All that talent, still we managed not to go up.

[TomtheOwl95]

Throughout Chansiri's reign we've had all the pieces, sadly not all at the same time.

 

16/17 was THE chance, we had the squad, we had the chance. If we'd beaten Brighton down at the AMEX that Friday night who knows, maybe we'd have gone up automatically. We should have won the Play Offs, while Reading beat us twice that year I still think we beat them at Wembley. That's your sliding doors moment for this club and Chansiri's reign.

[pazowl55]

57 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Maybe not, but we had just been beaten at Wembley, and had the Portuguese connections. At the time, Carvalho had lost his way a bit and we could have nicked him for a lot less. In the end, our Portuguese connections were not as strong as Wolves who managed to entice some big names to Molyneux All water under the bridge now, but Carlos clearly identified what we needed. In the end we spent a lot more on players we didn’t need

Yeah Urby is a good example of a player Carlos clearly didn't want.

 

Also think saying our Portuguese connections were not as strong as Wolves is being a bit kind isn't it. They were in a different stratosphere.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Earlsfieldowl said:

 

Portuguese league..Better than Scotland and possibly on par with the Dutch League but it’s hardly Serie A.

Ok, so ..What did he achieve before he took the job with us? How many trophies etc.

 

How many clubs did he manage before us ?  On average for how long each?  
 

All I am saying is that his record did not inspire confidence he could take us up. It had quintessential journeyman written all over it.  He spotted an opportunity here and took it - fair dues.

 

To your second question - Based on the fact we had a new chairman with money and ambition, I’d say we were in a reasonable position to attract some of the better mangagers in the league or lower Prem if we’d down the ground work, identified the right ones and gone for them properly  - which of course we didn’t.  

 

History books will record we lost the playoff final with a lifeless performance and lost out over two semis to mediocre opponents  in similar fashion following season.

 

His stint at Swansea only underscored he wasn’t up to it when the chips were down.  
 

Noting against him at all but Portugal is clearly his level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Portuguese league isn't La Liga, Serie A or the Premier League. It's better than the Dutch league though and has plenty of talent, just look at the influx of Portuguese players over here recently. To add to that, Benfica, Sporting & Porto have all the money and the power so to break into their dominance is no small achievement.

 

I highly doubt that in the summer of 2015 we could have enticed any manager at the top end of the Championship or PL out of a job. We were beaten in the play-off final by Bruce who would never have left Hull for us that season and they had a far stronger squad.

 

I won't argue that Carlos blew it tactically in the play-offs in the second season, the approach to both games was wrong in my opinion and after that his belief had gone and his head had already been turned by Swansea well before they actually appointed him.  

 

[Athelwulf]

We'd finished mid-table when Chansiri came in, but in truth we were probably 18th or 19th in terms of playing staff.

 

It was Gray's tactics which had got us to 13th.

 

So the gap to bridge was bigger than Chansiri realized.

 

And the fans didn't like Gray's style, so Chansiri brought in a lot of forwards and other areas of the team were neglected.

 

In retrospect, if we were going to gamble then we should have done what Wolves did and gone the whole hog. 

[Athelwulf]

5 hours ago, gurujuan said:

Maybe not, but we had just been beaten at Wembley, and had the Portuguese connections. At the time, Carvalho had lost his way a bit and we could have nicked him for a lot less. In the end, our Portuguese connections were not as strong as Wolves who managed to entice some big names to Molyneux All water under the bridge now, but Carlos clearly identified what we needed. In the end we spent a lot more on players we didn’t need

 

Wolves gambled big time, and had it gone wrong they'd have been in real trouble.

 

But we didn't need a squad of 34 players, and we should have concentrated on quality rather than quantity.

[Lupoli]

15 hours ago, Jackie Sewell said:

I know we all blame Mr C for the current predicament, and rightly so, but thinking of the squad we had around 15/16, assembled entirely with the money he poured into the club, how did we possibly manage to avoid automatic promotion ? Can't blame him or his advisors for that. You only get one shot, two at the most, to buy yourselves out of the Championship. I don't see any club now, even Norwich, who have the embarrassment of riches we had.

Avoided automatic that season by being 15 points short and finishing 6th.

[Guest Mcguigan]

2 hours ago, Athelwulf said:

 

Wolves gambled big time, and had it gone wrong they'd have been in real trouble.

 

But we didn't need a squad of 34 players, and we should have concentrated on quality rather than quantity.

I disagree with Wolves gambling big time,

 

Their process was well thought out, their recruitment  of players was identified properly and they had contracted players that had huge sell on values should they need to bring in finances, had they not gone up.

 

Thats not a big gamble, that’s a business plan.

 

We gambled big time on players with huge financial contracts but no real sell on values, or put bluntly, players nobody else wanted.

 

Wolves sold Costa and Douglas the summer they were promoted, for £19m. That income alone would have kept the FFP Wolves from the door for another season and the vast majority of the squad would have been kept together for another shot at promotion.

[Earlsfieldowl]

1 hour ago, Mcguigan said:

I disagree with Wolves gambling big time,

 

Their process was well thought out, their recruitment  of players was identified properly and they had contracted players that had huge sell on values should they need to bring in finances, had they not gone up.

 

Thats not a big gamble, that’s a business plan.

 

We gambled big time on players with huge financial contracts but no real sell on values, or put bluntly, players nobody else wanted.

 

Wolves sold Costa and Douglas the summer they were promoted, for £19m. That income alone would have kept the FFP Wolves from the door for another season and the vast majority of the squad would have been kept together for another shot at promotion.

Spot on.

 

The way we went about things is like chalk and cheese with Wolves - they did everything properly, we didn’t.

 

..which is why they are mid Prem and we are due for L1.

 

 

[SiJ]

14 hours ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

Yeah, we had it in us to pull off some great results, but Brighton had the better squad and were more consistent over the course of the season.

 

They added the likes of Murray, Norwood, Duffy, and Sidwell to a squad which had finished 15 points ahead of us the previous year, whereas we added Fletcher, Abdi, Jones, Reach, Sasso, Fox, McManaman, Buckley, Rhodes, and Winnall.

 

Murray's 23 league goals alone dwarfs anything our recruits added to our squad that season.

Far less talented squads than ours have challenged and won automatic promotion. 

 

We had the opportunity to challenge that season and squandered it. 

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

6 minutes ago, SiJ said:

Far less talented squads than ours have challenged and won automatic promotion. 

 

We had the opportunity to challenge that season and squandered it. 

 

Meh, I just don't see it. 

 

In another season, perhaps. But not against Newcastle and Brighton.

[Earlsfieldowl]

1 hour ago, SiJ said:

Far less talented squads than ours have challenged and won automatic promotion. 

 

We had the opportunity to challenge that season and squandered it. 

I think Steve Claridge said something similar after we walked off the pitch - it had been hard to tell we were even on it for the previous 90 mins.

 

The  way we played in that game and CC inability to change anything is right up there ..we treated Hull like Barcelona and did the same with Huddersfield next season.

[briggowl]

I feel we just go over this on repeat but, we were short of a 'Mo Diame type' centre mid player and even today are still lacking. Obviously now we're lacking in many areas but our recruitment from Wembley onwards was Kamikaze at best!!!

[Guest Andy W]

21 hours ago, matthefish2002 said:

We didn't go up because the players were not as good as some fans like to believe.

 

100% spot on. They were not. And continue not to be (what an understatement that is)

Cant watch anymore, awful stuff. No talent is one thing, but to have no desire or passion either....

[SiJ]

1 hour ago, Earlsfieldowl said:

I think Steve Claridge said something similar after we walked off the pitch - it had been hard to tell we were even on it for the previous 90 mins.

 

The  way we played in that game and CC inability to change anything is right up there ..we treated Hull like Barcelona and did the same with Huddersfield next season.

In both games we went completely into our shell. 

 

With the Hull game, I always thought they were a better side tbh and just completely overpowered us on that day. 

 

Against Huddersfield, there were no such excuses. We had the better team and had already done the double over them in the league. Our first leg performance was nothing short of a disgrace and it didn't get all that much better in the second leg. 

 

I will still maintain there was the depth and talent there to have at least challenged for the automatic spots. We had the opportunities to, but continually squandered them when they presented themselves. We'd go and put in a masterclass of a performance against Newcastle away at St James and then be stealing a point at Preston or clinging on for dear life against mid-table Wolves (at home) a few days later...a team who we had comprehensively outplayed earlier in the season. 

[Earlsfieldowl]

2 minutes ago, SiJ said:

In both games we went completely into our shell. 

 

With the Hull game, I always thought they were a better side tbh and just completely overpowered us on that day. 

 

Against Huddersfield, there were no such excuses. We had the better team and had already done the double over them in the league. Our first leg performance was nothing short of a disgrace and it didn't get all that much better in the second leg. 

 

I will still maintain there was the depth and talent there to have at least challenged for the automatic spots. We had the opportunities to, but continually squandered them when they presented themselves. We'd go and put in a masterclass of a performance against Newcastle away at St James and then be stealing a point at Preston or clinging on for dear life against mid-table Wolves (at home) a few days later...a team who we had comprehensively outplayed earlier in the season. 

IMO, main issue for me with the Hull game was the midfield setup and omission of Lopez, our main creative hub.

 

Hull were always going to press but CC had no clue how to counter it.

 

If memory serves we drew both league games so we could compete but CC was too conservative in the final.