JRC

Never quite worked out why it all went wrong for Louis. He never had pace, so in theory could have carried on playing far longer in the lower leagues. His first season at Shrewsbury was probably his best. Not sure he was ever quite suited to playing 442. There was a little run of games when he partnered AJ Leitch-Smith when I thought both were outstanding as almost 2 false 9s. Never quite understood why Aspin signed him as he never really suited the way he ended up wanting to play. Maybe if Aspin had been brave enough to stick with the 3 5 2 he kept trying in preseason Louis would have done well as a 10.

Cheltenham have been almost as bad as us since we lost to them. They did quite well for a period when he took over. Big loss selling Goodwin during the window, although he's not pulled up trees at Oxford. His two transfer master strokes seems to be Pett and Taylor. Both of whom are now bottom half league one players. Our problem in January was trying to sign the next 4 Arblaster's and not signing anyone who was bottom half league 2 standard.

Remains a mystery why Ellis wanted away. Seems a player who likes collecting signing on fees. I agree I think he would have scored about 10 goals; which would have seen us stay up. His general hold up play was also pretty good.

I've worked on fixed-term contracts for 14 years. I know if my current employer let's me go tomorrow .... I get all the money I'm owed until September 2025. I know fixed term contracts offer a lot better protection than being on a permanent contract; with statutory redundancy being a fraction of what I'll get if I'm let go.

He's under contract.

The truth is there was a mini league of poor teams with little between them. Those 3 and the 4 relegated teams. We had an awful record in games against those other 6 teams; which is why we've gone down. Some was bad luck Burton at home springs to mind), some was a lack of heart and sometimes we just weren't good enough.

From the 30 minutes I watched I'm glad I forgot there was an early start. I'm assuming some players have already been told they are leaving. Massey, Loft and Connor Run not in the squad. Think one or two are having a go at Ojo unfairly, he was the only player I saw put in a tackle. Every time he had the ball he was looking for a player to get into space but a lot of players looked like they just didn't want it. Hope the first 60 minutes was more entertaining than the 30 I sat through. We do currently have a core of a team, Ojo, Smith, Lacovitti, Clark, Ripley, Chislett possibly Debrah are good enough to survive in league 2. Plant, Shorrock, Walters and Dipepa are not bad squad options; though not sure any are really first choice starters yet. In the ideal world we just need 11 new players. In reality we are probably stuck with players like Lowe and Jones. We have the retained list, which could well be out on Monday to look forward to. Can't take long to tell Massey, Uche and Wilson and Cass they won't get new contracts. I'd imagine they all know it's coming. Then it's really a case of whether we are that desperate to get rid of one or two we are just going to pay them up. It'll be expensive so they need to decide they just aren't worth keeping in the 22 man squad we are allowed.

Dan Kemp is our of contract this summer. Does well everywhere he goes on loan; never works out for him at MK Dons. There's also a young player at Hartlepool who is pretty quick and started scoring goals called Joe Grey. Both can play as a second striker, either wing and as a 10. Both score goals. We need to have 4 or 5 goal scorers in the group. Even someone like Ben Whitfield would improve us. He's developed a lot over the past couple of seasons and has become quite versatile. He's played wingback and centreforward for Barrow as well as on the wing and as a 10. The bottom line is someone like Ray Walker was never in the side to score goals. Our 3rd highest scorer has 4, something Walker regularly exceeded. We had Devine at the start of the season for a few games, more recently Dipepa and when we stupidly put Chislett on the bench for a few games the manager has not had any options to change a game.

Dan Kemp is our of contract this summer. Does well everywhere he goes on loan; never works out for him at MK Dons. There's also a young player at Hartlepool who is pretty quick and started scoring goals called Joe Grey. Both can play as a second striker, either wing and as a 10. Both score goals. We need to have 4 or 5 goal scorers in the group. Even someone like Ben Whitfield would improve us. He's developed a lot over the past couple of seasons and has become quite versatile. He's played wingback and centreforward for Barrow as well as on the wing and as a 10. The bottom line is someone like Ray Walker was never in the side to score goals. Our 3rd highest scorer has 4, something Walker regularly exceeded. We had Devine at the start of the season for a few games, more recently Dipepa and when we stupidly put Chislett on the bench for a few games the manager has not had any options to change a game.

Nobody knows this season's wages outside the FA and the club. This site says our wages for this season are less than last; which I suspect in incorrect.

2022/23 season Chesterfield and Stockport had the same revenues (within 50k) but Stockport's loss was 2 million more than Chesterfield. Don't know what Stockport paid their players as they don't release that information but Chesterfield spent 3.25 million on their player's wages. You'd imagine a reasonable part of the extra 2 million in loses was either transfer fees or wages.

For a lot of the clubs history the old league 2 was also the same as league 4 ... it was also the bottom league. We were also fortunate to be in league 2 when league 3 South was formed, as only 2 teams a season were relegated. We also dropped out of the football league twice during the first 20 odd years of it's existence; once for quite a few seasons. What we now think of the football league was initially anything but. Teams in the South were all amateur and some northwest teams paid some of there players. It was a league set up for the small area of the country where clubs were allowed to pay some or all their players (basically Liverpool to Birmingham down what is now the M6). Broadly the same situation as the breakaway of Rugby League and Union. Division 3 was set up initially to expand the football league to the south. The first relegated team was Grimsby; which prompted a Division 3 North to be formed due to the travelling they had to do in their first season. A lot of clubs were mainly semi professional for quite a long time. I think the last semi professional we had was Mark Bright for his first year at the club. I'm pretty sure one of Ridley or Tartt was initially semi professional in the 70 when first signed. A far more realistic time to judge is probably post 1958 when we were founder members of the 4th division when it was started. Without knowing the figures I'd guess we've spent 1/3 of the time in league 2 (league 4), half in league 1 (league 3) and maybe 1/6 in The Championship (league 2). Certainly anything pre WW II is meaningless. You could make a case anything pre Bosman is meaningless.

Chesterfield's wages and loss last season were almost identical to ours. It may go up a little and ours may go down marginally but they aren't as well funded as Stockport or Wrexham. A lot of the Salt money has gone into training facilities and developing community initiatives.

Hard one to call. I'm pretty sure Dipepa will be gone, one of the big clubs will put in a crazy offer. Not really sure what the market value of either of the others. Garrity is similar to Earle and Taylor but both a little older and not quite as good. Chislett is younger and technically a better player. Not quite as dynamic. Garrity could possibly get a Championship offer, Chislett maybe one of the bigger league 1 clubs.

Bradford have been well funded and stuck in League 2 for a while. I suspect our funding will be on a par with most of the teams in the playoff positions. Bradford, Notts County, maybe MK Dons, Carlisle and Gillingham are the only clubs who will probably have bigger budgets. Clearly we aren't Wrexham or Stockport who could buy the league. We'll have a top 10 budget. A lot then depends on recruitment and luck with injuries.

The priority for the club must be to decide whether they cash in on Garrity and Chislett. If they are going to then really they can recruit for any formation. If they aren't then we need to play mainly with two 10s. Played consistently as a 10 Garrity would have scored 15 plus goals. He's decent playing deeper but not irreplaceable playing deeper. On the assumption both stay we then need 2 strikers, another player as a 10, 2 midfield players, at least one left sided player and one right. Uche, Wilson, Massey and Cass will be let go. The 4 loan players to leave. Pretty much as much as they can do with the number of contracted players.

I think you are spot on. The problem with placing under performing players on the transfer list is you can't really replace them until they move. The seasons we've listed a few players have tended to end badly. Having 3 or 4 unhappy players inside the club doesn't seem to end well in general. Short-term the focus needs to be replacing what we can. We must have spent a reasonable amount on the loans, so there's some money there. They also need to revisit the quality to quantity argument. Last season there was a lack of quality, yet when injuries hit there was a lack of quantity. My own opinion is our best 11 was good enough to stay up. 2 or 3 injuries and we were miles off. I don't think we had more than average injuries.

He hasn't played the whole season being shoehorned in at RWB, he's played a few times in central midfield. He's just been poor when he's had the opportunity. His best game by far was as a right centrehalf. Despite someone recently changing his Wikipedia page Sang has played over 75% of his games at rightback or right wingback. Initially I had thought his problem in midfield and on the right was a lack of pace. He actually isn't that slow running forward. He is that slow running backwards in defence. He also just doesn't read the game defensively in either position. Whatever decisions he makes defensively end up being wrong. His general passing is just hit and miss. His only attribute this season has been his crossing at times. He'll still he here next season but he's in danger of falling out of the league for good thereafter. He's never held a regular position at either of his loans, Cardiff or with Vale. He's 25 in a couple of weeks and should now be at his peak. With the exception of the one game at right centrehalf his peak has looked several leagues below league 2.

Played as a winger for us. Doesn't surprise me he's playing a little further back. Don't think he played a lot for us but my recollection was he was better running into space than creating his own space in tight situations. He was also quite well built. It's not unusual for that type of young winger to end up more successful at fullback. He's dropped down to National League a couple of times as I'm pretty sure he was at Aldershot for a while after leaving one of the London clubs. I can't think of any players who've made a success of their 3rd opportunity at league level.

I suspect this will be at least a 2 year rebuild. Hopefully we can get Walters and Shorrock tied down on contracts. Dipepa will almost certainly leave but that will give us some money to play with. Priority has to be sorting the perennial leftback/ left wingback position and centreforward. Also tough calls on Chislett and Garrity as they only have 12 months on their contracts. I'd be surprised if either ever sign new contracts; so do we cash in and reinvest, or accept we lose both in 12 months? If we keep those 2 I think we need to play both just behind a main striker. Garrity is a little wasted as a sitting midfield player. If we'd recruited a decent midfield player to play alongside Ojo with Garrity further forward I suspect we'd have stayed up. We are stuck with quite a lot of the squad. Positive is the 5 youth players have shown some fortitude in difficult times. We need midfield reinforcement to play alongside Ojo if he stays. We are stuck with 5 centrehalves (Lowe can't play any other position) unless someone is daft enough to buy one. Sang is a conundrum to solve. There is something there and he's under contract. He's not a rightback or holding midfield player. Hopefully Clark can play a full season. If we can solve the centreforward and leftback problem I think we have enough to be just behind the playoffs.

Well at least we showed some heart today. If we'd played like today second half against Exeter we'd still be in with a chance. Bottom line there were 7 poor sides in the league. Our results home and away against the other 6 (7 points in 11 games against those teams) has cost us dearly. The bottom line is the other bad teams picked up 26 points against us and with the exception of Cambridge and Burton they've done less well than us against sides outside that mini league. Can't remember the Cambridge game, so I suspect I was on a plane somewhere. Carlisle, Burton, Fleetwood, Cheltenham and Shrewsbury were no better than us overall, vitally they were just streetwise enough to take points off us in tight games. Overall this season Portsmouth, Peterborough, Bolton and Derby clearly have way more quality than the rest. When at their best those 4 are better than the rest at their best. It's unrealistic to expect that type of quality in a club of our size. Outside those 4 I do feel we are able to compete; provided young players come through, we are able to recruit a little better and probably have a season with a bit of luck linked to injuries to key players. Big question for next season is do we look for experience in the hope of a quick return; or younger players with the potential to develop into league 1 players.

The only stat that matters is 0 - 0. They have some very very good players. I'm not sure that any of our 11 would get on their bench. Listened to the home audio on iplayer going home from the beach prior to kickoff. They are prone to losing games on the counter when all over teams. Think that is the only hope. There is no way we have the players to play this Bolton side off the park.

I'd agree with that. The gulf between league 1 and 2 is massive this time. The other difference during this league one stay has been how few of our players were ready for the step up. Proctor, Wilson, Garrity, Worrall, Connor Hall and Smith were probably the only players in any way good enough. Proctor and Wilson had unusual relatively injury free seasons when we went up. Worrall was very much at the end of his career. When we went up in 86 we had Jones, Earle, Bromage and Walker; who were all young enough to kick on and old enough to be experienced.

Maybe, it's never taken more than 5 years to get out of league 2/4. I'd be a little surprised if we go straight back up.

Evey season roughly 1 : 6 teams get relegated. I think this will be my 7th relegation in 55 seasons. It's never been the end of the world some predict. Yes it's extremely disappointing but history also shows we bounce back.