[madsteve]

SG made a decision, hindsight may show it wasn't the right one hypothetically, but I would prefer he makes the  tough decisions rather than bottling them.  Whether SG is still head coach next season or not, we are fortunately now in a position to not have to sell one of our players to bring in one!!!  Timing is everything, this decision was 12 months too early unfortunately!!

I also am not concvinced that the loss of Antonio is the only reason we struggled at home.  SG was too cautious or defensive for starters, and plenty of other players struggled as well.  I accept we could have played more expansive football with MA, but maybe SG would have stifled him as well!!

As regards your season ticket, give yourself a slap!!!!  You have had one for 47 years, and you will buy number 48 as well because you are a Wednesday fan, not an Antonio fan!!!!  We support the team no matter who is wearing the shirt and we go into every season with optimism because thats the way most of us are built.  With or without SG, there will be a lot more optimism for next season and there is no way you are going to miss that!!!  Besides, how would you do the match reports on here??

The sale of Antonio & SG's defensive attitude are linked.

It is because of SG's defensive attitude that he sold Antonio. If I look back over the previous two seasons, every good match we played involved either Antonio or Wickham significantly. So apart from the Wickham loan periods, Antonio was our only exciting player.

It is all to do with threat. Other teams see us now as no threat (and no pace) so happily hold a high line & we struggle to get near the opposition box enough. With Antonio in the side, teams are scared of his pace so have to drop deep which means we are regularly playing around the opposition box.

On one hand I want to keep going & feel sure that SG will be sacked before Christmas but that will mean another season wasted. This season has been mind numbingly boring and I don't think I could face another season of SG's football.

---

BLAH BLAH BLAH ANTONIO **** SHITE !!!! FECK OFF !!!

So you are supporting SG over this then, I presume?

I blame the sale of Antonio for why I have had to watch the worst mind numbing garbage since Len Ashurst was manager. I bought my ST last year on the assumption Antonio was in our squad then SG sells him two days before the season starts.

Very hard to justify buying another ST (after 47 years) with no Antonio and SG still in charge.

no but i dont think anotonio is bannister chapman varadi or marwood ? ive seen some good ones like these thrown away and felt the same as you now maybe ? hes not worth crying about is my reason ? hes not worth a varadi or banno ? these things happen and maybe we would have ? and maybe we wouldnt ? ........................but hes still not in the same cry about league as the players ive mentioned !!! get over it ms your a big owl ( big hug )

The overall standard of players in England now is at its highest ever so leading Championship players today are ahead of many of our former top flight players. Antonio is the best attacking pacy player in this division so is better IMO that Banno or Varadi at their peak. More importantly though, he was way ahead of every other player in our squad so losing him has had a massive effect. Banno & Varadi played in a squad full of good players so losing one would have had less of an impact.

Our league position this table is very much based on three things:

1) a good start to the season

2) a good defence for the first half of the season

3) an ability to win against the weakest sides in the division

Next season when we lose three terrible sides, we will be facing a relegation struggle if we continue the way we have played this season.

---

Here is a League Table with results taken out against the bottom four sides, three of whom will be surely relegated. Our record against the rest isn't that impressive.

1. Derby 59
2. Middlesbrough 58
......................................
3. Wolves 56
4. Bournemouth 53
5. Norwich 53
6. Brentford 52
.......................................
7. Watford 51
8. Ipswich 51
9. Nottm F 48
10. Blackburn 42
11. Leeds 42
12. Cardiff 41
13. Charlton 41
14. Brighton 39
15. Fulham 39
16. Birmingham 35
17. Reading 33
18. Sheff Wed 33
19. Bolton 31
20. Huddersfield 30
21. Millwall 29
...................................
22. Rotherham 29
23. Wigan 25
24. Blackpool 18

The bottom four this season are the weakest bottom four in this division for several years and the bottom three particularly. It is fair to assume that we won't be getting 16 out of 18 points off the three promoted clubs next season.

While we will perform much better next season due to the financial muscle that we now have, this table give a good indication of how poor we have really been against the teams of SBC standard this season. So while SG is basking in the glory of our second best league position in a decade, he really should be pretty ashamed of our results.