32, 31, 31, 30, 30, 23 (8 replies)
The respective ages (in years) of Duck, Kyogo, Keshi, Demarai, Dykes and Stansfield come next summer. The six attacking first-team players we have contracted to the club (not included Kanya, eff knows if we will ever get to see him).
A few things concern me as such:
1) With their ages, it seems that for all bar one there is probably limited scope for development as footballers. They are at their peak now. The only way we can potentially improve their output is by altering the way we play (which this manager is seemingly unwilling or unable to do).
2) With the ages they are at, we are going to have to replace the nearly lot of them in a relatively short period of time if we continue as we are because we are going nowhere fast if we continue to be as impotent as we are in games.
3) Such rebuilds cost money, and the only one right now who we would get any decent money for is the one who I imagine anyone associated with the club would be most loathed to have to see leave the club.
In all, I can't believe that we have built this team for the medium/long-term with the ages many of our players are at. I believe we have built this team with the idea we would be having a serious go at winning promotion this season or next. The fact that we are coming up so far short right now means that something has to change drastically with this lot in the short term or there will be drastic changes in personnel in the not too distant future (which may be tricky for the reason I outlined in point three).
My gut says that these players could/should be a lot more potent and performing a lot better, but to be quite frank if they don't start doing so soon they never will. If nothing improves soon, the question is do you change the man in the dugout in the hope that somebody else gets more out of them or do you simply hope to get through the season treading water with the aim of bombing most of them as soon as possible?
A few things concern me as such:
1) With their ages, it seems that for all bar one there is probably limited scope for development as footballers. They are at their peak now. The only way we can potentially improve their output is by altering the way we play (which this manager is seemingly unwilling or unable to do).
2) With the ages they are at, we are going to have to replace the nearly lot of them in a relatively short period of time if we continue as we are because we are going nowhere fast if we continue to be as impotent as we are in games.
3) Such rebuilds cost money, and the only one right now who we would get any decent money for is the one who I imagine anyone associated with the club would be most loathed to have to see leave the club.
In all, I can't believe that we have built this team for the medium/long-term with the ages many of our players are at. I believe we have built this team with the idea we would be having a serious go at winning promotion this season or next. The fact that we are coming up so far short right now means that something has to change drastically with this lot in the short term or there will be drastic changes in personnel in the not too distant future (which may be tricky for the reason I outlined in point three).
My gut says that these players could/should be a lot more potent and performing a lot better, but to be quite frank if they don't start doing so soon they never will. If nothing improves soon, the question is do you change the man in the dugout in the hope that somebody else gets more out of them or do you simply hope to get through the season treading water with the aim of bombing most of them as soon as possible?