| Where’s the progress? 21:07 - May 2 with 14948 views | Jevlar |
Another season done with and another underwhelming season.
Injuries, fitness (thanks Ben), GK choices, and a rigidity to 442.
And I’d also add treating the fanbase with a mild contempt in to that mix.
I wonder when Lee Hoos will stop telling us to be patient?
And Christian Nourry, will go in to a third season (he became CEO in Jan 24 but also there’s that that time auditing our club - what a gravy train that turned out to be!) with hopefully some more pressure from above.
His ChatGPT fueled PowerPoint will be very Emperor’s New Clothes if this time next year we’re 15th again.
25/26 - 15th
24/25 - 15th
23/24 - 18th
22/23 - 20th
21/22 - 11th
20/21 - 9TH! Salad Days
19/20 - 13th
18/19 - 19th
17/18 - 16th
16/17 - 18th
[Post edited 2 May 21:14]
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| Where’s the progress? on 21:59 - May 7 with 1292 views | Burnleyhoop |
| Where’s the progress? on 21:10 - May 6 by Hunterhoop |
Not quite.
Nourry was appointed CEO in Jan 2024, but, according to the club, he had been working for Retexo as a dedicated consultant for a year prior to that. Les Ferdinand resigned in Spring 2023.
Our wage bill has gone up. It’s in the accounts. And that was for the 24/25 season. We don’t know what the wage bill is for the 25/26 season, but given the increased net spend on transfer fees and signing of players for decent fees coupled with limited number of leavers, it’s a reasonable estimate to suggest it is has stayed the same or increased from 24/25. So it’s almost certainly higher than pre-Nourry. And last year’s accounts show the overall loss has increased. The Eze money might mean we are okay on PSR this coming season given the likely impact it had to the 25/26 accounts. But that was a gift from the previous regime. Without it, Nourry couldn’t have signed some of the players he has without creating major PSR issues.
We all want the club to succeed. And most understand we need to buy low and sell high. And we all understand our wage bill is not top half and will make competing in the league difficult. But many of us also want to the club to be led with principles, people treated in the right way, to have a sense of pride in our club, connection to it, and trust in the leaders running it.
The end can justify the means sometimes. But we need to see much better outcomes to justify the behaviour of Nourry and Williams over the last two seasons. They are 2.5 years into running the club and Nourry is 3.5 years into having direct influence on the club. And the outcomes are not materially different from when they arrived. It might all come home to roost on the pitch next season with play offs or big sales and great reinvestment in the squad. Here’s hoping. But that is why next season is huge. There has to be accountability during next season if the outcomes aren’t improving.
And, personally, if I was Christian, I wouldn’t want my big judgement season relying on Ben Williams keeping my top players and top assets fit and available…even if he is a personal friend. |
The last two seasons have been right offs because of the injury lists. Pure and simple.
The true measure of any perceived progress made, will or will not, become evident when we can field our best XI on a regular basis.
Next season is critical, in many ways, for many people within the club and the playing squad. |  | | |
| Where’s the progress? on 22:12 - May 7 with 1258 views | QPR_Jim |
| Where’s the progress? on 21:59 - May 7 by Burnleyhoop |
The last two seasons have been right offs because of the injury lists. Pure and simple.
The true measure of any perceived progress made, will or will not, become evident when we can field our best XI on a regular basis.
Next season is critical, in many ways, for many people within the club and the playing squad. |
In that basis we should probably get rid of whoever is in charge of fitness and whoever allowed their incompetence to write off two seasons. |  | | |
| Where’s the progress? on 23:25 - May 7 with 1168 views | PunteR |
| Where’s the progress? on 20:12 - May 7 by nix |
Well that’s a good question. I was assuming it was Warbs pushing for it. Maybe it was the club
As with you Clive I liked Warbs a lot and enjoyed a lot of the time he was there. But if we did tear up that plan at some point we’ve got to stick with some kind of plan for at least three years not keep tearing it up. Frustrating though the past is (in terms of the years of disappointment) I’d like to forget that a bit and look to improve year on year. Next season is going to be a key one to see if we’re making genuine progress that we can continue to build on. |
I would assume it was the club pushing for it. Is a head coach in the position to influence that kinda thing when you have a DoF running the show? And why wouldnt you push for it?
Something wasnt right behind the scenes anyway, contract talks breaking down possibly .
I thought the whole idea of having a DoF was continuity. Players and managers come and go , but the structure , philosophy, plan continues. Our two best managers in the last 6 years , our board have got rid. The club and its owners should be held accountable for the progress, not the head coach. [Post edited 7 May 23:28]
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| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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| Where’s the progress? on 07:39 - May 8 with 1054 views | nix |
| Where’s the progress? on 23:25 - May 7 by PunteR |
I would assume it was the club pushing for it. Is a head coach in the position to influence that kinda thing when you have a DoF running the show? And why wouldnt you push for it?
Something wasnt right behind the scenes anyway, contract talks breaking down possibly .
I thought the whole idea of having a DoF was continuity. Players and managers come and go , but the structure , philosophy, plan continues. Our two best managers in the last 6 years , our board have got rid. The club and its owners should be held accountable for the progress, not the head coach. [Post edited 7 May 23:28]
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Maybe.
There’s two things that made me think differently. One was the fact that Warbs left Brentford because he didn’t have any say in transfers so why would he come to us on the same basis. Second because Beale came in afterwards and Taylor Richards , Tyler Roberts, Ethan Laird and Tim Iroebugnan, Leon Balogun and Kenneth Paal were peak Beale signings. Why would we get rid of Warbs when he was disgruntled about not getting his signings in and then give Beale, who had no management experience the keys to the safe?
Also we tore the previous plan up where we were starting to build with youth - Willock, Chair and Ebs and moved to very much spending almost all our cash on players like Johansen, Gray, Hendrick and Austin after Warbs had come in. It wasn’t just blending more experience with youth, it was tearing up the strategy in my view.
I agree that a DOF is supposed to provide continuity. But that certainly didn’t happen with Les. Either because the Board kept getting excited or because he was bullied by managers we didn’t follow any strategy for long enough to see if it was working.
As for best managers I know everyone says Cifuentes was forced out but I heard he was looking for jobs after the first end of season break he was here, hence the falling out with Nourry the second time it happened. That, plus the fact that an ambitious young manager who had never stayed more than two seasons at a club and took a bigger job when he had the opportunity is more plausible to me than that our Board got rid of a manager that was doing pretty well for no reason after an awful time of turbulence. Warbs IDK. As I say he didn’t manage to get us to the playoffs even after being backed heavily in the transfer market. We’d just fallen off a cliff results-wise after being in the picture and Warbs seemingly couldn’t stop it.
Maybe the manager we really missed out on was Eustace who has done well at every club he’s been at and maybe was a big part of the reason we were so organised. |  | | |
| Where’s the progress? on 07:53 - May 8 with 1039 views | SimonD |
I always assumed that it was Warburton who wanted to have an all-out tilt at promotion. The board backed him but, if I recall correctly, got him to sign a new fixed term contract to replace his rolling contract making him easier to jettison if he failed. | | | |
| Where’s the progress? on 08:17 - May 8 with 1008 views | JamesB1979 |
| Where’s the progress? on 20:12 - May 7 by nix |
Well that’s a good question. I was assuming it was Warbs pushing for it. Maybe it was the club
As with you Clive I liked Warbs a lot and enjoyed a lot of the time he was there. But if we did tear up that plan at some point we’ve got to stick with some kind of plan for at least three years not keep tearing it up. Frustrating though the past is (in terms of the years of disappointment) I’d like to forget that a bit and look to improve year on year. Next season is going to be a key one to see if we’re making genuine progress that we can continue to build on. |
Well Warburton (and any manager) is not going to say, “I think you should sell our best players”. He’s judged but results of first team so imagine he strongly argued not to sell the players Clive mentioned. Now the club (Les, Hoos) should have been stronger and kept to plan to sell. But if you are told and believe that this squad, with those players, could challenge for promotion to the Premier League. It’s very difficult to ignore that and decide to sell Chair, Willock etc. You need a very strong CEO, DOF to do that and they would have been criticised by most of the fanbase for doing that. We could have got in the playoffs under Warburton. And who knows what might have happened. Hindsight is wonderful thing but at the time, did they make the wrong decision? I don’t really blame the club or Warburton to be honest. | | | |
| Where’s the progress? on 09:05 - May 8 with 950 views | JamesB1979 |
| Where’s the progress? on 07:53 - May 8 by SimonD |
I always assumed that it was Warburton who wanted to have an all-out tilt at promotion. The board backed him but, if I recall correctly, got him to sign a new fixed term contract to replace his rolling contract making him easier to jettison if he failed. |
Yeah but he’s probably said, with this squad I can get playoffs and maybe promotion. But Les and Hoos have obviously also thought it was possible. So maybe Warbs was the main advocate for not selling players but isn’t that the case with any first team manager? So it’s on all of them. And I’m not someone who necessarily blames anyone for making that call. | | | |
| Where’s the progress? on 09:36 - May 8 with 924 views | TheChef |
| Where’s the progress? on 07:53 - May 8 by SimonD |
I always assumed that it was Warburton who wanted to have an all-out tilt at promotion. The board backed him but, if I recall correctly, got him to sign a new fixed term contract to replace his rolling contract making him easier to jettison if he failed. |
Well in fairness we weren't far off were we? We were in the play off places for a good chunk of that season.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
As mentioned the mistake was in the January recruitment. Did we really need to sign Sanderson? Also Hendrick was signed right on the deadline, which I think was mainly a favour to us through the Reuben family at Newcastle. But again did we need him?
Also don't forget that was the season of the umpteen goalkeeper injuries, which didn't help much.
I do remember us winning at Luton in mid March and thinking we've really got a chance here. But then the following game Willock got his bad injury at Forest (we lost having been one up), and results fell off a cliff after that. |  |
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