BRIAN MCDERMOTT SIGN HIM UP

[Sun Tzu]

Apart from McAnuff & Siggurdsson, this squad is very poor.

I challenge ANYONE to provide REAL evidence to the contrary.

The results have been poor, the performances patchy at best.

But the difference between squads in division isn't ability. It's confidence, organisation and tactics (broadly speaking and generalising wildly).

i think it's fairly plausible that a squad can have a poor season, is tinkered around with a little but not majorly altered and then has a good season to follow. Next season our big positive will be that all the youngsters will no longer be 'youngsters'. They will be experienced, battle hardened pros and that could be a huge difference.

Easily mid table ? yes, undoubtably. Given that it would only require a very small change in fortunes. Playoffs ? Depends on the right couple of players coming in. And of course it all depends on whether McDermott has the motivational and man management skills to get the team playing as it can do, every week.

[PEARCEY]

I think the squad is under-achieving. There is enough ability for the team to be doing a lot better. However they have to prove that now as we cannot afford to drop further behind.
I also don't subscribe to the view that we only have two decent players. Simon Church is improving all the time. If we stay up lets judge him more next season by which time he will be a bit more experienced at this level. Jem Karacan showed against Liverpool that he can be the hard-working, ball winning midfielder that all decent teams need. Ryan Bertrand is in my view a terrific full-back who will eventually make the grade in the Premiership.
Lets not rubbish our team....they do need to start scrapping for and getting results but the ability is there and now it needs to be seen where it matters in the bread and butter matches.

[Victor Meldrew]

In reply to Snowball's earlier David Cameronesque (or with Burnley approaching Campbellesque)spin.
Snowball has used just the past 13 games( and conveniently forgets the earlier ones and the very recent Plymouth fiasco) to suggest that we have improved-how the f*** are we in the bottom 3 when before the "improvement" we were outside of it IIRC?
Also have we peaked?

As for the Forest game we somehow survived the first half when they could have scored 6 and got a consolation goal in the 90th minute and most imortantly LOST another game.

We sure did come back against Swansea but only drew the game-we tend not to win matches and it looks as though we will have to win about 40% of the remaining games to survive..

He says that our youngsters will mprove in every game-well as we only play a maximum of 3 youngsters at most would their improvement make much difference?
Conversely would our 3 oldies deteriorate as they approach retirement?
Again re-the youngsters,young players often tire in the second half of a season.

The full-back we have brought in is not guaranteed to succeed-he hasn't played much and is no youngster.

He describes the new striker as "very promising"-a bit early for that isn't it after he failed to score with 2 headers? Fingers-crossed o.k rather than "very promising" surely?

Armstrong is getting fit-so what? Bertrand has been one of our better players.

Managers often say complimentary things after playing (and often beating) a team-remember all those sides that have been too good to go down and yet amazingly did.

The reason why Wednesday are no longer in the bottom 3 is because a new manager has had an immediate effect.

Snowball,
I genuinely would love it if your spin on things proved to be right-I really don't want to be watching us playing 3rd level football next season but having lived through a number of relegations over the years this season has that feeling about it when at the end of it people will be questioning how we beat the 4th best side in the country but still got relegated.
It definitely feels like the Simod Cup year when out of desparation we did make some fairly expensive signings but still went down.
This time it doesn't look as though we are going to make any significant signings to give us a better chance of survival nor are we going to appoint a manager like Wednesday have to get another fresh look at what we have,somebody unlike Rodgers or McD who were probably too close to it all.

[SteveRoyal]

Apart from McAnuff & Siggurdsson, this squad is very poor.

I challenge ANYONE to provide REAL evidence to the contrary.

Griffin: done it in the Prem
Ingimarsson: done it in the Prem
Mills: Doncaster captain + POTS
Tabb: Coventry captain + POTS
Church: ages 20, already a full Wales international + first choice striker?

[West Stand Flash]

Steve stop looking to the past. It's the here and now that matters.
Stuart Lovell was brilliant for us, he wouldn't be now.
Move on and realise at this minute the so called decent players your talking off aren't up to scratch !!

[CMRoyal]

We're challenging with Plymouth, Peterborough and Scunny - it must be a poor squad. But it is also underachieving, although arguably all we lack to take us to the giddy heights of....oooh, let's say 14th place...is a decent all round striker, one that can make runs like Church, finish like Rasiak and dive like Long. A bit of a burden for Thor to bear really.

[Ian Royal]

Well-run would mean finishing 20th or better this year without getting into debt.

Stay up and this squad is easily mid-table. With Noel Hunt firing on all cylinders
next year we could challenge for the play-offs.

Of course there's a danger of going down, but I DO believe we are better than 3rd bottom
and we have shown great heart under the caretaker (excluding Plymouth!)

If you think this squad is good enough to challenge for the Play-Offs then I'm sorry you are clearly deluded. We need a lot more than Noel Hunt. How about a solid defence? How about some creativity in the centre of midfield?? How about a striker who does more than 'makes good runs'.

Apart from McAnuff & Siggurdsson, this squad is very poor.

I challenge ANYONE to provide REAL evidence to the contrary.

Rasiak: 13 starts 6 goals = scoring ratio of just worse than 1 goal every 2 games. Any striker would be ecstatic with that. Add in sub appearances and it would be a little better than 1 goal every 3 games. Any striker would be happy with that.

There's your real evidence for one player. Not even one many would consider to be in our 5 best players.

I'd suggest you cannot describe Karacan, Church (at 1 goal every 3.4 starts given his best qualities are not his finishing) Matejovsky, Hunt or Bertrand as poor. Nor Tabb or Howard.

I'd like to see your REAL evidence to show everyone but McAnuff and Sig are poor. Because you simply can't produce it for most of our players. League position is not totally indicative of the strength of the squad as a lot of other factors influence performances and the season is not yet over.

[Terminal Boardom]

Rasiak: 13 starts 6 goals = scoring ratio of just worse than 1 goal every 2 games. Any striker would be ecstatic with that. Add in sub appearances and it would be a little better than 1 goal every 3 games. Any striker would be happy with that.

There's your real evidence for one player. Not even one many would consider to be in our 5 best players.

I'd suggest you cannot describe Karacan, Church (at 1 goal every 3.4 starts given his best qualities are not his finishing) Matejovsky, Hunt or Bertrand as poor. Nor Tabb or Howard.

I'd like to see your REAL evidence to show everyone but McAnuff and Sig are poor. Because you simply can't produce it for most of our players. League position is not totally indicative of the strength of the squad as a lot of other factors influence performances and the season is not yet over.

What I said above

As I have said elsewhere, just how many of our squad could honestly believe that they could grace the premiership? How many would walk into other Championship sides? As I said above, apart from McAnuff and The Sig, we have a very poor squad.

Now, if anyone can prove me wrong, which at this moment I doubt, then go for it. If our players were as good as some would like to believe, there would be clubs being linked with our players on a regular basis. This isn't happening! Even the lazy tabloid journos have stopped!

[Maguire]

Rodgers' dismissal was shortsighted to say the least.

Why was it shortsighted? They knew exactly whay they were doing and knew exactly who was going to take the reins hence why Hammond hasn't been asked to compile a shortlist.

Rodgers wasn't working out, results were showing no signs of improvement, he said he needed to bring in more of his type of players (despite bringing in over half a team since he took over) and the view was that things were not going to improve. His team selections were strange, his tactics baffling and his half time team talks seemed to demotivate.

Results *were* improving. I don't undestand why people would say they weren't. He only had 21 games and that was coming into a club in massive transition (I won't say turmoil as it's slightly overstating the case, but we were losing all our best players) and we weren't in the bottom three.

So, they panicked and sacked him without having any permanent replacement in mind and now our results have got worse and we are in the bottom three. You reap what you sow, really.

I do hope McDermott works out as I think he comes across pretty well, but the dismissal of Rodgers will live long in my mind as one of the grubbier episodes of RFC's history.

[Terminal Boardom]

Surely the appointment of Todgers was one of the shoddiest bits of business in recent years.

I do agree that getting rid of the retard and not immediately appointing someone "high profile" was a remarkably shit piece of business.

[Dirk Gently]

I do hope McDermott works out as I think he comes across pretty well, but the dismissal of Rodgers will live long in my mind as one of the grubbier episodes of RFC's history.

Speaking personally, I have to agree with that. Most unlike RFC, although they do acknowledge that themselves and they hated doing it too.

[midfield diamond]

Surely the appointment of Todgers was one of the shoddiest bits of business in recent years.

I do agree that getting rid of the retard and not immediately appointing someone "high profile" was a remarkably shit piece of business.

Agreed.
SJM, despite his protestations to the contrary, just shows no urgency in addressing the managerial position (one way or the other) and doesn't seem to care if we go down or not.
The transfer window closes in a week and the only thing that has been done to address the number one problem ( defenders who wouldn't win a snails race) is to sign another snail in Griffin (based upon what I saw at Forest). Whilst we keep shipping goals at the current rate there really is no hope of climbing the table. Ivar sadly is not the player he was. Pearce turns slower than Nelson up his column. Mills, well the jury is out, but looks over priced at £2M. Bertrand much better going forward than defending. Cummings - no hope. Armstrong sadly seems unable to get fit.

[Big Ern]

Still no league wins!

Anyone still want him as the manager?

[rfcjoe]

The board clearly read my posts.

[Hampshire Royal]

It's three wins out of the next four. Nothing else is acceptable. Odd job boys it's time to deliver. SDR has spokennnnnnnnnn

Do as the main man says. You know it makes sense.

On 16 Jan Dodge said the above and, sure enough, we won three out of the next four. I'm assuming that this is all acceptable and Dodge has disappeared back up his own arse again.

[The Cap]

Not sure whether this has been covered anywhere else but I suddenly got to thinking about Brian's twelve month rolling contract. I know he's said that he's settled here,knows the boys well and all that bananas but wouldn't it be a good idea to try and commit him to a longer period at the end of this season.

He's clearly had the desired effect but in these days of 'musical managers' surely it would help the stability of the club. Or is it a case of twelve month rolling contracts becoming the fashion so that clubs aren't lumbered with compo payments (cue Buck)? You've got to wonder whether the waiter would still be in charge at the 'Pool if his termination clause wasn't loaded with big bucks. And that's without the extras for his entourage.

[Sun Tzu]

What difference would the terms of any contract make ?


Someone come up with a full list of managers who have said 'I've been offered the Man Utd job but as there is still 2 years on my current deal I've decided to stay at Yeovil. I hope Man Utd hold the job open until I am available.'

A 12 month rolling deal is about as good as it gets for both parties.

We get a 12 month compensation deal if he walks out, and don't get ourselves in the situation of speculation about his future as his deal goes into the final year.

he gets 12 months compensation if we sack him but doesn;t have to worry about renewing every couple of years.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Worked well enough with Coppell.

[The Cap]

I see your points but I guess when you've got a good thing going and all that.

As for the Copp...he's always been a short term merchant. At Citeh,very short term.

[Ian Royal]

I see your points but I guess when you've got a good thing going and all that.

It's a rolling contract so it's a long term committment providing you and the club perform well. Managers here know they aren't going to get sacked just for a disappointing season, you have to really feck things up quite badly and in so doing threaten the future of the club.

The only reason to get a longer fixed term contract is so you can get more compo when you're sacked.