Fitton

[Ginginho]

I was surprised when Prutton came in when we already had a midfield which was dominant throughout most of the season. Perhaps somebody as back-up, but not another first-teamer.

If it isn't broken, why fix it?

At the time Prutton seemed like a very decent signing, perhaps as backup for Douglas.
I think most people agreed that we needed competition/suitable backup for Douglas because when he was suspended on one or two occasions last year we really missed him.
However, playing Douglas & Prutton in the same team obviously doesn't work and upsets the balance. Douglas and Ferry last season were great together and i'm disappointed that they haven't continued with this for this season.

Prutton may have been a great signing had we not had Douglas, who knows?

[Boeta]

Agree with a lot of the positive comments on this thread - whilst this season has been a complete trainwreck, top quality planning over this summer with the right recruitment of management and players could lay the foundations for back-to-back promotions which the success of Leeds, Millwall and Norwich in the Champ are demonstrating is possible

[Don Rogers Shop]

Although they were never in league 2

[Don Rogers Shop]

For the pedants that clearly means recently.

[Power to people]

But if we are not keeping Hart then who will make the decision on the retained list, it can't be down to the new manager as he wouldn't know the players.

Although I suspect there is a good idea of who is going and who is staying with just a couple with question marks hanging over them

[mrverve]

This season the problem hasn't been the midfield it's been the defence and forwards. Yes, Douglas, Prutton, Ferry, McGovern etc. haven't had the best of seasons but trust me that hasn't been the problem.

[BANGKOK RED]

Yet of the midfield had performed better, the defence and attack would have functioned better as a result.

All the cogs were fucked up.

[Langers]

Yet of the midfield had performed better, the defence and attack would have functioned better as a result.

All the cogs were fucked up.

Agree. You can't exempt the midefield from critisim, they have been just as poor this year, espescially compared to the standards of last year.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Although they were never in league 2

Bournemouth were though....Rochdale haven't done badly either.

[Spencer_White]

So what edition of this weeks Adver is Fitton going to admit the boards own mistakes?

[donkey]

So what edition of this weeks Adver is Fitton going to admit the boards own mistakes?

I thought Watkins had already done that?  I may be wrong, of course.

[Benzel]

I thought Watkins had already done that?  I may be wrong, of course.

Yeah he was on the radio a couple of weeks ago and was pretty frank about hwo this seasons gone from their point of view.

[leefer]

Yet of the midfield had performed better, the defence and attack would have functioned better as a result.

All the cogs were fucked up.

Fact is as a whole team we have played to deep all season,almost like the away team when playing at home,trying to defend then breaking,thats ok if you have finishers like Cox/Austin who can play that way,not people like Pericard/Dossevi/Andrew who are more of a hold up player.
Douglas has been playing like a centre half most matches because the defence is under so much pressure.
Also its imperitive we get a solid keeper,because they are the most important part of any defence,Lucas is to injury prone and Smith has had to many chances.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

I have listened to the two Fitton interviews on the radio the last couple of days. Fitton was interviewed after the Hartlepool game and sounded quite down with the whole season and more or less accepted relegation. Felt he put too much blame on the Manager's signing given AF's active involvement in signings and that we made the wrong signings and the budget was there (7th highest in the Div). He felt some players might come good e.g Benyon with time.

Today he said that the club took their eye of the ball in the immediate aftermath of Wembley including Wilson taking time to get away after the defeat and didn't plan early enough for this season. He said this season they wouldn't make the same mistake and will look to appoint a new manager by the end of this month (Hart is a strong candidate) and would need to make acquisition/disposal decisions.

Felt Fitton/the board could have taken more accountability, after all Fitton is ultimately in charge of the football side and I can't believe he just went out and signed the players Wilson wanted with no say. He must be pretty damned frustrated that they sorted out all the old financial mess and got the club financially stable compared with most of clubs in the League and they end up relegated.

There are so many points where it went wrong probably with Paynter going and not replaced adequately. Surely money should have been spent here. The late signings of Ferry & Caddis seemed to unsettle the balance of the team. You could understand Wilson wanting 2 players for every position but he seemed to want to try and accommodate all of them especially in midfield. Greer going must have seemed the right decision and they thought that 2 from 3 of the other centre backs would come good. No replacement for Paynter put all the focus on Austin so he got both frustrated and big headed believing he was the main man, would that have happended with another 20+ goal a season man alongside him?

You could look at certain games in the season. Plymouth at home after 2 wins we pulled it back to 2-2 and then lost the game. The same with Peterbrough away if we had held on would have given us momentum. Something must have been wrong in the dressing room after the Crawley game and not playing a game for 2-3 weeks must have allowed things to brew rather than playing the next Saturday and getting it out the system. Charlton away got everyone hyped up that we could perform and as the results fell away after that a side assembled for a play off push has proved not up to a relegation battle compared with the teams around us with more modest expectations.

Will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks and whether we try to keep the side, alot of players are on 2 year contracts or if there is a complte clear out?

[Samdy Gray]

Good write up that.

Personally I think Fitton needs to take a step back from footballing matters. Yes, he should be ultimately responsible for them as chairman, but this season's shown we need someone in who actually has a bit of sense when it comes to transfer policy.