Newcastle United Women

[Cclay]

49 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

Yeah you’ve got to spend properly just to get into the WSL now. Liverpool were in danger of relegation at one point, and West Ham are a pretty good side with a serious manager who are still in danger. Don’t know how good the others in WSL2 are. I feel like the WSL2 highlights I’ve seen have pretty much just been the goals so I can’t comment too much on the standard now. I had presumed that it would have improved from when we were last there pre-COVID, but the bits I've seen haven’t been great.

 

That said, I took my eldest and a friend to Brentford back in Feb. My wife works with somebody who’s a regular and/or involved in the club in some way. Had no idea what to expect - I wondered if they were at the bottom of WSL 2 but turns out they are in the fifth tier . They were playing against Saltdean United and I thought “fuck, this is going to be awful”. No fans, shitty football.

 

Couldn’t have been more wrong. They played at Brentford’s stadium and attendance was about 4500. Turns out Saltdean are bloody good. Just checked the table and Brentford and Saltdean are the top two. It was really encouraging to watch - Saltdean played good football from front to back, were physical and fast, and had three or four players who seemed very experienced and clever. Proper football. Good atmosphere and it cost me £5 entrance total for me and two teenagers.

 

It’s a good sign that there’s some good depth, but we’ve done almost everything right this year on and off the pitch and we’re still fifth and well behind Man U in 4th let alone the really top clubs. There’s a plausible argument that our best player last season and this has been a player on loan from the top four. London City basically had a billionaire come in and throw money at them, in the process forming a Chelsea-like stable of clubs from multiple countries. Plus ça change. You’re going to have to just accept big losses and throw tons of cash at your women’s team both on and off the pitch. The good thing from your side is that your owners can do that. 

The trouble is they've thrown relatively big cash (though nowhere near what they could to 'buy' the league - as LCL have done in WSL2 / tried to do in the WSL). As others have said, that moneys been spent (on players and infrastructure) to little effect. Our old players wouldn't live with this division but neither, really, do the new ones. We have been caught out by something I said a long time ago, defenses are much more on top in the WSL / WSL2 and we've not recruited to solve that. We had a lot of luck on the wings in lower divisions but WSL2 defenders eat those crosses for breakfast and we've got no one that can play in the middle (either as a creative midfielder or goal scorer). We could have had any player from the teams that are going to beat us but the trouble seems elsewhere.

 

 

Edited April 5 by Cclay

[Fak]

50 minutes ago, Cclay said:

The trouble is they've thrown relatively big cash (though nowhere near what they could to 'buy' the league - as LCL have done in WSL2 / tried to do in the WSL). As others have said, that moneys been spent (on players and infrastructure) to little effect. Our old players wouldn't live with this division but neither, really, do the new ones. We have been caught out by something I said a long time ago, defenses are much more on top in the WSL / WSL2 and we've not recruited to solve that. We had a lot of luck on the wings in lower divisions but WSL2 defenders eat those crosses for breakfast and we've got no one that can play in the middle (either as a creative midfielder or goal scorer). We could have had any player from the teams that are going to beat us but the trouble seems elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

What's with that font?

[The Prophet]

I'd be lying if I said I followed the women's team closely, but obviously I want them to do well.

 

Is back to back promotions followed by falling just short of promotion not good going?

 

 

Edited April 5 by The Prophet

[healthyaddiction]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

I'd be lying if I said I followed the women's team closely, but obviously I want them to do well.

 

Is back to back promotions followed by falling just short of promotion not good going?

 

 

 

This is the second season of failing to be promoted.

[The Prophet]

3 minutes ago, healthyaddiction said:

This is the second season of failing to be promoted.

 

So it is. Has something gone wrong or are we just not progressing as quickly as hoped?

[Cclay]

7 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

So it is. Has something gone wrong or are we just not progressing as quickly as hoped?

It seems something has gone wrong but it's root is fairly similar to the men's team, in that it's not quite obvious what our leadership structure is / if it's working (obviously not). When Amanda was here, it seemed as if someone was on top of the woman's team: PIF certainly are not. Hence we can 'drift' for extended periods, seemingly without anyone taking charge and making the big decisions. Our recruitment of players seems as slapdash as the men's.

[The Prophet]

2 minutes ago, Cclay said:

It seems something has gone wrong but it's root is fairly similar to the men's team, in that it's not quite obvious what our leadership structure is / if it's working (obviously not). When Amanda was here, it seemed as if someone was on top of the woman's team: PIF certainly are not. Hence we can 'drift' for extended periods, seemingly without anyone taking charge and making the big decisions. Our recruitment of players seems as slapdash as the men's.

 

Fair

 

Hopefully Ross Wilson can begin to steer things in the right direction.

[OverThere]

It feels like no one is at the helm of both the women's and men's recruitment. The club is drifting....let's hope this will change now we have both a DOF and a functional CEO

[Keegans Export]

23 minutes ago, Cclay said:

It seems something has gone wrong but it's root is fairly similar to the men's team, in that it's not quite obvious what our leadership structure is / if it's working (obviously not). When Amanda was here, it seemed as if someone was on top of the woman's team: PIF certainly are not. Hence we can 'drift' for extended periods, seemingly without anyone taking charge and making the big decisions. Our recruitment of players seems as slapdash as the men's.

We do have a women's DOF though don't we? How much control she actually has though, that's anyone's guess.

[Stifler]

The women have their own DOF installed in the summer or just after the summer. We have recently got a new manager as well. It hasn’t been left to drift, but the transfer activity of the last 2 summers leaves a lot to be desired. We have basically bought lasses who were no longer good enough for WSL clubs, who are getting 1 last payday and are not good enough for the challenge. There also doesn’t seem to be a leader in the squad either.

 

 

Edited April 5 by Stifler

[OverThere]

8 hours ago, Stifler said:

The women have their own DOF installed in the summer or just after the summer. We have recently got a new manager as well. It hasn’t been left to drift, but the transfer activity of the last 2 summers leaves a lot to be desired. We have basically bought lasses who were no longer good enough for WSL clubs, who are getting 1 last payday and are not good enough for the challenge. There also doesn’t seem to be a leader in the squad either.

 

 

 

Agree. Why didn't we sign a bona fide striker? We signed a bunch of random players in positions that were already filled.

[Mag3.14]

9 hours ago, OverThere said:

Agree. Why didn't we sign a bona fide striker? We signed a bunch of random players in positions that were already filled.

 

Dunno what the relative quality the Premier Division in Welsh womens football is like, but they will be playing in the UEFA womens champions league next season.  Player there scored 29 goals in 27 appearances - A certain Katie Barker 

[OverThere]

1 hour ago, Mag3.14 said:

 

Dunno what the relative quality the Premier Division in Welsh womens football is like, but they will be playing in the UEFA womens champions league next season.  Player there scored 29 goals in 27 appearances - A certain Katie Barker 

Yup we binned a proven goalscorer and replaced her with no one

 

 

Edited April 6 by OverThere

[Cclay]

We binned Barker when she'd stopped scoring goals and had been moved to the left wing. That said, none of the replacements have taken on the job of scoring goals either. It seems like it's as much a coaching problem as it is the players - i.e. some have been fairly prolific goal scorers before we bought them. Hayles, who did score a lot, has dried up and ... largely due to her pace, or lack of it, is painful to watch. It seems Oxtoby is aware where the problem lies. Whether it can be changed, with the current players, is a different issue. Her comments about controlling the game and not blaming the goalkeeper are fair enough (though ignore the fact other teams always cut through us fairly easily due to passing to free players, easily side-stepping / outpacing our players and being more direct). 

 

 

 

Edited April 6 by Cclay

[OpenC]

I don't see that the current crop are really that much of an improvement, if any, on your Kacie Elsons or Katie Barkers.  They were raw as fuck but they had a spark and a bit of passion and the fans absolutely loved them.  The wholesale changes were bound to flatten everybody who was there at the time and it was just really badly handled and implemented imo.

 

Jas McQuade being shoehorned into a weird holding role that doesn't suit her one bit is just sad to see.  The two lasses that did play that role in the past who are still there, Boddy and Kelly, seem to be permacrocked or just out of favour now.  Hannah Greenwood was a brilliant and dependable little utility payer who was probably not far off the quality of what was signed to replace her.  What happened to Pottsy?

 

All this said, I'm a big fan of just natural progression and gradual evolution and giving people a chance to perform rather than wholesale changing of teams, as people might remember me posting at the time, so my expectations are probably different to others'. 

[toontownman]

They brought in two strikers in January didnt they? They both had worse resumes than what we had and never looked like starters.

 

If we had bought two upgrade strikers instead I wonder if we would be a couple of place higher.

[Cclay]

 

[leffe186]

You need to win your last two and Palace to only get one point to get into the playoffs, right? Palace at home to Portsmouth on the last day is a bit of a fucker.

 

 

[Cclay]

I think everyone's written off our chances (which is pretty criminal considering it was a one off season for the opportunity to go up). Still, in comparison to the men's season it's been a comparative success 

[Tsunami]

Lost 2–1

[OpenC]

Beaten at 90+9 to draw an end to the season as a competitive event.

[toontownman]

Wasted opportunity. Tale of the clubs season.

[Cclay]

11 hours ago, toontownman said:

Wasted opportunity. Tale of the clubs season.

It certainly invites parallels with the men's with regard to how 'hands off' the ownership are (It's as if they think throwing a bit of money at it, taking ages to make any decision and letting the 'locals' run things will lead to success, when it, clearly, doesn't).

[Cclay]

 

[toontownman]

Molly pike has announced her retirement at season end too.

 

Has to be BIG changes to the squad and no more buying cheap random back up players. We need starters that are capable of being capable starters in the league above.