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Are we better then we were 12 months ago?

llanroc said:
Unless a really big club comes in for Robinson, I think we should be convincing him that we are going to the Premier League and encouraging him to sign a new contract with the proviso that if we don’t make it next season that he would be allowed to move on.
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And if he gets injured in April of next year? He isn't going to put a move to an established Prem club with a highly rated manager in a nice part of the world on no doubt treble his wages because "we're going to have a proper go next season" when that should actually have been this season.

12 months to go on his contract come the summer, the club will rightly be cashing in.
 
Tino said:
And if he gets injured in April of next year? He isn't going to put a move to an established Prem club with a highly rated manager in a nice part of the world on no doubt treble his wages because "we're going to have a proper go next season" when that should actually have been this season.

12 months to go on his contract come the summer, the club will rightly be cashing in.
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I agree.

Players won’t turn down life-changing / financially life-securing contracts on the basis that North End might have a go next season, which is always said but rarely happens, as you say last summer being the perfect example.

Some decent forward planning in the January window is a good start, but when 1-2 leave again in the summer, the club have to react a lot better than when Hugill went.
 
utw said:
Only if we don't lose too many in the summer.
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That is a 'spot on' statement

Too often in the past we have sold players to raise money, or not strengthened in key positions to take that final push

To be honest, given the past, I am not convinced that has changed, I rather suspect we are back to selling at least one of our better players a season to finance the Club

We all know or should know where that can lead; history is to be learned from, not repeated
 
Sorry guys, as Prestonians you should know that summer is always the last two weeks in July were all local people can lie out in their back gardens and get a good rust. ? ☔
 
John T said:
That is a 'spot on' statement

Too often in the past we have sold players to raise money, or not strengthened in key positions to take that final push

To be honest, given the past, I am not convinced that has changed, I rather suspect we are back to selling at least one of our better players a season to finance the Club

We all know or should know where that can lead; history is to be learned from, not repeated
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John I get your frustrations as to us not strengthening in the summer as we should have. What I don't get is your constant moan about us selling players. We do not have a choice - If a player wants to leave they will - transfer request, contract running out, heads not in the right place. Unfortunately in football now a days - the player/agent holds all the power. And that's just not at Preston by the way it's at any club.

So you are right - that will never change no matter who is chairman or manager at PNE. We will always sell key players. What is different though is that we won't sell unless the price is right. A few years ago - Treacy, Lonnergan, St Ledger were sold for any price. Now we are rejecting bids for players as they do not meet our valuation. Hugill probably would have stayed had he not handed in a transfer request but as I said before - he forced us to make the decision for him.
 
Are we better than twelve months ago? The answers this question receives will be largely dependent on when the question is asked. If we are on a good unbeaten run, the answers will largely be yes. A bad run of defeats and many will probably say no because the answers will most likely sum up the current mood. We may well be better, but if most other teams have also improved we could be better, but lower in the league. Personally though, I think we are.
 
At the current moment in time, with a strong looking bench even with 3 decent attacking players on long term injuries, picking up points and scoring a few goals, things look more positive than they have since we got back into this league, in my opinion.
 
We are definitely stronger right now than we were 12 months ago. However, the main question is come September, will we be stronger than we are right now (not accounting for injuries). I'm not so sure we will be.
 
Dirty Harry said:
Are we better than twelve months ago? The answers this question receives will be largely dependent on when the question is asked. If we are on a good unbeaten run, the answers will largely be yes. A bad run of defeats and many will probably say no because the answers will most likely sum up the current mood. We may well be better, but if most other teams have also improved we could be better, but lower in the league. Personally though, I think we are.
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Spot on, Harry.
 
My favourite players over the last 3 seasons have been Huntington, Clarke and DJ, and currently none of those can make the starting 11, which shows how strong we have become. Initially it was about consolidating in the Championship but with our squad now I believe we can have a real chance of aiming for the Premiership.
 
White123 said:
John I get your frustrations as to us not strengthening in the summer as we should have. What I don't get is your constant moan about us selling players. We do not have a choice - If a player wants to leave they will - transfer request, contract running out, heads not in the right place. Unfortunately in football now a days - the player/agent holds all the power. And that's just not at Preston by the way it's at any club.

So you are right - that will never change no matter who is chairman or manager at PNE. We will always sell key players. What is different though is that we won't sell unless the price is right. A few years ago - Treacy, Lonnergan, St Ledger were sold for any price. Now we are rejecting bids for players as they do not meet our valuation. Hugill probably would have stayed had he not handed in a transfer request but as I said before - he forced us to make the decision for him.
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Some of the points you raise are correct

However I suspect the days of which the Owner is prepared to ‘sponsor’ the Club are over

The sales of Players can be ‘manufactured’ by Clubs just as much as players, if the Clubs want to bring funds in.

By no means has the ALL the transfer money from the Hugill and Cunningham sales been spent on replacements.

And I make no comment on the replacements yet, give them time.

It may have gone in updating players and other contracts (at least in part), and no doubt into reserve for future use (at least hopefully)

Again the New Training Ground has gone very quiet, I don’t live around there, but I would be interested to know if the houses are going up yet. I thought the idea was to fund it from the houses for land sale, not I hope from transfer fee’s

I hope I am wrong, but I see at least one more sale come summer, and were will that money go I wonder?
 
I think it's important to look at the club as a whole, not just on the pitch. AN seems more settled in the players he wants and has a squad much closer to that. The club seems more settled now and the debt is being managed to comply with the FFP rules. Hopefully the new training ground will move forward and we continue to make steady progress.

In the past the thought of losing one of our top players in the summer seemed like it would wreck the next season before it had even started, but I've got a lot more confidence in the squad depth now and the scouting teams.
 
ushtey said:
I think it's important to look at the club as a whole, not just on the pitch.
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I agree with this idea so here goes a quick attempt:

Manager : +, AN understands the situation better than he did 12 months ago
Squad : ++, shows more depth and variety
Youth: +, positive signs
Support : =
Board and Finance: +, cashed in on JH, then have allowed expenditure on the squad
Facilities: -, new training ground situation slightly worse than before, it seems
Relative to Opposition: +, despite big clubs with big money, there Division seems more balanced
 
Chartley said:
I agree with this idea so here goes a quick attempt:

Manager : +, AN understands the situation better than he did 12 months ago
Squad : ++, shows more depth and variety
Youth: +, positive signs
Support : =
Board and Finance: +, cashed in on JH, then have allowed expenditure on the squad
Facilities: -, new training ground situation slightly worse than before, it seems
Relative to Opposition: +, despite big clubs with big money, there Division seems more balanced
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This seems like a fair analysis. I don’t think the squad is miles better than it was last season, but it has improved.

I’d argue the opposite regarding the strength of the league though. Ok there is no Wolves, but think how bad Cardiff were in 2nd and Derby in 6th. The teams we are (hopefully) competing for position with have improved
 
This time a year ago we lost 1-0 at home to Ipswich. Our team was Rudd, Small forest, Huntington, Davies, Cunningham, Pearson, Browne, Bodin, Robinson, Barkhuizen, Moult. Subs Maxwell, Earl, Welsh, Spurr, Gallagher, Horgan, Harrop.

Last week our team was Rudd, Fisher, Storey, Davies, Hughes, Gallagher, Pearson, Potts, Browne, Barkhuizen, Maguire. Subs Crowe, Johnson, Clarke, Nmecha, Earl, Ledson, Stockley

I think there are pros and cons to this year compared to last year. Fisher instead of Small forest, Maguire instead of Moult, Browne in the 10 instead of Robinson, Gallagher in centre midfield instead of Browne, Potts instead of Bodin. But from last year I'd rather have Cunningham ahead of Hughes and Robinson instead of Potts.

So we're stronger in some areas and weaker in others. But what makes us stronger overall is the options off the bench. We have really good options off the bench, and a lot of flexibility available. There is also the fact that the likes of Browne, Davies are more experienced, and their performing at higher levels now.
 
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