Relegation Thread 2023/24

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Ok, for the avoidance of doubt I do not think we would have signed Les Ferdinand

I didn't think we'd have been able to sign Thomas, Froggatt, Daley or Atkins given their profile and where we were either, I think you are forgetting how significant those signings were at the time? (Even though for differing reasons they didn't turn out great)

Who knows how it would have gone, but as said the game wasn't huge at that time, teams went up and challenged far more than they do now and we'd have had a "warchest".

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Top scorers in 1995/96:

Shearer
Fowler
Ferdinand
Yorke
Sheringham
Armstrong
Kanchelskis
Wright
Cantona
Collymore
Dublln

Maybe Dublin aside there is 0% chance we were getting any of them

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I didn't think we'd have been able to sign Thomas, Froggatt, Daley or Atkins given their profile and where we were either, I think you are forgetting how significant those signings were at the time? (Even though for differing reasons they didn't turn out great)

Who knows how it would have gone, but as said the game wasn't huge at that time, teams went up and challenged far more than they do now and we'd have had a "warchest".

Froggatt wasn't that big a deal and Daley was always very hit and miss

Atkins was just stupid, no-one thought he was good

Thomas I'll grant you to a point but Palace had been relegated and no PL clubs came in for him

 

[jd1981]

To add tier 2 in the 90’s was dreadful and mean some shocking teams rocked up at Molineux. Watford under Taylor, Southend in 97, Grimsby numerous times.
The gap between the 2 leagues was stil huge back then.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Froggatt wasn't that big a deal and Daley was always very hit and miss

Atkins was just stupid, no-one thought he was good

Thomas I'll grant you to a point but Palace had been relegated and no PL clubs came in for him

City were in for Thomas, another significant signing was Kelly. He'd just scored 30ish for Newcastle. (In the champ)

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Froggatt wasn't that big a deal and Daley was always very hit and miss

Atkins was just stupid, no-one thought he was good

Thomas I'll grant you to a point but Palace had been relegated and no PL clubs came in for him

How many games did Atkins play in Blackburn's championship season?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

But we're talking about hypothetical 1995 here, not 1993.

Atkins was shit and obviously a stupid signing.

THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS TAT : #4 : MARK ATKINS

In the same bracket as World Cup winner Roque Junior #4: MARK ATKINS Signed: September 1995 from Blackburn, £1,000,000 Appearances: 155 Goals: 12 Left: June 1999, contract expired He was: A box full of coffee-flavoured Quality Street As was to become a familiar theme for around a decade for...

oscillatingwildly.substack.com

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I'll answer then, 34, and he scored 6 goals, and we signed him in 95.

He turned out shit, but my point is we signed a player who played a very significant role in winning the league in the previous season, in the championship - no one has dropped down like that since have they? Unless they were old.

We were a big, ambitious club at the time, we'd have made significant signings, we already were.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Do you reckon we could have approached Spurs and they'd have sold us Teddy Sheringham and he'd have happily signed for Wolves?

I do not.

There's an essay there on why Atkins was an awful signing from day one, you don't have to read it but don't pretend I didn't make an argument.

 

[YoungWolf]

01/02 was properly sickening. I’m still haunted by that Igor Balis penalty.

I don’t know why football bothers me when 01/02 is the first season I can remember (sorry in advance for making anyone feel old)

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Do you reckon we could have approached Spurs and they'd have sold us Teddy Sheringham and he'd have happily signed for Wolves?

I do not.

There's an essay there on why Atkins was an awful signing from day one, you don't have to read it but don't pretend I didn't make an argument.

I've read all of those articles Dan, they were great. How good Atkins was isn't the point though, I'm talking about the ambition and draw of the club at the time.

No idea on Sheringham, but I know Boro were bringing in the likes of Ravenelli, Juninho and Emerson not long after that season, they had a new ground and a wealthy fan owner too. So I see no reason why we wouldn't have also shown similar ambition and spent similarly given the fact we had already done that in the previous couple of seasons.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

How did that end up for them

I think we'd have been more Middlesbrough than Newcastle, put it that way.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

How did that end up for them

I think we'd have been more Middlesbrough than Newcastle, put it that way.

Possibly, especially with Taylor.

But I do really think Hayward would have thrown the kitchen sink at it money wise, but we may have seen more "superstars" that turned up for the money rather than the right reasons too.

As you said originally, a real sliding doors moment.

 

[Tony Towner]

Even the Jones hitlist in 2003, if you believe him was PL established quality. The likes of Sinclair and James, not that we needed a keeper until after the first game of the season

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Even the Jones hitlist in 2003, if you believe him was PL established quality. The likes of Sinclair and James, not that we needed a keeper until after the first game of the season

I wonder why Hayward pulled the plug on the money in 2003, so strange.

 

[Tony Towner]

The story goes that the 2001/2 spend was to go on players to get us up and keep us there. Jones denies the latter part. Walking away from Cardiff it wasn't what anyone was expecting or thought that squad would do anything other than struggle. Then we lost our best 2 players pretty much before the season had started

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Because Jones spent an absolute bloody fortune to get promoted

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The story goes that the 2001/2 spend was to go on players to get us up and keep us there. Jones denies the latter part. Walking away from Cardiff it wasn't what anyone was expecting or thought that squad would do anything other than struggle. Then we lost our best 2 players pretty much before the season had started

Miller and Kennedy were injured for quite a bit of the early part of that season too, so our superb keeper, best defender, best creator and best goalscorer all out.

Great stuff.

 

[Law's Bus]

And Jones continually sending out patently knackered players when we had a huge squad was incredibly poor management.

That's the fundamental part here.

We had the players there to prevent this but never did. Newton for example, seemed to get picked every single game even though he was out on his feet - but Jones just completely refused to play Michael Branch, even for a game or two. Ludo Pollet, Carl Robinson, Keith Andrews, Kevin Cooper, Sinton, Roussel etc etc etc - all there, and perfectly adequate to come in and protect the "first team", but nope.

 

[Squeak]

I wonder why Hayward pulled the plug on the money in 2003, so strange.

When your bank account drains faster than you can replenish it and when you see some of the money you previously spent wasted, you'd tend to think about what you are doing and why.