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Don't know extent of pre season football played by other championship clubs or which have been most active in market. I do know Bristol City have been quite busy, Tomlin signed full time and got O'Neill & Matthews.
I am more confident we'll see a better and more up tempo brand of football this season than this time last year.
I don't think our squad is yet the one Trollope would like to start the season with but considering how hectic the summer was I think we'll see a Europe wide theme of transfer business completed a lot later than usual. We may still be behind in this but a lot of work has been done to expand the systems we can play in and prepare us for a more focused challenge to the play-offs.
Pre-season has had the perception, unfair perhaps, of being half-hearted.
The fixtures have hardly been a test - and seem to have been ill organised - the new manager was allowed to be with Wales this summer. I don't understand how/why so many players seem to have injury/fitness issues too. It has been lower key and less pre-season football, than I can ever recall at CCFC.
Mind you, players return to pre-season far fitter than before and we may have changed the system but the personnel is largely unchanged so maybe it's about the training ground more than games.
I haven't felt inspired going into this season at all but let's hope for the best, we shall soon find out.
What injury/fitness issues are you referring to?
Joe Ralls had an illness that kept him out for a week or so, Bruno Manga picked up a minor strain or tightness that kept him out of the German friendlies and Dikgacoi has his annual and probably terminal problems keeping his weight down. Other than that Morrison was recovering from his ankle surgery last season and Peltier had shoulder surgery at the end of the season (both now fully recovered).
Compared to some other teams in the league who have picked up a lot of pre-season injuries we seem to be in good shape.
It's impossible to tell really....
What is over prepared? What is under prepared? What is just right? Hmm...?
Too much and you'll have players tired, too little and you'll look shambles, isn't it?
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All i know is it pays to be prepared.....but you don't want to stifle spontaneity and creativity by being too practiced and rigid unable to come away from a script if it's not working right.
A few 60 minute summertime kickabouts, we haven't sold Bruno, we've bought Immers, i think it's great that we can go into the season with no false hope that we're expecting to be tearing up the league with a Chairman really putting everything into an exciting season for us. Instead we can prepare for a middling season with the outside chance of putting a run together that may see us flirt with being amongst the top of the teams, and yet, also due to this low key preparation - not be heartbroken should we be in the wrong half of the table.
Last edited by gabbsthenewt; 31-07-16 at 09:42.
Wonder how many of the posters wish to revisit their comments in this thread before the reality of this season's horrors unfolded.
In fairness, it has been far more uninspiring than even I expected. ❤️
NigelBlues with misplaced smugness at least one thing we expected this season has happened