How Have Things Got So Poor So Relatively Quickly?

[ElectroClaret]

From the highs of 2 top ten PL finishes and great results at Chelsea, OT and Anfield, and the rest, European qualification to todays miserable performance and looking likely to be starting next term in the Championship.

I've always been a Dyche supporter, but even I am getting pretty disillusioned now.

So has it been SD's management lately, poor signings, failure to invest in the squad
bad management behind the scenes, or what? Or a combination of these factors, or some not mentioned?

Be interested in other fans views.

[Milltown1882]

Because players that were in their prime then are over the hill now and the squad has stagnated miserably.

I’m more concerned about back to back relegations with this squad at the moment. I’m sure Portsmouth would be a lovely trip in League One next August.

[jedi_master]

Because it’s the same squad of players as those highs, which were almost half a decade ago!

They’re old, running their contracts down (either through their own choice, or, in some cases, because we only want them to the summer) and as a result their desire has gone. It’s a real mess.

[IanMcL]

Yes we had a very good run, prior to snow.
Superb against Brentford. Suddenly, it is though the unknown about contracts is having an effect.

[agreenwood]

It’s actually surprising the stagnation took this long to materialise.

It’s a credit to Dyche and his coaching staff that they staved off the impact of chronic underinvestment for as long as they did..

[Vegas Claret]

quickly ? 2 years

[gandhisflipflop]

It hasn’t got poor quickly. For a lot of us it has like been witnessing a slow motion car crash, with a lot with their head in the sand. The arrival of Pace has come a bit too late unfortunately. Now only when the car is about to crash, are people waking up.

[brexit]

1. Lack of youth development. Dyche has been at the helm for 10 years and only one player has transitioned from the Youth setup to the first team.
2. Some questionable recruitment decisions by the club. Things seem to be better now but too late I fear.
3. Dyches inability to change tactics in game.
4. Dyche's inability to understand or effectively use the loan market.

So we are here because we have no youth players to promote, can't effectively attract\use loan players and we haven't had the recruitment network to find acceptable players.

Fixing one of those issues would help our current situation and put pressure on players for better performances..

[Colburn_Claret]

My guess would be the players have lost a bit of faith in SD. I'm sure they can see the problems on the pitch as well as the fans can, and are waiting for SD to do something to sort it. Only he doesn't.
I could be wrong, but it's the easiest explanation for the body language this last few matches.

I still hope and have faith that Dyche can sort it, but if he thinks he can't, wether that's because of poor depth of squad, or not enough new faces forth coming, then he should step aside and give someone else a chance. We have to change something, because standing still is killing us.

[jrgbfc]

It hasn’t got poor quickly. For a lot of us it has like been witnessing a slow motion car crash, with a lot with their head in the sand. The arrival of Pace has come a bit too late unfortunately. Now only when the car is about to crash, are people waking up.

Sums it up perfectly.

[Stayingup]

The main body of this squad has hit a glass ceiling. Age has caught up with many and mostly season after season of struggling to avoid defeat whilst the billionaires strengthen spending oodles of money on the best players in the world.

[warksclaret]

There is only so many times you can continue to wear the same suit at events. It will age, get dated, start to fray, not be pleasant to look at, will start to say things about you, and eventually will be embarrasing. Some parallels with our squad

[Safron]

Progression son progression

[Taffy on the wing]

From the highs of 2 top ten PL finishes and great results at Chelsea, OT and Anfield, and the rest, European qualification to todays miserable performance and looking likely to be starting next term in the Championship.

I've always been a Dyche supporter, but even I am getting pretty disillusioned now.

So has it been SD's management lately, poor signings, failure to invest in the squad
bad management behind the scenes, or what? Or a combination of these factors, or some not mentioned?

Be interested in other fans views.

Wrong side of the fine-margins & now confidence is low. IMO

[elwaclaret]

From the highs of 2 top ten PL finishes and great results at Chelsea, OT and Anfield, and the rest, European qualification to todays miserable performance and looking likely to be starting next term in the Championship.

I've always been a Dyche supporter, but even I am getting pretty disillusioned now.

So has it been SD's management lately, poor signings, failure to invest in the squad
bad management behind the scenes, or what? Or a combination of these factors, or some not mentioned?

Be interested in other fans views.

Combination for me, but I’d probably include changes in the training staff and players believing our own hype isn’t helping. We have two traditional centre halves, who are only good playing as traditional centre halves, first thing I’d do is make the pair sit through the full 90 minutes and ask their thoughts. Centre halves, keep it kin simple and safe… then you look good.

[elwaclaret]

Wrong side of the fine-margins & now confidence is low. IMO

Confidence plays a large part and we should be 3-4 points better off but for some appalling refereeing decisions, but what is most worrying is that the effort is slipping, and players are hiding. It is up to Dyche to sort it out, poor as we have been lately that was a new low and it must have made an impact on Dyche having to sit watching and away from the routine of match day. Hopefully the darkest hour…

[clarethomer]

Here is the team that played against bournemouth in December 2019

Screenshot 2022-01-08 at 18.58.56.png (81.35 KiB) Viewed 1357 times

That tells you how far we have progressed in 2 years

[tarkys_ears]

Go back to 2017 and the team ain't much different.

[ClaretAL]

What I dont understand is all these posts taking in ti account almost all said Dyche should stay as he knows how to get us back up? Yet we play the way against inferior opposition, not just today but every cup match and also those lower sides in the league. So the decision making must follow the crowd or 2 faced at best.
In my opinion if we play the same rubbish against inferior sides, then it doesn't matter how much Dyche has to spend, so that cancels that out. Then we are back to poor players and Dyche working to our strengths, that obviously isn't working either, so now we are a side who strongest tactic cant win a game? either he has lost the dressing room or we are about to slip more than 1 division as the age and quality is not there.

[jojomk1]

And Kevin Long has been here for all that time and more

Sorry Kev - not your fault but couldn't resist

[ClaretAndJew]

Long has been here for 12 years LOL.

[59claret]

“Because players that were in their prime then are over the hill now and the squad has stagnated miserably.

I’m more concerned about back to back relegations with this squad at the moment. I’m sure Portsmouth would be a lovely trip in League One next August.”

League 1 Next August ? How does that work ?

[jurek]

I suspect there^s a variety of reasons for our relatively quick decline.
Most of which have been touched upon by posters.
The most recent one is our defense with Tarks and Mee not really performing
to the level we have seen in the past.
Alongside our forwards not really performing either. Wood just hasn't been able to get
amongst the goals but also been starved of chances. McNeil a shadow of what
he was in his first season and not getting enough decent balls in.
And we all can see that our midfield isn't up to it either.
Dyche has probably been hampered by his inability to change things
albeit he's been restricted by the lack of depth in the squad and possibly his own
stubbornness to change tactics and formation.
Lack of pace and an ageing squad too.

Dyche has continually said he believes in the players but it's looking like
the players aren't responding.

He's really going to have to pull something out of the bag and relatively quickly
as most teams seem to have sussed us out.
There's not much in the bag either but Roberts and possibly Stephens might need to be drafted in
alongside one or two fresh faces but don't think we'll be bringing in much during the window.

[Zenwisdom]

Players not signing contracts should move on .
Manager not replacing weak links the chain will snap .
Sadly players joining the over the hill gang that does not happen over night .

[warksclaret]

And Kevin Long has been here for all that time and more

Sorry Kev - not your fault but couldn't resist

Would not worry about Kevin-hes on about a million a year and does not even need to wear the shirt. However after a number of abject performances by our two CH's recently, says a lot that he is not even in contention for a starting place. Time to go

[boatshed bill]

People talk about lack of investment (M.Garlick), but if the manager doesn't release squad members we are basically stuck with the 23(ish) players on contract. We can only name 25 over 23s
Here's the problem

[BabylonClaret]

You can't release players until they reach a contract end. And we have done that but you also need to replace if you have a situation where incoming aren't materialising you have to extend wxisting

[Milltown1882]

You can't release players until they reach a contract end. And we have done that but you also need to replace if you have a situation where incoming aren't materialising you have to extend wxisting

You can take them out of the squad in January though.

[tiger76]

Several factors at play for me.

Ageing squad- hence we lack the ability to maintain fitness levels for 90 minutes, just look at how many late goals we've conceded recently including today.

Failure to reinvest in our squad when we were on the crest of a wave back in 17/18, that was the time to strike when we had the lure of European football as a large carrot.

Lots of OOC players- so they're lacking desire and motivation to bust a gut for the cause, and we don't have the individual quality to mitigate those failings.

Nobody pushing for a starting place in our squad, so even players who are woefully out of form such as Wood keep retaining their places.

And a manager who seems bulletproof, even more so with his new 4 year deal, and he also seems to have lost his edge in recent months.

Finally nothing coming through the youth set-up to challenge for the 1st XI.

[boatshed bill]

You can't release players until they reach a contract end. And we have done that but you also need to replace if you have a situation where incoming aren't materialising you have to extend wxisting

Some of the contract extensions have been ridiculous. You can't tell me that a PL club can't attract new, young, players...
it's a question of if you are looking or not.

[BabylonClaret]

Some of the contract extensions have been ridiculous. You can't tell me that a PL club can't attract new, young, players...
it's a question of if you are looking or not.

Clearly not - Christie and Hill both chose to sign for Championship side over us.

[ewanrob]

Should have sold Tarks when offered 35- 40 million, it's alright going on about missing out on the millions if relegated...but as the players take most of it I'm not sure what we were missing out on. We have and should always be a a selling team, it's in our DNA

[kentonclaret]

Because the warning signs that were clearly there last season were simply ignored or just shrugged off once we had survived for another campaign. Last season we were the 3rd lowest scorers in the PL (the 2 lowest scoring teams were relegated) but no action was taken to bring in a midfielder with an eye for goal or a new younger striker. A late flourish of goals for Wood helped paper over the cracks. Now that Wood has hit a customary dry spell the cupboard looks bare. We struck lucky with Cornet who had not been signed as a striker.

If a fire is spotted in an outbuilding you need to act not wait until the fire has spread to the main property before calling the fire brigade.