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First season in championship

  • Thread starter Thread starter Magic_Michu
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Magic_Michu

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Just talking to a mate about how good our squad was under Potter.

How the hell didn’t we go up!?

Roberts, Olsson, Van der Hoorn, Rodon, Fer, Grimes, Routledge, Dyer, Dan James, Montero & McBurnie

Can you imagine we had some of those players now?
 
Because Potter mucked about far too much in the first half of the season.

Grimes left back and Naughton CDM two of the highlights.

He got us ticking later on but it was too late.
 
Was just watching highlights of the Sheffield United away game from 2018, our first back in the championship.
Some of our one touch, passing and movement was sublime. We finished te tho think that season.
Just shows how poor a quality league the championship has become, compared to even five years ago.
 
TerryPHELAN said:
Was just watching highlights of the Sheffield United away game from 2018, our first back in the championship.
Some of our one touch, passing and movement was sublime. We finished tenth in the league, I think that season.
Just shows how poor a quality league the championship has become, compared to even five years ago.
 
Magic_Michu said:
Just talking to a mate about how good our squad was under Potter.

How the hell didn’t we go up!?

Roberts, Olsson, Van der Hoorn, Rodon, Fer, Grimes, Routledge, Dyer, Dan James, Montero & McBurnie

Can you imagine we had some of those players now?

Olsson, Montero & Fer injured a lot of the time

Grimes, Rodon, James, McBurnie - this was their breakthrough first proper full season at this level. Credit to Potter for developing them out of the ‘junior’ ranks

Dyer was well past it but had been given a ridiculous long contract extension by Jenkins

Routledge & Roberts - pretty solid seasons for both
 
A combination of players that were past it, injury prone, players that were still pretty inexperienced and players that wanted to move away after relegation. Plus Potter new to English football and tinkered around.
 
EagleEye said:
Olsson, Montero & Fer injured a lot of the time

Grimes, Rodon, James, McBurnie - this was their breakthrough first proper full season at this level. Credit to Potter for developing them out of the ‘junior’ ranks

Dyer was well past it but had been given a ridiculous long contract extension by Jenkins

Routledge & Roberts - pretty solid seasons for both

A lot of people look back and think of that squad as full of players at their peak, but it really wasn't. DJ's first good game came in October (Ipswich), before that plenty of fans were ranting about how disgraceful it was to have this tiny lad on the pitch for us. Dismay when Rodon was asked to play after the deadline day exits. Grimes was a two-time Championship flop returned from a relegation season in League One. McBurnie was proven in the Championship but even Roberts was questionable initially as he'd hardly thrived at Boro or Bristol Rovers.

The seniors we were left with were mostly injured and/or crap. Some couldn't play due to contract clauses we couldn't afford to honour. Potter's signings proved poor, so Courtney Baker-Richardson and Yan Dhanda were seeing minutes in spells.

Which of the stars of Potter's season have since gone on to greater things? Rodon is getting a mixed reception in Ligue 1. Dan James did okay for Man Utd at their worst. McBurnie's in the Championship, as is Roberts, and Celina's getting another chance at it after dotting around for a while.

That said we might have gone up if Potter had picked the better goalkeeper. Open play defence was among the best in the league (sustained possession without opening ourselves up to counters, can you imagine?), but set pieces we were dead last. Nordfeldt couldn't catch a cold but he was "good with his feet".
 
Magic_Michu said:
Just talking to a mate about how good our squad was under Potter.

How the hell didn’t we go up!?

Roberts, Olsson, Van der Hoorn, Rodon, Fer, Grimes, Routledge, Dyer, Dan James, Montero & McBurnie

Can you imagine we had some of those players now?
I've said in other posts on here that Potter done a really poor job with the squad at his disposal. Never even got us in the play offs .
 
If he had another season I think he would also have gotten us to the players just like Cooper did.

If he had access to a player like Ayew what a difference he would have made to what was ultimately a squad of kids plus Routledge and Naughton.

So many "ifs" though, similarly we wouldn't have had some of the loans we did I think (Guehi and Brewster being two of them who came because of Cooper)
 

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