MY VERDICT

[ComeOnYouOs]

Where to begin eh?
Everything Ive been saying over the last few days was there for all to see yet again, if you choose to open your eyes, which it looks like more ( not all) are now doing.
We are so far behind the standard of this league, its embarrassing. Only 1 player is truly of the standard required, and thats El Miz, who shines like a swan would by the side of ugly ducklings.
Some of the squad are so truly awful, I dont know how Richie gave them new contracts. I'm talking about Jayden & Omar...they are both nowhere near good enough, no where near.
Rob Hunt has been shown to be no more than a bog standard league 2 player, and Danny Happe is leaving a lot to be desired. His performances have been poor, but ill not write him off as a lost cause quite yet. His injury from last season might still be a slight factor, and i believe he is capable of some improvement. The juries out on him for now.
Moncs wasnt great, but he is one of our better players. Brown has improvement in him too, Sanders & Galbraith, i havent seen enough to give an opinion on them at this time.
Sotiriou is being attacked by many as not being good enough, but to me, he isnt bad. I like him, and find it hard to understand that people attack him, but remain silent about Stewart & Beccles!!!!
Finally Pigott. Cant make my mind up about him, so I'll put him on ice so to speak, for the time being.
We need about 5 or 6 good reliable league 1 players brought in, but I doubt if it will happen, and we are going to struggle to stay in this league. In fact, as we are, its a near certainty we wont stay in this league past this season.
On Tuesday, we are playing Wycombe, another struggling side, and already, this early, its a 6 pointer relegation battle.
We are told a player will be coming in next week, possibly 2 players. they must be experienced players who know what they are doing.........a couple of promising kids wont cut the mustard here, for us.
I love this club, Ive been supporting them for 58 years ffs, and seeing what im seeing is breaking my bloody heart. It can be put right, if the will ( and money) is there to do it. Is it though?
Just to finish, I have had some of the worst insults thrown at me this past week, simply for giving my opinion. The mods/Admin should be addressing this, but they dont seem to want to, so please, if you dont agree with me, just tell me why you dont, but dont throw personal insults at me. You are showing yourselves up

[Monkey Boy]

Where to begin eh?
Everything Ive been saying over the last few days was there for all to see yet again, if you choose to open your eyes, which it looks like more ( not all) are now doing.
We are so far behind the standard of this league, its embarrassing. Only 1 player is truly of the standard required, and thats El Miz, who shines like a swan would by the side of ugly ducklings.
Some of the squad are so truly awful, I dont know how Richie gave them new contracts. I'm talking about Jayden & Omar...they are both nowhere near good enough, no where near.
Rob Hunt has been shown to be no more than a bog standard league 2 player, and Danny Happe is leaving a lot to be desired. His performances have been poor, but ill not write him off as a lost cause quite yet. His injury from last season might still be a slight factor, and i believe he is capable of some improvement. The juries out on him for now.
Moncs wasnt great, but he is one of our better players. Brown has improvement in him too, Sanders & Galbraith, i havent seen enough to give an opinion on them at this time.
Sotiriou is being attacked by many as not being good enough, but to me, he isnt bad. I like him, and find it hard to understand that people attack him, but remain silent about Stewart & Beccles!!!!
Finally Pigott. Cant make my mind up about him, so I'll put him on ice so to speak, for the time being.
We need about 5 or 6 good reliable league 1 players brought in, but I doubt if it will happen, and we are going to struggle to stay in this league. In fact, as we are, its a near certainty we wont stay in this league past this season.
On Tuesday, we are playing Wycombe, another struggling side, and already, this early, its a 6 pointer relegation battle.
We are told a player will be coming in next week, possibly 2 players. they must be experienced players who know what they are doing.........a couple of promising kids wont cut the mustard here, for us.
I love this club, Ive been supporting them for 58 years ffs, and seeing what im seeing is breaking my bloody heart. It can be put right, if the will ( and money) is there to do it. Is it though?
Just to finish, I have had some of the worst insults thrown at me this past week, simply for giving my opinion. The mods/Admin should be addressing this, but they dont seem to want to, so please, if you dont agree with me, just tell me why you dont, but dont throw personal insults at me. You are showing yourselves up

You’ve done it now you’ve no chance when the reply from LSN was “shut up” to me. Good Luck with that one. I do want to apologise to most of the boards that had a right go at for saying basically the clubs not backing Richie in the transfer market and also saying that he would leave by Christmas. It will probably be by October

[The Big Shot]

This post is 12 months worth of moaning being bottled up, you've not been able to do it the last year because the team was winning every week and your ego was badly bruised.

[Story of O]

You can’t just rid of players who are still in contract

[gshaw]

You can’t just rid of players who are still in contract

But you can tell them they don't feature in your plans and look to move them on. The likes of Sotiriou and Thompson aren't suitable options at this level but could be useful to clubs in L2, much like Clay went to Sutton once he knew he wasn't being offered anything.

Also get the feeling in desperation to not have to recruit a large number of players in one go over summer we may have overpaid the likes of Happe, Beckles and Sweeney, having lost core squad members in Vigs and Smyth.

[Ron Waffle]

It’s kind of difficult not to reply in an insulting manner when you say things such as tuesdays game is a 6 pointer when it’s just the third game of a 46 game season. It’s total hypebol, like some kind of radio 5 or talk sport shock jock just spouting sensational nonsense in order to rile people up and get a reaction.

Clearly we are currently lacking that extra edge that is needed to get something from games against the stronger teams in this division be that more of a goal threat and / or more strength at the back, but to write the majority of the squad off at this point so early in the season is just ludicrous.

[ComeOnYouOs]

It’s kind of difficult not to reply in an insulting manner when you say things such as tuesdays game is a 6 pointer when it’s just the third game of a 46 game season. It’s total hypebol, like some kind of radio 5 or talk sport shock jock just spouting sensational nonsense in order to rile people up and get a reaction.

Clearly we are currently lacking that extra edge that is needed to get something from games against the stronger teams in this division be that more of a goal threat and / or more strength at the back, but to write the majority of the squad off at this point so early in the season is just ludicrous.

It's my opinion, and time will tell how close I am.

[The Reverend]

The relegation 6 pointer comment is a bit dramatic but there is a fair bit of truth in the rest of what you say.

I’d actually forgotten that we even have Thompson at the club. He isn’t L1 standard.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Where to begin eh?
Everything Ive been saying over the last few days was there for all to see yet again, if you choose to open your eyes, which it looks like more ( not all) are now doing.
We are so far behind the standard of this league, its embarrassing. Only 1 player is truly of the standard required, and thats El Miz, who shines like a swan would by the side of ugly ducklings.
Some of the squad are so truly awful, I dont know how Richie gave them new contracts. I'm talking about Jayden & Omar...they are both nowhere near good enough, no where near.
Rob Hunt has been shown to be no more than a bog standard league 2 player, and Danny Happe is leaving a lot to be desired. His performances have been poor, but ill not write him off as a lost cause quite yet. His injury from last season might still be a slight factor, and i believe he is capable of some improvement. The juries out on him for now.
Moncs wasnt great, but he is one of our better players. Brown has improvement in him too, Sanders & Galbraith, i havent seen enough to give an opinion on them at this time.
Sotiriou is being attacked by many as not being good enough, but to me, he isnt bad. I like him, and find it hard to understand that people attack him, but remain silent about Stewart & Beccles!!!!
Finally Pigott. Cant make my mind up about him, so I'll put him on ice so to speak, for the time being.
We need about 5 or 6 good reliable league 1 players brought in, but I doubt if it will happen, and we are going to struggle to stay in this league. In fact, as we are, its a near certainty we wont stay in this league past this season.
On Tuesday, we are playing Wycombe, another struggling side, and already, this early, its a 6 pointer relegation battle.
We are told a player will be coming in next week, possibly 2 players. they must be experienced players who know what they are doing.........a couple of promising kids wont cut the mustard here, for us.
I love this club, Ive been supporting them for 58 years ffs, and seeing what im seeing is breaking my bloody heart. It can be put right, if the will ( and money) is there to do it. Is it though?
Just to finish, I have had some of the worst insults thrown at me this past week, simply for giving my opinion. The mods/Admin should be addressing this, but they dont seem to want to, so please, if you dont agree with me, just tell me why you dont, but dont throw personal insults at me. You are showing yourselves up

I agree about Sweeney and Beckles who both had nightmares today . Not surprised to see Sweeney substituted in the second half . As for Beckles he won't get away with the same brainfarts as he did last season .

[BiggsyMalone]

This post is 12 months worth of moaning being bottled up, you've not been able to do it the last year because the team was winning every week and your ego was badly bruised.

Just because a team is winning, doean’t mean its without faults.

[RedDwarf 1881]

The relegation 6 pointer comment is a bit dramatic but there is a fair bit of truth in the rest of what you say.

I’d actually forgotten that we even have Thompson at the club. He isn’t L1 standard.

Yet after our terrible defending today Thompson might be in for a start on Tuesday night . He can't do any worse then Beckles did today .

[Ron Waffle]

[/quote]

I agree about Sweeney and Beckles who both had nightmares today . Not surprised to see Sweeney substituted in the second half . As for Beckles he won't get away with the same brainfarts as he did last season .
[/quote]

If James is fit for Tuesday I would not be surprised to see him back in at RB and Hunt switched to the left, which is where he has at his best last season IMO.

agree Beckles will get punished more frequently at this level than he did last year for similar lapses but I can’t see him being dropped just yet. Although it can’t be ruled out if it continues and Turns is available.

[The Reverend]

The relegation 6 pointer comment is a bit dramatic but there is a fair bit of truth in the rest of what you say.

I’d actually forgotten that we even have Thompson at the club. He isn’t L1 standard.

Yet after our terrible defending today Thompson might be in for a start on Tuesday night . He can't do any worse then Beckles did today .

If I’m being brutally honest, I think that Beckles was given a new contract out of sentiment rather than pure ability. If you look at him totally objectively he’s not a starting L1 CB. We saw many examples of him being a liability in the second half of last season (red cards, dodgy tackles, brain farts). If he wasn’t so well liked by the club and fans he’d have been offloaded.

I don’t really think that Pratley should be near a L1 starting line up either but at least he plays in a position where we have adequate depth so him getting another year is fine.

[Omygawd]

Where to begin eh?
Everything Ive been saying over the last few days was there for all to see yet again, if you choose to open your eyes, which it looks like more ( not all) are now doing.
We are so far behind the standard of this league, its embarrassing. Only 1 player is truly of the standard required, and thats El Miz, who shines like a swan would by the side of ugly ducklings.
Some of the squad are so truly awful, I dont know how Richie gave them new contracts. I'm talking about Jayden & Omar...they are both nowhere near good enough, no where near.
Rob Hunt has been shown to be no more than a bog standard league 2 player, and Danny Happe is leaving a lot to be desired. His performances have been poor, but ill not write him off as a lost cause quite yet. His injury from last season might still be a slight factor, and i believe he is capable of some improvement. The juries out on him for now.
Moncs wasnt great, but he is one of our better players. Brown has improvement in him too, Sanders & Galbraith, i havent seen enough to give an opinion on them at this time.
Sotiriou is being attacked by many as not being good enough, but to me, he isnt bad. I like him, and find it hard to understand that people attack him, but remain silent about Stewart & Beccles!!!!
Finally Pigott. Cant make my mind up about him, so I'll put him on ice so to speak, for the time being.
We need about 5 or 6 good reliable league 1 players brought in, but I doubt if it will happen, and we are going to struggle to stay in this league. In fact, as we are, its a near certainty we wont stay in this league past this season.
On Tuesday, we are playing Wycombe, another struggling side, and already, this early, its a 6 pointer relegation battle.
We are told a player will be coming in next week, possibly 2 players. they must be experienced players who know what they are doing.........a couple of promising kids wont cut the mustard here, for us.
I love this club, Ive been supporting them for 58 years ffs, and seeing what im seeing is breaking my bloody heart. It can be put right, if the will ( and money) is there to do it. Is it though?
Just to finish, I have had some of the worst insults thrown at me this past week, simply for giving my opinion. The mods/Admin should be addressing this, but they dont seem to want to, so please, if you dont agree with me, just tell me why you dont, but dont throw personal insults at me. You are showing yourselves up

In a career of pathetic posts you have made on here together with your constant negativity this one is up there with your pathetic best. Yes, we have had a wake up call, let's see how a Club that cannot compete with the resources of those we have played so far react. Please go and do one.

[Sid Bishop]

You can’t just rid of players who are still in contract

But you can tell them they don't feature in your plans and look to move them on. The likes of Sotiriou and Thompson aren't suitable options at this level but could be useful to clubs in L2, much like Clay went to Sutton once he knew he wasn't being offered anything.

Also get the feeling in desperation to not have to recruit a large number of players in one go over summer we may have overpaid the likes of Happe, Beckles and Sweeney, having lost core squad members in Vigs and Smyth.

Taking into consideration the many various comments you have made, seems like you would have liked to have got rid of nearly all of this team before this new season started, a team that had just won the Division 2 title ? None of us like the start we have made at all, but with so many long term injuries picked up in the pre-season matches and training, well that could not have been foreseen and that factor has disrupted things and really taken a toll on Os so far. I still think though that we should have gone out and brought in a good centre forward, been a long time waiting for one. Just hope the injury list starts going down soon and that we start picking up a few points in the next 4 or 5 weeks.

[Eggski]

Please don't hate me, really don't rate RW, has one game plan, that he constantly tries, really pleased it worked last year, but we have all got to admit, games last year were very boring and predictable. And we made hard work of it. Think to be honest, last year was odd, big teams were in transition, but it was great sometimes

[gshaw]

You can’t just rid of players who are still in contract

But you can tell them they don't feature in your plans and look to move them on. The likes of Sotiriou and Thompson aren't suitable options at this level but could be useful to clubs in L2, much like Clay went to Sutton once he knew he wasn't being offered anything.

Also get the feeling in desperation to not have to recruit a large number of players in one go over summer we may have overpaid the likes of Happe, Beckles and Sweeney, having lost core squad members in Vigs and Smyth.

Taking into consideration the many various comments you have made, seems like you would have liked to have got rid of nearly all of this team before this new season started, a team that had just won the Division 2 title ? None of us like the start we have made at all, but with so many long term injuries picked up in the pre-season matches and training, well that could not have been foreseen and that factor has disrupted things and really taken a toll on Os so far. I still think though that we should have gone out and brought in a good centre forward, been a long time waiting for one. Just hope the injury list starts going down soon and that we start picking up a few points in the next 4 or 5 weeks.

Not all, but there's a few (particularly upfront) that didn't perform last season despite the title, so to think they'd be any better in L1 is delusional imo.

We already had to remake part of the squad given those who left of their own accord, losing a few fringe players wouldn't make much difference but would allow for more L1 quality. Perhaps been a bit too sentimental there, similar to the NL to L2 jump. Remember some people wanted to give Clay a contract...

The centre forward is the real no-brainer, we won L2 on solid defence and a freak amount of worldy goals, not on our strikers converting on a regular basis.

[North Stand Dave]

Monkeyboy why are you so obsessed that Ritchie will be gone by Christmas or October, do you go out drinking with him or something?
These chats are about the team but you always come back with 'Ritchie will be gone by so and so'?

What makes you so sure?
He'll be hear to the end of the season..trust me.
I told you in May that El Mizoni would sign for us again & I'll tell you now Ritchie will be here the full season.
Not a 50/50 guess, true facts.
I'll remind you of this post end of April.

[Monkey Boy]

Monkeyboy why are you so obsessed that Ritchie will be gone by Christmas or October, do you go out drinking with him or something?
These chats are about the team but you always come back with 'Ritchie will be gone by so and so'?

What makes you so sure?
He'll be hear to the end of the season..trust me.
I told you in May that El Mizoni would sign for us again & I'll tell you now Ritchie will be here the full season.
Not a 50/50 guess, true facts.
I'll remind you of this post end of April.

I would give an answer Dave if you really want but I’m fed up with the constant abuse I get off people for voicing my opinions

[North Stand Dave]

Monkey boy, be interested to hear on your theory.
Possibly inside information?
But I also know of someone close to Ritchie and certainly not anything I am hearing about he'll be off anytime soon.

[leebmx]

Mate you get insults because you are a constant downer. You always have the most to say when bad things happen hence the mammoth post today and the near silence when we are doing well. You love to moan and make out that everyone else is an idiot or not doing their job properly, or a ‘disgrace’.
You are like the people I sat next to at the title winning game against Crewe who slagged off players vocally every time they made a mistake. You love to moan and hyperbolise and it’s depressing. 3rd game of the season a 6 pointer. Give me a break.
Thing is though, I agree with a lot of your points. A good deal
of our squad are mediocre by L1 standards and it could be touch and go whether we stay up now we have got all these injuries.
However were we differ is I have some understanding of reality that we can’t just bin off a load of players on contracts and get more in because we don’t have the money. If we sign some good players and tie up wages, eg Bryan, Ageyi, we can’t stop paying them and get replacements when they get crocked.The budget is gone. It’s no good you saying spend money (money which conveniently isn’t yours) when the club has to live within its means.
Fact is last time we came up from L2 it took us a few seasons of struggle before we could compete at the top end and it will probably be the same again. It’s the reality, it’s not heartbreaking, it’s where we are and the best way to deal with it is be supportive and offer constructive criticism. But you like to undermine and hyperbolise. Which helps no-one and is aggravating and depressing. Sorry.

[O Superman]

You can’t just rid of players who are still in contract

But you can tell them they don't feature in your plans and look to move them on. The likes of Sotiriou and Thompson aren't suitable options at this level but could be useful to clubs in L2, much like Clay went to Sutton once he knew he wasn't being offered anything.

Also get the feeling in desperation to not have to recruit a large number of players in one go over summer we may have overpaid the likes of Happe, Beckles and Sweeney, having lost core squad members in Vigs and Smyth.

....and what would you have said if we had binned 3/4 of a championship winning squad in June and taken 3 months to replace it?

[RedDwarf 1881]

Monkey boy, be interested to hear on your theory.
Possibly inside information?
But I also know of someone close to Ritchie and certainly not anything I am hearing about he'll be off anytime soon.

What I'd like to know is how close are we to signing these next two strikers .

[gshaw]

You can’t just rid of players who are still in contract

But you can tell them they don't feature in your plans and look to move them on. The likes of Sotiriou and Thompson aren't suitable options at this level but could be useful to clubs in L2, much like Clay went to Sutton once he knew he wasn't being offered anything.

Also get the feeling in desperation to not have to recruit a large number of players in one go over summer we may have overpaid the likes of Happe, Beckles and Sweeney, having lost core squad members in Vigs and Smyth.

....and what would you have said if we had binned 3/4 of a championship winning squad in June and taken 3 months to replace it?

That business needs to be done quickly in key areas? When the 3 defenders were delaying on contracts was quite happy to see all replaced if it came to it.

The key ones to retain moved on and we got one unexpected bonus with El Miz returning. Not many would've been fussed if our L2 strikers left either.

Monkey boy, be interested to hear on your theory.
Possibly inside information?
But I also know of someone close to Ritchie and certainly not anything I am hearing about he'll be off anytime soon.

What I'd like to know is how close are we to signing these next two strikers .

Was told by someone that Kent said Monday?

[Monkey Boy]

Mate you get insults because you are a constant downer. You always have the most to say when bad things happen hence the mammoth post today and the near silence when we are doing well. You love to moan and make out that everyone else is an idiot or not doing their job properly, or a ‘disgrace’.
You are like the people I sat next to at the title winning game against Crewe who slagged off players vocally every time they made a mistake. You love to moan and hyperbolise and it’s depressing. 3rd game of the season a 6 pointer. Give me a break.
Thing is though, I agree with a lot of your points. A good deal
of our squad are mediocre by L1 standards and it could be touch and go whether we stay up now we have got all these injuries.
However were we differ is I have some understanding of reality that we can’t just bin off a load of players on contracts and get more in because we don’t have the money. If we sign some good players and tie up wages, eg Bryan, Ageyi, we can’t stop paying them and get replacements when they get crocked.The budget is gone. It’s no good you saying spend money (money which conveniently isn’t yours) when the club has to live within its means.
Fact is last time we came up from L2 it took us a few seasons of struggle before we could compete at the top end and it will probably be the same again. It’s the reality, it’s not heartbreaking, it’s where we are and the best way to deal with it is be supportive and offer constructive criticism. But you like to undermine and hyperbolise. Which helps no-one and is aggravating and depressing. Sorry.

I take your point and perhaps I can be a bit harsh sometimes I admit but sometimes the truth hurts. Not true about I never praise them I’m afraid. I’ve put positive things about the club many times but that’s forgotten very quickly. I’ve supported this team since the mid sixties and I’ve seen many more ups and downs than most. Can you remember the bucket being past around to help the club survive I know I can. I’m also a season ticket holder and I truly wish the club would win every game, but if you can see things going wrong before it happens you tend to want to do something about it.Two seasons ago I said on the other board that they don’t sign players early because they save on wages,Ling admitted it on a pod cast after I said it (can’t remember what one). I called Jacket out after a couple of months that he would be gone by Christmas, again I was proven right unfortunately for him. I like Wellens very much but either he or the board haven’t bought the right players in. Yes he’s brought quality midfielders in but has left the defence and forwards woefully short and not prioritised in those areas. Yes we are not a rich club so do we need 6/7 central midfielders? Now here’s the bit Dave was interested in and it will really piss people off I’ve worked for several clubs over the years even up until last season and I have some insight to how clubs work and you would be astonished at what goes on. I to Dave have known managers over the years and I can assure there not going to tell every Tom willy and Harry what there actual thoughts are. You ask why I think Wellens will leave. Think today was perfectly obvious, he’s not been backed. We could have played until next week and not scored. He had spent all last season doing wonders for this club and has enhanced his reputation. His reputation before coming here was beginning to wain but after last season picked up. Will he risk it all again by getting relegated? For all those who think I have a downer on the club you couldn’t be more wrong. But even I’m getting fed up with the abuse thrown at me just for putting an opinion forward, life’s to short and I have many better things to do than butt heads with people on here that have no football knowledge or even worse just plan rude. Hope that answers your post and thanks for yours. Hope the O’s pick up