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I think the general supporter consensus is that the squad needs some new signings and fast... but are really in such bad shape? To play devils advocate.

If the season started tomorrow, we'd be able to put the following team out against Scunthorpe;

GK: Foderingham

RCB: N.Thompson (cap)
CB: Rossi-Branco
LCB: Lelan (new loanee from Derby)

RWB: Barthram
LWB: Byrne

RCM: Luongo
DM: Kasim
LCM: L.Thompson

FOR: Williams
FOR: M.Smith

Subs: Belford (GK), Antonio (Samsung winner), M.Jones, Gladwin, Rodgers, Barker, Waldon   


Looking at the above team, I think we can all agree that the recruitment of a centre-half (Stephens?) is essential and I'd like another full-back/wing-back (Brad Smith?) on board so that Barthram can resume his role as a squad player.

Chuck in another centre-forward (another loanee?) and i think we're just about there given what Power/Cooper have been saying publicly in pre-season. It's not a big squad and it's a very young squad (youngest ever?) but there are sprinklings of quality in there - Fodders, Thompsons x 2, Byrne, Luongo and Kasim.

I just fear that until we get some 28-32 year olds into the club, especially at centre-half, the lack of experience topic won't go away.

What do you reckon?

Pretty much an accurate summary, assuming we fill the LB and CB slot over the coming fortnight, we can field a viable first XI, then it's down to injuries etc. It's not going to take much out of the ordinary wear and tear, to leave us looking thin on the ground though.

Maybe we'll get the players we need, and maybe we won't.

I never have been good at this speculation malarky.

I think that's the major concern going into the new season, you're right. Rather than the quality of the first 13-14 players in the squad.

I must add in retrospect, that in an injury emergency, currently we'd be able to call on Ryan Harley and Darren Ward if required. But STFC will be rid of both of them at the first opportunity I imagine, so it's pointless counting them.

Still think we are short of attacking options as well. Smith and Williams may well have enough goals in them, but one injury/loss of form and we are stuffed.

Time for barker to step up.

We need another forward to compete with (or replace) Smith or Williams.

I mentioned in another thread i think we need a more creative player in the middle as well to go with the new wing back and CB's.

In this formation one of the 3 midfield players needs to be attacking and link the play. Lungo is a great all round box to box player, Kasim best in front of our defence as is Louis. I wonder if Gladwin will get some game time as he has something else about him.

I was surprised to see that Skybet have us as high as in 7th place in the betting to win the division (at 28/1) but then I saw that they also have us in 8th place (at 13/2) to get relegated!

Gladwin was actually used as an attacking midfielder for his previous club (Margate?). I'd like to see him in that role, he had precious few chances in his position last year.

I'll believe it when I see it on the Barker front. Touch of the (poor-man's) Ryan Mason about him... looks a lovely, tricky, technically gifted footballer, but so much about League 1 football centres on physicality, fitness and consistency.

As for Ben Gladwin's role this coming season, it's unfortunate for him that we seem set to abandon the 4-5-1/4-3-3 system because i thought he had some of his best performances for STFC in the wide position last year (Pete'boro away JPT, Preston at home when he won the penno).

I suspect that both Gladwin and Barker will benefit from a fully involved, professional pre-season anyway. Hope to see big strides in both players.

I can see Gladwin ending up at centre back in a 3.....big bugger and he can pass the ball, if we're short handed might be worth an experiment.

I reckon Barker is going to be mint this season

Like a much poorer version of Hoddle?

Most are

I think Barthram will be one that will surprise a few this year, with a bit more game time I think he has real potential. His only real flaw is that he's horrendously ginger... No, small, I mean small.

Maybe the fact I was on the touchline ( supermarine ) rather than in the gods in the DRS but thought he looked a lil tubbier than last season,
Agreed tho in that he has potential - hopefully will get a run out of extended games

It took Nathan Thompson 3 seasons as a pro before he started to get an extended run in the side. Hopefully Bartham will flourish quicker as we can't really afford to carry bodies with a small squad whilst we wait for someone to come good.

That back three is absolutely frightening.

Power pulled a few out of the bag last summer and I really do hope he can do the same again.

The midfield is fine although I would like to see an older head brought in - I am yet to see anything has been done to address the toughness/steel of our side with regard to our abysmal away form.

As it stands, 2/3 centre halfs signed should see us comfortably remain in the division. I trust Power however think Cooper will do very well to improve on last seasons standing.

I'll be happy to see us just avoid the drop. Apart from Smith i cant see where the goals are going to come from now weve lost Pritchard etc

An 'older head' in midfield always makes me shudder. Gareth Whalley, Lillian Nalis, Tommy Miller...

Someone whos legs have gone but still want a lot of money.

We've been there more than once.

Reading between the lines of Cooper's interviews this week, I get the feeling he is preparing us for little or no incoming players.

And I don't really like, but understand, when he says our model is to take young players and sell them off.

Not much ambition there.

Are we the new Crewe?

Such a disheartening model

Which young players have we sold on so far under this model?

Obviously, none. But that is the clubs stated intention.

Anyone keeping an eye on/listening to the Bromley game?..

Im watching QPR at the moment :D

I don't think anyone will be saying that quite yet.

it's the same model we had under Fitton. Don't remember people complaining about lack of ambition then. Come to that it's pretty much the same model as the entire football league apart from a few "shit or bust" clubs like Bournemouth and QPR. And we know how that would likely go for us - shit and bust. No thanks.

Plenty under the previous board who had the same model.

 :nod:

In the absence of a sugar daddy, I think it's probably one of the best models out there. I also think it could help us to be quite successful, provided it is well executed of course.

Yes, but we should be self sustainable,  successful and keep our good players until they retire! Why isn't that our model?

And surely more attractive to any investment that Power may find?

Yes. Let's set those panic buttons off.

I like the idea of the model but it's no good if we sell key players and replace them with loans. Would like to see permanent replacements if the likes of the Thompsons, Wes and Mass are sold.

I understand your concern, yet I think many would like us to hold on to the Thompsons for sentimental, rather than practical reasons. Permanent replacements.....they've had a mixed history. Let's not forget that Wes and Mass started as loanees. Perhaps our "sustainable" model isn't too bad afterall.

As there doesn`t appear to be any sort of cash available and the players being signed  so far are untried youths - right now things could be better - not feeling optimistic as previous season starts - looking to be proved wrong  :pint:

But we won't will we? There are limits on the number of loans. We'll probably have 4/5 loanees in the squad this year, same as last year, much the same as the year before that etc. etc. about par for the league to be honest.

I admit openly that I'm depressed when it comes to thinking about STFC this season.

I don't rate Cooper, we've no money, all the paper talk is about giving youth a chance (which is great, except when it's peddled out as an excuse for not paying wages to established footballers - which I suspect is the case here) and we're looking like a selling club - again.

I really think we'll struggle all season.

If we sell Mass or Natahan Thompson, I think we'll flirt with relegation.

Sell both, and we're fucked.

Also, one of my lads asked me an innocent question today while we were talking about Brentfords chances in the Championship - he's a big fan of Pritchard;

Q: Why doesn't someone with loads of money just invest it in Swindon Town so that we can sign some really good players?

A: Someone did. His name was Andrew Black. He chucked £10m in, but Jeremy Wray and Paolo DiCanio spunked it away to such an extent that he took his money away and got out of town.

Then it struck me that Andrew Black was the "once in a lifetime" sugar daddy that every lower league club secretly wishes for and it's unlikely that another one will come along any day soon.

Like I said, I'm depressed :-(

I don't totally agree with you there delta.

Add a pessimist in not sure this season is going to be as good as last. I don't think it's certain relegation, but losing experience and replacing with youth we are going to have to be bloody lucky with those we bring in.

But there is no option. Power can't afford to subsidise us. So we have to do it. And it can be done. Ask yeovil or to a lesser extent Walsall.

Paolo certainly spent money on shit. But 'spunking money' is not much different to the Bournemouth and Brentford model. You need to do it if you want to optimise your chance of getting out this league.

Black put a shit load in. But he was never the sugar daddy you wanted him to be. He was never that committed or invested in stfc. If he was he'd never have quit at the time he did or stitched us up with Jed. Never a madjetski or Lansdowne (or whatever city's owner is called)

The thing that depressed me is I know we are doing the right thing financially. The only thing we can do. But championship football looks a long way off and we have to settle for mediocrity for a bit. I don't see any evidenced of us doing a Swansea, which is the other way of getting some momentum.

But while there is a club there is always a chance we will be surprised one day.

Look on the bright side - other teams will not have a clue whom they should single out for extra attention, and we could all be very pleasantly surprised with the new talent - well at least for the first 6 games.

I think I can take any outcome this season after the Jed affair so happy he has not taken the helm, that wanker stopped many a move for a better loan player.

Its feeling really flat, its so quiet you wouldnt believe that the new season is just round the corner. personally I  not expecting great things this season, possible low mid table finish

We'll be operating sustainably with a fanbase of 7,000 or 8,000 - a fanbase that most clubs would die for at this level.  I know it's a long wait (14 years and counting), but sooner or later it will be our time.

Oh, and Cooper - a pre-season game vs Leeds is not 'prestigious'.  I haven't read the article, but hope you were quoted out of context there.

Still waiting on 4 premier loanees that will supposedly transform the squad. Hard to see Lelan and Rodgers as other than squad players. Andy Williams needs goal or too quick as he is undoubtedly a confidence player and hasn't scored for a year now, although obviously injured for a lot of that. Crying out for experienced older head at back which isn't looking any too likely..............

I must admit I am starting to worry a little , our back 4 looks really threadbare at the moment and the front 2 are not going to cause any sleepless nights for L1 defenders. I just don't see how 4 kids from premier academy's with little real football under their belts are going to be enough to compete, I hope cooper can prove me wrong and we get off to a flying start but at the moment it is looking like it could be a long season

I pretty much agree there.

But this season GJ at Yeovil has a large budget of around £4.5m (even though he hasn't spent much of it). He insisted they gave him the same budget this season as he had in the Championship or he would have left.


yes Paolo did "spunk money" much as Brentford and Boremuff did....but when Paolo left we were top of the league, it was only when the spending was reined in that we started to plummet somewhat.

Again I agree with pretty much all of that.

I have fears about this season but its mostly due to the inexperience and lack of numbers in the squad, but if we get the 4 loanees that we are after then I think we will do alright, we wont set the league on fire but we will more than hold our own. I am sure Power and Cooper are doing their utmost to get in good quality players.

Start struggling at the wrong end of the table and that number will be more like 6k, get relegated and its no longer sustainable.

I think Power/Cooper are being incredibly naive this season. There is no way we will get away with the lack of experience we currently have. Yeah we've got a smaller budget this season, but in reality its not the smallest in the division and a number of clubs operate with this money. We should be bringing in experienced heads down the spine of the team to help the rest along. Get a leader in for fuck sake, instead Cooper spouts crap about the 4 he picked, none of whom are natural leaders. We have one at the club currently, in a position we have no players but we are not playing him. I know his legs are supposedly gone but having Ward around this squad must be beneficial. Cant help but think there is something else going on there.

The problem with PdC was that although he achieved promotion and got us up to the top of L1 the players he 'spunked' money on were nowhere near worth what we paid for them.

Muff at least made a good profit on Grabban. What did we make on Collins and a host of other expensive and then given away players.

With the money available from Black virtually any manager would have got us promoted from L2 and maybe without the Italian's shenanigans may have hung around a lot longer

My concern is that Cooper said we are 4 first team starters away from our finished squad after the Bromley game, currently with no sign of these joining. We've pretty much run out of pre-season games so when are these players expected to gel?

Being financially stable is fine by me and if that means loans and youths then I'll accept it but I wish we could have had bodies in early to get settled ahead of the new season.

Can't remember the last time we got our transfer business done early and properly prepared for the season. The court case didn't help us for sure.

I can see no reason to be optimistic for this season at the moment unfortunately, fingers crossed that changes before the end of the transfer window.

It is difficult to see what is holding up any of these loans.

Surely clubs must know who is likely to figure in their first team plans for the season ahead by now.

As on the pitch, there seems to be no Plan B

Well past his self-by-date - not an option

I suppose that relying on loans takes the ability to get a settled squad in early out of our hands as we are reliant on the parent club realising the player when they see fit.

I don't see the need for this rash of pessimism when there's, what, another month before the transfer window closes? So far, Power has a better record of loanee recruitment than any other manager (yes I know) I can remember and we may yet sign someone permanent.

I'm always optimistic before the start of the season, but I remember feeling more confident than ever during the pre-season we signed Prutton et al. That's helped me manage my expectations since. Que sera sera.

In the case of the LB from Liverpool Smith he didn't even go on Liverpools tour so why could we not have completed this deal by now? I can only assume there are other interested parties ahead of us.

Jesus from reading these comments I might have to sit in the DRS with my headphones on this season!

It could be worse Blackpool have just signed 4 which brings their total of senior players up to 11 in the squad!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28089912

So they'll be fine so long as they get no more than one injury per game and the League will let them play rush keepers. No problem!

Bet they have more CB's than we currently do !!

I'm trying not to get too worried at the moment, but only having Branco and the young Derby loanee as centre backs is providing a little bit of a squeaky bottom to be honest.

My thought is that Stephens was planned to come in and then Southampton sold half their squad and so he's almost certainly not coming here.

I guess its also worth remembering that the Premiership kicks off a week later and sides will be a week behind us in deciding who is going to be loaned out to who, and when? 

Blackpool having to cancel friendlies because they don't have a team, Oldham having to cancel team photo because they don't have a kit:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28522535

We could be in much worse shape