Reboot wrote:Fair comment. I am mostly glass half empty when it comes to this shambles but maybe I am being glass half full thinking JC has picked up a few gems.
Lets be honest, some of the players that have gone were hopeless in particular Meadows. Didn't rate Davis or Ogden, and as I say other than Miski, Hankinson and Boafa (and possibly Richards) no great losses. If we can retain Sammut and Walters that would be bit more experience.
That all said, I remain a fan, but not a supporter any longer so my views are pretty irrelevant !
I agree that Coleman will likely have picked up a few decent players and we seem to have gone for size which I think we lacked a bit of recently but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect all of these L1 players to operate at top half of Champ level so I think we are a lesser team. Also (1) we are no longer on 4g which I think was an asset to us as we were familiar with it (2) the team is completely new and as they are part time have less time to get fluent (3):we have an even smaller squad - last year we had too few meaning some of the squad players played more frequently than was optimal (4) other teams have strengthened. (5) I’m unclear who our flair players are now and our speed merchants. Do we have any?
As you say it was probably time to roll the dice on a few players but looking at the pre season 1st session photo I can’t see Sammut or Walters there (or Williams or Hindmarsh or Egodo for that matter). So I think they may have gone as well which I think is a loss. I think Fozzard going was a loss as well as he seemed to do well most weeks. I looked at fixture list and it took me a while to find a home game I thought we might win ...all looks a bit dodgy and that’s before the endless journey around the North Circ and then into South London which will be no picnic of a Sunday lunchtime.
I keep thinking about the press release announcing Coleman which talked about developing a culture and a London identity. It seems to me we have lost pretty much all our recent team, hired very few London players and are majoring on Antipodeans which does not feel quite in line with those bold promises.