The season is all but done in my opinion. I don’t think the players have given up on Europe but we’ve run out of legs and the truth is we simply aren’t good enough – especially with so many first team players out injured. We don’t have a squad, we don’t have options! The players we have left, James and Godfrey aside are all the same players that have failed the last 2-3 managers so it’s no surprise they’re struggling again. I said last night and I’ll stand by it, I’m not sure where our next win is coming from and I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t pick up another win this season and yes that’s dramatic and things change quickly but I struggle to find a team in the league that puts in less effort than us. Brighton ran rings around us last night. Palace strolled through our midfield like it wasn’t there last week. Baring the first 5 games of the season I can’t think of a game we dominated? I do think bad luck plays its part… Carlo brought in an entire new midfield for the season and they’ve not played together since the first derby in October.. again, you're then stuck relying on the same players that have let down previous managers countless times but still. Adam Lallana is 32 and he was sprinting past our midfield last night like a sprightly teenager.
This summer is massive now. I don’t see the point in bringing in a manager of Carlo’s calibre to not give him the players he needs to get results. If the plan is you need to work with these same players that have flopped and failed year after year and drag something out of them then we may as well have brought Moyes back. That’s what he’s a master at and that’s what he’s doing at West Ham right now. Carlo is obviously the great manager, one of the best in the world but to get your monies worth you need to give him the tools to do the job to the best of his ability and players like Michael Keane, Alex Iwobi, Mo Besic (yep, a Martinez signing is still on the books), Gylfi – who’s legs went the same season we signed him, DELPH!!!!…. These players can’t give any more to the cause because they don’t have the mentality or ability too.
That’s not to say Carlo hasn’t improved the players. When they’ve stuck to his game plan they’ve got result they’d never have gotten under previous managers and you look at Dom, Richie and even Davies to a degree and you can see if a player is willing to listen and learn he can improve them but the majority of our squad accept mediocracy and that mindset won’t change until we have better quality and more winners.
DCL, Richie, James, Allan, Doucoure, Godfrey and Digne are safe in my opinion. Maybe throw Coleman in there too as captain but he shouldn’t be anywhere near our starting line up next year.
Anyone else in the squad could be sold tomorrow and I honestly don’t think it’s a big loss.
Anyway, that’s my incoherent Tuesday morning rant. 4 days now to see how many more injuries can be picked up at UFC Finch Farm before we send out the under 18’s to face Spurs.
