monmouth said:
Well yes, but I think if Potter had stayed we would have been promoted last season not needed a million to one chance to come off to even get in the play offs. We’ll never know of course. If we blow it again in a few weeks, all Cooper has really achieved is ‘saving’ us from relegation. He has certainly laid no foundation to build anything good.
I’m not sure about what would have happened. He didn’t want to find out.
As for foundations, to some extent I disagree. We have a youngish squad and players on the fringes coming through.
Foe next season we have a back line of Roberts, Cabango, Cooper, Latibeaudiere, Manning, Bidwell, Benda in goal. We have Oli Cooper coming through, Whittaker and Cullen both young (as I say, I don’t think either are there at the moment but they hopefully may develop), Grimes, Dhanda and Fulton going nowhere I suspect. Lowe out wide.
We just need a few genuine ‘stars’ to add to it. Probably by way of loan. MGW would have made a big difference. We need creativity in the middle, and some creativity out wide. And we could do with some bloody pace. Look at what the introduction of Sinclair did, and Borini as well, to the Rodgers team.
As I have said, the ‘average’ players need just a few sparks amongst them to make the team tick. It’s the sparks that have been missing for the second half of this season. Remove them and you’re left with quite an ordinary bunch. Capable of being good, but no real consistency and capable of making mistakes too often. But solid enough to raise up in the event of a couple of real quality being added.
The big disappointment foe me has been Hourihane- he doesn’t stand out at this level in the way I thought he would. And Ayew is always infuriatingly inconsistent. Better at this time of year when the sun is shining which hopefully will work to our favour over the next few weeks.
Cooper himself of course is young and learning. I share the doubts, but I am hugely doubtful we’d appoint anyone significantly better. It would certainly be a lottery.
In the past few seasons, I’d not swap him for, obviously BB, but I wouldn’t swap him for Clement or Carvalhal either to be honest. Probably not Monk either having seen what he’s done in this league.
