cmonurz Good post HB, but I'm really going to struggle to discuss actual footballing matters this season until I understand the 'why?' of RFC being in the position it is in. This is completely demoralising.
We have lost the core of a side this summer, and not replaced them, and as a result, we are now facing a tough season rebuilding. Have we chosen this route? If so, why? I just don't really get it, and for some bizarre reason, I feel lower now about RFC than I did at any point during our Premier League relegation season, or last season's post-Xmas debacle.
Sides don't just go from two games from promotion to this; the club does not appear to have made any effort to invest in a side that could even come close to repeating last season's 4th place. Why the hell not?!
It's a massive sea of change, and it takes a bit of time for that to settle down.
Presumably Rodgers came in knowing that he was going to lose the remaining Premiership players in our squad. He probably hoped and expected that to happen a little quicker than it has, and maybe that's tied his hands a little, but I don't think it's a massive surprise that we've had to see those players go or that finacially the club see's that as the correct thing to do.
We do now need to spend some of that money getting in the right players to make Rodgers system work and move us forward.
I've been quite critical of Coppell's transfer policy in the past. I don't think he was anywhere near aggressive enough in trying to bring in new players, wage cap or no wage cap, and now Rodgers needs to step up to the plate and show that he can attract the kind of players he wants.
I don't take much issue with the club selling off the previous regimes crown jewells, that was always going to happen and we did quite well keeping the majority of them on for last season, but now we have to back the manager with decent funds (which I think we are doing) to go out and get his own gems.
Patience really is the key, and although I expect to see two more players join before the window closes, I do think we probably need a couple more on top of that. We might have to wait for January for those though.