that I believe in and one that i do think will come good. We must be realistic and take note of what he says in that dont get carried away when we win 4 or 5 on the bounce and equally dont get too despondant when we lose.
I hope that the current malaise doesnt get through too much to the manager who deserves our support and is operating in difficult circumstances.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

The optimsim left as soon as his lordship opened his trap. Year after year it`s the same Fenty speaks and everything turns quickly to rat excrement and like I said the other week his timing was incredible. The lack of transfer incomings on the back of our FA Cup fortune coupled with squad trimming is alarming also

let's be fair - 3 players have come in and 4 have left. Robles, Fox, Pringle and Hooper. Robles hardly counts as he would be paid next to nothing and was never going to trouble the first team

Quoted from Maringer

We'll never become a regular Championship member in this modern era. It's now all about money and therefore attendance, so it isn't possible to punch over your weight for a long time - at least not without a sugar daddy bankrolling you.

By 'size' of the club, we ought to be able to establish ourselves as a League One outfit with the odd dabble in the division above and the odd drop to the division below. As it stands, we've been punching below our weight for some years now.

Whether new owners would make a difference, I don't know, but a new stadium would probably help as it has with many clubs of similar size to ourselves.

Totally agree. In a new stadium and with fresh ideas, there's no reason for us not to become a properly functioning and funded League One club with an eye on the odd trip to the Championship from time to time. The odds are now stacked heavily against clubs like ours becoming established in the second tier but getting there and experiencing a few seasons should always be the ultimate aim/dream..

Sadly in our present guise the ultimate aim/dream is "get to fifty points in League Two and see what happens after that" every season. League Two Manager Of The Month for December and getting to the third round of the FA Cup and our owner crawls out of the woodwork as if something incredible has been achieved by the club. "Hats off to the club" were his exact words. More like hats off to Jolley and the players for December and hats off to the fans for sticking with it and travelling in numbers to South London on a Saturday night. Anyone with an ounce of footballing intelligence knew that the manner of the performances in December wasn't sustainable for collecting the same amount of points going forward in the same way that they aren't worried about getting relegated this season and it showed how much there is a lack of football intelligence at the top by the ballsiness and giddyness shown in that video..

Quoted from forza ivano

let's be fair - 3 players have come in and 4 have left. Robles, Fox, Pringle and Hooper. Robles hardly counts as he would be paid next to nothing and was never going to trouble the first team

Sorry to be pedantic but Dixon also gone and I thought another player had? I do back the policy of our home grown youngsters appearing more and more in matchday squads though and I guess it`s only a matter of time before hopefully we see another playing reguarly and they will prove long term a far better option than these journeyman types.

Quoted from Kris2

Lol another person rambling on about past glory. People need to accept that we are a small club not cut out for the modern age of football. We'll always be punching above out weight in L2 because we can't compete with the budget and ambition of other clubs in the league. We got lucky and saw the club play in the championship for a few years because it was enough to find a few gems who would play well for less money but now it's all big wages and foreign imports taking over even in the championship and league one. We'll always struggle to stay in L2, we have for years now.

Just accept that we are a non league club that managed to get into the league but we'll always be lower mid table at best. Time to get over stuff that happened before a lot of town fans were even born lol. Move on, stop talking like we are a huge club   that's been done some sort of injustice by slipping down the leagues. We aren't Rangers or something

Depends if you are looking at the time when Fenty has been in charge or our history in general.

We have a lot of advantages that a lot of clubs "our size" would want, but we are being held back by a truly abysmal board of directors and a council that is yet to catch up with the 21st century.

We should be doing so much better than we are, but until we have a fresh start in the boardroom we are stuck. We need big investment in the stadium, the players the facilities. We are not a huge club, of course not, but we are well below where we could be, or perhaps should be.

Quoted from Kris2

Lol another person rambling on about past glory. People need to accept that we are a small club not cut out for the modern age of football. We'll always be punching above out weight in L2 because we can't compete with the budget and ambition of other clubs in the league. We got lucky and saw the club play in the championship for a few years because it was enough to find a few gems who would play well for less money but now it's all big wages and foreign imports taking over even in the championship and league one. We'll always struggle to stay in L2, we have for years now.

Just accept that we are a non league club that managed to get into the league but we'll always be lower mid table at best. Time to get over stuff that happened before a lot of town fans were even born lol. Move on, stop talking like we are a huge club   that's been done some sort of injustice by slipping down the leagues. We aren't Rangers or something

I agree we are now where we are and those "glory days" are just distant memories but 18 seasons out of 23 ( from 1980 - 2003 ) is more than just a few years in my view.

We weren't lucky to be up there for that length of time.... we were there on merit

Quoted from Tommy

I took MJ's comments on that to mean that he doesn't need to offload someone first, but might do if he wanted to offer the incoming player more money than the remaining capacity of the budget.

Which will attract lots of "urgh, the board need to get their wallets out" comments, but really it's the same reality of a situation for any team operating with a set playing budget.

Just a question.... we had money at the start of the season because we had a bid for Lee Angol accepted before he chose Shrewsbury over us

Was that money just put back in to the club's safe or is it still there begging to be spent?