Darren Pratley - Important work to be done this summer

And there was me thinking she confessed her feelings for me

If Spearing is staying and is going to play then I think it would make sense to give him the armband back. A midfield of him, Pratley, Mavies and Vela wouldn't be a bad one in L1 imo.

The problem Peter, is that they weren't inventive enough, and just didn't perform. Just because we drop down a league, doesn't mean they will change their mindset. The 1st division will bring its own problems, and if our ne' r-do-wells think they can just carry on, were going to be in trouble, and very quickly. We need someone younger, quicker, and more inventive, AND who don't go walkabout for big parts of the game.

gloswhite wrote:The problem Peter, is that they weren't inventive enough, and just didn't perform. Just because we drop down a league, doesn't mean they will change their mindset. The 1st division will bring its own problems, and if our ne' r-do-wells think they can just carry on, were going to be in trouble, and very quickly. We need someone younger, quicker, and more inventive, AND who don't go walkabout for big parts of the game.

I agree but that pre-supposes we can actually sign such players or have enough of them in the academy who are ready to step up. The first is out of the question for now as you know and I don't know enough about the kids to say if the second course is viable.

Since we're stuck with the older guys and their stupid wages for at least another year I'd say we need a manager who can actually kick their behinds and make them perform. Pratley at least works hard, he lacks skill in terms of distribution but he's solid enough in the tackle and at L1 I think he'd be an effective blocker. Mavies has skill, we all know it but he doesn't work as hard as he should and is all too often found on the treatment bench but given where we are now I don't think we have much choice. Vela I rate as promising, could even be very good indeed and Spearing, well, I think he's OK and is actually a pretty decent skipper but of course it depends on whether or not there's an appearance clause on him that applies in L1. If we wind up having to pay Liverpool more money for him I don't know if we can afford to play him in every game. I just think we should play him in every game we CAN and make him earn his wages instead of just sitting in the stands watching while he pockets our dosh.

It's not a simple problem to fix I know but hopefully we'll have a new manager in place who can actually wake some of those planks up.