Pre-season 2025

[Worthy4England]

Yeah - agree with that bit.

The other bit about Taylor being LB, I could certainly see that, but then I'd want someone in CB who knows how central defending works (unless they coach differently to what we saw last season)....First couple of games I'm a little more hopeful we're seeing some structure and impressing that winning the ball is a good thing....

Structure and secondly you aren’t sitting there thinking - how do we get up the pitch quickly. There are options.

I don’t know if this team or squad or whatever one we end up with will be good enough to go up. I really don’t. There are big question marks. But at least the template I feel is right. We can add quality in but if you are trying to do so with a flawed plan it’s always problematic.

This feels much more like ‘ok we might be a striker short but if we get one….’ Than ‘well we need a hell of a striker as we are going to ship a lot the other way too’.

I think having caught bits of the last two games, we've generally looked/felt a bit more solid overall. I still worry about CD's on set-piece and general awareness of what's going on around them, but maybe they've been told to pick something up like a player or the ball rather than the apex of the 6 yard box or random space which is generally unlikely to score...I was thinking Taylor might be in, to sort 'em out from the middle...but let's see how it pans out.

[BWFC_Insane]

Yeah - agree with that bit.

The other bit about Taylor being LB, I could certainly see that, but then I'd want someone in CB who knows how central defending works (unless they coach differently to what we saw last season)....First couple of games I'm a little more hopeful we're seeing some structure and impressing that winning the ball is a good thing....

Structure and secondly you aren’t sitting there thinking - how do we get up the pitch quickly. There are options.

I don’t know if this team or squad or whatever one we end up with will be good enough to go up. I really don’t. There are big question marks. But at least the template I feel is right. We can add quality in but if you are trying to do so with a flawed plan it’s always problematic.

This feels much more like ‘ok we might be a striker short but if we get one….’ Than ‘well we need a hell of a striker as we are going to ship a lot the other way too’.

I think having caught bits of the last two games, we've generally looked/felt a bit more solid overall. I still worry about CD's on set-piece and general awareness of what's going on around them, but maybe they've been told to pick something up like a player or the ball rather than the apex of the 6 yard box or random space which is generally unlikely to score...I was thinking Taylor might be in, to sort 'em out from the middle...but let's see how it pans out.

Yeah that’s what I mean. If Taylor is at LB it sort of leaves us with the same centre backs and Inwood may surprise us but the others all have some issues that need sorting.

So whether overall individually its good enough is one thing but at least we could say ‘ok we need a better player here or there’ rather than feeling that whatever we do is just adding sprinkles to wobbly jelly.

[Worthy4England]

I'm still not sure who looks across at them when the oppo score and says wtf folks? That's not Inwood.

[Bertie Wooster]

At it stands today IMO we will still finish 6th or 7th at best, others in this league have strengthened well (Blackpool, Huddersfield, Orient etc.) as well as the teams who came down from the championship.

Taylor as a LB do me a favour, he should be CB at the side of either Forino or Toal. Inwood isn't ready to start games yet IMO, there has been a little over reaction IMO, he's promising but he's not the answer at CB.

Our signings have been ok nothing more, I like Sharman-Lowe, Simons & the Brighton lad but we are still toothless upfront - its not my money, but I did expect slightly more ambition in regards to signing proven experienced leaders, game changers etc. and to date we have signed zero.

I like Dalby but he was about 5th or 6th choice at Wrexham and he possibly won't be ready for the first 2 or 3 game and therefore we have nothing upfront. There are still a couple of weeks before Stockport and we may be pleasantly surprised, however I just hope that the club are not putting all of their eggs on getting this Kenny from Celtic.

[BWFC_Insane]

At it stands today IMO we will still finish 6th or 7th at best, others in this league have strengthened well (Blackpool, Huddersfield, Orient etc.) as well as the teams who came down from the championship.

Taylor as a LB do me a favour, he should be CB at the side of either Forino or Toal. Inwood isn't ready to start games yet IMO, there has been a little over reaction IMO, he's promising but he's not the answer at CB.

Our signings have been ok nothing more, I like Sharman-Lowe, Simons & the Brighton lad but we are still toothless upfront - its not my money, but I did expect slightly more ambition in regards to signing proven experienced leaders, game changers etc. and to date we have signed zero.

I like Dalby but he was about 5th or 6th choice at Wrexham and he possibly won't be ready for the first 2 or 3 game and therefore we have nothing upfront. There are still a couple of weeks before Stockport and we may be pleasantly surprised, however I just hope that the club are not putting all of their eggs on getting this Kenny from Celtic.

I think it’s a lot to ask to do the sort of rebuild we’ve done and sign some big hitters on top unless you are Birmingham or have silly loaded owners. Not sure ambition comes into it - we already are making substantial losses, our club insider has suggested they want to break even on deals this summer which will still of course mean a 7 or 8 figure loss in the accounts at the end of the FY.

[The_Gun]

At it stands today IMO we will still finish 6th or 7th at best, others in this league have strengthened well (Blackpool, Huddersfield, Orient etc.) as well as the teams who came down from the championship.

Taylor as a LB do me a favour, he should be CB at the side of either Forino or Toal. Inwood isn't ready to start games yet IMO, there has been a little over reaction IMO, he's promising but he's not the answer at CB.

Our signings have been ok nothing more, I like Sharman-Lowe, Simons & the Brighton lad but we are still toothless upfront - its not my money, but I did expect slightly more ambition in regards to signing proven experienced leaders, game changers etc. and to date we have signed zero.

I like Dalby but he was about 5th or 6th choice at Wrexham and he possibly won't be ready for the first 2 or 3 game and therefore we have nothing upfront. There are still a couple of weeks before Stockport and we may be pleasantly surprised, however I just hope that the club are not putting all of their eggs on getting this Kenny from Celtic.

This is a very negative reading of the situation.

I think there’s a tendency amongst fans to overrate the transfer business of other clubs. Of the three you mentioned, I’d only be confident that Huddersfield will improve significantly on last season, but even then they have a completely unproven manager. Blackpool have signed some ok players, but they’ve also lost some of their best players. Orient lost all their best players, and I’d personally be very surprised if their replacements end up being as good.

We’ve not done particularly ‘flashy’ business, but on what I’ve seen so far, I’m encouraged that it’s been pretty shrewd. We also haven’t lost any of our most important players, and have a very good manager at the helm.

[Bertie Wooster]

Gun, it's not negative just my realistic & honest assessment - however I don't expect many to agree and I would love to be proved wrong.

BWFCI - ambition was probably the wrong word to use, I meant how serious the club are in backing SS and providing him with the required funds to give him a realistic chance of the automatics, which as it stands today IMO are not sufficient to have a serious shot at the top2.

I also agree that the board have provided substantial funds (by our level) over the past few years which have been completely wasted by Evatt & Markham, therefore it is probably unrealistic to expect that to continue under SS as the losses can't continue.

I'm not after a row, just stating my personal opinion in regards to where I feel the squad is with 2 weeks to go.

[BWFC_Insane]

Gun, it's not negative just my realistic & honest assessment - however I don't expect many to agree and I would love to be proved wrong.

BWFCI - ambition was probably the wrong word to use, I meant how serious the club are in backing SS and providing him with the required funds to give him a realistic chance of the automatics, which as it stands today IMO are not sufficient to have a serious shot at the top2.

I also agree that the board have provided substantial funds (by our level) over the past few years which have been completely wasted by Evatt & Markham, therefore it is probably unrealistic to expect that to continue under SS as the losses can't continue.

I'm not after a row, just stating my personal opinion in regards to where I feel the squad is with 2 weeks to go.

We know that Schumacher was aware of what would be available this summer when he took the job so I’m guessing the bottom line is he just disagrees with you.

It’s hard to read at the moment - I think we feel in a far better place than we were at the start of last season so very least I’d expect an improvement on our league position from last season. I doubt we have enough for top 2 as it stands but I always thought achieving that in one summer was unlikely.

[Bertie Wooster]

Gun, it's not negative just my realistic & honest assessment - however I don't expect many to agree and I would love to be proved wrong.

BWFCI - ambition was probably the wrong word to use, I meant how serious the club are in backing SS and providing him with the required funds to give him a realistic chance of the automatics, which as it stands today IMO are not sufficient to have a serious shot at the top2.

I also agree that the board have provided substantial funds (by our level) over the past few years which have been completely wasted by Evatt & Markham, therefore it is probably unrealistic to expect that to continue under SS as the losses can't continue.

I'm not after a row, just stating my personal opinion in regards to where I feel the squad is with 2 weeks to go.

We know that Schumacher was aware of what would be available this summer when he took the job so I’m guessing the bottom line is he just disagrees with you.

It’s hard to read at the moment - I think we feel in a far better place than we were at the start of last season so very least I’d expect an improvement on our league position from last season. I doubt we have enough for top 2 as it stands but I always thought achieving that in one summer was unlikely.

Lets be honest he won't be the first will he !

[Frank Drebin]

My optimism stems from the proven ability of the coaching staff, between the Manager/Assistant Mgr/ Head Coach they have 7 promotions between them. I checked this stat when they took over in Jan. I cba checking again, but it’s there or thereabouts.
That plus they’ve had a 5 month try and buy and the sudden collapse towards the end of the season, in hindsight, probably wasn’t a bad thing. It probably helped in planning a way forward.
Achieving promotion at the likes of Forest GR, Luton, Plymouth and Bury who won’t have been the biggest clubs in their division suggests budgets aren’t the be all and end all for the staff.
I’m in the challenging for 2nd spot camp, IF we get another number 9 to share the workload and goals with Dalby.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

We've often bemoaned other clubs finding hidden gems and making decent money on them after a season or two. I'm hoping we're finally doing that with some of these signings. That said, I'd rather a team of 7 out of 10s with 2-3 of them exceeding that each week, rather than the 3 or 9 out of 10 dependant on the moon or if they can be arsed of recent seasons.

[Worthy4England]

We know that Schumacher was aware of what would be available this summer when he took the job

Probably a short list, given he said, we had assembled "one of the best squads in the league, with depth and talent." Or some such close by....Should've only needed a tweak!

[Spartan2]

I think people are underestimating what we'll achieve this season. We're looking solid defensively, got more pace, height and strength, we've got quality in midfield, we're focusing on shape more and we're better at set pieces both attacking and defending. We've got a manager and staff who know how to get promoted with crap teams let alone what we've got. The signings we've made are a step above what we already had and if we can add a couple of strikers, the sky's the limit. I didn't think Schumacher would get to buy a whole new team but that's what's happened, and they look really good.

[irie Cee Bee]

All the new players brought in so far that I have seen are better players than what we had in the squad last season, so I expect at least to better 8th and make playoffs.
The problem for me is the supporting cast.

Taylor has to play LCH. The leaking defence still has Johnston who is eratic, Toal and Forino who are prone to errors, Forrester who cannot handle the ball and Inwood who is a rookie. We will give the opposition lots of chances with these at CH. From what I have seen of Taylor, he is better than these. he reads the game well, is quick and can defend. He is more needed in this team as a Center Back rather than as a left back.

Sheehan and Morley look like decent L1 players but they cannot dominate an aggressive midfield and play at a slow pace. Dempsey is injury prone, Randall lightweight.. and of course up front we need help.

So for me, the supporting cast need some more upgrading for us to make top 2.

[boltonboris]

I think it's way too early to say these guys, who frankly, none of us had heard of last season are suddenly better than our previous captain, better than our previous 2 top scorers and better than lads who were key to getting deep into the playoffs, or winning a cup.

I'm writing nobody off, by the way. But I do think it's way too early.

I'm encouraged though, for sure, in that we seem to have added a little more physicality to the spine of the team, but I do worry we're still shit around the edges