Okay, so I’ve listened to them all now because I’m a sad bastard.
Clearly we are in that bracket now with Southampton, Brighton, Palace, Brentford and possibly Leeds and Everton were we have to live within our means. If you’d told me that ten years ago after already four seasons in the top flight I’d have been very happy. And it’s not really a problem now if the product on the pitch was better and we were being run in a sustainable way on the pitch as well as off the pitch like they are all claiming. But not a single person even remotely hinted at the idea that we were in a somewhat false league position or stated that we need to improve just to stand still which worries me.
Jones, Clark and Shi just came across as very complacent. Really concerning imo. None of them acknowledged that for all the talk of the long term brand stuff to create a higher ceiling for us, that we have to make sure we’re still in the top flight.
Jackson and wild came across fine (as did Nicholls and Hunter-Barrett from the academy). Sellars and Lage were the first two for a reason. No interesting insights at all and like Jinky said you can see why Sellars was only ten minutes long for that reason.
I don’t think we’re staring down the barrel of relegation but plenty of clubs have had decent stints in the league and become complacent/badly managed and it quickly costs them. Think the transfer business this summer will be important but the sale of Neves for 45-50m plus money for MGW, Vinagre and possibly Jonny/Podence gives us enough to reshape the squad. Concerned by recent recruitment strategies but think it’s still obvious where we need signings and now we are actually forced into improving those positions with key departures.
But overall, nothing that we hadn’t already worked out but it hasn’t given me any confidence in the individual running the club
