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Heckingbottom

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Heckingbottom

SF said:
Yeah, I meant lower half of the league.

Even with the loopholes, I don't see how he injects enough cash into the club to significantly increase our budget for this summer window. I certainly don't think we'll suddenly have one the top 12 budgets in the league in the new owner's first season, regardless of a big sponsorship deal.

We'd still need to massively increase our revenue, like Wrexham have. That takes time.
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Rent out pitch for horse and camel grazing
 
Staffordwhite said:
I’m not bothered if he stays or goes
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And this is exactly how I feel about Hecky.

For the record, I quite like him. I think he's a good football man, find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says and how he views the game. Not sure if that's rose-tinted after the complete waffle/nonsense our previous manager came out with, or whether I just respect his opinion.

But. And it's a big but.

The football has been bang average in both seasons and without the quality of the loan players we would likely have been relegated. Granted in both seasons, the loss of key players at important times didn’t help matters. We've conceded far too many late in games (14 in the last 15 mins of games) which have cost us points, and probably the biggest concern, I am struggling to think of a player of our own that has improved in the last 2 years.

I don't want to pin it all on the manager, probably because I do quite like him, but we have got to improve. The recruitment isn't all on him, but from a permanent basis the jury is still definitely to return a verdict.

Loanees as a club we have got absolutely right over the past four years (the odd one ie Lukovic who hasn't worked out) but Dobbin & Devine as a pair have probably made us palatable this season. Without them two in particular, god knows where we'd have ended up.

There's clearly a number of fans who have made their decision already, and I respect and can understand that. I'm just not quite there yet, but wouldn't be as disappointed if he did leave over the summer. Similar to when Grayson was here, the football isn't going to be amazing every week, and is often reliant on 1-2 players really sparkling.
 
baysidepne said:
And this is exactly how I feel about Hecky.

For the record, I quite like him. I think he's a good football man, find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says and how he views the game. Not sure if that's rose-tinted after the complete waffle/nonsense our previous manager came out with, or whether I just respect his opinion.

But. And it's a big but.

The football has been bang average in both seasons and without the quality of the loan players we would likely have been relegated. Granted in both seasons, the loss of key players at important times didn’t help matters. We've conceded far too many late in games (14 in the last 15 mins of games) which have cost us points, and probably the biggest concern, I am struggling to think of a player of our own that has improved in the last 2 years.

I don't want to pin it all on the manager, probably because I do quite like him, but we have got to improve. The recruitment isn't all on him, but from a permanent basis the jury is still definitely to return a verdict.

Loanees as a club we have got absolutely right over the past four years (the odd one ie Lukovic who hasn't worked out) but Dobbin & Devine as a pair have probably made us palatable this season. Without them two in particular, god knows where we'd have ended up.

There's clearly a number of fans who have made their decision already, and I respect and can understand that. I'm just not quite there yet, but wouldn't be as disappointed if he did leave over the summer. Similar to when Grayson was here, the football isn't going to be amazing every week, and is often reliant on 1-2 players really sparkling.
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More or less the same here.

We can probably have a decent guess at how bad the season could have been without D+D...We looked pretty horrible for most of pre-season before they both arrived later in the window.

Of course pre-season performances aren't THAT important but we were really struggling to create anything at all during those games.
 
baysidepne said:
And this is exactly how I feel about Hecky.

For the record, I quite like him. I think he's a good football man, find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says and how he views the game. Not sure if that's rose-tinted after the complete waffle/nonsense our previous manager came out with, or whether I just respect his opinion.

But. And it's a big but.

The football has been bang average in both seasons and without the quality of the loan players we would likely have been relegated. Granted in both seasons, the loss of key players at important times didn’t help matters. We've conceded far too many late in games (14 in the last 15 mins of games) which have cost us points, and probably the biggest concern, I am struggling to think of a player of our own that has improved in the last 2 years.

I don't want to pin it all on the manager, probably because I do quite like him, but we have got to improve. The recruitment isn't all on him, but from a permanent basis the jury is still definitely to return a verdict.

Loanees as a club we have got absolutely right over the past four years (the odd one ie Lukovic who hasn't worked out) but Dobbin & Devine as a pair have probably made us palatable this season. Without them two in particular, god knows where we'd have ended up.

There's clearly a number of fans who have made their decision already, and I respect and can understand that. I'm just not quite there yet, but wouldn't be as disappointed if he did leave over the summer. Similar to when Grayson was here, the football isn't going to be amazing every week, and is often reliant on 1-2 players really sparkling.
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Probably the most balanced and fair opinion I’ve seen of Hecky in this forum.

New owner, new era for North End, and if the owner thinks Hecky’s worth a chance with a more competitive budget I’ll certainly support it
 
baysidepne said:
And this is exactly how I feel about Hecky.

For the record, I quite like him. I think he's a good football man, find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says and how he views the game. Not sure if that's rose-tinted after the complete waffle/nonsense our previous manager came out with, or whether I just respect his opinion.

But. And it's a big but.

The football has been bang average in both seasons and without the quality of the loan players we would likely have been relegated. Granted in both seasons, the loss of key players at important times didn’t help matters. We've conceded far too many late in games (14 in the last 15 mins of games) which have cost us points, and probably the biggest concern, I am struggling to think of a player of our own that has improved in the last 2 years.

I don't want to pin it all on the manager, probably because I do quite like him, but we have got to improve. The recruitment isn't all on him, but from a permanent basis the jury is still definitely to return a verdict.

Loanees as a club we have got absolutely right over the past four years (the odd one ie Lukovic who hasn't worked out) but Dobbin & Devine as a pair have probably made us palatable this season. Without them two in particular, god knows where we'd have ended up.

There's clearly a number of fans who have made their decision already, and I respect and can understand that. I'm just not quite there yet, but wouldn't be as disappointed if he did leave over the summer. Similar to when Grayson was here, the football isn't going to be amazing every week, and is often reliant on 1-2 players really sparkling.
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Not sure I agree with that when you consider how many points we didn't pick up when Iverson was out... Maybe it's a confidence thing with the players in front of him,I don't really know....Not being argumentative just pondering.... Good informative post and I'm still erring on the side of giving him a few months to prove himself with some backing...... We've been ( on the whole ) pretty bang average for 20 years so what's another few months?... It's not like us PNE supporters have no patience is it? 😀
 
With Heckingbottom, I think people have been a little unreasonable with what was achievable across the two seasons considering the limitations placed on the club by the Hemmings ownership. When Heckingbottom joined there were a number of issues that needed addressing to improve our performance as a club:
  • The general decline in quality of the squad.
  • The overall mood in the fanbase.
  • The poor quality of football on display.
  • The lack of any real prospects within the squad that we could potentially sell-on in the future to boost our budget.
  • The lack of confidence within the squad due to the frequent drubbing we experienced under the previous manager.
  • The lack of tactical flexibility possible with the squad due to years of poor recruitment.
We were very much a club in decline through years of mismanagement. When people talk about the poor quality of football on display, it's easy to forget that it has been like this for years. Even if we're just looking at the back 5 formation and people's frustrations with it, we've been playing the formation fairly consistently since McAvoy five years ago.

To be able to fix all of the issues above is something that takes time and I don't believe it can all be fixed over the course of three (and a half) transfer windows when we've been operating on one of the smallest budgets in the league. It especially isn't helped by how much of last season's budget was already spent by the time Heckingbottom joined. Plus considering how late in the summer window he joined, there wasn't a great deal of time to assess the squad to see what was lacking but also to assess his options for potential players to recruit. At the end of the day I got why he signed Josh Bowler on loan as we lacked wingers but I wonder whether he would've recruited Bowler if he had the whole summer to analyse his options. Overall last season, his hands were tied behind his back when he was already chained up by the tight budget.

When people talk about the back 5 and how we're tied to it, it's clear that Heckingbottom wants to be able to shift away from it. He's even been saying as much in recent press conferences. The main reason we play it is because of the players we have. For what it's worth, I think he's been more cautious in playing it than he needs to be but at least he's someone who recognises the value in shifting away from it and isn't wedded to it as part of some daft footballing "philosophy". Enacting change does require a period of transition though. The other aspect related to this that is thrown at Heckingbottom is the extensions of Hughes, Lindsay, and Storey. They are key to why we've been wedded to this formation to be fair. The thing is I get why they were extended (although I would've given Lindsay a shorter contract than Hughes). People understandably want change but considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the league, I get why a manager might think to keep the players he has rather than adding to the squad overhaul that was already needed. It's frankly miraculous we managed to sign 16 players this season on that budget. Adding to that list rather than making it a problem for a later date when really this season has shown that it didn't need to be fixed ASAP just seems like making another rod for your own back. The only situation I can see where such a level of squad overhaul is necessary is if we wanted to make a playoff challenge this season but I think that would be an unfair expectation considering the issues I mentioned earlier that needed to be addressed.

I think some people look at the swift turnarounds that happen at other clubs and assume the same could happen with us. I think such a view is missing the bigger picture of what's available to those clubs that perform a swift turnaround. Such dramatic and sustained upswings in form only tend to happen at clubs with significant resources and often with clubs that have already been in the Premier League recently. The money and squad quality are already there, they just needed managers who know how to coach. You can see it with Southampton. If we look at the promotion, playoff, and playoff contention teams this season; who can we look at amongst them that hasn't seen a dramatic improvement that was guided by significant spending? Coventry are the best example of steady progression amongst them and they've done it over a number of seasons. Millwall have had years floating just outside the playoffs until this year when they've managed that final step into the playoff spots (similar to Boro although they've finished in the playoffs before). The likes of Derby and Wrexham have performed significant spending (Wrexham especially). Hull are the only one I pause over as they finished 21st last season but 7th the season before. It seems a dramatic upswing again this season but I'd argue the quality within the squad was already partly there and that last season was an underperformance caused by managerial shenanigans as a result of an odd decision by the owner to sack Liam Rosenior. Without significant resources to improve the quality of the squad swiftly, true progression takes time. I think it's easy to be fooled by the number of years we finished midtable and think that we were only a step away from better football when really we'd been declining since the 2019/20 season. I don't look at any of the squads we've started seasons with since then and think we were only a couple players away from much better quality football.

If I look at the list of issues I highlighted earlier, I actually think we've made improvements across all of them. Some moreso than others and, understandably, we can and should do more but I'd always counter that it would've taken multiple seasons to rectify all of the issues. Hopefully the ownership change will give us more funds to make it easier to fix these issues. I hope Heckingbottom gets a chance to show he's got more to offer as, despite what others think, I think he's actually done a decent enough job overall so far.
 
Bodney Rewes said:
With Heckingbottom, I think people have been a little unreasonable with what was achievable across the two seasons considering the limitations placed on the club by the Hemmings ownership. When Heckingbottom joined there were a number of issues that needed addressing to improve our performance as a club:
  • The general decline in quality of the squad.
  • The overall mood in the fanbase.
  • The poor quality of football on display.
  • The lack of any real prospects within the squad that we could potentially sell-on in the future to boost our budget.
  • The lack of confidence within the squad due to the frequent drubbing we experienced under the previous manager.
  • The lack of tactical flexibility possible with the squad due to years of poor recruitment.
We were very much a club in decline through years of mismanagement. When people talk about the poor quality of football on display, it's easy to forget that it has been like this for years. Even if we're just looking at the back 5 formation and people's frustrations with it, we've been playing the formation fairly consistently since McAvoy five years ago.

To be able to fix all of the issues above is something that takes time and I don't believe it can all be fixed over the course of three (and a half) transfer windows when we've been operating on one of the smallest budgets in the league. It especially isn't helped by how much of last season's budget was already spent by the time Heckingbottom joined. Plus considering how late in the summer window he joined, there wasn't a great deal of time to assess the squad to see what was lacking but also to assess his options for potential players to recruit. At the end of the day I got why he signed Josh Bowler on loan as we lacked wingers but I wonder whether he would've recruited Bowler if he had the whole summer to analyse his options. Overall last season, his hands were tied behind his back when he was already chained up by the tight budget.

When people talk about the back 5 and how we're tied to it, it's clear that Heckingbottom wants to be able to shift away from it. He's even been saying as much in recent press conferences. The main reason we play it is because of the players we have. For what it's worth, I think he's been more cautious in playing it than he needs to be but at least he's someone who recognises the value in shifting away from it and isn't wedded to it as part of some daft footballing "philosophy". Enacting change does require a period of transition though. The other aspect related to this that is thrown at Heckingbottom is the extensions of Hughes, Lindsay, and Storey. They are key to why we've been wedded to this formation to be fair. The thing is I get why they were extended (although I would've given Lindsay a shorter contract than Hughes). People understandably want change but considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the league, I get why a manager might think to keep the players he has rather than adding to the squad overhaul that was already needed. It's frankly miraculous we managed to sign 16 players this season on that budget. Adding to that list rather than making it a problem for a later date when really this season has shown that it didn't need to be fixed ASAP just seems like making another rod for your own back. The only situation I can see where such a level of squad overhaul is necessary is if we wanted to make a playoff challenge this season but I think that would be an unfair expectation considering the issues I mentioned earlier that needed to be addressed.

I think some people look at the swift turnarounds that happen at other clubs and assume the same could happen with us. I think such a view is missing the bigger picture of what's available to those clubs that perform a swift turnaround. Such dramatic and sustained upswings in form only tend to happen at clubs with significant resources and often with clubs that have already been in the Premier League recently. The money and squad quality are already there, they just needed managers who know how to coach. You can see it with Southampton. If we look at the promotion, playoff, and playoff contention teams this season; who can we look at amongst them that hasn't seen a dramatic improvement that was guided by significant spending? Coventry are the best example of steady progression amongst them and they've done it over a number of seasons. Millwall have had years floating just outside the playoffs until this year when they've managed that final step into the playoff spots (similar to Boro although they've finished in the playoffs before). The likes of Derby and Wrexham have performed significant spending (Wrexham especially). Hull are the only one I pause over as they finished 21st last season but 7th the season before. It seems a dramatic upswing again this season but I'd argue the quality within the squad was already partly there and that last season was an underperformance caused by managerial shenanigans as a result of an odd decision by the owner to sack Liam Rosenior. Without significant resources to improve the quality of the squad swiftly, true progression takes time. I think it's easy to be fooled by the number of years we finished midtable and think that we were only a step away from better football when really we'd been declining since the 2019/20 season. I don't look at any of the squads we've started seasons with since then and think we were only a couple players away from much better quality football.

If I look at the list of issues I highlighted earlier, I actually think we've made improvements across all of them. Some moreso than others and, understandably, we can and should do more but I'd always counter that it would've taken multiple seasons to rectify all of the issues. Hopefully the ownership change will give us more funds to make it easier to fix these issues. I hope Heckingbottom gets a chance to show he's got more to offer as, despite what others think, I think he's actually done a decent enough job overall so far.
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Care to expand on this?
 
Bodney Rewes said:
With Heckingbottom, I think people have been a little unreasonable with what was achievable across the two seasons considering the limitations placed on the club by the Hemmings ownership. When Heckingbottom joined there were a number of issues that needed addressing to improve our performance as a club:
  • The general decline in quality of the squad.
  • The overall mood in the fanbase.
  • The poor quality of football on display.
  • The lack of any real prospects within the squad that we could potentially sell-on in the future to boost our budget.
  • The lack of confidence within the squad due to the frequent drubbing we experienced under the previous manager.
  • The lack of tactical flexibility possible with the squad due to years of poor recruitment.
We were very much a club in decline through years of mismanagement. When people talk about the poor quality of football on display, it's easy to forget that it has been like this for years. Even if we're just looking at the back 5 formation and people's frustrations with it, we've been playing the formation fairly consistently since McAvoy five years ago.

To be able to fix all of the issues above is something that takes time and I don't believe it can all be fixed over the course of three (and a half) transfer windows when we've been operating on one of the smallest budgets in the league. It especially isn't helped by how much of last season's budget was already spent by the time Heckingbottom joined. Plus considering how late in the summer window he joined, there wasn't a great deal of time to assess the squad to see what was lacking but also to assess his options for potential players to recruit. At the end of the day I got why he signed Josh Bowler on loan as we lacked wingers but I wonder whether he would've recruited Bowler if he had the whole summer to analyse his options. Overall last season, his hands were tied behind his back when he was already chained up by the tight budget.

When people talk about the back 5 and how we're tied to it, it's clear that Heckingbottom wants to be able to shift away from it. He's even been saying as much in recent press conferences. The main reason we play it is because of the players we have. For what it's worth, I think he's been more cautious in playing it than he needs to be but at least he's someone who recognises the value in shifting away from it and isn't wedded to it as part of some daft footballing "philosophy". Enacting change does require a period of transition though. The other aspect related to this that is thrown at Heckingbottom is the extensions of Hughes, Lindsay, and Storey. They are key to why we've been wedded to this formation to be fair. The thing is I get why they were extended (although I would've given Lindsay a shorter contract than Hughes). People understandably want change but considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the league, I get why a manager might think to keep the players he has rather than adding to the squad overhaul that was already needed. It's frankly miraculous we managed to sign 16 players this season on that budget. Adding to that list rather than making it a problem for a later date when really this season has shown that it didn't need to be fixed ASAP just seems like making another rod for your own back. The only situation I can see where such a level of squad overhaul is necessary is if we wanted to make a playoff challenge this season but I think that would be an unfair expectation considering the issues I mentioned earlier that needed to be addressed.

I think some people look at the swift turnarounds that happen at other clubs and assume the same could happen with us. I think such a view is missing the bigger picture of what's available to those clubs that perform a swift turnaround. Such dramatic and sustained upswings in form only tend to happen at clubs with significant resources and often with clubs that have already been in the Premier League recently. The money and squad quality are already there, they just needed managers who know how to coach. You can see it with Southampton. If we look at the promotion, playoff, and playoff contention teams this season; who can we look at amongst them that hasn't seen a dramatic improvement that was guided by significant spending? Coventry are the best example of steady progression amongst them and they've done it over a number of seasons. Millwall have had years floating just outside the playoffs until this year when they've managed that final step into the playoff spots (similar to Boro although they've finished in the playoffs before). The likes of Derby and Wrexham have performed significant spending (Wrexham especially). Hull are the only one I pause over as they finished 21st last season but 7th the season before. It seems a dramatic upswing again this season but I'd argue the quality within the squad was already partly there and that last season was an underperformance caused by managerial shenanigans as a result of an odd decision by the owner to sack Liam Rosenior. Without significant resources to improve the quality of the squad swiftly, true progression takes time. I think it's easy to be fooled by the number of years we finished midtable and think that we were only a step away from better football when really we'd been declining since the 2019/20 season. I don't look at any of the squads we've started seasons with since then and think we were only a couple players away from much better quality football.

If I look at the list of issues I highlighted earlier, I actually think we've made improvements across all of them. Some moreso than others and, understandably, we can and should do more but I'd always counter that it would've taken multiple seasons to rectify all of the issues. Hopefully the ownership change will give us more funds to make it easier to fix these issues. I hope Heckingbottom gets a chance to show he's got more to offer as, despite what others think, I think he's actually done a decent enough job overall so far.
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I almost completely disagree with your final paragraph.

Fixing those issues is important and I don’t think we have seen any significant progress in any of them in two years.

It’s clearly been a tough situation financially but he’s made zero sustainable progress.
 
ConnorPR2 said:
I reckon 3m. I think even in his last 12 months we can still get more from what we paid for.
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I can’t see many coming in for him but I’ve been wrong before.
Do you think we should extend if no one comes in for him ?
I’m not sure which way we should go with him yet.
 
DeepDaleDuck01 said:
I can’t see many coming in for him but I’ve been wrong before.
Do you think we should extend if no one comes in for him ?
I’m not sure which way we should go with him yet.
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I’m 50/50.

With better service I think he could get double figures.

But his discipline has been poorly and let him down, which cost him goals and us a striker.

If we can get a profit still I think it’s logical to sell now.
 
royribble said:
I'm sorry I don't quite understand. Perhaps I have misread your message. When you said we will have a lower half budget next season. I thought you meant lower half of the league, is that not what you meant? So I naturally said, "no one knows what our budget will be next season" yes? Therefore, what has that got to do withincreasing our budget within a month?

He could introduce some sponsorship deals which cover that sort of thing, I don't know but my point still stands that no one knows.

I'm really sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick. I promise I am not looking for an argument.

Cheers, here's to the takeover.
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I may be crazy, but I don't think he has to drastically increase the budget immediately to see major improvements in the squat. An increase? Yes, but I don't think it has to be drastic. Better scouting, and spending, beginning this summer and being proactive in every window, would make a huge difference.

Better results from a club record signing should have been worth at least 9 more points, in my opinion, and that would have had us in the playoff mix until the last week or two of the season.
 
ConnorPR2 said:
I’m 50/50.

With better service I think he could get double figures.

But his discipline has been poorly and let him down, which cost him goals and us a striker.

If we can get a profit still I think it’s logical to sell now.
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With more fucking games he’d get double figures!

We could do the sensible thing or continue throwing yet more money after bad.

No decision to make, we know exactly what he’s capable of, both good and bad. Out.
 
baysidepne said:
And this is exactly how I feel about Hecky.

For the record, I quite like him. I think he's a good football man, find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says and how he views the game. Not sure if that's rose-tinted after the complete waffle/nonsense our previous manager came out with, or whether I just respect his opinion.

But. And it's a big but.

The football has been bang average in both seasons and without the quality of the loan players we would likely have been relegated. Granted in both seasons, the loss of key players at important times didn’t help matters. We've conceded far too many late in games (14 in the last 15 mins of games) which have cost us points, and probably the biggest concern, I am struggling to think of a player of our own that has improved in the last 2 years.

I don't want to pin it all on the manager, probably because I do quite like him, but we have got to improve. The recruitment isn't all on him, but from a permanent basis the jury is still definitely to return a verdict.

Loanees as a club we have got absolutely right over the past four years (the odd one ie Lukovic who hasn't worked out) but Dobbin & Devine as a pair have probably made us palatable this season. Without them two in particular, god knows where we'd have ended up.

There's clearly a number of fans who have made their decision already, and I respect and can understand that. I'm just not quite there yet, but wouldn't be as disappointed if he did leave over the summer. Similar to when Grayson was here, the football isn't going to be amazing every week, and is often reliant on 1-2 players really sparkling.
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To be fair, Lukovic hasn't been given the opportunity as he 🤔
 
simo said:
I almost completely disagree with your final paragraph.

Fixing those issues is important and I don’t think we have seen any significant progress in any of them in two years.

It’s clearly been a tough situation financially but he’s made zero sustainable progress.
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It's awkward because it's all perspective at the end of the day but if I'm to break it down point by point.

1. The general decline in quality of the squad.
If we look at the squad when Heckingbottom joined and compare it to where it is now, I think we're in a better shape. We've got a better goalkeeper and more depth in this position (although we could do with better quality backups). Defensively; the signings of Gibson, Offiah, Valentin, Small, and Vukcevic have all added much needed quality and depth. Even if we factor in Lewis, he was signed due to injuries so was very much a stop-gap signing. Because of the transfer business that has been performed, we have depth in our wing back positions when we've spent years without enough depth. The only area I'd say we're weaker in is that we haven't properly replaced Kesler-Hayden. Within midfield, Moran looks a decent prospect and the loan signings of Armstrong and Devine added much needed quality. They were/are only on loan but they have been among the best loan signings we've made, same with Dobbin. Through the loan of Devine alone, we added much needed goals and chance creation from a midfield that had been lacking in creativity. I do still think there's more work to be done in this area as Thompson hasn't particularly been an improvement but losing the likes of Ledson, Frokjaer, Thordarson, Greenwood, and Holmes hasn't particularly hampered us as they were all pretty much just bench options when compared to the quality of our midfield this season. Within the forwards; Osmajic, Jebbison, Lang, Dobbin, and Smith is a better set of options than Riis, Osmajic, Keane, and Evans. Keane and Evans both didn't particularly recover well from their injuries and the fact they've dropped down the leagues shows they weren't up to it anymore. Lukovic has been a spare part this season but ultimately he's just another option. We had spare parts last season too to be fair (e.g. Okkels).

2. The overall mood in the fanbase.
This one isn't as significant an upswing but I'd say the atmosphere at has improved under Heckingbottom when I compare it to Lowe. Aside from the random battles Lowe would have with fans via the media (show me your badges), the atmosphere at the ground was so toxic. It'd be deathly silent with the mood ready to drop as soon as we conceded. On a personal level, I've never felt so frustrated watching the games.

3. The poor quality of football on display.
Again there's still work to do in this regard but we still had our second best ever first half to a season since returning to the Championship. The quality for the first half of the season was actually quite decent. The drop off for the second half was very poor although it's been discussed to death why that happened and how some of those elements were out of Heckingbottom's control. As I said earlier, the quality of football from North End has been poor for years and is certainly no worse this season than it has been for the previous years. Ultimately though, I'd argue "quality" football is just winning football at the end of the day and the way to get that is with a better squad.

4. The lack of any real prospects within the squad that we could potentially sell-on in the future to boost our budget.
If I look at the potential prospects we lost under Heckingbottom; Riis and Woodman both had their heads half out the door already by the time Heckingbottom joined. He only really had the time to sell in January but considering where we were in the league and our remaining transfer budget, we would've struggled to replace them for the little money we would've received when really we needed them to help us stay up. Since then, we've signed Offiah, Moran, and Small who all look like good options who could be worth decent money in the future. There's also other free players like Iversen and maybe even Vukcevic who could be sold for money if needs be.

5. The lack of confidence within the squad due to the frequent drubbing we experienced under the previous manager.
Did you know we've only had one game where we conceded 4 goals or more under Heckingbottom (Middlesbrough away from this season)? Ultimately it depends what we're counting as a "drubbing" but it did get so bad under the previous manager that I started noting how many games we were conceding 4 goals or more because it was something that was particularly unique about the Lowe era. It was five games in Lowe's last season alone and six the season prior (including an infamous loss to Blackpool).

6. The lack of tactical flexibility possible with the squad due to years of poor recruitment.
This is an argument I keep making on the forum. The squad we started with last season was particularly limited. Attacking wise, Riis and Osmajic were too similar and Keane and Evans were both past it. This made it difficult to make changes in the forward line to freshen up our attack. Within our midfield, we lacked a ball carrier and we didn't have any natural wingers (ones who were good enough at least). We didn't have anyone who could run at defenders. We had four defensive midfield options who could only really do the defensive midfield role. Defence wise, they could only play the back three and we didn't really have a ball-playing centre back. We only had Brady as a LWB option as Okkels is just a winger. We lacked pace throughout the squad which ultimately made our play sluggish. To be able to win matches by making changes, you need the players available who can allow you to make these changes. Players who can cover multiple positions at a decent level or players who you can sub on to change the nature of the game. I think we have made improvements in this regard through the players we've signed this season but there's still more work to be done. I want us to sign wingers and I want us to sign a good target man. Plus having a ball carrier in midfield would help a lot. I think our attack on the whole needs more work but, as one of the ITKers on here said, the plan was last summer to focus on improving the defence and then spend this summer improving the attack. Under our current manager, we are operating as a club that is thinking about how we can progress in the long term as well as to just the next season. Far too many managers think only about just the next season.
 
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