Pre-season 23/24

A modern day version of the tortoise and the hare.

 

No, but usually a tease like that is a new signing.

 

Not the highest top speed, no.

Depending on how the test is set up and how far you get you may have to get close to a full sprint towards the latter stages, but judging by the video that did not seem to have been required by them.

 

Must say I'm surprised at this still.

Sierralta and Adeyemo came in 2nd and 3rd. Sierralta's result seems a welcome surprise and hopefully a sign he'll be raring to go next season.

Kone, Pollock and I think Hungbo seem to have made up the rest of the final 6 there.

 

King Ken is back.

 

Nope, just the one official friendly. However it was stated that they would play matches at the training ground. So my guess would be we will play arsenal in one of those games, probably Colchester or someone like that, and then have another one.

 

fewer

 

Careful! There’ll be nothing left for @Keighley to correct.

 

Damn. Missed it.

 

"Good, Rey" are not words I was expecting to hear in the latest pre-season video.

 

They were just talking to our new 'Club Legend' member of the coaching team, Ray Wilkins

edit: I forgot he was dead

 

Forum detectives, it's that fun time of pre-season - trying to work out who a player is, spotted in training videos. Definitely not Adeyemo, Adu-Poku (as others guessed on Twitter), or Vydra...

 

Maybe Owen Otasowie from Club Bruges?

 

It’s the traffic cone we signed to replace Keinan Davis up front.

 

He was effectively released according to reports in November he went awol. Decent player I’m guessing there would be fun and games if we did try to sign him up

 

Ismael Cone?

 

The photos are a bit blurred but looks like Michael Adu-Poku.

 

That was my guess. Hopefully we'll find out one day

 

Would that make a difference?

 

No, that's just the remnants of Glen Murray.

 

It's getting to that time of year where I am really missing football. The initial month after the season ends is relieving but now I find myself counting down to Borehamwood away next Wednesday.

 

So Pussetto and Fletcher are the only players left on the 'Missing' list. WTE seems to have been exiled. Asprilla should be back soon, and heck knows if we will ever see Sarr again.

 

Can anyone enlighten me on whether Fletcher, Gosling and Pussetto are in preseason training with us?

 

So 33 days to go to our first Champ game and this is the squad so far right? I've removed the youngsters that haven't featured much

Daniel Bachmann
Jeremy Ngakia
João Ferreira
Imran Louza
Ismael Kone
Vakoun Bayo
Ryan Porteous
Tom Dele-Bashiru
Ben Hamer
Christian Kabasele
Samuel Kalu
Francisco Sierralta
Mattie Pollock
Matheus Martins
Joseph Hungbo
James Morris
Wesley Hoedt
Ryan Andrews
Tobi Adeyemo
Rhys Healey
Maduka Okoye
Edo Kayembe
Ken Sema
Yaser Asprilla
Tom Ince

 

From this list, how many could really be considered an asset for a playoff push? Ferreira, Louza, Porteuos, Asprilla? Who would be considered strong Champ players? Kone, Kalu, Sierralta, Sema, Ince? Who has some ability and could be a surprise impact? Andrews, Martins, Healey? For me, the rest just don't cut it. Either too injury prone, too error prone or both.

I would like to see another 8 players come in, and of a higher level to the ones we've already signed. 2 strikers, 3 x midfielders, left back, goalkeeper and a CB...and that's bare minimum.

The squad we currently have, will be battling to stay up, there's no doubt about it in my mind.

 

I think we're signing players with a stronger mentality, but they are still being overlaid on top of the weak and feeble-minded players we currently have. Unless there is a big flux of strong willed players to come in, I can see us struggling mentally once the reality hits that we're not very good. Ince has a reputation of being disruptive if things are going wrong, for a example. So players with that desire to win, could easily be turned into a negative.

Could turn ugly very quickly. I still hold out hope that the players we've currently signed are more squad than first team starters, and the new upgrades are yet to be signed. That's really our only hope of having a relatively successful season I think.

 

At the Q&A, Pozz and Duxbury seemed to be saying that they are happy with Ismael's style as "our" style and we are building to meet that. If they claim to be debt free, maybe they are looking to build around that.

Of course a slow start / "not the right fit" potentially means the axe if they stick to form. At which point we are back to square one and the malaise will start to infect the new recruits.

That squad is pretty rancid and we can only hope there are new additions.

 

Are we taking our usual sojourn to the South Tyrol this year, or has that been nixed as a punishment for serving up such a prolonged shyt sandwich?

I feel like we haven't really heard that much about how pre-season is actually constructed this year, although I'm very open to the idea that that is because I've paid much less attention.