Twelthofapenny wrote:Remember 1998/99? Our pre-season was apparently one the worst we've ever had that year. I myself was too young to remember it (being a baby stayaway, I had to prioritise learning to walk and talk coherently!), but people around have never had a high opinion of it. And yet, HOW well did we do that season? :wink:
Greatest season of my lifetime, bar none.
Clearly, we've still yet to fully recover from the Grigg/Brandy/Paterson exodus, but we're evolving steadily, and if a slightly lower league placing this season is the cost of placing a bit more emphasis on Flanagan, Bakayoko, Heath, Preston et al, then I'm more than willing to accept that, and don't believe that makes me a happy clapper.
Our genuine quality is going to have to come from within, a la Paterson, forever more with the way football in England has evolved. Yes, experience in necessary, but we have to blood the youngsters at first team level at some point, and they're going to be inconsistent. Some will make the grade, some won't, but the potential reward far outweighs the risk as far as I can see. I recall, not that long ago, we were trying to squeeze an extra year out of a finished Steve Staunton, while bringing in a myriad of loanees like Michael Leary, Kevin James, Scott Fitzgerald & Pablo Mills... at the same time, we were on the verge of letting Scott Dann drift off into (probably) non-league football, without a sniff of a first team berth.