There's just nothing here to build from. Zero.

And its been like this all season. I pointed this out months ago, and was told he needed time. Let's see where we are in 10 games. But what I've been watching has been flatlining. There is nothing here. Nothing. No signs of progress of any description, its the same every game. Absolutely zero progress in any dimension.

We are not particularly solid defensively, lack any quality in midfield, and have no obvious patterns of play to get into the final third and create. What are we trying to do? I have absolutely no idea. I honestly couldn't tell you what kind of team we are trying to be. Are we trying to press? Are we trying to sit deep and break? Are we trying to dominate the ball? Are we knocking it long? Are we playing it short through the zones? I HAVE NO IDEA.

Everything about the club is confused. We signed a coach that apparently wants to play 5 at the back. Paid a significant sum to bring him into the club, and backed him with lots of money on signings. But we didnt sign anything that looks remotely like a WB, apart from Schlupp who looks totally past it. What was the plan? Have Stacey as our main attacking outlet? And Schlupp? In what world would that look like a good idea? We also didnt sign any CBs with pace, or with a particular ability to play out. Basically, a totally misaligned set of decisions.

Now, because its obvious its impossible to play 5 at the back with this squad, we dont play that anymore. So what was the plan? Bring in a manager who has focused on 5 at the back, fail to arm him with a squad ever remotely capable of doing that, and now force him to do something he doesnt want to do?

The midfiield is packed full of highly similar players. "Tidy" players that knock it about and keep it. But there's no quality on the ball, most of them are not physical enough to really cover the ground and close down, none of them threaten the goal or look like they have assists in them. The only player with "a bit of magic" is Marcondes, and he's not exactly Harry f**king Potter is he?

Let's just sit with that.....Marcondes is our star play makers.

The transfer activity gets even more baffling when you look at other aspects. Good money spent on young players like McConville and Wright. They never play. Who scouted them? Why are they here? It just makes no sense.

Crnac is dreadful, totally unequipped to play in the Championship. Jurasek is awful. Looks like he doesnt give one solitary s**t, drfiting around. Who scouted them? So much money. It's all so incoherent, poorly thought through and poorly executed.

The young lad from Lincoln and possibly Pelle are the only signings that have shown ANYTHING. And jesus, i'm setting the bar low.

People who think this is a top 6 squad are utterly deluded. People who think we have players that "walk into any squad in the championship" are utterly deluded. Who do you think would take ANY of this lot? Sarge is now the only quality player left.

I feel for Manning, but that said, he looks clueless too. I feel sorry for him, yes he's got a s**t squad, but he is getting NOTHING out of them. Zero. Like I said....does anyone have any clue what we are actually trying to do?

The decision to appoint JHT on a "project" and then sack him less than 1 year in and replace him with a manager of a completely different style....baffling. You can't handbrake turn like that. Utterly, utterly incoherent. Not least when you get JHT in and arm him with such a s**t squad. Then pivot away from a manager who wants to be incredibly progressive, to a manager who likes to be deeply pragmatic.

We have the best striker in the division, and we're making him look absolutely s**t.

Looking in from the outside, I can't make any sense of ANY of the decisions the club has taken for 2 years. It's possibly the biggest mess I can ever remember the club being in. I'm just speechless.

Let's be clear, this is a relegation team and squad, which will only get worse when Sarge leaves in Jan. If there are 3 worse teams, I'm yet to see them. As a squad, and a management and coaching team, this is so far off.

Honestly I dont know where we go from here. It's easy to call for people's heads, but Knapper has not brought a single person into the club in any role that looks like they know what they're doing. Even the medical/sports science teams look s**t, as we are collecting a massive raft of injuries. Absolutely nobody at the club seems capable of doing their job.

Knapper is now 2 years in, and if you think he isnt totally out of his depth, then I'd like to know what it is that you see, because I can't think of a single positive thing in his favour. Well, maybe one. He's sold off all of our talent for good money. But that positive is totally offset by how he has then wazzed that money up the wall.

Manning also has no credit in the bank. He looks totally out of his depth too. The team look so badly coached. No patterns of play, at all. They players are not even fit enough to play 90 minutes.

We've also got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING coming through from the youth ranks. Nothing. So stick them on the list too.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING IN TRAYNUN? None of it makes any sense.

The entire club needs to be switched off and on again. I think if you could, you'd sack absolutely everyone, and start again. The sporting director, the coaches, the scouts, the sports science and medical teams, the youth coaches, the players. Absolutely f**king everyone.

At this point, there are only two questions.

1. Will we get relegated, or will we somehow scrape survival?
2. Regardless, will the US owners have the patience and appetite to stay with us, and stick in even more money to get a new sporting director and a load of new players? Or will they join the fairly long list of US investors for whom their football experiment went to total s**t, and just extract as much of their money back from the club as possible.

This is easily the lowest point of the club since the 2000s, and I cant think of a single reason why its going to get any better for a very very long time.

Posted By: Under soil heating, Oct 18, 17:25:36