[wba_1996]

There's one 16-17 year old who I think you could classify as playing regularly - Chris Rigg at Sunderland has 758 minutes across 20 games, and he hasn't completed 90 minutes at all.

If we move into 18 year olds, however, we find quite a few more - Archie Gray and  Jobe Bellingham have over 3000 minutes each, while Ashley Phillips and Bailey-Tye Cadamarteri have over 1000 each.

For reference, Tom Fellows has 1431 and is 20 years old.

You’ve completely missed my point. A 27 year old isn’t a ‘young talent’, regardless of whether they’re an academy graduate or not. I used an example of other clubs to show how skewed our fans’ perceptions are as a result of running with an ageing squad for so many years.

I also never said there were loads of 16-17 year olds playing regularly either. Bellingham, Gray, Rigg and Phillips have all being playing Championship football since they were 16/17. Meanwhile we’ve got a single 20 year old playing regularly in Fellows, who we treat as though he’s a baby and can’t be trusted to start games.

[boinging_along]

Yeah, we have one of the oldest squads in the league and it's not like our senior players are standing out and still playing well.  They're not Kevin Phillips for example - how many other teams would Reach get into?

Look at Sunderlands squad, their oldest player is Evans at 33, he's played 21 mins this season and been out for the season.  After that you have Bradley Dack at 30.  They have another 3 players who are 25 and older, the rest are 24 or under.  That's a squad put together with an eye on the future.

[gazberg]

Ultimately even though Lai is gone, the stench of him will remain for a few seasons to come yet

[hardtobeat]

Yeah, we have one of the oldest squads in the league and it's not like our senior players are standing out and still playing well.  They're not Kevin Phillips for example - how many other teams would Reach get into?

Look at Sunderlands squad, their oldest player is Evans at 33, he's played 21 mins this season and been out for the season.  After that you have Bradley Dack at 30.  They have another 3 players who are 25 and older, the rest are 24 or under.  That's a squad put together with an eye on the future.

And now ask there fans whether they would prefer to have had a few older heads giving them a better chance of the play offs or better !

[wba_1996]

And now ask there fans whether they would prefer to have had a few older heads giving them a better chance of the play offs or better !

They'll have a better chance next season with the £15-20m they get for Clarke and an extra year of development for their young squad.

Meanwhile we'll be back to square 1 with no money, half a squad and a number of ageing players still on over-inflated contracts.

[MarkW]

You’ve completely missed my point. A 27 year old isn’t a ‘young talent’, regardless of whether they’re an academy graduate or not. I used an example of other clubs to show how skewed our fans’ perceptions are as a result of running with an ageing squad for so many years.

I also never said there were loads of 16-17 year olds playing regularly either. Bellingham, Gray, Rigg and Phillips have all being playing Championship football since they were 16/17. Meanwhile we’ve got a single 20 year old playing regularly in Fellows, who we treat as though he’s a baby and can’t be trusted to start games.

You said

"There's 16-17 year olds playing regularly in this division".

And this season, there aren't.

I happen to agree with your general point but we don't need to make stuff up .

And as it happens, Jobe Bellingham last season played 612 minutes across 22 games. He played 61 minutes in the first game of the season then didn't start another game November, and actually the bulk of his minutes (335) came.in the last four games of the season.

[Standaman]

Bologna has one of the youngest squads in Serie A so if Patel is using them as a template the direction of travel with regard to the age of the squad  is obvious. If Phillips leaves this summer he will be the last of the Pulis era players to leave the club and since then the club has consistently had one of the oldest squads firstly in the Premier League and is now the oldest in the Championship. For the better part of a decade we have gone for experience and frankly it has left us a bloated wage bill, a squad which because of its age and bloated wages we would struggle to give away and without constant renewal just gets worse year on year.

It is not that the collective experience stands us in good stead when the chips are down, this weekend being a case in point. Not a single player in that starting line up had less than 100 senior appearance yet they played like startled rabbits. I think we need to at least consider an alternative and hopefully Patel will steer the club in that direction.   

[baggie96]

Would have hoped Patel would have sorted some background staff out, most importantly a sporting director by now. The directors of the club also need fleshing out. Only Patel and Miles as far as I’m aware.

[lewisant]

Would have hoped Patel would have sorted some background staff out, most importantly a sporting director by now. The directors of the club also need fleshing out. Only Patel and Miles as far as I’m aware.

Hopefully this is high on the agenda. Along with improving our recruitment department…

I think the retained list may set the tone but also - we may see that a couple are offered deals and await results. If all are realised with Mowatt and Kipre offered deals then that for me is a positive sign. I wouldn’t be against Bartley and Phillips getting a year, Bartley more so but I’d rather we said goodbye to them both.

If we see Kipre and Mowatt leave and new deals for M’Vila, Reach and some other oldies then that sets a more negative tone.

I would like to say though at the start of the season we weren’t even sure if the club would be going forward and there were protests so the fact we’ve gone to the 2nd Leg of the play-offs even into the second half with new owners in the stands puts things into perspective.

[baggie96]

Hopefully this is high on the agenda. Along with improving our recruitment department…

I think the retained list may set the tone but also - we may see that a couple are offered deals and await results. If all are realised with Mowatt and Kipre offered deals then that for me is a positive sign. I wouldn’t be against Bartley and Phillips getting a year, Bartley more so but I’d rather we said goodbye to them both.

If we see Kipre and Mowatt leave and new deals for M’Vila, Reach and some other oldies then that sets a more negative tone.

I would like to say though at the start of the season we weren’t even sure if the club would be going forward and there were protests so the fact we’ve gone to the 2nd Leg of the play-offs even into the second half with new owners in the stands puts things into perspective.

Even with Kipre and Mowatt, the wages they will be after will be too high. I’d imagine we need to look for younger players which means the recruitment needs to be spot on. No chance I’d be offering deals to Bartley and Phillips.

It’s a big disappointment for me that Patel hasn’t already made key appointments in the recruitment department. It needs a big shake up.

[Baggies]

I've been a bit deflated by the conservative approach taken by Bilkul to their first half a season in charge. They have looked to walk before they can run and are giving people a chance, but i think they could have used the last 4 years evidence to work out that the current football department staff lack the dynamism to set us apart from the rest.

The "open source" evidence we can see about Patel is that he is open to a stat based approach, so im a bit surprised there havent been moves towards that in the last few months. I have a bit of concern that he will almost let the recruitment staff flatter to deceive this summer so that he can see it with his own eyes before making changes, but that just leads to a wasted season for us fans.

[robnewbold]

I think he would have been waiting for the end of season position before beginning any major overhaul, I certainly would, as the difference between being in the Championship or the Premier League would have significant influence on strategic decisions due to the financial implications.
I hope he would now use the offseason to outline his future vision for the Club, which I am sure he will, built around our best asset, Carlos Corberan.

[lewisant]

Yeah any huge overhauls in this very important run in would’ve been a risky approach. It’s going to be a very interesting summer but the club feels so much better than it did this time last year and a million miles away from 2022.

[paulosull]

Anyone else feeling excited about these Bologna players that we get on loan next season 

[BalisPen]

So far he's done the right thing, even though other, including myself wanted Pearce and son out the door asap.

He has given himself to assess the situation and not rock the boat whilst we had an outside chance of promotion.

Thank god he did not do a Norwich and sack cc and bring his own man in like Blues did, and pray he won't do anything stupid like that.

Hopefully, he will have some great contacts and plans to take us back to the promised land with a manager who will be fighting tooth and nail to get us up as he doesn't want the reputation of a nearly man.

Next season will be hard, but they are always hard for us, but if Ipswich can do it, so can we provided we can get a striker.

[baggie96]

People read way too much into the Bologna links, he owns a minuscule amount. I doubt the majority owner even knows who Patel is.

[WBArgo]

People read way too much into the Bologna links, he owns a minuscule amount. I doubt the majority owner even knows who Patel is.

Yes, I think it helps that they are doing well at the moment so our fans hope we can mimic them!

[KYA]

I will wait to see what develops before having negative vibes about the owners we are still in a tough situation which will take more than a season to put right.