The Much Awaited Return of Promotion Maths

[paul_e]

Having no back up striker (other than Samba) wasn't great either, particularly when you see the impact of Grabban from January.

Yep, imagine how different things could have been with a striker instead of Onomah on loan.  I think he decided that waiting for Kodjia to get fit would be fine but that left him massively short of numbers up front whilst we were overloaded with midfielders.  Grabban is exactly the type of striker we should have been looking at, someone who could play on his own up top but would also be comfortable drifting into and 'inside forward' type role. Maybe he wanted Green to be that player but putting our attack on the backs of a guy with a serious injury, a kid and a striker who could barely score goals for us seems strange, as does leaving himself with so little cover at centre back).

[ChicagoLion]

Buying a flop like Hogan was the big problem.

[Tony Erdington]

Mcgatecormack ??

[paul_e]

Mcgatecormack ??

He was never going to be involved and seemed certain to go out on loan, which is why a loan in to replace him should've been a priority, we got one eventually but by the time Grabban came in it always felt there was too much to do unless we could go on a unbelievable run, like Fulham have.

[passport1]

Not correct he was involved in preseason in Algarve and according to Wyness last July


"The olive branch is out and I know that he is working very hard in pre-season," said Wyness.
"It’s only a few days ago that I went down and he’s working hard."

[paul_e]

Not correct he was involved in preseason in Algarve and according to Wyness last July

"The olive branch is out and I know that he is working very hard in pre-season," said Wyness.
"It’s only a few days ago that I went down and he’s working hard."

Yep, and then we ignored him for 2 months (other than a couple of cameos in the league cup).  Bruce wasn't going to pick him.

[passport1]

You're missing the point. There was clearly a plan to reintegrate him and it explains why they held fire on signing a striker. You know running a football club isn't as simplistic as supporters think.

[Malandro]

Mcgatecormack ??

unless we could go on a unbelievable run, like Fulham have.

I'm amazed we didn't, having such a strong squad and such a promotion expert in charge.

[ChicagoLion]

Mcgatecormack ??

unless we could go on a unbelievable run, like Fulham have.

I'm amazed we didn't, having such a strong squad and such a promotion expert in charge.

A stroke of genius winning once in the first 7 games.

[paul_e]

You're missing the point. There was clearly a plan to reintegrate him and it explains why they held fire on signing a striker. You know running a football club isn't as simplistic as supporters think.

I'm not missing anything, we involved him in pre-season and said that we were trying to bring him back in but there was never a realistic chance of it happening.  aside from anything else I don't think Bruce had any idea how to use him, lets not forget that he'd started less than half the games since Bruce arrived when the gate stuff came out.

I'm amazed we didn't, having such a strong squad and such a promotion expert in charge.

Plenty of people on here were still expecting exactly that around Christmas, with a fair few posts about how we'd played most of the top sides away and would be right back in the mix when we beat them all at home and had the easier away games to come. I posted at the time that I wasn't convinced because our home form wasn't as good as it should have been given who we'd played.  In the end our home form has been decent but we've lost too many away games.

[Clampy]

When you have a player who wasn't even turning up for training, I'm not sure how else it could have been handled.

[paul_e]

When you have a player who wasn't even turning up for training, I'm not sure how else it could have been handled.

and I never commented on that at all, as i said, he was a bits and pieces player before the problems anyway, after he'd pushed Bruce into a public slating of his attitude he was never going to come back as a regular unless Bruce left because as wel las not knowing where to play him he also didn't trust him and Bruce picks teams largely on attitude and trust.

[Clampy]

When you have a player who wasn't even turning up for training, I'm not sure how else it could have been handled.

and I never commented on that at all, as i said, he was a bits and pieces player before the problems anyway, after he'd pushed Bruce into a public slating of his attitude he was never going to come back as a regular unless Bruce left because as wel las not knowing where to play him he also didn't trust him and Bruce picks teams largely on attitude and trust.

I didn't say you commented on it. You just assumed that I did.

[Malandro]

I probably wouldn't have given the bloat a holiday in Oz.

[ChicagoLion]

I probably wouldn't have given the bloat a holiday in Oz.

It’s a difficult one, we saw how Lamburks bomb squad worked out, you have Micah apparently being great around the training ground.
Once he was sent to Oz then his value went to zero-.
Bruce gave up on him but luckily he replaced him with Hogan