I suspect many of those we signed were deals done and discussed with the thought of us being in the Championship.
As such, they'd have had a chance to develop and grow, individually and as a team, in less of a spotlight. As it turned out, we did a bit better, gambled on them and it's not worked. Doesn't mean they won't come good (see Veretout, Gueye etc before) but it's been a baptism of fire.
Poor preparation in any event but bringing so many in together at the same time was never a good recipe.
I don’t buy the first bit, they made a big deal of plan A & B for promotion or not.
Prior mismanagement left a limited hand to be played. The amount of churn needed was risky.
You *could* argue we didn’t spend *that* much relative to what we needed (average player price).
Of course Sheffield United show what’s possible when the project is evolved over time for good value.
I’m willing to buy that Dean didn’t get a couple he wanted and got what he was given on a couple to a degree.
Where it left us was highly dependent on
a) a lot making the step up and
b) a lot hitting the ground running, when we weren’t allowed to spend what we needed for guaranteed quality - the ongoing travesty of FFP fixing the top table of football.
A bunch did neither, *and* then injuries (S-ishJM, Heaton, Wes) hamstrung us.
VAR has not been kind either.
Same rules for all but I do have sympathy how the extra subs have benefitted the big/deep squads more.
What seems to compound all of it, what all that pivots around, what it’s meant has been *crucial* is what we’ve got out of the resources we’ve got/brought in.
The slowness to make changes in-match, failure to play safe/maintain concentration to hold on to wins or draws, maybe a naivety in thinking we were safe enough to go hung ho. It’s just not felt Dean has been able to get the most out of them.
I think he has shown some shifts since lockdown, (which itself gave us a second chance to change momentum), but yes very concerning if we blame fitness at this stage.
It’s got me down, and I imagine Jack too even more, who we rely on too much to drive the team. Nullify/kick Jack out the game and we are too impotent.
I’m open to the fact Dean is learning, but it’s not really been quick enough and despite turning us round so well last year from coming in and post a bad run, he can’t have too many complaints if he gets binned.
(Apart from all the list of complaints above that is!)
