Retained list

[Reading Rebel]

24 minutes ago, Holyport Rebel said:

 

Have to say that is more or less exactly what I was thinking Sir Rebel.

It makes what was already going to be a  busy summer for Scott even busier, but if he thinks he can make it work and make us a stronger outfit, then Scott of course has my backing.

 

Of course I'm sure Scott will have every supporters backing to 'get it right' on the pitch.

It took us a while to get the right man between the sticks and just as we all thought we'd found him we decide to 'change direction' in the way we want a keeper to play.

Best of luck to Scott in trying to find this keeper who's all round game is top notch not only with his keeping abilities but as a person and also falls within our budget constraints.

 

[Curtis]

I apologise in advance but I disagree with most of you.

I think we’ve done reasonably well this season regarding results but I haven’t been impressed with or enjoyed the style of football we have been playing, especially when you consider:-

1. we have a playing surface that should encourage playing football on the ground & through the midfield

2. we are developing players through the EDS & academy, which is generally teaching them passing football & playing out from the back

But in my opinion it all starts with a goalkeeper comfortable with the ball at his feet & passing…. otherwise you end up playing long, giving away possession most of the time, & pressing & competing to win the ball back.

[Ian g f]

Playing out from the back I'm not convinced Every Saturday watching MOD you see some class defenders making terrible decisions I don't think my nerves could take it 😨

[Nathan]

4 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

We had a keeper in Charlie who most supporters will agree was excellent at what we would all call being a traditional keeper with his shot stopping etc. 

Maybe I've got this wrong, but isn't good shot-stopping only the bare minimum for a goalkeeper?

4 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

And please lets not go down the loan route for a keeper after the last disastrous episode. 

Rohan Luthra didn't last very long with us even though there was nothing wrong with his shot-stopping; his distribution and command of the area were both very poor.

IMO Horlock's shot-stopping was decent but the rest of his game needed some work, particularly his distribution. Nonetheless I didn't put changing the goalkeeper as a top priority and am surprised that we've let him go without a replacement lined up.

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Curtis said:

I apologise in advance but I disagree with most of you.

I think we’ve done reasonably well this season regarding results but I haven’t been impressed with or enjoyed the style of football we have been playing, especially when you consider:-

I apologise but I disagree with you 😉

I think you're overlooking the fact that between December and March we won the grand total of 3 league matches from 21, and went from a position of total safety to very nearly being dragged into a relegation scrap.

The fact that this didn't happen I put down to an unexpectedly fast start in August, where I recall that the general consensus was that we were overachieving 😕

That's why people were panicking (for want of a better word), and why a much larger playing budget is now deemed necessary. Let's hope it can be used properly and we won't have to rely on fast starts and overachievement again 😉

[Sir Rebel1965]

1 hour ago, Curtis said:

I apologise in advance but I disagree with most of you.

I think we’ve done reasonably well this season regarding results

Are you having a laugh!?!?

Season 23/24 - 24/25

League. 10th.       16th

Wins      18.          15.

Draws.   14.          12 

Lost.       14.          19

Goals for 81.         70

G against 69.        75

GD.          +12.      -5

 

And you think that a decline in all the critical stats is a reasonable season?!?!

[Curtis]

We were 6 points off of 10th place this season, & if we hadn’t agreed to sell Leon (for what I think was a record club fee, & is probably funding a bigger playing budget for the coming season), then I think we would have got those additional six points.

[Sir Rebel1965]

2 minutes ago, Curtis said:

We were 6 points off of 10th place this season, & if we hadn’t agreed to sell Leon (for what I think was a record club fee, & is probably funding a bigger playing budget for the coming season), then I think we would have got those additional six points.

But we didn't get the six points and the bigger budget is not yet a fact, so pure speculation.

The table doesn't lie, and with the number of new players required, the new budget, however big it is will be extremely stretched.

[Reading Rebel]

9 hours ago, Curtis said:

I apologise in advance but I disagree with most of you.

I think we’ve done reasonably well this season regarding results but I haven’t been impressed with or enjoyed the style of football we have been playing, especially when you consider:-

1. we have a playing surface that should encourage playing football on the ground & through the midfield

2. we are developing players through the EDS & academy, which is generally teaching them passing football & playing out from the back

But in my opinion it all starts with a goalkeeper comfortable with the ball at his feet & passing…. otherwise you end up playing long, giving away possession most of the time, & pressing & competing to win the ball back.

Don't apologize Curtis you're entitled to an opinion.

I think we did ok in the end if you consider we reportedly had one of the lowest budgets in the division but with a few games to go we were still looking over our shoulders. 

Developing players through our academy currently has very little to do with how the first team play their football.

The gap from academy football to playing in the NLS is so huge that imo very few will make it as a regular first team player.

I think I'm right in saying since A23 became part of STFC only one player has commanded a regular 1st team place and that was Alphonso Tenconi. 

Of course it's more beneficial if a keeper is good with his feet with the idea of the keeper playing out from the back you will need the quality of players/defenders who are comfortable on the ball when put under pressure.

Edited May 3 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Nathan said:

Maybe I've got this wrong, but isn't good shot-stopping only the bare minimum for a goalkeeper?

Rohan Luthra didn't last very long with us even though there was nothing wrong with his shot-stopping; his distribution and command of the area were both very poor.

IMO Horlock's shot-stopping was decent but the rest of his game needed some work, particularly his distribution. Nonetheless I didn't put changing the goalkeeper as a top priority and am surprised that we've let him go without a replacement lined up.

Of course but some are better at shot stopping than others.

IMO Charlies shot stopping was up there with the best we've had and yes like every keeper his game wasn't perfect.

Imo one thing we want to avoid at all costs is panicking about getting a decent keeper in and having to resort to the loan market.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

But we didn't get the six points and the bigger budget is not yet a fact, so pure speculation.

The table doesn't lie, and with the number of new players required, the new budget, however big it is will be extremely stretched.

A bigger more competitive budget next season is a fact as was said by Ash Smith at the fans forum.

As for the budget being stretched? well for starters we're now looking for a new keeper who more than likely will be more expensive than Charlie Horlock. 

Edited May 3 by Reading Rebel

[GlenSTFC]

7 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

A bigger more competitive budget next season is a fact as was announced by Ash Smith at the fans forum.

As for the budget being stretched? well for starters we're now looking for a new keeper who more than likely will be more expensive than Charlie Horlock. 

Yes the budget will be bigger but technically that could mean a few hundred pounds more not thousands. Also remember we need to have a minimum of 18 match day players with the new 7 subs rule. I think 2 or 3 of these subs may be youngsters but that’s not going to help them develop either. But we do have a large pool of EDS players so at least we have that option.

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Curtis said:

We were 6 points off of 10th place this season, & if we hadn’t agreed to sell Leon (for what I think was a record club fee, & is probably funding a bigger playing budget for the coming season), then I think we would have got those additional six points.

As far as I'm aware, our fee for LCP was and is undisclosed. Our club record fee received is (according the infallible Wikipedia) £25k for Lloyd Owusu from Brentford in 1998, so theoretically this could mean as little as £25001 received for LCP (I'm sure someone on here at the time mentioned rumours on the Southend forum of £50k though).

To put this into perspective, our prize money from our FA Cup run this season = £12,125, and from the FA Trophy = £8250, so a combined total of £20,375. Hopefully those rumours were closer, as I doubt that anything less would be enough to fund a substantially larger playing budget (if indeed that's what we're getting).

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

But we didn't get the six points and the bigger budget is not yet a fact, so pure speculation.

The table doesn't lie, and with the number of new players required, the new budget, however big it is will be extremely stretched.

34 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

A bigger more competitive budget next season is a fact as was announced by Ash Smith at the fans forum.

As for the budget being stretched? well for starters we're now looking for a new keeper who more than likely will be more expensive than Charlie Horlock. 

I apologise if I've missed anything, but it's shame we haven't had more information about what was asked and answered at this Fans Forum, as all I've seen is garbled snippets here and there. If the Fans Forum didn't clear up these sorts of misunderstandings, then what was the point of having it?

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

Yes the budget will be bigger but technically that could mean a few hundred pounds more not thousands. Also remember we need to have a minimum of 18 match day players with the new 7 subs rule. I think 2 or 3 of these subs may be youngsters but that’s not going to help them develop either. But we do have a large pool of EDS players so at least we have that option.

I think at the forum the question was asked 'are we going to have a competitive budget next season?

The reply from Ash was 'it depends what you mean by competitive'.

The reply was 'not top and not bottom but somewhere in the middle' to which the answer was yes.

On the 7 subs rule, will it be compulsory to have 7 subs or is that a maximum with no minimum number required?

Of course with an academy it shouldn't be a problem for us to fill the bench.

Edited May 3 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

6 hours ago, Nathan said:

As far as I'm aware, our fee for LCP was and is undisclosed. Our club record fee received is (according the infallible Wikipedia) £25k for Lloyd Owusu from Brentford in 1998, so theoretically this could mean as little as £25001 received for LCP (I'm sure someone on here at the time mentioned rumours on the Southend forum of £50k though).

To put this into perspective, our prize money from our FA Cup run this season = £12,125, and from the FA Trophy = £8250, so a combined total of £20,375. Hopefully those rumours were closer, as I doubt that anything less would be enough to fund a substantially larger playing budget (if indeed that's what we're getting).

At the time it was rumored to be 50K but after asking someone inside the club it was less than that.

The exact figure was not divulged but narrowed down to somewhere around 30/40k

Edited May 3 by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

I didn’t take notes at the Fans Forum but I thought it was said that Scott would have a middling budget this coming season, whereas all the talk was that this last season he had one of the lowest budgets….. so to me that would mean a significant budget increase.

[Reading Rebel]

4 minutes ago, Curtis said:

I didn’t take notes at the Fans Forum but I thought it was said that Scott would have a middling budget this coming season, whereas all the talk was that this last season he had one of the lowest budgets….. so to me that would mean a significant budget increase.

Somewhere in the middle to make us more competitive.

[Scott Davies]

I’ll clear a couple of things up.

Who said about playing out from the back? I certainly didn’t! Being good with their feet means a whole load of different things. Striking of the ball, receiving back passes and so on.

With regards to the budget, Ash said something along the lines of ‘with this man beside me, I believe that with his recruitment he can get us to mid table and be competitive’.

I clearly said that it’s all down to my recruitment, which I’m not always going to get correct! I did say that I’m not a world class coach, and don’t think I’m a tactical genius but identifying a player is one of my strong points and I’d like like to think I’ve got a few correct by now.

5 teams finished higher this season than what they did last season. Torquay, Eastbourne, Truro, Weston and Hemel, everyone else finished lower than the previous year.

Doesn’t take a genius to work out why. 

[GlenSTFC]

11 minutes ago, Scott Davies said:

I’ll clear a couple of things up.

Who said about playing out from the back? I certainly didn’t! Being good with their feet means a whole load of different things. Striking of the ball, receiving back passes and so on.

With regards to the budget, Ash said something along the lines of ‘with this man beside me, I believe that with his recruitment he can get us to mid table and be competitive’.

I clearly said that it’s all down to my recruitment, which I’m not always going to get correct! I did say that I’m not a world class coach, and don’t think I’m a tactical genius but identifying a player is one of my strong points and I’d like like to think I’ve got a few correct by now.

5 teams finished higher this season than what they did last season. Torquay, Eastbourne, Truro, Weston and Hemel, everyone else finished lower than the previous year.

Doesn’t take a genius to work out why. 

Appreciate your very busy Scott but are any new signings close or are we weeks away?