The Much Awaited Return of Promotion Maths

[Allan C]

He's like most of our squad, decent/good Championship players and good enough to get a team into the play offs. Would be embarrassed and shown up in the Premier League though.

My view also.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Elmo's been really good for us all season in my view.

I think so too.

My view of him has probably been tainted by the bloke who sits next to me on the Lower Holte, who loathes him with a rare passion.

I've grown to like him but his crossing has gone to pot. Where once he could pinpoint a cross now he rarely beats the first man. Strange and frustrating.

[Drummond]

Round talked a really good game at the Trust AGM about how they go large on profiling character in scouting and recruitment now.

And it shows.

[SoccerHQ]

Maybe not but it's the best game Elmohamady has had for us so far

Playing as a right winger though.....

I didn't want us to sign him but I think he's had a decent season. Whenever I go and watch us live, he's always solid enough defensively and gets forward and gets his crosses in even if they've been overhit of late. Always an outlet for Snodgrass anyway, at this level they're an excellent combination as they were for Hull of course.

[curiousorange]

Elmo and Snodgrass work well together. Against Derby they were very busy.

[Ad@m]

Round talked a really good game at the Trust AGM about how they go large on profiling character in scouting and recruitment now.

And it shows.

McCormack?!

[Ads]

Signed before Round joined.

[brian green]

We "now" evaluate the character of the players we buy?  May I ask why, in the words of the Immortal Basil, the bindingly bleeding obvious has it taken 144 years?

[Clampy]

I don't think it has Brian. It may be a recent philosophy for the club but I'm sure previous managers did their homework on a player's character before they brought them in.

[Risso]

I wish they'd evaluated footballing ability with a few of the signings.

[Ads]

I wish they'd evaluated footballing ability with a few of the signings.

There's a story about NRC that when O'Neill saw him in training for the first time, he was aghast that he lacked the fundamentals of controlling and passing.

Oh to rewind the clock with another manager.

[villa `cross the mersey]

I wish they'd evaluated footballing ability with a few of the signings.

The footballing ability almost seems secondary with some clubs/managers
Many years ago whilst coaching a junior side I took my team to the Liverpool Academy to play  a Liverpool under 7`s side - whilst waiting for the game to start I watched a group of older boys walking out onto the pitch in line, wearing the charcoal grey away kit - they all had identical cropped haircuts and were all six footers - I turned to one of the LFC coaches and jokingly asked "is  this the Hitler Youth squad ?"
He looked back at me without smiling - " No this is the under 13`s"
I honestly thought it was the LFC Youth team, they were that well built physically
Later I chatted with the coach and he explained that when looking for a young hopeful, physical attributes were pretty much top of the list
As my team of lads got older we had visits from scouts from various clubs coming to watch certain boys - without exception the parting shot from the scout was always - " great little player, but too small" - this played out from when the boys were 6- 11 years of age.
Good job Iniesta wasn't born in this country - he would have never stood a chance 

[dcdavecollett]

Billy Bremner was told the same as a kid.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

So in the end we were 7 points or 2 wins and a draw off automatic promotion.

That poor start to the season, a dodgy spell in December and then we'd got ourselves up there, we blinked first and had an awful March.

Frustrating that for the second season in a row, we couldn't storm out of the gates at the start, and have to be constantly catching up.

[ChicagoLion]

So in the end we were 7 points or 2 wins and a draw off automatic promotion.

That poor start to the season, a dodgy spell in December and then we'd got ourselves up there, we blinked first and had an awful March.

Frustrating that for the second season in a row, we couldn't storm out of the gates at the start, and have to be constantly catching up.

In other words, not good enough.