PT wrote:Soccer HQ - you're right about respective budgets , Moussa has shown glimpses of his worth in the last few weeks (but not enough to merit a new contract!!!).
The 11-13 period you are also quite right. Smith was also adept at mis-managing leads. Bloody awful at times. But Smith picked us up at a point when actually having a lead to manage was a novelty. Whitney didn't.
If I've mis-read it and we should have re-booted our expectations in the summer to how they were immediately post-Hutchings then I'm sorry but I thought we'd progressed. Maybe not. And on Monday, with a whopping three games to spare I should be delighted with the fact that we should be mathematically safe from relegation. Yay and indeed whoop.
Trouble is PT when Smith acquired that skill it was 2015. At that point he had been in charge for 4 years. Whitney has been in barely a year. Sometimes these things take time.
I said in August I expected a mid table season and it's panned out that way. Looking like a relegation battle in September-October but the team pulled through and just when things were looking exciting in 7th at the start of March the team quickly realised their level and stopped winning.
I just don't think Whitney has done that badly considering the quality he's lost over the last year which is Sawyers, Henry, Demitrou and Bradshaw.
Yes he has had a decent budget but it's still been the usual mix of freebies, some loan players and the odd used to be decent player at this level who can't hack it anymore (Jackson and Moussa).
He can't go out and get a James Hanson like Sheffield United have done to get over the line or sign Wyke like Bradford did to secure top 6 when they hit a dodgy run of form. That's 2 of the top 6 right there to compete with and then you have Bolton with Wheater who played for them in the prem.
I think it's been an o.k season which will hopefully end with at least two more wins and a top half finish. Only 3 points off Posh in 11th and we saw in mid February they are no better as a team.
At the moment I'm looking at Gillingham who were roughly on a par with Walsall bar the last 6 games last season. They kept the same manager going into this season, Dack, McDonald and all these superstars and yet they've been battling relegation all year, how so? It's tough for teams on 4--5k gates to challenge for promotion every season, let's see how Fleetwood do next season if they miss out this year.