The official Richard Blight Bury yer head in the sand here come the playoffs match thread!

I reckon JB went for a bargain bucket meal.

On the credit card, obviously!!

I think Wotton needs 3 more games to break the club appearance record. So start him 3 times. Give us something to applaud that's nailed on.

After that I don't care.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I was too angry to post anything about the performance yesterday so I've left it until now before saying anything.

Sack the feckin lot of 'em and start again.

I didn't expect us to do anything other than lose but I did not expect gutless capitulation on that scale.

Anybody who is considering not going on Monday is letting 'em off the hook. Go along and scream dog's abuse at them for 90 minutes. I wouldn't normally recommend such action but we've been supportive all season, we've been behind them for years now, we've given them so much time it is unbelievable, we travel miles and miles to urge them on, we spend small fortunes along the way and they give us this.

Well sod 'em. They'll all be gone by the start of next season anyway so fill yer boots, lads!

"You're not fit to wear the shirt" is a good place to start.

Well said Sir........

Coxside_Green wrote:

Dick Trickle wrote:

Coxside_Green wrote:

Dick Trickle wrote:

It's okay though because Longwell Green says it is:

Pashitty wrote:

Mid table finish fine by me.

Had we sneaked up, we were grossly underprepared for next season.

Build gradually, get it right, long term see the benefits.

Virtually every team in the bottom two divisions are so under the cosh financially that long term contracts are a thing of the past. Most clubs finish the season with only 8 or 9 players. Surely if we got promoted with the additional revenue that would generate we simply look for league one loanees and not league 2.

Anyway who wants success and promotion. Over rated. Wankers.

And we've conceded a penalty.

This club is feckin shite and I'm bored of it.

FWIIW I partly agree with Longwell.

That's not to say a mid-table finish is fine, it isn't.  We've been in this dogshit league long enough now to have built a decent team not only capable of promotion but also capable of competing in League 1.  There's no excuse for us to be looking up to Rochdale, Fleetwood etc (and I don't mean that with any disrespect towards those clubs, it's just an indication of how shit we are).

That said I believe if we had sneaked up via play-offs we would've been relegation favourites.  If we're going to go up, we need to stay up and never end up in this shit league again.  Even the best 5 or 6 of our current squad would struggle in League 1 (McCormick aside), too many changes would've been needed IMO.

In the modern day football world I disagree with you. Most of the teams in the bottom 2 divisions if they signed no one would report for pre-season training on 1st July with 8 professionals. Every team is a carcass after the season finishes. As it stands we're not even prepared for league 2. We need to sign half a team just to compete in league 2.

Teams in the bottom 2 leagues do not evolve anymore, they are a rolling 12 month "project".

A lengthy contract is for a maximum of 2 years and most are 12 months or even half a season. Clubs exist from transfer window to transfer window.

Look at the players who are left next year and how many do you think we need to sign? Reid is not going to stay so how do you replace him? To succeed in this league you need good organisation, high fitness and a game plan as well as bloody good contacts to sign half a dozen loan signings a year.

If you think loan signings are over rated then where do you think we'd be today if we had kept Lavery all season?

This is not a long or medium term project. We're fecked and come 30th June when contracts end we're no better than the club that finishes 22nd.

We have more resources than most of the clubs in this division, there's no reason we cannot offer more security for worthy footballers compared to our competitors.  Last season's POTY (his name escapes me right now) was fecked off via a meager wage offer.  Full credit to our youngster Ben for stepping up and trying to fill his boots but we also now have the unknown unproven Parsons on our wage bill.  This is exactly how it played out when we tried penny pinching with Capaldi, many replacements who simply didn't fill his boots.  It also led to disruption amongst the ranks of our other 1st teamers, Connolly saw what happened and announced it was his last season here.  Norris got mad at the Capaldi haters and couldn't wait to leave.

I don't disagree with loan signings but they should be additional to a nucleus of a decent well-nourished squad, they do work as we witnessed during Holloway's stint.  We can also become over-reliant on them as we saw during Liuggy's second spell.  There needs to be a balance.  Had we have retained Lavery, we may well have gone up, we probably would never have kept Lavery but surely would've been favourites to keep Reid.  Loanees can and do work, no problem with that.

Anyway, we're still a shit under-performing club.  Until that changes we'll continue ambling from season to season.

Don't agree about capaldi, Cardiff trebled his wages. Norris fancied some of that. Footballers no 1 topic is who earns how much, how much which club are paying etc

Hugh, Cardiff trebled his wages to around £7k a week? He was on such a low wage here for the shift he put in, a contract the club failed to keep on top of. The rest is history but it was the start our decline.

VillageGreen wrote:

Coxside_Green wrote:

Dick Trickle wrote:

It's okay though because Longwell Green says it is:

Pashitty wrote:

Mid table finish fine by me.

Had we sneaked up, we were grossly underprepared for next season.

Build gradually, get it right, long term see the benefits.

Virtually every team in the bottom two divisions are so under the cosh financially that long term contracts are a thing of the past. Most clubs finish the season with only 8 or 9 players. Surely if we got promoted with the additional revenue that would generate we simply look for league one loanees and not league 2.

Anyway who wants success and promotion. Over rated. Wankers.

And we've conceded a penalty.

This club is feckin shite and I'm bored of it.

FWIIW I partly agree with Longwell.

That's not to say a mid-table finish is fine, it isn't.  We've been in this dogshit league long enough now to have built a decent team not only capable of promotion but also capable of competing in League 1.  There's no excuse for us to be looking up to Rochdale, Fleetwood etc (and I don't mean that with any disrespect towards those clubs, it's just an indication of how shit we are).

That said I believe if we had sneaked up via play-offs we would've been relegation favourites.  If we're going to go up, we need to stay up and never end up in this shit league again.  Even the best 5 or 6 of our current squad would struggle in League 1 (McCormick aside), too many changes would've been needed IMO.

Argyle blew the chance to make the Play-Offs and there are three games that stand out - Bristol Rovers away, Exeter City at home and Accrington Stanley away.  Had they got the points in those games they would still be in with a chance.

The Bristol Rovers manager said sometime ago - when Argyle were doing ok - that he thought Argyle were the best team in League Two at the time.

Now we sit here thinking of what could have been.

Nothing to do with the Rovers manager (Ward?) bigging himself up after his team won 3 points? How many managers done that to us in the CCC days when we were struggling?

Either we weren't good enough or there's behind the scene's politics playing out. Whatever...the fans are being ripped off.

Capaldi, a defender who didn't make a single tackle in his whole life, not the biggest loss to the squad ever.

Can't say he was my favourite player but the squad valued him, also provided most assists before Holloway gave up on him. TBF he also wasn't a defender until Pulis came here?

Remember Capaldi's debut away at R&D, distinctly shit at left midfield, played shaped etc. but offered very little going forward.

Over rated player, after winning his big contract at Cardiff, he dropped like a stone.

Pafcintheplace wrote:

Remember Capaldi's debut away at R&D, distinctly shit at left midfield, played shaped etc. but offered very little going forward.

Over rated player, after winning his big contract at Cardiff, he dropped like a stone.

He didn't.Capaldi played in every match up to and including the 2008 FA cup final for Cardiff as well as a lot of league games when they were challenging for the playoffs.Had a lot of injuries subsequently which blighted his career thereafter but he was a championship standard player and a bad loss for Argyle-an ominous indicator of what was to come.There was a lot of nonsense talked about Capaldi being lazy when he was down here-there is no way that managers like Sturrock,Pulis and Holloway would have kept him in the team if that was the case,it was question of style rather than substance.Certainly love to see someone of that quality in the team now.

Greenskin wrote:

Pafcintheplace wrote:

Remember Capaldi's debut away at R&D, distinctly shit at left midfield, played shaped etc. but offered very little going forward.

Over rated player, after winning his big contract at Cardiff, he dropped like a stone.

He didn't.Capaldi played in every match up to and including the 2008 FA cup final for Cardiff as well as a lot of league games when they were challenging for the playoffs.Had a lot of injuries subsequently which blighted his career thereafter but he was a championship standard player and a bad loss for Argyle-an ominous indicator of what was to come.There was a lot of nonsense talked about Capaldi being lazy when he was down here-there is no way that managers like Sturrock,Pulis and Holloway would have kept him in the team if that was the case,it was question of style rather than substance.Certainly love to see someone of that quality in the team now.

Sorry, I meant after leaving Cardiff his career dropped like a stone, eventually coming back to Argyle years later on trial, bailing for a trial at Palace, and missed out on both clubs, ended up at Accrington(?), then Oxford, and now... Tamworth.
Anyway, I personally thought he was an over rated player but it's all about opinions, but of course the likes of Sturrock, Pulis and Holloway certainly know a thing or two more about judging a player than myself   

Completely agree that letting him walk out of the door was an ominous indicator of what was to come. If only Stapleton and Co. had sought investment while they had the chance... anyway that's another story.

Glad someone is on the same page Greenskin.  Judging someone from their debut lol.

Capaldi wasn't your typical hard tackling get stuck in sort so to a degree I understand the 'lazy' comments even though I disagree with them.  I guess the players themselves would give you a better understanding of how he was valued as a player than I ever could.  

I believe Capaldi was also willing to accept less than what Cardiff were offering but we weren't paying a penny more than what was on the table.  How many players replaced him (or at least tried) and at what cost?  £250k for 'stepover' plus wages...

My opinion of Capaldi is based upon seeing several of his appearances in a green shirt, not just his uninspiring debut. To be fair, none of the Argyle players had an answer for Onandi Lowe on that afternoon

I thought he was a decent player, but just very over rated. Not sure he left a massive hole though, especially since Halmosi joined, who was a much better player. Put it this way, thought Argyle missed the likes of Lee Hodges, and Paul Connolly more when they departed, but of course Hodges was getting on a bit, and it was right that he was released.

Far from being irreplaceable, it was more the message it sent out at that particular time.  I suspect by this time Holloway knew he wasn't being supported as well as he could've been.  Capaldi became the scapegoat for turning player's heads as far as wages were concerned at other clubs, like their agents didn't already know.  Both management and players knew there was no future here and one by one they left.  We got saddled with the unwanted shite and those who were unwanted elsewhere.

I was gonna leave it at unwanted shite but that would've been grossly unfair to players like Timar.

Conolly was one of the most underrated losses of that era, quality player.

Greenskin wrote:

Pafcintheplace wrote:

Remember Capaldi's debut away at R&D, distinctly shit at left midfield, played shaped etc. but offered very little going forward.

Over rated player, after winning his big contract at Cardiff, he dropped like a stone.

He didn't.Capaldi played in every match up to and including the 2008 FA cup final for Cardiff as well as a lot of league games when they were challenging for the playoffs.Had a lot of injuries subsequently which blighted his career thereafter but he was a championship standard player and a bad loss for Argyle-an ominous indicator of what was to come.There was a lot of nonsense talked about Capaldi being lazy when he was down here-there is no way that managers like Sturrock,Pulis and Holloway would have kept him in the team if that was the case,it was question of style rather than substance.Certainly love to see someone of that quality in the team now.

Agreed. I used to go to a few away games in those days. The Avivas loved to hate him. Dimwits.