Something bothered me when Morrison went to Birmingham. He slipped away quietly. First, he went on loan and then the separation seemed less painful when the news came through that it was a permanent move. I just about bought into the loan; he does strike me as a player that needs to play regularly (I may be wrong, of course). But, the permanent deal was treated by most on here, it seemed, as "well, best of luck to him".
The "something" that bothered me has festered away over Christmas. Yes, it is partly due to the poor results - we all felt a win was important over the festive period. The "something" has become a little more clear now. We have a lost a good club man. My insider at The Valley also tells me that he is a good team man and generally likeable. Now, I'm not suggesting that Messrs Ben Haim, Bikey or Onyewu are not good guys or good team men. However, I do worry that if a bit of guts is needed to stabilise the ship, I would rather have Morrison there than any of those three even if he is the least skilled. Before you shout "what do you know?" or "how many games have you seen?", I should say that it is an opinion which has formed from afar - I don't get to see too many games, so please correct me if you feel I am wrong.
Perhaps, it was the recent Crazy Gang programme that stirred me over Christmas. That team did not have the best players in the world, but as a team they performed above expectations. And, I guess that is the point that I am getting to slowly. Yes, Ben Haim and Bikey are a better class, but do they help to form a better team? This style of knocking the ball around the back might be the way to go in Champions League tussles between two gifted but careful sides, but when Blackpool come to town, should we approach the game in the same way? Would a bit of "up and at 'em" serves us better? Which brings me back to Morro. He is a solid, old fashioned centre half - steady, solid, probably not capable of playing a division higher, but a good team player.
It's the same with the young players that are being pushed into parts of the team and filling the subs bench. Can you really expect them to play the way that Ben Haim played when he was at Bolton, Chelsea, Man City and Portsmouth in the Premiership? I exaggerate, of course, but hopefully you get my point.
Championship teams seem to me to be generally solid yet unspectacular outfits. Maybe, a bit more muscle and strength getting forward would serve us well. And, I feel, a team that is "up and at 'em" a bit more might be a better option. Teams like that tend to get results at Championship level, but, of course, get found out a division higher when the opposition doesn't let them get near the ball once it is given away.
Maybe, I am getting old and soft. I was sorry to see Powell go and sorry to see Kermorgant go. However, Morro's departure seems worse to me. He wasn't my favourite player or anything like that, but he epitomised a team spirit. I remember his and the team's reaction after the game we won 1-0 at Sheffield Wednesday in the promotion year. That promotion team, that seemed to gel so well, is now almost totally dismantled. His departure feels like a departure from getting a team that is more than the sum of the parts.
I worry that TBH and Bikey will be off at the end of the season and we will be looking at new recruits or youngsters to see us forward. I suppose I need to wait and see.
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Clubs move on, and if that means Wilson being sold, and Jackson benched, then we will have to get behind their replacements as best we can!
As for the up and at them, maybe if we have eight players over six foot tall (like Ipswich) then a more direct game would work, but without and only two decent headers of the ball (as quoted by Bob), that just cannot happen.
Just a couple of seasons ago we had a talented team full of team spirit and you could tell the players genuinely loved playing for the manager and with each other. Couldn't be further from that now.
Personally i think you are onto something. Firstly, i just can't get my head around letting a proven, experienced Championship centre half leave the building so easily when our squad is so thin approaching the busiest time of the season. Neither Bikey or TBH or 40+ game defenders. The decision just doesn't make any sense.
Secondly, the team spirit aspect is something i really worry about. We are not winning because we are giving away cheap goals, really cheap goals. When a team / squad is tight, those things tend to happen less. We've gone from giving none of these away in the early stages of the season, to one or two every game.
Things slowly but surely seem to be negatively unravelling. In that instance you need every player who you can rely on to pull it all back together again. Morro would / could undoubtedly have played a part in that.
It happens all the time at every club. I liked Morrison and he is proving again at Brum that he is a decent Championship defender. Were we right to let him go? I don't know. He wasn't playing and may well have wanted to move on rather than be a sub. Still seems an odd decision until we see who comes in to replace him, if anyone.
But I do think the write up on the OS, while quite rightly containing kind words of thanks, is ridiculously short on info about his time with the club or info on the deal. He and just about any player leaving deserves better.
Like me, and I'm sure many others, you try to analyse our current predicament in an effort to make some sense of what's happening at our Club.
A fantastic team spirit, akin to that of Alex Dumas' boys, was an important component of the promotion winning team and the following season.
However, with the departure of key players from that tight knit squad, I fear the camaraderie may have been damaged.
Although Captain Jacko will have done his utmost to rekindle that closeness, a new manager plus previously unfamiliar arrivals may have made that task extremely difficult.
The jokers in the "old" pack have left the building....Hamer and now Morro in particular. And whilst I have NO idea how the atmosphere in the dressing room has evolved ( best ask Weegie !) , I fear it may be less than harmonious, with rumours abounding to that effect.
I read that there was a whisper linking Jacko with SCP's Huddersfield which was rubbished on here but should "enough be enough" who knows whether one of our last men standing could decide to relocate in the twilight of his career....
More questions and fewer answers make Fanny a worried woman.
Over to you Roland.
Morrison is a proud professional footballer. He wants first team games, Brum offered him the chance under a new and very bright manager, he was right to get away and start a new career as 'damaging' as it may appear to be to CAFC. Such is life. Good players must be difficult to placate and keep happy when they can't get a place in the first team.
Ultimately though, it's the people running the club or the manager who have the final say. He wasn't in the team, BP preferred his own men (I use that phrase losely), and until things started to go wrong it on the pitch nobody could question his choice.
The player clearly wanted first team football and to be valued, an opportunity came along that worked for him so he took it.
The only thing that doesn't sit well with me was the lack a transfer fee, can't work that one out.
The network thing, uncertainty over manager, who picks the team, Roly's intentions etc,etc don't help matters, but that's another story.
As you say, Champ teams are generally solid, muscular. You have to earn the right to play by standing up to them. We lose this battle time and again and until this is corrected with some more powerful, dynamic CM's and a striker we will always be second best and have a soft under belly.
Sadly for Morro the one space we have muscle (except RB where despite his size Solly is one the the best tacklers I have ever seen) is CB where we have 3 monsters. I am still sad to see him go and think he would be ideal coming in now to give Bikey a rest. It is a nonsense to have got rid of him.
As you say, Champ teams are generally solid, muscular. You have to earn the right to play by standing up to them. We lose this battle time and again and until this is corrected with some more powerful, dynamic CM's and a striker we will always be second best and have a soft under belly.
This is the thing I noticed on Saturday, yes they were better than us, but they were also bigger and stronger than us. What would have happened if Rhodes and Gestede were playing. They actually slaughtered us 2-1.
There are better examples but the point is football is not a science. You need good players but it doesn't end there. Personally, I have never been behind Roland and never will be - but trying to put that aside and look it things logically, unfortunately Roland seems to think he is playing championship manager and that is the big flaw in his crazy network idea. Unless he gets very very lucky by unearthing a Mourinho / Curbishley-esque genius who is able to perform a miracle turning a group of needy, self interested and inadequate odds and sods from all sides of Europe into a ruthless, organised and determined outfits, I don't think it can work.
But thanks for the wireless broadband connection you've given us.
He was the club vice-captain, always gave 100%. Peeters is saying our players are tired.
Then why let Morro go. Bikey looks knackered of late and needs a rest.
This will come back to hurt us, as did letting Kermogant go.
Personally have no faith in this new regime and will think hard about renewing my season ticket.
Also, as the weeks go by, where TBH gets better and better, I'm not so sure that Bikey is actually a better player than MM....
Also, as the weeks go by, where TBH gets better and better, I'm not so sure that Bikey is actually a better player than MM....
I completely understand that Morro wanted to play and we don't, of course, know what discussions went on behind the scene with him and his agent and what his relationship was with Bob. There are, however, two elements surrounding his departure that leave me uncomfortable: first, the feeling that he was ushered out of the club with almost indecent haste (particularly given our wafer thin squad); and, secondly, that we didn't even get a fee for a 26 year old centre half, who is a model of consistency and commitment and of above average ability in this division.
Fingers crossed that our two central defenders stay fit and that Bikey's erratic performance on Saturday was a one off.
Always remember that M.Duchatelet bought a club with a failing squad that were mostly out of contract last summer.
Church is probably gone. Wilson?
Back to centre backs...the ball playing build from the back style is being pushed for now and 2015-16... It's limited by a lack of skill and movement up top so the onus has to be on solving the front six between now and August.
Once again thanks MM - sterling service and you didn't cut and run.
Football finances are not what they were five years ago. The majority of players are not going to command a fee anymore. Especially ones currently not shining bright for their clubs.
If he wasn't going to play under Peeters it made sense to move him on. We didn't give him away. The cold hard fact is that in the managements view he was worth nothing to us and was drawing a senior pro salary with no chance of getting a fee.
Sad but true.
We also now have a Head Coach rather than a Manager, and one of the reasons for this (given by Katrien) is that player recruitment is not directly/ solely down to him - in that way we avoid Managers building their own squads, leaving the Club with hefty contracts and long-term commitments when a new Manager comes in and does not "fancy" some of the players, wanting to build his own squad / style at considerable expense instead. Charlton, supposedly, would no longer do that.
Yet it now seems that Morro was moved on because Peeters did not fancy him (and I' don't mean like Curb-It does...) - which is at odds with the strategy of building a valuable, manager-proof squad.
And what is even more strange is that he left for free - perhaps a nice gesture for a loyal servant - but that to me is more appropriate for an older player towards the end of his career, not one in his prime. That does not make good business-sense, yet everything else we hear is that the network strategy is all about building the asset value of players.
The release of Morro for me was simply irrational.
Then there is the emotional side - the way we have turned Wilson, who was virtual POTY last season, into a player lacking all confidence and perhaps even commitment. That's a waste of an asset, too.
However appalling things were behind the scenes under the last regime, at least we still had a strong team spirit holding things together. Morro's departure is not only bad for team/squad spirit, it also calls into question the strategy we are supposedly following.
Confused of Glasgow...
For those struggling with where we are going and why, see the quote from Belgium on another thread and try to imagine what the best 18 players at CAFC might look like in August ready for 2015-16.
The fact is that the finance and the scouting is available to make another step change. After acquiring Vetokele, Gudmundsson, Bikey, Ben Haim and Henderson who might we land over the summer?
Church and Wilson are out of contract...Buyens and Bulot (who?!) are on one year loans...the rest are contracted to the club for another 1-3 years. The youngest squad in the Championship will be one year older.