Sold 80 goals and bought 20.

[Hoop Blah]

saw him play a fair bit tbf
but if you want to continue with this daft nit picking, please carry on

Not nit picking, just trying put some context around your opinion that he was given a chance here but didn't take it but he was mince.

Personally I think the basis of that opinion is pretty flawed, but obviously you're welcome to it, but don't expect me to accept it so openly if you're using it to argue against what I've said. There wouldn't be much point of discussing the point if you can't actually counter to points made.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

What worries me most is this.

1. We draw Barnsley away in R3 of the cup and lose 1-0 in front of 5000 fans.
2. We fail to make the playoffs.
3. Attendences dip when it is apparent there is no chance of the playoffs.
4. Season ticket revenue likely to significantly fall.

Therefore income significantly down on last year - out goings must be similar certainly on wages based on who has arrived and left since last season.

We have no players on our books value more than £2M to sell.

Next season = big struggle.

[Man Friday]

For "sold", read "unable to stop moving on and inadequately replaced."

[FiNeRaIn]

What worries me most is this.

1. We draw Barnsley away in R3 of the cup and lose 1-0 in front of 5000 fans.
2. We fail to make the playoffs.
3. Attendences dip when it is apparent there is no chance of the playoffs.
4. Season ticket revenue likely to significantly fall.

Therefore income significantly down on last year - out goings must be similar certainly on wages based on who has arrived and left since last season.

We have no players on our books value more than £2M to sell.

Next season = big struggle.

Would be nothing more than the club deserves. We shouldn't have been in a position where we have to sell all our stars and use that money to " balance the books" but due to the clubs approach we are. Football is won on the pitch and if external factors keep take, take, taking from the quality you put on the pitch you are going to get progressively worse. I mean its common sense like all walks of life. Smart move by the club last season with the season ticket offer because the crowds will be substantially lower next season.

[Vision]

I agree that he probably would've given it more time if he thought we were going to get relegated.

I imagine he'd had plenty of discussions with Coppell about what he needed to do to get into the side though and was confident that he wasn't going to get into the team for the rest of the season having done all he could to prove himself.

I'd disagree that we weren't starting to struggle for goals by then as well. We'd put a few past Liverpool not too long before but (and I've just checked this to check my memory wasn't playing tricks on me) but we'd only scored more than 1 in goal in a game on 3 other occassions (one in the cup v Spurs) between the start of November and end of January.

Well thats more than a little selective mate. Over the whole season we'd scored 29 goals in 21 games when he returned and 11 goals in the previous 6 games prior to his return (and that includes the Pompey game where we had to play virtually the whole game with 10 men). Scoring really wasn't the issue at that stage. Kitson was being talked about as a possible England player!!! Cox gave himself just 2 league games of non-selection against Villa and Man Utd before deciding he wanted to leave.

Don't get me wrong I'd have much preferred to see him and Henry play regularly for us,as local lads as well as Academy grads, but I really don't think playing Cox out of position on the right would've made a significant difference to what transpired that season. Rightly or wrongly it was ultimately Cox's impatience/ambition that saw him leave and getting back to the original point I think we did look after the interests of the player in his case when we sold him because he wasn't prepared to wait any longer for his chance here. We could and in my opinion should have kept him around. I just don't think he was quite as worthy for a starting berth during that period on his return as you and many others seem to.

[Hoop Blah]

Yeah it's a bit selective, but for two reasons.

Firstly I think it shows the current form more than going back the whole length of the season. We'd scored 18 goals in those 15 games, 4 of which were in the freak 6-4 game against Spurs, so 14 in 14 if you exclude that (because I want to!).

I remember it starting to be an issue that I recognised because I remember having discussions about it with my mates when Cox left and we signed Rosenoir as a bit of a panic attempt to resolve the right wing problem.

The second reason being I was looking to prove my point not yours!!

I do agree he probably didn't give us enough time after getting dropped like a stone after his cup performance. I imagine that was because he'd enjoyed his time scoring goals for Swindon, they really wanted him back, and he knew he wasn't going to get a look in under Coppell due to conversations and selections over the previous 18 months or so. It turned out to be the right move for him in the end though.

[Wimb]

What worries me most is this.

1. We draw Barnsley away in R3 of the cup and lose 1-0 in front of 5000 fans.
2. We fail to make the playoffs.
3. Attendences dip when it is apparent there is no chance of the playoffs.
4. Season ticket revenue likely to significantly fall.

Therefore income significantly down on last year - out goings must be similar certainly on wages based on who has arrived and left since last season.

We have no players on our books value more than £2M to sell.

Next season = big struggle.

Would be nothing more than the club deserves. We shouldn't have been in a position where we have to sell all our stars and use that money to " balance the books" but due to the clubs approach we are. Football is won on the pitch and if external factors keep take, take, taking from the quality you put on the pitch you are going to get progressively worse. I mean its common sense like all walks of life. Smart move by the club last season with the season ticket offer because the crowds will be substantially lower next season.

An honest question here *nowindupo*

How do you suggest we balance the books, or survive in the long term. The club was losing £6m a year before our promotion to the Premier League when we didn't sell off our any significant players so are you expecting us to run up debt and gamble on getting promotion or do you have another suggested source of income to bridge the gap?

[melonhead]

saw him play a fair bit tbf
but if you want to continue with this daft nit picking, please carry on

Not nit picking, just trying put some context around your opinion that he was given a chance here but didn't take it but he was mince.

Personally I think the basis of that opinion is pretty flawed, but obviously you're welcome to it, but don't expect me to accept it so openly if you're using it to argue against what I've said. There wouldn't be much point of discussing the point if you can't actually counter to points made.

i made it pretty clear it was just opinion, and also said id quite like him back here now, which is as close to me admitting that my initial assessment of the player, based on a few reserve games, was wrong, as youre going to get my good man.

[melonhead]

What worries me most is this.

1. We draw Barnsley away in R3 of the cup and lose 1-0 in front of 5000 fans.
2. We fail to make the playoffs.
3. Attendences dip when it is apparent there is no chance of the playoffs.
4. Season ticket revenue likely to significantly fall.

Therefore income significantly down on last year - out goings must be similar certainly on wages based on who has arrived and left since last season.

We have no players on our books value more than £2M to sell.

Next season = big struggle.

Would be nothing more than the club deserves. We shouldn't have been in a position where we have to sell all our stars and use that money to " balance the books" but due to the clubs approach we are. Football is won on the pitch and if external factors keep take, take, taking from the quality you put on the pitch you are going to get progressively worse. I mean its common sense like all walks of life. Smart move by the club last season with the season ticket offer because the crowds will be substantially lower next season.

the margins are fine, the difference between staying up, and coming down was tiny goal difference, new players may not have helped us anyway and who knows if they woul have.
to assume that after 100 odd years of muddling around in lower divisions that we had an automatic right to stay in the prem forever once we got there is a bit silly imo.
the fact remains we did come down, and are now faced with the reality that players had to be sold to keep us in business. & to still be moaning about what happened 4 years ago is pointess.

[Vision]

Yeah it's a bit selective, but for two reasons.

Firstly I think it shows the current form more than going back the whole length of the season. We'd scored 18 goals in those 15 games, 4 of which were in the freak 6-4 game against Spurs, so 14 in 14 if you exclude that (because I want to!).

I remember it starting to be an issue that I recognised because I remember having discussions about it with my mates when Cox left and we signed Rosenoir as a bit of a panic attempt to resolve the right wing problem.

The second reason being I was looking to prove my point not yours!!

I do agree he probably didn't give us enough time after getting dropped like a stone after his cup performance. I imagine that was because he'd enjoyed his time scoring goals for Swindon, they really wanted him back, and he knew he wasn't going to get a look in under Coppell due to conversations and selections over the previous 18 months or so. It turned out to be the right move for him in the end though.

Well we'll never know if it could have turned out better for him though. Had he stayed then he may have forced his way into our side either before the end oif the season (when the goals did dry up) or the following season where he could conceivably have been playing championship football for us rather than League 1 for Swindon. Who knows how it would have turned out. As things stand he's not that far off the same boat at WBA now then he was when he was here. The stunning irony being that the person in his way now is also arguably the biggest single factor why he never started for us four years previous. All ifs buts and maybes of course.

Think we'll have to agree to disagree to a certain extent or we'll be going round in circles but I've enjoyed the discussion.

The only other things I'd add is that the cup team and the league team were completely seperate entities under Coppell so he wasn't "dropped like a stone" from the League team as he was never in it. I also seem to remember that the talk was of Cox going back out on loan but if he was going to go he wanted a permanent move. Again I wouldn't blame him as such,in fact in some ways its admirable that a player wants to play games,but it would indicate that we didn't want to let him go but wouldn't stand in his way.

There were only 5 subs named in the Premiership back then as well so I also wonder whether if he'd have managed to gain a place on the bench it would have appeased him more.

[bootboy]

i thought they were both mince tbf

id kill for henry back today though, and possibly coxy too(but only in desperation)

Heard a few whispers that Henry is unhappy at Millwall & could be on the move. Maybe we can do a swap deal with Howard??

[melonhead]

good god yes, if hed have us back!