I think we've massively underperformed in league 1. Just a trail of poor signings and mis- management

Not sure if this has been mentioned before: As we can't open the ground until there have been test events, should we be planning test events ahead of next season? Or is it still too early?

I can vouch that DO is every good salesman, he was selling the last edition of "mission impossible "for months at plough lane in the 80s 😂

DO, were you complicit in his signing? You sound like his agent 😂

That was lucky with Ramsdale, as he may of gone elsewhere in the January window.

Hillsy from memory Ramsdale was actually arranged in Ardley's time but delayed due to a hand injury. I'm 50-50 on Connolly. His end product is poor and not up to this level BUT his pace and willingness to run at people (and take the soft contact and go to ground) made a big difference. He worked in that context but clearly wasn't going to work longer term. (I'd also say, having watched him regularly at half times and from his career, he probably has a somewhat "carefree" attitude and maybe that doesn't suit a club that needs everyone driven and working above themselves).

MAD - with regard Appiah's cost - remember that his superb goal at Fleetwood in the FA Cup meant we had a televised match v West Ham in R4 - the money we made from that progression (prize money, gate money, TV money) must have covered pretty much all of Appiah's wages.

50% of transfers always meh. But £600k on Appiahs wages were highly avoidable. Did we really think after a decent short loan spell that a player prone to persistent injury who hadn’t had a full season in 6 years had clubs queuing up with 3 year deals for his 10 minute championship quality? Thank fuck that won’t get repeated!

Spit - multiple variants in the USA at the moment, and it’s not a “red list” country, and neither is India, where crowds at the cricket looked fairly close and large - I’d imagine a few more variants will sneak in somehow; but if the vaccines deal with them it shouldn’t be such a big problem.

If we can’t compete with bigger clubs financially then it stands to reason that our players will be loans, relative gambles or average players there isn’t competition for.

DO, agreed and on that basis I am not sure why we signed him.

Hillsy - disagree re: Connolly. Thought he was a good player - but we needed to play 4-4-2 to use him as a winger. We played 3-5-2 and he was NOT a wing-back.

Good summary Hillsy. The fans want a manager who does make recruitment mistakes. Not sure if that's possible

REPD, read your article. One comment that I don't understand is that you talk about our 'underperformance' in L1. On what basis have we under performed? We have always had what Joe Palmer now describes as a 'relegation budget' and yet so far we have stayed up so I would argue we have overperformed? If you are not going to measure performance against the budget then how else are you going to measure it?

Wally and Glyn had lower budgets though 😂

Ardley made some excellent signings (LTB, Darius, Elliott, Reeves, Piggot) and some terrible signings (Trotter, Jervis, Jessie Darko). Downes made some excellent loan signings (Ramsdale, Seddon, Forss) and some terrible signings (Folivi, Connelly, Roscrow). Hodges signings were neither excellent or really shit and all seemed to be average players.

Wimbledon park to get surge testing after a positive south African covid test

REPD - enjoy the article. RE the "what happens when we have a losing streak?" question, this seems to be part of the plan with the multiple part-timers option. Joe/Robbo can shuffle things around more easily than if you have a couple of head honchos and that's it.

OI - cheers. Just seen John Hartson on SSN, suggesting that a lot of managers wouldn't be happy working under a Director of Football

Lurker thanks !

Parrett for me we misused as well. Was never a defensive player but we insisted on lumbering him with that primary role, when he was the player who could open up teams for us.

Good article Rob. The issue isn't revamping the culture of the club but what the new culture is. This change looks positive to me.

We went from Reeves, Parrett and Bulman to Soares and Trotter. Enough said.

spit and for various reasons they weren't the right players for it

Unfortunately the 3 wardrobes summed up the mindset,of having players to stop the opposition rather than playing your own game and creating something.didn't enjoy Ardleys football,and didnt enjoy Dave Anderson football,too much shackles on players.lack creativity and entertainment. Yes probably because of budget and being fans owned😂