Brought down to earth

courtslcfc said:
What's the point.
We can't spend to stay up if we do get up.
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Don’t we have loads of the shite out of contract at the end of the season.
It’s a 3 year cycle of losses so another bad season will be off the books. We’ll be able to spend. If we yo yo it’s better than just being a championship club or league one like so many miserable sods on here give the appearance of wanting to revel in.
 
hackneyfox said:
It’s a 3 year cycle of losses so another bad season will be off the books.
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Which is true and, in terms of spending, fine if we had avoided at least one of the last two relegations but with much reduced PSR limits & over time parachute payments I expect that without promotion this year we'll be back shopping in the bargain basement again.
 
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hackneyfox said:
Vestergard had a good season the last time we were down here. Some of you seem to be forgetting just how appallingly bad The Championship is.
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It is appallingly bad but I expect that things will be tougher on the pitch this season than 2023/24. For a start Maresca had a full pre-season (and more) with which to prepare, had some resources to play with to plug gaps & managed to get just about everybody on board with his plan quickly all of which I feel was hugely influential for the season that followed. Cifuentes has 3 & a bit weeks with a squad which, regardless of the presence of many of those from 2 years ago (and who knows how many of them still have at least one eye on getting out... some of whom we keep our fingers crossed that they get their wish), looks in dire need of help down the spine (goalkeeper excepted).

As for Vestergaard in particular, that good season was 2 seasons ago. He'll be 33 next week and I'd say his whole body language on Friday compared to pre-season 2023/24 was not a cause for optimism.
 
DagenhamFox said:
Who did we play in pre season 2 years ago and what were the results?

I seem to remember not that good, then we beat Cov and the rest is history.
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I only remember Northampton away off the top off my head (and I remember it for being surprised at how he bought Vestergaard on and had seemed to have turned him into some sort of Beckenbauer-esque ball playing centre-half as he attempted long ball after long ball - the rest according to Wiki was P'boro & Leuven followed by the Far East trip that had been organised when the club thought we were going to be PL [Spurs cancelled, Port [local team] and a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool]).

I don't really care about results in pre-season matches or indeed in some respects a lot about performances (that 4-0 defeat to Liverpool included a very good first 15 minutes which pretty much showcased what Maresca was about and why we weren't going to be good enough or fit enough to pull it off for 90 minutes every week even in the Championship & we slowed it down for the season). I don't really get the amount of noise around them myself. Half the time the squad 4 weeks later is significantly different to what turns out in the League but I think you want to see some sort of pattern that any new players will fit into. The only time I have been truly alarmed by a pre-season game was the one at Leuven in 2022, no new players & they looked like a bunch of strangers and something felt off (though watching Ricky Hill at Cambridge in around 1990 didn't inspire confidence).

The concern for me this season is, as mentioned above, he doesn't have long with them to work it out & stamp his ideas on the squad and only one game organised (though I wouldn't be surprised if they try and sort a behind closed doors game). The way we approached the Friday games suggests that he's some way off from working it out (not a criticism).
 
This league might be of low standards but in seeing some our miscreants l feel we might well struggle ...... l personally am not optimistic like some that we could get promoted.... the youngsters he will have to use will have no respite to bed in and it's a lot to ask of them
 
I think this season we will find out what a great job enzo did the after last time we got relegated, coaching that shower into winning the league
 
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