Sven

Reading a number of boards it appears people are begining to lose a little of the faith they had in Sven. He is no longer the master and people are questioning his tactics.

So here are my thoughts.

1/ Sven had very little time to prepare the squad pre season. Obviously there were players already at the club he needed to evaluate. That takes time

2/ The players he has brought in have had varying degrees of success.

Elano - started like a world beater, has real class, but i think the first season of the Prem has taken its toil and he looks tired. Next season I expect much better

Garrido - started well, but again tired, not suprising given his age. Will come back stronger with experience

Corluka - Superb buy, his standards have slipped, but again he looks tired, will be stronger next season.

Petrov - marvelous footballer, our real threat, but has become frustated of late, i still think when the team has more balance he will be more of a threat.

Geovanni - Decent footballer, stop gap signing.

Benjani - Leads the line well, works hard, has come into a tired team.

Caicedo - Not seen much, but what i have i like

Bojinov - sadly injured early

Bianchi - Not suited to the Prem.

Gelson - one for the future, but in my opinion only playing at the moment because of others being tired. Needs to learn how to give the easy ball.

Son in conclusion, our smallish squad appears to have hit the wall both mentally and physically, but will be stronger next season for this years efforts.

3/ Sven is trying to ingraine his philiosphy of passing football onto the club, this takes time and at times it has worked wonderfully well, however we have been a bit found out of late, Now the thing i firmly believe is if you have a way of playing an everyone is comfortable with it then you stick to it. Let the other teams worry about you.

4/ Im sure Sven will get his hands on some more of Franks filthy lucre in the summer and new faces will improve the squad and the options available.


So debate started, thoughts please

I think Sven has worked miracles when you look back to the shite we were served up with last season. I also think he is a victim of our early successes. We the fans raised our expectations to a ridiculous level. The man himself said it was a 3 year plan from the word go. If i remember correctly this years aims were to improve on last season and to aim at a top ten finish(icould be wrong). Now the way i see it we should be able to achieve that quite easily. All this talk of europe is bollocks as far as i am concerned, if we get there which i dont think we will, it will be more by luck than judgement. The players that have come in have been excelent additions in my view, and sven has maintained a neucleus of players we already had, and promoted younger players to the first team, which to me is the way forward. I have no doubt that in the summer players will come in and some players will go , but Sven will only change where he sees it will benefit the team, and not just get players for the sake of it as we have witnessed so many times in the past. That sounds a bit obvious, but he does in my mind have the ability to take our club a very long way forward. Recent results have proved that have in reality a very thin squad, but in time that will change.

Forward with Sven, because in him this poster trusts.

he has exceeded expectations already IMO.

People are expecting big things but they won't come overnight, he joined us to prove to the media he's a good manager after the slating he got as boss of the national side.

There will be a trophy in the next 3 years, he's building a youthful squad not unusally like the alkie did.