After a fourth defeat in five games delivered a massive blow to our promotion hopes, is this group of players massively underperforming, or were we naive to expect this squad to get automatic promotion?
Reflecting on the summer transfer window, I was really pleased with the business we’d carried out. We’d managed to offload serial underperformers such as Max Power, Conor McLaughlin and Josh Scowen, replacing them with younger, hungrier and more versatile options such as Dennis Cirkin and Callum Doyle. It was a continuation of the 2021 January window where we aimed to adopt a new model for recruitment, as well as relying on academy graduates like Dan Neil and Elliot Embleton.
Because we got off to a flier at the start of this season, winning seven of our first nine games, the new recruitment model appeared to have been exactly what we needed. As the season has progressed, however, doubts over the lack of experience and physicality in the side have grown.