Adkins Interview Ahead of Donny (A)

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William Henry Foulkes

William Henry Foulkes

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Always worth listening to - but this one is in particular goes over interesting and important ground. Spends a fair chunk of time talking about his understanding of the club, his commitment, long term vision and short term goals.

NB alcoblade steer clear - he mentions having a philosophy two or three times*
  • RS: Have you seen the reaction you wanted? NA: We've got to respond
  • desperately want to do well
  • trained well but measured in the arena
  • mentions not scoring in the last two games
  • working hard - but we should be working hard
  • got to get results, performances and give the crowd something to be happy about
  • Doncaster play a couple of ways: three CHs or a diamond
  • looking forward to the derby game
  • long discussion on the short term need for results over a longer term desire to have a play through the thirds philosophy at the club, play quick dynamic football, score loads of goals, good possession, need the right players, and a spirit, takes time to stamp that authority, developing juniors to fit that pattern, aim for 50% academy players in the first team gets another mention [that's three times at least, I reckon]
  • can do that if you have time but we need to get out of this division which involves scrambling points
  • moving the ball quickly and brightly gets another mention [this is a real issue and has been since Gillingham - it might even have been mentioned then]
  • my philosophy is good football, attacking football
  • right now it's about winning games
  • RS: Do you feel a need to change? NA: Keep same team? Stick with it? Change the formation? Those are the decisions you have to make
  • got to take your chances
  • we've had more goalscoring opportunities and George has had less to do than a lot of teams
  • it's about getting a balance
  • can talk about philosophies for ever and ever but we want to get promoted now
  • mentions listening to the supporters and recognising the frustration of being down here for so long
  • RS: Has eight managers in eight and a half years had an effect? [Interesting that there's a good, stock answer to this and it takes him a few seconds to find it] NA: It's not for me to say [found it, I'd've thought that would be a reflex response] but it does take time to build
  • mentions being employed bc of his his track record
  • need a plan, a strategy
  • understanding the club more and more
  • wants to be in the PL with Sheffield United, wants to get promoted with Sheffield United
  • LMA [League Managers' Association presumably] stat is average tenure is ten months
  • need a clear idea of what does a Sheffield United player look like?
  • he has a very clear vision of that
  • mentions that the supporters have experience of success of a team playing direct football
  • talks about toing and froing between managers and playing styles and the need to develop
  • SAF took a while, Wenger did, Neil [Warnock] did
  • mentions the supporters again wanting to see attacking hardworking football
  • Do we need a long term approach? Both owners very supportive
  • need a period of time to work through it
  • I feel for the football club, not as though you're looking to jump elsewhere
  • big challenge but exciting [I think this is not just a platitude. The club has enormous potential (obviously) and I think he can see that. It takes a certain amount of bravery, confidence, and experience to face up to and embrace the challenge of building a team and a club playing his style of football in front of 33 000. Sounds to me like he's up for it. I hope so. Let's see.]
  • want to get promoted? find a solution
  • letting in goals playing expansive football gets a mention
  • we want hard working players, flair, and possession with a purpose
  • players nursing ailments
  • squad will get utilised
  • Bob gone through the 45' 60' 90' rehabilitation - good to go
  • recruitment? need to balance 93 days if they come in now won't be available for the play-offs
  • it'd give everyone a big lift to bring someone in
  • have to put them in the first team and they have to do the business
  • big desire to do something [the way this is talked up it sounds a lot like they expect movement, thought of course I might be misreading it]
  • sure the supporters will be behind the team making noise
  • (alluded to gets it's first use I think after nearly 17')
  • wants to get us winning games of football and making everybody happy
*I think having a philosophy is different from doing philosophy which could involve standing around contemplating whether the opposition actually exist.
 

William Henry Foulkes said:
*I think having a philosophy is different from doing philosophy which could involve standing around contemplating whether the opposition actually exist.
Click to expand...

"Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside."

Is this the kind of philosophy we're after?
 
William Henry Foulkes said:
Always worth listening to - but this one is in particular goes over interesting and important ground. Spends a fair chunk of time talking about his understanding of the club, his commitment, long term vision and short term goals.

NB alcoblade steer clear - he mentions having a philosophy two or three times*
  • RS: Have you seen the reaction you wanted? NA: We've got to respond
  • desperately want to do well
  • trained well but measured in the arena
  • mentions not scoring in the last two games
  • working hard - but we should be working hard
  • got to get results, performances and give the crowd something to be happy about
  • Doncaster play a couple of ways: three CHs or a diamond
  • looking forward to the derby game
  • long discussion on the short term need for results over a longer term desire to have a play through the thirds philosophy at the club, play quick dynamic football, score loads of goals, good possession, need the right players, and a spirit, takes time to stamp that authority, developing juniors to fit that pattern, aim for 50% academy players in the first team gets another mention [that's three times at least, I reckon]
  • can do that if you have time but we need to get out of this division which involves scrambling points
  • moving the ball quickly and brightly gets another mention [this is a real issue and has been since Gillingham - it might even have been mentioned then]
  • my philosophy is good football, attacking football
  • right now it's about winning games
  • RS: Do you feel a need to change? NA: Keep same team? Stick with it? Change the formation? Those are the decisions you have to make
  • got to take your chances
  • we've had more goalscoring opportunities and George has had less to do than a lot of teams
  • it's about getting a balance
  • can talk about philosophies for ever and ever but we want to get promoted now
  • mentions listening to the supporters and recognising the frustration of being down here for so long
  • RS: Has eight managers in eight and a half years had an effect? [Interesting that there's a good, stock answer to this and it takes him a few seconds to find it] NA: It's not for me to say [found it, I'd've thought that would be a reflex response] but it does take time to build
  • mentions being employed bc of his his track record
  • need a plan, a strategy
  • understanding the club more and more
  • wants to be in the PL with Sheffield United, wants to get promoted with Sheffield United
  • LMA [League Managers' Association presumably] stat is average tenure is ten months
  • need a clear idea of what does a Sheffield United player look like?
  • he has a very clear vision of that
  • mentions that the supporters have experience of success of a team playing direct football
  • talks about toing and froing between managers and playing styles and the need to develop
  • SAF took a while, Wenger did, Neil [Warnock] did
  • mentions the supporters again wanting to see attacking hardworking football
  • Do we need a long term approach? Both owners very supportive
  • need a period of time to work through it
  • I feel for the football club, not as though you're looking to jump elsewhere
  • big challenge but exciting [I think this is not just a platitude. The club has enormous potential (obviously) and I think he can see that. It takes a certain amount of bravery, confidence, and experience to face up to and embrace the challenge of building a team and a club playing his style of football in front of 33 000. Sounds to me like he's up for it. I hope so. Let's see.]
  • want to get promoted? find a solution
  • letting in goals playing expansive football gets a mention
  • we want hard working players, flair, and possession with a purpose
  • players nursing ailments
  • squad will get utilised
  • Bob gone through the 45' 60' 90' rehabilitation - good to go
  • recruitment? need to balance 93 days if they come in now won't be available for the play-offs
  • it'd give everyone a big lift to bring someone in
  • have to put them in the first team and they have to do the business
  • big desire to do something [the way this is talked up it sounds a lot like they expect movement, thought of course I might be misreading it]
  • sure the supporters will be behind the team making noise
  • (alluded to gets it's first use I think after nearly 17')
  • wants to get us winning games of football and making everybody happy
*I think having a philosophy is different from doing philosophy which could involve standing around contemplating whether the opposition actually exist.
Click to expand...

I just can't work out if you're Kevin or Simon?

Yep same interview as last week that was 'worth listening to' and they played like Brazil in training then.

He can't really change things given he's shrunk the squad he wishes to use and all he can do is shuffle them round.

What the journalist should have questioned him on is what is happening behind the scenes, are the players upset cos they're out of contract in June instead of letting him talk the above Bollox which was in the last interview and the one before etc etc....

Donny 2 United 1
 
Aiming for 50% of the team to come through the Accademy...

Translation: We're potless, there's no serious money for transfers.

Any club is lucky if they get maybe three or four players in five years come through the Accademy to make it as a first teamer.

Statements saying we want half the team to come through that route are deeply worrying.
 
Harry's Game said:
Aiming for 50% of the team to come through the Accademy...

Translation: We're potless, there's no serious money for transfers.

Any club is lucky if they get maybe three or four players in five years come through the Accademy to make it as a first teamer.

Statements saying we want half the team to come through that route are deeply worrying.
Click to expand...

Exactly, just pointless, lip service statements.

That and "we want to play through the thirds, attacking football"...who doesn't! Just generic crap as normal. He sounds just like a youth coach who thinks he can get his U13 boys playing like barca and is trying to impress the parents. Also shows poor judgement, good managers get the best out of what they have, in the division they are in. They don't try and do something their squad isn't capable of.

On the academy "50%" in the first team statement. Aside from Man U in the 90's, barca and crewe, which team in the past 20 years has had 50% of their squad as academy products!? Just a stupid, unrealistic and pie in the sky thing to say.
 
To summarise, it takes time to re-build, please give me the time, I'm the right man for the job and know how to get out of this division with the right players.
 
"We've only lost 3 games in three months..." when will the bloody interviewer kindly remind Adkins that yes he may have only lost 3 in three months, but he's only won 4 in three and a half months, and 7 in 5 months!

Oh, and Nigel, we know you like to be positive, but a game against Doncaster Rovers is not a "big derby" game and not something to get excited about.
 
Roygbiv said:
The 50% academy line is extremely worrying in it's naivety. It seems the top brass are genuinely thinking this is an option. Ridiculous
Click to expand...

Roy , I don't see this as a option / solution from the top brass . They are not clever or sensible enough to realise this is a non starter . To me , think Southampton again and any mad cap idea must have come from Adkins .
If he didn't believe it , would he have said it .

It is naive and not workable for a side wanting promotion . Would work for a side who wants consolidation and to stand still.

UTB
 
SwissBlade said:
Same old chatter, would love to see Adkins actually answer whether he thinks he's achieved anything so far
Click to expand...

Normally I agree with most of your posts, but in this case, I don't think Adkins is likely to come out and say "I've been an abject failure but please give me time".

Imagine the meltdown that would occur if he put this in to the public domain.

If the guy has anything about him then he won't be happy with how his tenure has gone so far, dealing with a squad of below average players for this level and possibly working with his hands tied.

I think next season will be the real benchmark, I won't be happy spending another season in the 3rd division but of that's what it takes to build something capable of sustained growth then I'll accept it.
 
I reckon he wants 50% to be academy as he wont have a choice. He wont be given any funds to buy new players!!
 
Any team that plays 50% academy players will end up in non-league.

As for the rest of the interview, the same old rubbish that bears no resemblance to reality. I fear another slow, negative, spineless display at Donny - setting up for a draw and then capitulating once we concede.
 
Lord Bos of Eckington. said:
It isnot workable for a side wanting promotion.
Click to expand...

Which is basically what he says in the interview.

A big part of the whole interview is about short term, promotion, versus long term aim, development, mainly on the playing side - but in this case on the player recruitment side.

He's not going to bung in 50% Academy players in the run in for instance.
 

First United team I ever watched:
Hodgkinson, Caldwell, Shaw, Richardson, Shaw, Summers, Allchurch, Hagen, Pace, Kettleborough, Simpson.

What did they have in common over and above today's team? - They were fit to wear the shirt.
 
Maybe the crowd funding initiative could be used to bring Hugh Dennis in to do a Mock the Week style "what he's really saying" translation, that would appease the masses.
 
Jim Chimmerney said:
To summarise, it takes time to re-build, please give me the time, I'm the right man for the job and know how to get out of this division with the right players.
Click to expand...

Last four words in that post are the problem, there seems to be no direction as to how we are going to get those players, the transfer fund looks bare and we are falling back into relying on loans and the academy... That way lies League 2 and below.
 
Billpuntonsbaldhead said:
First United team I ever watched:
Hodgkinson, Caldwell, Shaw, Richardson, Shaw, Summers, Allchurch, Hagen, Pace, Kettleborough, Simpson.

What did they have in common over and above today's team? - They were fit to wear the shirt.
Click to expand...

54% effectively home-grown?

No coincidence that, of those clearly fit to wear the shirt now, the most shining example is a home-grown player (with, arguably, another younger home grown player also among that category too).

Not that 50% academy-produced players is a realistic prospect nowadays, & acknowledging that the 50% goal is clearly part of the "austerity culture" being thrust on us, but we do need a core of home-grown players to be the heartbeat of the side. Not that they all need to be academy players, necessarily; they could also include non-league players acquired, local players poached, or players not having initially made the grade elsewhere but given their break by us (as in the case of a number of those you list above).

Having a solid core of SUFC developed players is a worthy goal, it's just that mention of it now (in, frankly, unrealistic terms) inevitably gets it merged in with all the other problems consuming the club.
 
Its like listening to somebody in the pub, talks a good game, cannot really argue about what you want to achieve and how you would like to go about achieving it, like any other business, running a pub, selling cars etc etc, difference is doing it and being successful, I ran my own business for over 30 years some good some not so but somebody could always tell me how I should do it, easy when you don't have to make the final discisions,mind you I wasn't being interviewed by the press every week
 
Easy to knock a man when he's down and in a rubber dinghy when the tide is coming in. Most people on here would've sacked Harry and Warnock a long time before they'd achieved anything. I'm sure the next man will have a much better CV.
 
Borbokisfreekick said:
"We've only lost 3 games in three months..." when will the bloody interviewer kindly remind Adkins that yes he may have only lost 3 in three months, but he's only won 4 in three and a half months, and 7 in 5 months!

Oh, and Nigel, we know you like to be positive, but a game against Doncaster Rovers is not a "big derby" game and not something to get excited about.
Click to expand...


To be fair to Rob Staton he did remind NA we had only won once in 2016, NA back tracked and replied we had drawn a few and moved swiftly on reminding us that we have a great bunch of lads who are working hard.
 
Boxer Blade said:
Its like listening to somebody in the pub, talks a good game, cannot really argue about what you want to achieve and how you would like to go about achieving it, like any other business, running a pub, selling cars etc etc, difference is doing it and being successful, I ran my own business for over 30 years some good some not so but somebody could always tell me how I should do it, easy when you don't have to make the final discisions,mind you I wasn't being interviewed by the press every week
Click to expand...
Too right Boxer. I've had loads of advice from people who've never worked for themselves. I should be doing this, I should be doing that. I just tell them with all those great ideas they should be doing it themselves.
 
William Henry Foulkes said:
Always worth listening to
Click to expand...

To be honest I can't think of one manager whose musings I can listen to for more than about 20 seconds but NA is particularly insipid.

He's just another club mouthpiece and, as stated on here a hundred times, watch what they do and ignore what they say.
Go to the games, make up your own mind and then turn on 6Music and forget about it until the next time.
 
I find it gobsmacking how much so many of our fans get wound up by what the manager says in interviews.

Our best managers (Warnock, Basset) talked uter shite. So did Ferguson. So does Wenger.

Seriously, what the fuck are people expecting?

UTB
 
Harry's Game said:
Aiming for 50% of the team to come through the Accademy...

Translation: We're potless, there's no serious money for transfers.

Any club is lucky if they get maybe three or four players in five years come through the Accademy to make it as a first teamer.

Statements saying we want half the team to come through that route are deeply worrying.
Click to expand...
I don't agree. The standard of the average league one player isn't very high, and we've seen quite average players from our academy be released and go to other clubs and perform comfortably at this level.
So seeing that, if I were paying out the money I might say this player you want to bring in is actually not a massive increase in standard to player x in the academy therefore let use the money more sensibly elsewhere.
What we've not seen is many of our academy players step up recently, they should be if it's doing it's job so therefore 50% isn't a crazy figure, in addition are we honestly saying that one of the young forward wouldn't have shown more than Higdon (for example) for his wages and exposure to the first team. The academy have also had it quite cushy whereby they get their funding, there isn't any real pressure on them to produce and they always have the excuse that players weren't given a chance. Now they live or die by their results and the pressure is rightly on them to produce given the funding they receive.
I don't think it's an arbitrary figure, but I see nothing wrong with it as an aspirational target given what I've already covered about the general skill level of this league, but the academy does need to raise it's game and be seriously challenged to meet this target if they want to remain.
All this then frees up spending for where we really need additions, areas of the team where we don't have someone coming through, or somewhere we were clearly need a bit of quality. I'd much rather our funds be spent on those types of players rather than Joey Average who'll just come, pull a wage and not really move us forward.
 
Flatulent_Bob said:
I don't agree. The standard of the average league one player isn't very high, and we've seen quite average players from our academy be released and go to other clubs and perform comfortably at this level.
So seeing that, if I were paying out the money I might say this player you want to bring in is actually not a massive increase in standard to player x in the academy therefore let use the money more sensibly elsewhere.
What we've not seen is many of our academy players step up recently, they should be if it's doing it's job so therefore 50% isn't a crazy figure, in addition are we honestly saying that one of the young forward wouldn't have shown more than Higdon (for example) for his wages and exposure to the first team. The academy have also had it quite cushy whereby they get their funding, there isn't any real pressure on them to produce and they always have the excuse that players weren't given a chance. Now they live or die by their results and the pressure is rightly on them to produce given the funding they receive.
I don't think it's an arbitrary figure, but I see nothing wrong with it as an aspirational target given what I've already covered about the general skill level of this league, but the academy does need to raise it's game and be seriously challenged to meet this target if they want to remain.
All this then frees up spending for where we really need additions, areas of the team where we don't have someone coming through, or somewhere we were clearly need a bit of quality. I'd much rather our funds be spent on those types of players rather than Joey Average who'll just come, pull a wage and not really move us forward.
Click to expand...
From the games I've seen this season and after watching Posh against L1 I think the standard of players is quite high. In fact, I don't think there's a huge difference between the top of L1 and the bottom of the Championship.
Players who are good enough for L1 aren't really what we need. We need players who are good at L1 level, with the potential to play at a higher level.
Which players have we released since we've been in L1 that are performing comfortably at this level?
 
alcoblade said:
I find it gobsmacking how much so many of our fans get wound up by what the manager says in interviews.

Our best managers (Warnock, Basset) talked uter shite. So did Ferguson. So does Wenger.

Seriously, what the fuck are people expecting?

UTB
Click to expand...
He sure does talk utter shite he thinks were 10th ...
 

I'm gob
alcoblade said:
I find it gobsmacking how much so many of our fans get wound up by what the manager says in interviews.

Our best managers (Warnock, Basset) talked uter shite. So did Ferguson. So does Wenger.

Seriously, what the fuck are people expecting?

UTB
Click to expand...
I'm gobsmacked with how bad he is tactically and his team selections.
 
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