I actually believe the attacking players we’ve had since January are much better than they’re being allowed to show. So I believe we should be doing better, I’d say bottom 8 rather than bottom 3.
Also my player of last season was Marv, he’s been nowhere near the same standard this. Loans like Sterling and Wintle haven’t been replaced position for position by the same standard.
But most importantly the managers have been negative. I thought Appleton got a raw deal to a certain extent, and there were probably 5 or so really good performances up to the Coventry game where you see some semblance of structure and a style of play. But there were also bizarre selections. The new guy is just hopeless and deluded, I can’t be bothered talking about him.
For us to succeed at this level we need an inspirational manager who makes the players believe they’re better than they are, and create a team better than the sum of its parts. Neither manager has got anywhere near that.
It will always be difficult with our budget at this level, and I’ll never be one calling for SS to indefinitely sustain the club to unreasonable levels. But it just didn’t have to be like this