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Quote: BP1 "I would agree with you, up to a point.
There was clearly a decision taken to reduce squad investment in 2023/24 with the expressed aim of reducing certain long-standing debt, thereby putting the club on a sounder financial footing going forward. They were helped in this aspect by having the safety net of 'no-relegation' underneath us, thereby removing any consequences in that direction.

I would agree also that I too don't believe the club simply wrote the season off right from the word go. I suspect Pearson/Clark/Smith probably thought the players we acquired last winter would make us a reasonably competitive outfit, whilst not exactly challenging for honours, a water-treading season in effect.
Hindsight has shown that not to be the case, obviously! The majority of those recruited for this season did not live up to even a modest billing with most being moved on elsewhere.

But I still think that the squad, as poor as it turned out to be, should still have been better than what we have had to witness over the past seven months. We should not be sat here in early September ruminating over a record of W3 - L22 (plus one cup hammering). We really should have witnessed at least a handful of victories over the course of the year, around 7/8 wins which would have put us roughly alongside Hudds/Cas. In that scenario I think most of us on here would have accepted that is, unfortunately, where we are at in 2024.

In short, we ended up with a poorly assembled squad which, in turn, has managed to underperform even against the low expectation most of us had at the start of the year. No wonder we have a record of 3 wins in 26 games this year!

The reasons why they have underperformed so spectacularly are, in my opinion, a direct consequence of the way the club is being run from top to bottom, as expanded upon at length in earlier posts! Until those root causes are systematically addressed, we will simply repeat the errors of recent years over and over again like some ever-repeating groundhog day.
Someone, probably a combination of Myler-Cartwright has to break this cycle and attitude and fairly sharpish or this club will simply continue to drift ever downwards and backwards.
We are stood on the cliff-edge right now, one more step backwards and it's........'"

In my opinion, the club wrote the season off, before a ball was kicked.
Anyone who has watched SL, realises the core of a team's success, is fitness and conditioning,
Our Head of Strength and Conditioning departed before pre season started, and was not replaced, nor was the Head Physio.
It is virtually physically impossible to compete, if a group of players who are at a disadvantage from the get go.
Pearson could have diverted funds from recruitment, but he chose not to.
We are, where we are ,due to this idiotic decision.