Thetownend.com

Lots of posts regarding transfer speculation and signings for other league 1 clubs. What do we hope or expect to happen to town in the coming season?
I know it's hard to predict where we'll come next season,  especially considering we don't know who 75% of our team will be. We know Blackpool and Poxminisculefootballclubford will be top 6, so where does that leave us? Would you be happy just to stay up, a mid table mediocre season or something better?
I know we all hope for the best, but what would you be satisfied with?

Not getting relegated would be good.

That might sound Req-esque, but we're going into an unprecedented situation. It might even work in our favour and we end up getting promoted.

Fuck knows. Even in a normal season I'd hold back from speculation until Decemberish.

How long is a piece of string?

I do have confidence in Wellens, though.

Yep. The Wellens factor definitely helps. I'll genuinely be happy with consistency and staying in league one. Coming back down to league 2 doesn't bear thinking about. Battering the Pox is a must too  :)

Personally I'd be happy for Town to stay in L1 but as FH alluded to, in a strange twist this could all work in our favour and the misfortune of others could aid us in being much higher up the table next May. I'm all for us doing things on genuine merit but you can only work with the environment thrown at you and this is a fairly unique one.

Similarly though, it is all too up in the air, especially in this weird time. Having a team that can fulfill fixtures (as mentioned in the other thread) would be the biggest indicator and satisfying for most this coming season, I'd imagine. Wellens certainly is the main driver in all this at the moment and if we are a club that is stable enough (no deductions etc) by the time the season starts, I'm sure that he will have a squad that can compete again.

A big 6/7 weeks ahead, not least for Town but for the sport as a whole; especially for most of the lower two professional divisions. Those who adapt to change will likely be the ones who succeed. We can hope that Town are one of them.

Staying in business and achieving a mid table finish would be great.

I expect a relegation scrap. Maybe not right in the mix sorta thing - probably always a few points ahead of it but always looking back over our shoulder + two defeats against Oxford.

I know it’s still early but this team (currently) has no goals in it...

Probably best not to base my view on L1 by watching the POs, where 4 mediocre teams were on view, but I honestly can’t see why some are describing next season’s L1 line up as one of the strongest for years.

The 3 Championship relegated clubs - as it stands - are all basket cases and I can’t see any of them challenging.

There is huge pressure on clubs to get their recruitment right in this window as everyone will be up to the cap limit come the January window.

The ‘big’ clubs don’t seem to have the clout of previous ‘big’ clubs in L1 - Sunderland, Pompey, Ipswich.

As for us, it boils down to trusting, again, Wellens’ recruitment which was so impressive last year. If players are all being offered the same wage then I reckon Wellens ‘selling’ of STFC will see players choosing SN1 in preference to others.

16th place finish.

And a goal disallowed at the Kassam

This.  It's taken the Pandemic to bring about the return of this as the number one objective for the season.  Regardless of the methods, Power has kept such fears well in the background during his tenure.

As for where we might finish, this has become more difficult than ever to predict over recent times where a squad seemingly has to be completely re-engineered every season.  We always seem to be amongst those awaiting the scraps.  Marquee, "socks off" signings are never for us.  But do we really have so much to fear?  Our trump card (assuming he doesn't do a Flitcroft) may well be Wellens.  Given a degree of fortune, I see no reason why he is not capable of having us flirt with (or even make) the play offs rather than relegation.

Pre-Covid, my hope and expectation were both for a top 8 finish.

This was based on the squad staying together and signing Yates on a perm and re-signing Doyle and Grant. Obviously, two of those three things are not going to happen and the other is yet to happen, although Wellens has assured us that Grant will definitely re-sign.

In the post-Covid who-knows-what-the-fuck-is-going on world, I can see Wellens/Power/Jewel making signings equally as good if not better than this time last year. So much is up in the air at the moment though.

So my hope is still for top 8, my expectation is something which will take shape over the next few weeks - it's going to be interesting to say the least.

This thread shows how much the failure to keep hold of Anderson, Doyle and Yates (and potentially others) has rattled people. There were rumblings of pushing in League 1 when we were banging in the goals. I suspect a few good signings and the optimism (with the right amount of Covid related pragmatism) may return.

How do you know Pox & Blackpool will be top six?

Taking the piss out the each club's fans rather over-inflated expectations I suspect...

[The clubs financial survival is the priority and it's not hyperbolic to say that]

If Town somehow maintain an okay player budget then I'm confidant that Town can be a nuisance in L1.

I trust Wellens and Jewell. The transfers of 2019-20 that didn't go to plan (Tyler Reid and Adam May) didn't impact us in a detrimental way and it was impressive how RW/STFC acted swiftly to rectify those areas but I'm not sure we'll have the luxury of bringing in players at short notice to cover injured or out-of-form players in 2020-21.

The yearly transfer merry-go-round needs to stop in the long term for Town to build anything but I'm giving the football industry a pass for a year or two on this (aren't I nice) so if Town enjoy a good loan market then that will go a long way.

Lots of people have highlighted how strong L1 is but I think that's just in comparison to L2 in terms of 'known' football clubs. I think there is plenty of scope for Swindon to be competitive.

Think I largely agree with Rich. If we're still solvent and in L1 at the end of the season, that'll do me. Not saying we can't do any better than that, but it's going to be a very unpredictable season all round I suspect.

:nod:

 Hope..... Hallam.  Expectations.... have none.

I would expect the big clubs to get their act together and don't see Blackpool as a threat

I'm rattled about where the goals will come from, but Wellens has been excellent in recruitment so far and I trust him to come good.

looks like Wellens is off ain’t he? Why would he wanna stay at a selling club

What a pathetic attempt to troll.

quite agree.

promotion expectations in League 2 in a normal season are one thing.

but right now we are in survival mode. we must have overspent last season simply due to not having gate money in a promotion run in.

I guess many are in a similar boat though. That's one 'positive'

championship manager Wellens.

I haven't played that version. Can you get it on my Xbox?

I tip Fleetwood for the play-offs again

I wonder how the Belarusian top flight will pan out next season?

Hope for somewhere mid-table ish.

Expect somewhere a tad lower.

Will need to revisit this maybe a week before the season when Grant has/hasn’t signed a new contract and we’ve replaced Doyle, Yates and Benda etc.

Who's the selling club????

We do we always end up with such poor quality trolls?

I appreciate a good troll. The type where you sometimes just have to doff your hat and say 'fair play, you got me there'.

A good troll has wit, creativity, and originality. Ours have none of those things. Nothing but banality and predictability. (Although Reg is good at getting people hooked, I'll give him that).

Those few clubs that are recruiting before any cap comes into effect are really chancing their arm.

I presume every club will use up the maximum cap allowance, so if those signed do not live up to expectations there is no leeway in the January window to put things right and little chance of offloading them.

If, for example, Bolton get the Bradford version of Doyle they’re stuck with a player on a lucrative 3 year contract who, effectively, can’t get replaced or offloaded.

I doff my hat to Blackpool for giving it a go, but if they’ve got it wrong they’re in the shit for a while - no matter how much the owner may be willing to invest. Especially as their signings are just decent L2 players. We got out of L2 by recruiting decent L1 players with a question mark over them, either fitness wise or temperament wise.

He will be,  21-22 Season,  provided he stays with us.

you couldn’t pay 200k for Yates. Tried paying it in instalments hahahaha that’s pathetic that let’s be honest. Your gonna have to rely heavily on free agents this season, which the best players that are released there will be top teams after them. Think your gonna struggle

Money may well help,  but as proved on many previous occasions,  a proven track record and good contacts is a managers best route forward.   Oh,  Apologies,  I forgot,  we did spend a few million last season.

Can't see Wellens settling for consolidation next season.
Although risky, I thought that the medicine ball approach to recruitment worked well last season.
There were injuries to key players but the backups were generally good quality and positions weren't covered by two similar players.
Everyone had different attributes but fitted in when called upon.

So, hoping for more of the same over the next 6 or 7 weeks in terms of recruitment.
I suspect that there might be more of a reliance on the loan market for key positions this time.
At least it's not as much of a start from scratch effort as recent seasons, with a decent foundation for a good squad already in place.

Hopefully the pre season fitness work will concentrate on stamina.
Other teams could be under cooked in terms of fitness (and scrabbling around for a microwave) so maybe an opportunity to pick up some early points quickly for sides that have got the preparation right.

Overall, would hope for us to be sniffing around the top ten.
Wellens will want more than that.....

But weren't many fans saying the same thing at the start of last season ?.    Quite happy to lull the bookies into a false sense of security and take the 22-1 that they offered last preseason.    Let's be fair,  none of us really know what squad we will be starting with,  we've got to start the season with the same chance of every other club,  and an even better chance than those starting on minus 12/15.

You're only Blackpool pal, don't get on your high donkey just yet.

Did we?

Am I missing something,I thought it was fairly standard practice to pay in instalments. Perhaps Blackpool were able to pay cash which gave them the edge. I think someone said on here a while ago that any club with cash to spend would be in a particular strong position recruitment wise and that seems the case with Blackpool at the moment. Good luck to them but I’m more than happy to wait patiently for now. This time last year I had no idea who Jordan Lyden or Rob Hunt were and they’ve turned into excellent signings. There will be similar this year

This Blackpool troll reminds me of some of the Bradford fans from last season. Full of bravado and claims that they're going to go up leaving us behind. Look how that turned out for them.

I don't know how well Yates and Keshi will do there. We all know they have potential, but we also know that Wellens can get the best out of players. The Blackpool manager needs to get the best out of them as well, otherwise they'll end up with some distinctly average (and expensive) players on their books.

But the difference being wages won’t be the deciding factor as nobody can offer more than any other club.

If your rookie manager has got it wrong with recruitment you’ve really fucked yourselves over. At the end of the day, you’ve only signed players from L2.

Be a shame if it went tits up  ;D

 :D

I preferred Blackpool when the Oystons were running them.
Proper owners.

Perhaps they are going for the Notts County approach now. Spend money that doesn’t actually exist....

you're

By way of a point of information, seeing as you continue to judge my posts despite not reading them..... all I ever do is look at the facts as they appear available and interpret them...  if people disagree, fine, I'm always ready to argue the interpretation.

You do love a good bit of bait laying though Reg. I can almost see you smirking from here   :soapy tit wank:

You do realise almost every transfer fee is paid in instalments don’t you? Very rarely do clubs just hand over the full transfer fee up front.

Are you the Blackpool fan on their forum claiming to live in Swindon slagging STFC off saying we're a Mickey Mouse club? Your living on past history some 50 years ago and for the record Blackpool is a right shi*hole full of drug users, stag do's and kiss me quick hats all spread along your golden mile

Yes, very similar vibes to last pre season.

Finding 35+ goals is difficult to do.
To do it twice is even more difficult.

I expect a combination of experience and young kids. The max number of loans and people trying to rebuild careers after injury. I don't expect us to pay any transfer fees for players

I think we will struggle and be hovering around the relegation zone for much of the year.

I’m not so sure. Most fans are of the opinion that any half decent striker would score goals in our side last season.

Our style will be the same, midfield hopefully very similar in creating the chances and our eventual replacement strikers should be a step up on both Yates and Doyle.

Thing with Wellens is he does seem to know a good player, understands the importance of getting the right character in too.   I have faith we'll be up there, will be tough with some big teams in the league next year but other so called smaller teams have gone up previously.

Think some of the bigger teams are going to struggle a lot more than we will with their current budgets, could see a few teams go into admin over the course of the season

I see your point with regards to the strikers but it’s still feasible Anderson, Woolery & Isgrove could all be else where next season - so whose going to create all this chances?

Main thing to focus and be positive about is that Wellens is not only still here but he's happy, happy with the Chairman and the budget. The bloke is a class act and will go all the way to the top.

Whilst a few key players have left, we've also risen a league, and all who have departed are no better, untested or no longer hungry playing a level above. It could, will, work out to be a blessing, as it has forced the board's hand in backing RW, which again is promising considering the current backdrop.

I know it will be considered controversial by some of the usual suspects on here, but I've got a feeling Anderson won't be here next season.

What ever gave you that idea?

No shit Sherlock.

You know exactly what I meant.

bet you still go there every year for your holidays tho don’t you 🤣🤣

I hope not it makes Weston look like the Bahamas😃

Funnily enough, I have just come back from an afternoon in Weston.  What a delightful place it is.

Given the strength of teams in the league and how willing some of them are to spend I'd say a season in midtable would be a success.

Hopefully have someone else in charge (at the top) by the end of the season who's willing to invest in a long term strategy of building a side. And maybe get the ground stuff started too.

It's definitely much improved along the sea front

I don't.  I go for work.

Did you have your usual swift half to help boost the economy?

Many thanks for asking.  I purchased some chips for the kids and a hot beverage.  I did what I could for those salt of the earth traders on the sea front.

Did you take your binoculars so you could ge the a glimpse of the Bristol Channel😃

It’s very hard to predict this year - so many things up in the air.
My first hope is to be able to watch live games at the CG again - hopefully in October (I renewed my ST in the first widow in February).
If we can avoid administration that will be a start - RW has shown he can pick up players to fit the style he wants to play. As some have pointed out, last year we had a core of L1 players in L2 - so some of the new recruits need to be Championship level. Impact of salary cap may mean a smaller squad, so may not be able to afford too many with poor injury records (Baudry, Fryers, Lyden already Have that issue). We have some key gaps to fill - people have understandably focused on the gap left by Doyle and Yates, but replacing Benda is critical unless we can get him back again. Also, will the midfield create as many chances in L1 (presumably defences are better than in L2.
I’d settle for Mid table or top half at this stage - once the squad is assembled  we’ll have a better idea.

   :D :D

Oh do fuck off, you are a shit troll.

Absolutely agree, it can be funny at times and a bit of mutual banter can be fun, a shit troll is just a cunt though, and that appears to be what we have got from the L1 glamour club from the glamour town.

And when you have fucked off, fuck off some more for good luck.

I think this is a genuine option, some of their fans appear to deserve that, I can name one straight off the bat.....

L1 "on paper" appears strong, less of the smaller clubs and a few of the percieved "bigger clubs" languishing down in L1.

But, these teams are down in L1 for a reason, they have been badly managed and owned etc. I am as concerned by Fleetwood or Accrington as I am Blackpool or Sunderland.

As you rightly say there have been very few duds in our recruitment from Wellens/Jewell/Power so far, I have 100% faith that they will get in equally as good signings for thsi coming season.

I agree, the play offs in L1 were a terrible standard with worse than terrible standard of goalkeeping on show, if thats 4 of the best 6 clubs in the division last season then its there for the taking, along with 3 struggling clubs getting relegated as well, I see little to fear TBH.

But.

That was based upon our performances from last season, this coming season will depend upon how many OOC players are re-signed and with new players added it will be a lottery until they all gel, last season we got off to a flier, thats probably less likely this term, due partly to the higher standard of L1, apparently.

If we get back Benda plus another backup keeper, of if not Benda then another good standard keeper, and sign a couple of strikers I do think we could be a massive nuisance to teams in and around the play offs, even dabbling in them at times ourselves.

As a priority though lets just consolidate until Christmas and then see how the budget stands and maybe a bit of wiggle room will see any underperforming players offloaded and better replacements found and aquired.

Get through this finanicial shit storm without going into admin, sign a few new players and mid table by Christmas and lets take it from there. Far too early to call yet.

isn’t your player of the season on the way to us now? Hahhaa class this. You boys are in trouble

You seem to know a lot about STFC 😁

And care way more than any of care about your huge club.

hahahaha money talks here. Gonna be a long season for you chaps

It's amazing how great they are he has to spend time on our forum🤔

Yep money sure did talk😁
Between 1987 and 2019, the club was owned by the Oyston family. Nine years after buying the club, Owen Oyston was jailed for the 1992 rape and indecent assault of a 16-year-old girl.[4] His wife, Vicki, took over the chairmanship of the club during her husband's three-year prison term (he was originally sentenced to six years). The couple's son, Karl, took over in 1999 and remained in the role for nineteen years. In 2018, after the Oyston family was found, in a High Court judgement, to have operated an "illegitimate stripping" of the club, paying out £26.77 million to companies they owned, Owen relieved Karl of his role and gave it to his daughter, Natalie.

 Yep and we got them out and onto better things

But why are you spending it on L2 players? Won’t get you out of L1.

Because that's all they can attract😁

To be honest its a season where we'll see if Wellens is the manager we think he is and the team around him are the people we think they are.  He's improved players, created an atmosphere players who's career have stalled have flourished.  We don't know, but I think most people see that the club is the upturn in terms of playing style and results.

Sometimes its not recruiting stars and the team mentality is all important.

Personally I think the management of the players and the team was as important as the quality of the players last season, but we'll see.  It's almost pointless speculating at this stage.  I'll wait until we see what happens when we start recruiting.

 

I get it must be hard not even being the best club on a short tram route but is this the best you can do? Are you that inferior to Preston and Fleetwood that you have to look elsewhere for rivals?

haha listen if the option is Blackpool or Swindon there only goin one place, as already proven

I expect Fleetwood and Preston are laughing at them😍

yeah must be pissing them selves that we’ve been to the prem beaten big teams and they’ve fucked the play offs up for the last 10 years

Where did Fleetwood finish last season and what about yourselves🤔

You're like a 12 year old very crap Thor  :)

Let me remind you, You're that big a club the last time you won automatic promotion was when you were runners up to the mighty Chesterfield in 1985 and the last time you won a league title was in 1930 !!.

I genuinely don't understand all this bluster when they have an untried manager.

As Doyle showed at Bradford you can have the finest players in the world but with the wrong manager ...........

well, if we're fucked this season then you're going to be proper fucked next season aren't you.

whose going to do your scouting for you?

But it's the 'Vegas of the UK' don't you know  ;)

Yeah. Johnny fucking Vegas and even he is in a better state than Blackpool  :soapy tit wank:

He's no different from the others living there as their all overweight and Gobby

Small town syndrome?

And back on topic - my "hope for" for next season is still being in business as a functioning football club come May (or June, or July or August). Anything above that is a bonus and well beyond, I'm afraid, what many clubs will be able to hope for (unless the Premier League finally recognise their obligations to lower league football).

Just to clarify, when I say I hope we stay up, that does not mean to say I think we are in for a relegation scrap. I could just as easily say I think we're going up. There's far too many variable but, considering all that's going on, staying up would be something I'd settle for.

Absolutely, small steps. Stay int he division 1st and foremost then take it from there. Its way too early to tell yet.

so what you are saying is you hope we stay up

And you can consider my comments in the same light. Were we not embarking on next season in the shadow of a global pandemic and the kind of recession that will make the 1980s look like a minor blip, I'd be over-optimistically punting for a tilt at the play-offs (on the basis of fuck all, so far as none of us have any real idea what the squad will look like come the start of the season). But we are in that rather gloomier global pandemic/recession scenario so next season is all about simply staying afloat for the majority of the league.

I think we'd all agree staying up first and foremost I'd minimum aim, but that with a bit of skill and indeed luck in recruiting anything is possible

Staying up and in business after the coronavirus crisis is a minimum for me. Realistically I reckon mid table would be a good season, something to build upon the following year. Only worry with that is Wellens could then be snatched away from us after 2 good years.

Never say never to a playoff push, other teams have managed to take the momentum of a promotion and do it back to back.

All too soon though with players to come and go. It’s all ifs buts and coconuts

Normal circumstances, I'd expect 10th-14th. Right now, I'd take 20th and getting to a game or two.

Naturally, I would be disappointed if Wellens left given the success achieved last season. 

However, if he were to leave for whatever reason, I understand that there is a whole bunch of recently retired / similarly 'hungry' / untested former pros who would be keen to take on the 'project' and get a foot on the management merry go round.  I think that STFC have generally done fairly well with that type of appointment.

Coventry won league 1 last season and aren't even playing at their own ground, ultimately anything is possible especially with next season being very different to years gone by.

Somebody has to finish top 10, there are hardly loads of obvious candidates for the autos.

Plenty of top half finishing positions to play for, we will have a shot once Wellens gets his signings in. Contrary to popular belief he will sign some strikers 

So what's the view on Hope? Was he only signed as a desperate backfill in case Doyle didn't come back, or is there genuinely any, um, hope he could do a job in L1?

Well as it stands he will be in prime position to start on the left wing for us, he will be an inverted winger cutting in from the left onto his stronger right. He has played in L1 for Bury previously and scored goals.

For me he doesn't contribute enough in games yet, that could be because he isn't used to our system though. He still managed to score 2 goals in 4 starts which is good going but I havent seen enough of him yet to see if he will be a good enough to hold down regular starting slot yet, or wether he will be an impact sub.

He is a C- signing, scored goals but not looked at home yet but Wellens obviously rates him, I think he will probably be a regular starter next season though, at the moment we don't have many options though.

 Just as a point of info.... Hallam has scored 3 goals in Div 3.... 2 of which were against us. So yes he has played in Div 3 and scored goals (3). 

So my point stands, he has played in L1 and scored goals (albeit 66% were against us).

As I said.... yes he has played in Div 3 and scored goals (3)

Exactly as I said, so thanks for agreeing.

I don't think that he has played enough to take a meaningful view.

So let me try to get this straight Venks and Reg. Hope has:
1) Played in League 1 (previously known as Division 3)
2) Scored goals in said League 1 (previously known as Division 3)

Have I got this right yet? It's damnably confusing.

And Oxford have 3 stands, in all 3 divisions (non league to league 1)

Thats how I see it :)

I don’t know if I’ve missed the point here, but his record in league 1 is 3 goals in 39 appearances (per Wikipedia)

The phrase scored goals usually means scored a decent amount of goals doesn’t it?? Paul Robinson played hundreds of games and ‘scored goals’

If we’re going to rely on hope he needs to improve from a) his last time in league one and b) his general peformances last season. That’s not to say he can’t do either, but it’s what will be needed

For me the phrase "scored goals" means exactly that. Nobody said "scored goals consistantly, or scores a few goals.

I said he has scored goals in L1, which as you correctly state, he has scored goals in L1 albeit only a few.

Create your own arguments time is it?

Fair enough

It's certainly an interpretation you could make, which is why I provided a point of info, in case Froggy might be expecting a bit more from Hallam than he's capable of delivering. 

Shaun Close for example played in Div 2 and scored goals (2) albeit only 1 in the League.... hindsight tells us not much of a recommendation.

If you actually bothered to read my personal opinion about Hope then you would see that I have reservations about him fitting into our system. I don't think for 1 minute that RF would base his opinion on what I say, he is quite capable and adult enough to make his own mind up, he was asking for opions which I gave him. I was saying it as I saw it after watching every minute he has played for Swindon so far.

Nobody said he is going to be a great success at Swindon yet you assume that my post was excessively positive judging by your attack on it.

I naturally erred on the side of caution but without being extremely negative about a player who has only started 4 games for Town yet has a 50% strike rate in L2 with us for matches started and a 100% strike rate when starting games at home.

But basically what you are saying is that Hallam Hope is on the same level as Shaun Close, one of the worst players in our history?

Well done for writing him off so early in his Town career.

Interpretation is just how you can miss read to justify your own arguments about him being shit rather than taking it as it is  literallywritten, I don't think I could have posted it in a way that was easier to understand, he has "scored goals in L1" at no point did I state he scored lots, or scored regularly in L1, he has done exactly as I stated, you chose to incorrectly assume that I missed out words.

Behave you pair. This is all moot. We only need an experienced RB for any automatic promotion push*. We have two of them.




*Please don't take literally

I see we have 299 online guests!

Wave at the Blackpool fans.

:bye:

Edit: 345 guests now! obsessed?

I've offered no opinion on Hope.... just provided a point of info about his goalscoring in Div 3. 

O.K.

As you were, both. I think I've got it.

A crowd and an atmosphere would be great. Something like this please  :)

https://youtu.be/JhkRgJmmOhA

Looks really good, sounds really good, but the lyrics to that chant are fucking dreadful :D

 :)

It may be that they don't translate well, they may be beautiful poetry in the original Spanish(?)