Richie Wellens - interview post Carlisle

For me a lot would depend on at what point the club knew the full extent of Agyei’s injury. If it was clearly known in time for a deal to be done prior to 2nd February then personally, I would have hoped that a deal for the “ experienced striker” Ling talked about and Wellens says he wanted could have been done. The reasons behind it breaking down will never be made public of course but if it was purely financial then that’s disappointing.
As to who in the club didn’t consider the playoffs a possibility, I obviously don’t know BUT worth remembering that back in August Nigel Travis upset a lot of fans by talking about “consolidation” this season rather than pushing on , so tbh I would start there.👍

Fair point.  

Championship football for the owners is a step too far right now and that’s understandable.  But for the manager and having got us into a fantastic position the push for the playoffs is also understandable.  Easy to see both viewpoints.

RW is good, young, ambitious.  His stock is high.  He wants to achieve and playoffs, despite all our injuries, are there, a goal worth trying for.  He has in all honesty done a fantastic job and wants to push on. Seems in his eyes January has done nothing but reduce our chances.  In his shoes I’d be peeed. In his shoes I’d be off.  His priority is advancing the team, the business side is not his concern.  

Of course, RW is correct to focus on advancing the team - that’s why he’s employed after all. 
It seems to me that the perennial issue of our late dealings in the market has prompted this to a large degree as it appears to have led to us getting in two inexperienced teenagers instead of the “experienced striker” RW craved. Unfortunately it’s something that has reared its head before and the club doesn’t seem able to address it .

Oh dear. This isn’t a good development at all.

The more I think about it though, the more I’m inclined to think Ritchie is in the wrong here. He’s always banging on about positivity and creating a positive environment, even having a pop at fans on a number of occasions, and then here he is whinging in public about not getting the players he wants. Hardly practicing what he preaches.

I didn’t expect a lot from the two young forwards, but I expect even less now that they’ve been publicly written off by their manager after one day of training.

One of the great things about the current ownership is how responsibly and sustainably run the club is. And we still lose several millions a year. Every coach wants more money available to them, but we can’t take unnecessary risks in spending, regardless of who the manager is or how good a job he is doing.

If the powers that be at the club don’t think we can make the playoffs, we’ll they’re probably right. I don’t think we can either, even before we lost Agyei. Granted, it’s probably not great for the motivation of the players to realise that, so who knows, maybe this is all some mind games from Ritchie to create a siege mentality and motivate the players to prove everyone wrong. I hope so.

I was satisfied with the window. It wasn’t perfect of course. Missing out on an experienced striker was a blow, and if that was because we were too slow, then that does sound like a problem with the club’s approach. Similarly with Turns, I’d rather he’d stayed too, but I get the impression that move was at least partially driven by the player and Brighton wanting him to get more game time. I don’t really understand the comment that it would have been fine for him to go if we’d got the striker in though. Surely those are two separate issues.

Anyway, hopefully it’s all a storm in a teacup. Everyone pulling in the same direction has got us this far, I hope it doesn’t all fall apart now.