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Squad progression since Webber joined

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We are now 5 years in to a “Webber built” squad, and I can’t help but feel the squad lacks the cohesion and quality you’d expect of someone who has spent so long in role and had influence over the shaping of a team.

I can’t believe it would have ever been in the plan that 5 years down the line we would be looking to players like  Hernandez, Sinani and Dowell as genuine options to either start games or come off the bench to influence games. Or that a chunk of our defensive options would have now been a part of 2 relegation/promotion cycles and still guaranteed starters. That’s without considering the ever frail midfield. 

It feels like we are reaching the end of the road with Smith, and lots of criticism has been angled at Webber at his handling of things, but I think the biggest issue is that we’ve wasted years to only have a squad that is in my view marginally better than the one Webber encountered when he first took on the job . 

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Stopped clock is right twice a day, sadly his performance over the past 4 transfer windows has been woeful. Far far more wrong than right. Almost all the ones we’ve sold for big profit have come through the youth system and not from Webber anyway. 

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8 minutes ago, fhfghgjf said:

We are now 5 years in to a “Webber built” squad, and I can’t help but feel the squad lacks the cohesion and quality you’d expect of someone who has spent so long in role and had influence over the shaping of a team.

I can’t believe it would have ever been in the plan that 5 years down the line we would be looking to players like  Hernandez, Sinani and Dowell as genuine options to either start games or come off the bench to influence games. Or that a chunk of our defensive options would have now been a part of 2 relegation/promotion cycles and still guaranteed starters. That’s without considering the ever frail midfield. 

It feels like we are reaching the end of the road with Smith, and lots of criticism has been angled at Webber at his handling of things, but I think the biggest issue is that we’ve wasted years to only have a squad that is in my view marginally better than the one Webber encountered when he first took on the job . 

I can see where you're coming from, but I think it's an inevitable by-product of being a yo-yo club without a huge budget.

First time round we relied largely on the players who took us up, they weren't good enough and we were criticised for not having a good enough crack at it.

Second time round we spent a lot of money on a lot of players to try to bulk up the squad, but without really having the clout to sign proven, guaranteed PL players.

Couple that with the inevitability of the real stars (Buendia, Skipp, Godfrey) wanting to move onwards and upwards, and you're left with a nucleus of players who love the club, are willing to stay and fight for their place, but aren't good enough to establish us in the top flight.

Not saying that mistakes weren't made with recruitment, but yo-yoing is a bloody hard gig and it's easy to pick holes with hindsight. The main factor that has contributed to the squad's relative position/strength (which I think you outline quite fairly) is our lack of financial ability to purchase 'weapons' rather than 'gambles'.

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My biggest issue is we have spent 20m on players who can't even make our championship team and we have loaned them out. Webber choose to sell Buendia and reinvest the money on what he considered a more rounded squad. Ignoring whether Buendia wanted to go or not, as if you throw enough money at someone you can get them to stay, spending the majority of thst money in 2 players who can't make a championship squad is criminal. We now have a squad if medicore players, with no passion or desire to be here and no quality to turn a game. Sara is unfortunately looking like another waste of 10m. Webber has done well in the market with little money to spend but once he's had money he has squandered it and weakened the squad. I unfortunately expect a few years of mid championship mediocrity. 

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