I enjoyed Creo's posts on the previous page. Recommend everyone reads them

He's dead right that lessons have not been learned. Back when Neil Adams left, Darren Eadie said on CC that we seem to be stuck in this endless cycle, constantly repeating the same mistakes. And it's got much much worse since.

He's also dead right that the owners are nothing if not honest; their greatest crime, especially in a sport as ruthless as modern football, has always been quite breathtaking levels of naivete.

But that said... I disagree entirely on there being any parallels between Summer 2003 and Summer 2017. There aren't any. Back then, we didn't have an ageing side; we didn't have a completely over-paid squad; we were a solid, well managed outfit which just needed a bit of X-factor and pizzazz here and there.

But last season? This was a side which had gone horrendously stale, lost its spirit, turned against its manager, and crucially, was packed with ageing players stuck in the losing habit. Players who essentially knew they would never be good enough for the higher level, and had lost their confidence: shipping goals and defeats galore in 2013, 2014 and especially 2016.

Worse: this side, which realistically was only going to get worse, were on unsustainable wages. A club run as ours is can only commit to wages like those if its squad is absolutely primed for promotion. Which we were ahead of 2014/15, when key players were at their peak - but never, ever three years later.

So we did the only thing we could do. We started again, more or less from scratch. Is the whole thing some cynical cover for mass cuts? You might argue it is. But it's far more the case that we've recognised the writing on the wall: in terms of that hopelessly past it squad, and the way this division is heading. As long as these owners are in situ, what we're doing now is, in my view, more or less the only thing we can do. The real issue is that we've recognised that so late in the day.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Aug 29, 02:06:44