How clever does Savage look now?

[Bad Religion]

1 minute ago, Mr Elwood P said:

With three players on loan and a raft of players out of contract it could be a sea change again next summer …

Well at least we appear to be heading in the right direction. I’d still like a change of manager but admit that’s unlikely if we keep scraping wins. 

[frankblack]

4 minutes ago, Mr Elwood P said:

With three players on loan and a raft of players out of contract it could be a sea change again next summer …

 

A few good loans give the team cover without committing us to long term contracts.

[Jim Panzee]

1 minute ago, frankblack said:

 

A few good loans give the team cover without committing us to long term contracts.

who's to say the next batch of loans won't be equally as good?

 

perhaps this is the new strategy for now - 3-4 loans supplementing the rest of the team / squad. We've been so badly burned with long term contracts I'm not surprised we're looking at loans.

[Everybody Loves Baz!]

1 minute ago, HEARTS FOREVER said:

I cannot argue with that. When this was originally posted....things looked differently. 

 

Yes things look much brighter and let's hope there are good times ahead, I still have my doubts about Neilson and nothing has been won yet.....so let's not jump the gun just yet.

 

But you couldn't wait to pass judgement so soon.....like jumping the gun.

 

People need time to get their way of working across to others and install their own team first should they not?

 

Unfortunately, time is something that JKB never gives clearly.

[HEARTS FOREVER]

19 minutes ago, Mr Elwood P said:

We weren’t conceding and won a couple of games 4-0 and one game 6-0 while still in the Championship. It was dramatically different. Huge credit to the management team for make the changes required. Folk kept saying ‘it’s only the Championship’ then ‘it’s only the League Cup’. Nowhere to go now that’s it’s only the Premiership and 10 points out of 12 …

For me...up to and including that Inverness game we were still pretty brutal to watch. Scraping a result against Peterhead ffs.

 

The change in formation made us a bit harder to beat....but didn't do much to please the eye. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by HEARTS FOREVER

[Mr Elwood P]

6 minutes ago, frankblack said:

 

A few good loans give the team cover without committing us to long term contracts.

Yeah I’m not against EPL loan at all. You just need to look at Falkirk having Kasper Schmeichel or Aberdeen getting James Maddison to see how good a market it is. The only downside is the constant squad overhaul.

[HEARTS FOREVER]

2 minutes ago, HEARTS FOREVER said:

For me...up to and including that Inverness game we were still pretty brutal to watch. Scraping a result against Peterhead ffs.

 

The change in formation made us a bit harder to beat....but didn't do much to please the eye. 

 

[Bad Religion]

2 minutes ago, HEARTS FOREVER said:

For me...up to and iodine that Inverness game we were still pretty brutal to watch. Scraping a result against Peterhead ffs.

 

The change in formation made us a bit harder to beat....but didn't do much to please the eye. 

I agree with you. I don’t and haven’t come away from a game under Robbie thinking wow! What a performance. Even when we win it’s boring.
 

He’s got a decent squad now. He has to start getting the best out of them. 

[Bazzas right boot]

50 minutes ago, HEARTS FOREVER said:

Is 'Hearts moment' wow 🤣🤣

 

Now this is funny, are you some sort of spokesman for the club now? Who do you think you are, yer a phantom on a forum mate.

 

The valid point was our chance at a decent cup run had gone at that time. Nobody knew the future apart from you. 🤣

 

Ofc it is, if we do well it's Hearts moment, nothing to do with me. 

As per you muss the point by a distance. 

 

Most folk knew the transfer window wasn't closed. 

Savage told us his plan. 

 

You still decided to fill yer pants, ignore sense and start a snidey wee thread about the guy. 

 

 

You are also assuming that getting more random players in early would have resulted in us winning all 4 lc group games as we did, avoiding celtic, getting an easier draw, winning that and progressing and made us better for the season ahead. 

 

You are not only  seeing the future but an alternative reality. 

You on the strong gear? 

 

Absolutely clueless. 

 

Even now, rather than say I may have jumped the gun early, things are looking better you are continueing your crusade. 

 

Slaver grenades being launched all over the place. 

 

It's funny, a good read. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr Elwood P]

4 minutes ago, Bad Religion said:

I agree with you. I don’t and haven’t come away from a game under Robbie thinking wow! What a performance. Even when we win it’s boring.
 

He’s got a decent squad now. He has to start getting the best out of them. 

Start getting the best out of them? Wow!

[Bad Religion]

2 minutes ago, Mr Elwood P said:

Start getting the best out of them? Wow!

Were you around last season? Do you think Robbie was getting the best out of his players?

[HEARTS FOREVER]

2 minutes ago, Smith's right boot said:

 

Ofc it is, if we do well it's Hearts moment, nothing to do with me. 

As per you muss the point by a distance. 

 

Most folk knew the transfer window wasn't closed. 

Savage told us his plan. 

 

You still decided to fill yer pants, ignore sense and start a snidey wee thread about the guy. 

 

 

You are also assuming that getting more random players in early would have resulted in us winning all 4 lc group games as we did, avoiding celtic, getting an easier draw, winning that and progressing and made us better for the season ahead. 

 

You are not only  seeing the future but an alternative reality. 

You on the strong gear? 

 

Absolutely clueless. 

 

Even now, rather than say I may have jumped the gun early, things are looking better you are continueing your crusade. 

 

Slaver grenades being launched all over the place. 

 

It's funny, a good read. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm gonna leave you now mate, the post was made in anger at a time where we were yet again heading out another Cup we were ill prepared for.  Until that point also the football had been shite for 18 months. If you canny get your tiny brain around that then that's up to you. 

 

Mr Hindsight 👍🤣

 

 

[Mr Elwood P]

2 minutes ago, Bad Religion said:

Were you around last season? Do you think Robbie was getting the best out of his players?

We’ve lost one competitive game since the start of April and that was a 3-2 loss in Glasgow, rather than the usual 4-0 or 5-0. If Robbie gets more out of this squad it’s going to be an exceptional season!

[Bad Religion]

1 minute ago, Mr Elwood P said:

We’ve lost one competitive game since the start of April and that was a 3-2 loss in Glasgow, rather than the usual 4-0 or 5-0. If Robbie gets more out of this squad it’s going to be an exceptional season!

I have my doubts but time will tell, starting this Sunday. 

[Byyy The Light]

😂 this has been some read…

 

I’m away to the Coronavirus thread for a break.

 

 

[Cruyff]

Joe's passed his litmus test with flying colours. I think we are in safe hands. Obviously not every signing will be magnificent but I suspect that our hit rate under Savvy Joe Savage will be a lot higher. 

[Ribble]

3 minutes ago, Cruyff said:

Joe's passed his litmus test with flying colours. I think we are in safe hands. Obviously not every signing will be magnificent but I suspect that our hit rate under Savvy Joe Savage will be a lot higher. 

 

Correct! Looking at the transfermarkt value of the players brought in over the summer Joe has brought in £2.25m worth of players on permanent deals with only the fee for Devin paid which was under a hundred grand if I remember correctly, on top of that we've brought in a further £2.9m worth of players on loan for the season, when was the last time we brought in £5m worth of players in a transfer window?

[A_A wehatethehibs]

12 minutes ago, Bad Religion said:

Were you around last season? Do you think Robbie was getting the best out of his players?

He done a half decent job with the relegated shower of shite he inherited.
 

That job in hand, was to do 1 thing: launch at least 20 players prior to getting back promoted so we could move back to the Premiership with a near clean slate and start a proper rebuild. Job done apart from one or 2 hangers on (eg. Walker) 
 

That squad had won only about 5 or 6 games from its prior 50 odd fixtures under Levein, mcphee, and Stendel prior to Neilson joining. It was an absolute mess.
 

Some absolutely shambolic cup results obviously, but nobody’s saying it was some great legendary job, just half decent and got the club back on the rails, beat Hibs, promotion safely guaranteed within the first 10-15 fixtures of a short 27 game season. 
 

Nobody is blowing smoke up his arse as some legendary manager it’s just that, he is nowhere near as bad as folk like you make out when you look at the bigger picture of the shambolic mess he inherited. 

[Mr Elwood P]

3 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

He done a half decent job with the relegated shower of shite he inherited.
 

That job in hand, was to do 1 thing: launch at least 20 players prior to getting back promoted so we could move back to the Premiership with a near clean slate and start a proper rebuild. Job done apart from one or 2 hangers on (eg. Walker) 
 

That squad had won only about 5 or 6 games from its prior 50 odd fixtures under Levein, mcphee, and Stendel prior to Neilson joining. It was an absolute mess.
 

Some absolutely shambolic cup results obviously, but nobody’s saying it was some great legendary job, just half decent and got the club back on the rails, beat Hibs, promotion safely guaranteed within the first 10-15 fixtures of a short 27 game season. 
 

Nobody is blowing smoke up his arse as some legendary manager it’s just that, he is nowhere near as bad as folk like you make out when you look at the bigger picture of the shambolic mess he inherited. 

Absolute no need for having a dig at Walker there. Spoiled an otherwise very astute post!

[A_A wehatethehibs]

5 minutes ago, Mr Elwood P said:

Absolute no need for having a dig at Walker there. Spoiled an otherwise very astute post!

Unfortunately I am not happy with size of wage Walker is collecting while offering next to nothing over his 3 year deal given to him by Levein. I would have been happy to see him exit the club this window. 
 

And by the way I put Craig Halkett in that bracket as well but, there appear to be signs of life in him in a back 3 and he’s putting up a fight. With Walker I just do not feel we have got any value for money out of him. Feel he has been a passenger. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by A_A wehatethehibs

[jamboinglasgow]

1 hour ago, Rudy T said:

We’ve heard it all before about rebuilds and projects etc etc and achieved little during all of them. This feels a lot different it finally feels like we have people who genuinely believe, and more importantly have the skill set, to get close to the old firm. Beni and Woodburn set a very high bar and how we got Beni on a 3 year deal is beyond me. 
 

It’s going to be interesting to see who steps up and who falls away as the ambitions of the club grow. 
 

We all love to win a derby but this one feels like it’s got a bit more importance, winning is like putting down a marker to say we’re back and stronger than ever before can you keep up with us. 

 

would agree with this.

[Mr Elwood P]

4 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

Unfortunately I am not happy with size of wage Walker is collecting while offering next to nothing over his 3 year deal given to him by Levein. I would have been happy to see him exit the club this window. 
 

And by the way I put Craig Halkett in that bracket as well but, there appear to be signs of life in him in a back 3 and he’s putting up a fight. With Walker I just do not feel we have got any value for money out of him. Feel he has been a passenger. 

Scored 10 goals in 36 league games. Actually a better strike rate than his first stint at Hearts …

[Ainsley Harriott]

Heres how clever Joe looks now the window is closed.

 

 

[BigAlim]

It's so bloody rare on JKB to see a poster hold their hands up and admit when they've made a mistake.

 

It's sad to see really.

[A_A wehatethehibs]

Just now, Mr Elwood P said:

Scored 10 goals in 36 league games. Actually a better strike rate than his first stint at Hearts …

Not really fussed, goal stats can be very misleading. I do not doubt his ability to finish when 1vs1 with a goalkeeper, but I highly doubt his defensive work rate which in the modern game, at a club like this in the top tier pushing for Europe, unfortunately it cannot fly. It leaves gaps. You defend as a team and that’s what I mean by passenger. He hides. 
 

The sad thing is he really looked like a different animal in that spell in 15-16-17 he was really working his socks off, and robbing midfielders, but that just isn’t something I have seen in the second spell. Obviously very unlucky with his leg break but he was back fit under Stendel and Stendell picked Lewis Moore ahead of him which for me, says it all,  along with Neilson getting GMS, Ginelly, Woodburn, and McKay. As I say it’s a big wage to be paying a passenger and I said the same thing about Naismith. 

[Bad Religion]

17 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

He done a half decent job with the relegated shower of shite he inherited.
 

That job in hand, was to do 1 thing: launch at least 20 players prior to getting back promoted so we could move back to the Premiership with a near clean slate and start a proper rebuild. Job done apart from one or 2 hangers on (eg. Walker) 
 

That squad had won only about 5 or 6 games from its prior 50 odd fixtures under Levein, mcphee, and Stendel prior to Neilson joining. It was an absolute mess.
 

Some absolutely shambolic cup results obviously, but nobody’s saying it was some great legendary job, just half decent and got the club back on the rails, beat Hibs, promotion safely guaranteed within the first 10-15 fixtures of a short 27 game season. 
 

Nobody is blowing smoke up his arse as some legendary manager it’s just that, he is nowhere near as bad as folk like you make out when you look at the bigger picture of the shambolic mess he inherited. 

His number 1 job at hand is to coach and motivate his players to perform and get  results on the pitch. He has got results so far this season but the performances leave a lot to be desired IMO. 

[Mr Elwood P]

16 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

Not really fussed, goal stats can be very misleading. I do not doubt his ability to finish when 1vs1 with a goalkeeper, but I highly doubt his defensive work rate which in the modern game, at a club like this in the top tier pushing for Europe, unfortunately it cannot fly. It leaves gaps. You defend as a team and that’s what I mean by passenger. He hides. 
 

The sad thing is he really looked like a different animal in that spell in 15-16-17 he was really working his socks off, and robbing midfielders, but that just isn’t something I have seen in the second spell. Obviously very unlucky with his leg break but he was back fit under Stendel and Stendell picked Lewis Moore ahead of him which for me, says it all,  along with Neilson getting GMS, Ginelly, Woodburn, and McKay. As I say it’s a big wage to be paying a passenger and I said the same thing about Naismith. 

Like Rudi? 

 

16 minutes ago, Bad Religion said:

His number 1 job at hand is to coach and motivate his players to perform and get  results on the pitch. He has got results so far this season but the performances leave a lot to be desired IMO. 

After the last couple of years I think we should just enjoy consistency of results before demanding the performances of Manchester City …

[Stone1992]

20 minutes ago, Bad Religion said:

His number 1 job at hand is to coach and motivate his players to perform and get  results on the pitch. He has got results so far this season but the performances leave a lot to be desired IMO. 

He is doing his number one job then as the results this season have been almost as good as they could be so far. 
 

If the result is more than often a win (which it has been this season so far) then performance must be in some way good. We aren’t going to blow every team away all the time. 

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

3 hours ago, HEARTS FOREVER said:

Brora and Alloa.....where the f have you been. 🤣🤣👍

I’ve been watching the 3 cup finals we got to in the last 3 years

[Stendelnator]

2 hours ago, HEARTS FOREVER said:

For me...up to and including that Inverness game we were still pretty brutal to watch. Scraping a result against Peterhead ffs.

 

The change in formation made us a bit harder to beat....but didn't do much to please the eye. 

We didn’t scrape a win against Peterhead. We absolutely dominated it in our first competitive game of the season and won with plenty to spare. You didn’t even watch the game. 

[GinRummy]

4 hours ago, BigAlim said:

It's so bloody rare on JKB to see a poster hold their hands up and admit when they've made a mistake.

 

It's sad to see really.

Consistency, rather than right or wrong is the key factor in jkb one upmanship. 😂. 

[GinRummy]

3 hours ago, Stendelnator said:

We didn’t scrape a win against Peterhead. We absolutely dominated it in our first competitive game of the season and won with plenty to spare. You didn’t even watch the game. 

Anybody criticising the league cup groups wants to give themselves a shake tbh. I could barely believe the anger I was reading on here on the bus back from the Inverness game. 

[DH1986]

8 hours ago, Mr Elwood P said:

Think you’ve missed the whole point. The recruitment process lasted the full window as were ambitious in our targets. The summer 2022 window is likely to be the exact same. I think we might bring in a couple in January though, with 2022/23 season in mind.

We really can’t afford to have this strategy next summer……there will hopefully European qualifiers to take part in then the LC again.

 

With some many players out of contract and/or returning to their parent clubs….our squad depth will be non existent.

 

I really like we’re going for quality and I’m very sympathetic that these signings aren’t queuing up outside Joe Savages office on the 1st June…..but with football starting earlier and earlier in the year it certainly highlights any shortcomings we have in our squad.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by DH1986

[Guest ToqueJambo]

Good bump 🤣 The equivalent of the folk who complain about the team's performance after 2 minutes of a 90 minute game.

[FarmerTweedy]

9 hours ago, DH1986 said:

I think we’d all rather have had our squad assembled early and ready for the start of the season but instead we’ve kinda gambled with the League Cup and waited for the players we wanted.

 

Hopefully next season we’ll be better prepared…..if this season is a good one then that can only help getting our target players in earlier…..they’ll want be part of an exciting set-up.

 

So…whilst we didn’t quite write-off the League Cup this season we didn’t do enough to give ourselves the best chance of winning it.

 

But with so many out of contract next season Joe Savage & Co will need to be getting things in place very early.

 

We are probably in Year 1 of a 2 or 3 season complete overhaul of the footballing department and as long as we see real progression after each Transfer Window we should be a little patient.

 

But that is easier said than done.

I don't think it's quite right to say we gambled with the league cup, at least as far as recruitment is concerned. It's simply the case that if you're focused on getting the right players that you want, and you're not awash with cash, you're often going to have to be patient and wait till late in the window to complete some of your signings. The alternative would simply be to sign players that aren't really the ones you want just for the sake of getting them in early. I agree with the rest of what you say though. This is a longer term rebuild than just one summer, and they're going to be busy next year too. But the reality is, we'll almost certainly be waiting until late in the window for at least some of our signings then too!

 

Re the league cup, the group stage is effectively still preseason. I know a lot of people don't like that stance because they are competitive games, and I can understand that, but it starts so early that we can't complete a full preseason prior to the group stage while still giving the players a long enough break to recover properly from the previous season.  It's never going to be a very high priority in terms of our preparation, because it would simply compromise too much else.  We could focus absolutely everything on it and still end up not managing to get a seeded spot in the next round.  I'm fairly hopeful that we won't actually be participating in it much from now on anyway, due to being in Europe, so hopefully none of us will even be discussing it again any time soon! 

[FarmerTweedy]

9 hours ago, Rudy T said:

I think the league cup is a bit of a red herring really. We comfortably won our group and should’ve been seeded coming out of it, instead a couple of covid freebies cost us that seeding. As result we have to go to parkhead, that’s not really being under prepared that’s just bad luck. Without the covid situation we’d probably have gone through against a lower league side and going into the next round with a stronger squad in the same way most of the prem teams will be.

Even without being seeded, there was only a 25% chance of getting drawn against an arse cheek.  It would have been absolutely crazy to have changed our signing policy and started rushing folk in the door that weren't really the players we actually wanted just for that!

[FarmerTweedy]

9 hours ago, Bad Religion said:

With the squad looking much healthier now, hopefully the next couple of windows will comprise of few quality additions rather than compete overhauls. Hopefully those days are behind us. 

I think next summer may well look like a complete overhaul, simply because of the number of players we have out of contract or ending loans then, although hopefully there will be at least a few that we get tied up on new deals before then!

[FarmerTweedy]

9 hours ago, Bad Religion said:

Well at least we appear to be heading in the right direction. I’d still like a change of manager but admit that’s unlikely if we keep scraping wins. 

As long as we keep scraping wins, Robbie can have the job for life as far as I'm concerned! 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

3 minutes ago, FarmerTweedy said:

I think next summer may well look like a complete overhaul, simply because of the number of players we have out of contract or ending loans then, although hopefully there will be at least a few that we get tied up on new deals before then!

 

But no-one (other than Gordon - who is unlikely to move to anyone else mind you - and Souttar) I think who is irreplaceable or who we can't be confident of improving on.

 

What's encouraging is we can be confident of retaining the players we want to retain and replace the ones that leave, so we should still have a good core. This is really good squad building.

[FarmerTweedy]

9 hours ago, Ribble said:

 

Correct! Looking at the transfermarkt value of the players brought in over the summer Joe has brought in £2.25m worth of players on permanent deals with only the fee for Devin paid which was under a hundred grand if I remember correctly, on top of that we've brought in a further £2.9m worth of players on loan for the season, when was the last time we brought in £5m worth of players in a transfer window?

Probably January 2006, although we managed to drastically reduce most of their values pretty damned quickly!

[JamboAndrew]

11 minutes ago, FarmerTweedy said:

As long as we keep scraping wins, Robbie can have the job for life as far as I'm concerned! 

This winning games thing is confusing me. I want to shout Budge oot, Nelson oot. But we keep bloody winning.

[ri Alban]

17 hours ago, Byyy The Light said:

😂 this has been some read…

 

I’m away to the Coronavirus thread for a break.

 

😆

[ri Alban]

I actually don't give shit about the league cup anymore. Would take it, but rather we concentrated on the league and Scottish cup.

[lost in space]

I see the plane carrying German national  team was diverted to Edinburgh and sat on the runway for 5 hours. Was Joe out there trying to sign a striker or 3rd choice goalkeeper??? 

No he wasn't.

Needs to get his finger out!!

[Rods]

On 08/09/2021 at 11:38, frankblack said:

 

A few good loans give the team cover without committing us to long term contracts.

 

The loans we have currently are players who are out of contract next year. I would imagine the hope is we can dangle the European carrot or game time and a settled environment in front of them and get them to sign.

 

Ginnelly is an example of this model.

[JimmyCant]

20 hours ago, FarmerTweedy said:

I don't think it's quite right to say we gambled with the league cup, at least as far as recruitment is concerned. It's simply the case that if you're focused on getting the right players that you want, and you're not awash with cash, you're often going to have to be patient and wait till late in the window to complete some of your signings. The alternative would simply be to sign players that aren't really the ones you want just for the sake of getting them in early. I agree with the rest of what you say though. This is a longer term rebuild than just one summer, and they're going to be busy next year too. But the reality is, we'll almost certainly be waiting until late in the window for at least some of our signings then too!

 

Re the league cup, the group stage is effectively still preseason. I know a lot of people don't like that stance because they are competitive games, and I can understand that, but it starts so early that we can't complete a full preseason prior to the group stage while still giving the players a long enough break to recover properly from the previous season.  It's never going to be a very high priority in terms of our preparation, because it would simply compromise too much else.  We could focus absolutely everything on it and still end up not managing to get a seeded spot in the next round.  I'm fairly hopeful that we won't actually be participating in it much from now on anyway, due to being in Europe, so hopefully none of us will even be discussing it again any time soon! 

Some really good sensible points there. However European football also starts very early into the ‘pre-season’ and can’t be approached the same way as the LC. You have to be ready because the rewards for getting over a few hurdles can be enormous. Last time we were in Europe we were not ready and didn’t take it seriously and got embarrassed as a result. Bizarre that you would treat a competition you had burst a gut to get into like it was an inconvenience to play in it when the time came. If we’re in Europe next year we need to strategise better in terms of contracting, training and general readiness.

Edited September 9, 2021 by JimmyCant

[frankblack]

10 minutes ago, JimmyCant said:

Some really good sensible points there. However European football also starts very early into the ‘pre-season’ and can’t be approached the same way as the LC. You have to be ready because the rewards for getting over a few hurdles can be enormous. Last time we were in Europe we were not ready and didn’t take it seriously and got embarrassed as a result. Bizarre that you would treat a competition you had burst a gut to get into like it was an inconvenience to play in it when the time came. If we’re in Europe next year we need to strategise better in terms of contracting, training and general readiness.

 

The problem is that Scottish football is so shit we almost have to start qualifying a couple of weeks after finishing the previous season.

[FarmerTweedy]

16 hours ago, JimmyCant said:

Some really good sensible points there. However European football also starts very early into the ‘pre-season’ and can’t be approached the same way as the LC. You have to be ready because the rewards for getting over a few hurdles can be enormous. Last time we were in Europe we were not ready and didn’t take it seriously and got embarrassed as a result. Bizarre that you would treat a competition you had burst a gut to get into like it was an inconvenience to play in it when the time came. If we’re in Europe next year we need to strategise better in terms of contracting, training and general readiness.

I'd agree with that, although from what I can see, for next season at least, there's a decent chance of not starting in Europe until August, so it might not be so much of a problem! 

[NB GIN]

On 25/07/2021 at 20:09, HEARTS FOREVER said:

Anyone think our signing policy has worked so far? 

 

Couple of players could have been the difference tonight. 

Got to hand it to him the transfer window has been fantastic.

looking positive now a very good squad 

[NB GIN]

On 08/09/2021 at 21:10, FarmerTweedy said:

I think next summer may well look like a complete overhaul, simply because of the number of players we have out of contract or ending loans then, although hopefully there will be at least a few that we get tied up on new deals before then!

Every summer has been a complete overhaul for years. 
I think this squad assembled looks very good. I think we may surprise a few people this year