FCBurnley wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 4:11 pm
How many points will we get this season ? Pre restart I thought around 50. Given the injuries and small squad I cannot see us getting remotely near that figure. We looked like a club in total disarray last night
I don't think you are looking far enough ahead.
We might already have enough points to keep our place at the top table. However, despite having what might seem like a healthy cushion, it is by no means guaranteed at this stage.
What is certain is that our players will have to run themselves into the ground over the next 8 games. That will take a lot out of them and increase their risk of injury.
Going forwards, if we stay up, they might only have a very short window of rest before the next season starts. It won't be like a regular pre-season run in. So we could have a knackered and depleted squad lining up for the start of next season.
We will be looking for our recruitment team to refresh our squad in a window that will probably reward flexibility and foresight over narrow minded focus and stubborn streaks. It will be a window that punishes reactionary strategies and clubs that sit back and wait. The clubs that have multiple action plans in place ( even thought they won't have to use them all ) and possess the ability to react quickly and decisively to changing circumstances could do very well in the upcoming window.
Unfortunately, that doesn't sound like us at all ( if it was then we probably wouldn't be embroiled in the wake of this contract fiasco ).
Even if our recruitment team performs better than last Summer ( which won't be difficult, simply identifying targets that are likely to come here will be an improvement ) we will still have a hard time of it. We will have to bed in all these new players in a very short space of time and hope that they gel immediately. If those players are signed with the intention of forcing a change to our style of play we might have to master that change in a short period of time as well.
So, our recruitment team will have to find us quality players at respectable prices ( plus signing on fees / agent fees and wages ) in what might be a difficult window and they will have to get them in quickly. Every week of the window that we fail to bring in these new players will place bigger and bigger physical demands on our players. That could easily hurt our chances of getting off to a good start next season.
A knackered and depleted squad is going to have a very tough time of it next season and if the substitute changes carry over for some reason I don't fancy our chances.
By not recognising and reacting to the changing circumstances, which should have prompted a re-think of our short term strategy, we have put our balls in the hands of our recruitment team. If their performance isn't a dramatic improvement on the last three windows we will have bet our future on the weakest element of our club and severely compromised the strongest.
The worrying problem with bad strategic decisions is that they have a nasty propensity for cascading.