Skip to main content

Outside View

Outside View

noelpne said:
Bring on the ESL for me. The big 6/7 Clubs are totally unrelated to the others and it's strangling the game.
Click to expand...
Totally agree and introduce wage caps on players. if they sign for the big clubs on stupid wages let them stay there and stop destroying our game,
 
HunterLionheart said:
Is it fair to say this doesn't look to be an 'Outside' view?
Click to expand...
0CEAFB2B-6E29-4BF4-8476-76E755169A03.jpeg
 
AssemblyAtWembley said:
I totally accept that this post probably my won’t make me popular. But come on guys, what am I missing?
Click to expand...

I appreciate you taking the time to write your thoughts down and there are elements I agree with. Even if you aren't a genuine actor, I at least appreciate the opportunity to present to others anyone reading who has the same questions you expressed.

For a starter for ten, I'll agree with you in that I don't think we are realistically a top six side and I also don't believe all the problems we have as a club can be pinned on Lowe.

However, I don't necessarily agree budgets are the be all and end all, certainly they're a large part of the game but if they were everything why are any of us bothering?

I can't speak for others but I'll only speak for myself when you ask "what am I missing?"

Firstly from a club level, it's how we spend our money. There is no strategy whatsoever. We've seen a number of teams move past us in our lifetimes including Brentford, Brighton and Luton. All three of those clubs have had a clear strategy in terms of how they recruit. All clubs we were 'bigger' than (I'm not saying we are now, I'm saying we were). Brentford famously abandonment their youth team in favour of developing rejected talent from other local teams. Brighton recruit the best talent from other team's youth teams etc. We have no sense of strategy. We signed Liam Millar, a winger, for a team that doesn't play with wingers. We signed Mads and can't find space for him in the team.

If we want to go down the youth development system too, we have a category 3 academy. Fleetwood have a Category 2, so we're behind Fleetwood now.

As you point out there are wealthier sides in this league, therefore it is more imperative we spend that money effectively. We do not spend our money effectively. Not on recruitment.

Personally I hold the ownership and Peter Ridsdale to account for that. The fact we don't have a proper director of football bleeds into this because we keep going through cycles of building the entire club around a manager who we inevitably let go around 3 years. When we get a highly rated youth talent like Dolan, we let him leave because the then current manager didn't like him. We pursue different players based on the current manager's tactics. If we believe Ridsdale the manager will dictate contract extensions too on players the manager doesn't play (meaning we've wasted money on Tom Bayliss, Josh Harrop etc).

"Ok, where does Ryan Lowe come into this?" I hear you ask.

Well, in part he's accountable for the lack of effectiveness of how we spend money. We bought Mads for a larger outlay than we normally pay, he doesn't play him. We bring in Calvin Ramsay on loan, a player with a proven history of injuries. If Ridsdale is right and the manager agrees contract extensions, Robbie Brady who isn't rated by most and Greg Cunningham who is usually injured were extended under Lowe's watch. Ben Woodburn got his contract extended due to a series of 5 minute cameos too.

Again personally I feel our structure is wrong, but if we are building our club around managers, the manager is accountable for this too.

More egregiously in my eyes though is he doesn't have a clear sense of strategy on the pitch. I would be more forgiving if I had an idea of how he wanted to play. At the moment we are one of the worst teams for not keeping clean sheets and for creativity. I don't understand how we intend to win matches. Take a look at yesterday's game, it's clear out constant floating of crosses in wasn't achieving anything, yet Lowe did nothing to change it. It's been like this all season and arguably longer.

I don't think too many players have actually improved under him either. Arguably a lot have gone backwards. We as a fanbase have seen managers like Billy Davies and David Moyes improve players. Arguably at our best, our club takes players like Jon Macken or David Nugent, improves them and sell them on. Even some of the weaker managers like Alex Neil took players like Hugill and Robinson and improved them. You could conceivably argue that Alan Irvine at least got the best out of players like Jon Parkin and Ross Wallace. Under Lowe there's only really Brad Potts who I'd say has improved. I can think of a few that have gone backwards though including two previous players of the season in Freddie Woodman and Ryan Ledson.

Thing is as well a lot of the things I hold Lowe to account for are things he's promised. He's promised an identity/brand, where is it? He's said it's his job to improve players, why haven't they? He's promised attacking football, where is it? He's promised to get more youth players playing, outside of Kian Best who started the season because we had no LWB other than the injured Robbie Brady, he hasn't played any outside of an injury crisis. At what point do we hold this man to account for the targets he himself set?

I just want a sense we are progressing in some way. We definitely aren't and a lot of the problems are structural for sure. However, I don't think Lowe is the answer either. I don't trust his recruitment, I don't think his tactics are getting the best out of players, nor are they effective. Getting rid of Lowe doesn't fix all of our problems overnight, but keeping him doesn't solve any either, especially when there are half a dozen managers out of work that I do think improve us.

If I wanted to summarise the issue in a question, if we suddenly solved our FFP issues, got a rich benefactor etc, is Ryan Lowe the manager you would pick to back?
 
MBcha said:
Not my place to potentially dox a person but the evidence points to this poster not just having a casual interest in football finance.
Click to expand...
Is this person also the same person behind the GallyNuge account because that would be hilarious if so? The few times I've interacted with GallyNuge, they just ignore the points I make and straw-man me. Comes across like he can't read
 
AssemblyAtWembley said:
Obviously that is the kind of reaction realism gets from football fans.
Click to expand...
You don't get anymore realistic than me. Your OP makes sense if you don't know our history. We were once bigger than you (success wise with potentially equal crowds). Without checking it out, your crowds in the fifties might have been slightly bigger due to your ground, but our supporters were there.

We're not under any illusions that we are a big club now (like you should be), we're not. But every other f*cker bar a small handful have been in this new? (? it's new to us) premier league except us. Don't you think we deserve to hope that we can have a season up there, even if it means getting our sh*tty arses kicked by our billionare masters?

Even f*cking Blackpool have done it, so I don't think we are being unrealistic.
 
Rodney Bewes said:
Is this person also the same person behind the GallyNuge account because that would be hilarious if so? The few times I've interacted with GallyNuge, they just ignore the points I make and straw-man me. Comes across like he can't read
Click to expand...

No this is a different and unique user but as the nature of the op indicates is not just a 'fan'.

Wouldn't be fair to share anything further, maybe they would like to do so to enable their post to be viewed in the correct context.
 
JK said:
No this is a different and unique user but as the nature of the op indicates is not just a 'fan'.

Wouldn't be fair to share anything further, maybe they would like to do so to enable their post to be viewed in the correct context.
Click to expand...
 Assembleyat Wembley.

AW?

Am I being too cryptic here?
 
JK said:
No this is a different and unique user but as the nature of the op indicates is not just a 'fan'.

Wouldn't be fair to share anything further, maybe they would like to do so to enable their post to be viewed in the correct context.
Click to expand...
I can only assume you’ve Googled my name from my login details and discovered I’m a qualified accountant and work for a Business Turnaround company?

I completely fail to see the relevance.

I am a Wednesday fan and have no association with any other football club in a business or personal perspective.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there because I don’t like the thought of an over enthusiastic moderator leaking my details which would no doubt result in overly passionate football fans bombarding my email.
 
JK said:
No this is a different and unique user but as the nature of the op indicates is not just a 'fan'.

Wouldn't be fair to share anything further, maybe they would like to do so to enable their post to be viewed in the correct context.
Click to expand...
Cheers JK
 
Back
Top