To be fair it was obvious that the Covid situation has really done us as a club, can’t see what AP could have done about that. He tired to gamble cutting costs on backroom staff for a few years now and that’s hasn’t paid off and the ultimate last throw of the dice was the ‘young and unproven’ recruitment strategy for this season that failed miserably. The numbers don’t add up he’s had to cut back somewhere, he’s ultimately made some terrible decisions though under that pressure.

Still don’t get the anger and hate towards him, but it’s obvious we need a change of ownership now. He’ll always be playing catch up and the atmosphere will just get more and more toxic the further we slide down.

I just don’t see who’s going to buy what’s essentially just a squad of poor players. Get off to decent start to the season, keep steady crowds and maybe we become a more attractive proposition to someone. We really need some clarity on the ‘investment’ situation, we’ve obviously decided to put more money into backroom stuff again from whatever the ‘capital injection’ has been made available to the club but I’m guessing this will need to be paid back at some point.

I think that the anger, hate and toxicity is largely down to two points that you mention: terrible decisions and sliding down the table. As fans we can only watch these things unfurl and are helpless at preventing them as we're not involved in the actual running of the club. So questions get asked about those that are running the club when things go wrong. And when things continue to go wrong, that's what generates the anger. I'm not saying I agree with it all but I can understand why it's built up as it has.

One other thing that I think has caused the toxicity and stuff is that there seems to be a lack of accountability and transparency from the club, particularly our owner. Today's case in point, AP bemoans the huge medical bills that the club have incurred but won't hold his hand up and admit that a big part of the reason we have such high bills is because he reduced the backroom medical staff in the first place. Instead he's making it sound like it's been bad luck and the improvements to the staff now occurring are forward thinking and savvy moves.

Will be interesting to see what comes out of the fans forum in a few weeks regarding things like the investment, lease agreements, the Covid loan etc but I fear it will largely be all smoke and mirrors.

The biggest issue for me is the lack of communication. For example he has repeatedly said last years squad was at 'full cap' when logic suggests cuts were made to strengthen finances.

He made it clear the covid loan was a drain in the club, told us when it was due to be paid back, but then hasn't confirmed if it has or not.

I understand that when passes for 2024 went on sale he couldn't say 'sorry guys I'm cutting corners and risk is we will drop down the table' but there's a middle ground between that and telling us the club is still being funded fully and all our issues are bad luck.

Absolutely this.

Time for Pearson to move on, say thanks for those two or so years of success, saving us from Kath, getting us through covid years and hopefully getting new investment.

That was something I was going to mention as well in my earlier post regarding things creating the toxicity, anger, hate etc and you and Chris71 have mentioned it: false promises. I don't know if we were at full cap or not and to be honest I'm not sure whether I find it more palatable that our owner lied to us or whether it would be better to believe that we so badly misspent the cap.

But whilst something like that is debatable, the bullish promises about being competitive and then serving up what we did just aren't up for debate. That's something he has been guilty of for a number of years. Fair enough, he's got pass sales to think of as you say and even generating enough interest for pay at the gate supporters to attend. But I think to repeatedly make such statements and then failing to deliver has added to the toxicity that is around.

Without a doubt! Public relations are not in good shape at all.

Last few years have been s.hite all round from the bottom up. Personally think there will be a few announcements over the coming weeks/ months . It does feel to me like a full restart for the club. Think it will be small steps and I don't think we will be in the top 6 next year. But expect us to be more competitive all round. Maybe get lucky in the CC and get a decent run. It's the hope that kills you

Its not just a squad of poor average players,its an ageing squad with several injury prone players and even the best backroom conditioning and physios wont be able to prevent them spending too much time sitting in the stands nursing injuries.
Can see this team being competitve for early season matches but not picking up many wins then falling off a cliff.

keep ironing the shirt

Not like you to be negative

The bit I've highlighted in bold you'd have to think its probably a bit of both. Looking at the squad build by Smith for 2024 can't seriously have been at full cap level, but if it genuinely has then the Cap Management has been scandalous. I'd think most likely we were operating below cap but maybe not by a lot all of which is an indication of why we were so poor and players on deals getting moved by Myler after his arrival.

AP had either been too trusting and handed over far too much control to Clark & Smith, taken his eye off the ball or just simply been dishonest or hiding the facts from the fans. I'd like to think and hope that it hasn't been the latter.

All I know is that there haven't just been a few changes taking place but almost a total root and branch overhaul of the club both on and off the field so surely the only way to go now from here on in is upwards.

Well at least YOU willl have something to celebrate.

Cas and Wakey confirmed as Grade A clubs.

What a sport.

Just becomes a bigger joke of a sport than it is and the IMG part less value if a club that finished one place above us yet has a poor ground that needs a massive refurb and a team promoted from the Championship can outscore any existing SL club on the grading.

Just shows the criteria is awful, get punished for having a good stadium, Goole get better catchment area points, penalised for two clubs in the city….the list goes on. Shambles.

Academy sides don’t come into the grading as it’s all based on Marketing KPI’s.

So don’t bother running an Academy (and therefore provide players for the future of the game), just get some LED advertising boards.

Like what?

Have you won Euromillions?

Surely the academy part feeds in to on field performance? Wigan have the best academy in the country and is reflected in their success this year. I can see the positives in IMG in that it's actually made Cas and Wakey make improvements which are long overdue, but at the same time, disappointing that we're just going to end up with the exact same teams that were in the league in 2023 for 2025...without TV deals, attendances, being able to score bigger than 13th for performance, how do those outside the top flight make it into SL now?

But Cas and Wakey got grade A despite losing catchment area points for being close to each other and Fev too?

I'd be interested to see what happens to Cas' revenue per game after the ground tweaks too. Like have they managed charge more for seats, are the corporate lounges busier, are sponsors queuing up for a spot on the big screen...if they haven't then this box ticking has been a nonsense.