Nigel’s 6 month anniversary

[rtifati]

Tomorrow marks six months of the Nigel Adkins era and I'd say he’s probably fortunate he's in the football business.

In most other jobs, he'd be sitting down tomorrow with his manager to mark the end of a probation period, comparing performance after six months against set objectives.

Wholly met / met / not met? Hmm...

Poor decision making in the summer to give everyone a fresh start, poor signings, less than sparkling football, no clear settled formation or starting XI and, most of all, incredibly disappointing results.

Regarding expectations, Chesterfield are an interesting comparison. League One is probably their natural level, yet they saw fit to sack Saunders after just six months and are only 4 points worse off than us.

If it wasn't for his previous success in League One, plus the lack of any obvious, realistic alternatives, I think Adkins' days would be numbered. As it is I think he'll get another six months to try and salvage the situation.

 

[ChrisBlade]

The Saunders sacking is harsh, though. And Adkins gets the benefit of the doubt based on his infinitely superior c.v. when compared to Dean Saunders. Chezzy basically got the wrong man and hastily corrected their mistake. We will still feel at board level we got the best guy on paper but will indeed be scrambling around for reasons as to why it so far went so wrong so quickly.

I find it interesting that for all our toils, we are still above the other two losing play-off teams. Some massive hangover if in early December, the best of last year's remaining top three is in twelwth or something...

 

[blade.i.am]

Yay. Only 30 months to go, unless of course he gets sacked. Can't see that happening, unless McCabe thinks bringing in Saunders would be a good Bladey move. Now there's a scary thought.

 

[rtifati]

Yay. Only 30 months to go, unless of course he gets sacked. Can't see that happening, unless McCabe thinks bringing in Saunders would be a good Bladey move. Now there's a scary thought.

Agree about Saunders and not suggesting we should be looking at him. Brian Deane, however, would be a very very Bladey move, and he's someone I'd love to see managing United one day.

 

[bertieblade]

Would you want Brian Deane to manage us if he were not a Blade? What else about him do you think qualifies him for the job?

 

[Tyler Durden]

Adkins was perfectly honest when he took charge. He said from the outset that this team wasn't good enough for task at hand and it didn't taken him long to realise it.

He needs until 12 months from now to make his mark on the squad, that means getting rid of a lot of shite and bringing in some players who are actually half decent/have a pulse.
Adkins will get it right, just not with this bunch of no hopers.

 

[Borbokisfreekick]

Adkins was perfectly honest when he took charge. He said from the outset that this team wasn't good enough for task at hand and it didn't taken him long to realise it.

He needs until 12 months from now to make his mark on the squad, that means getting rid of a lot of shite and bringing in some players who are actually half decent/have a pulse.
Adkins will get it right, just not with this bunch of no hopers.

Clough got this lot to 5th place and a cup semi. Granted Adkins has lost Murphy, but he also had the chance to bring in his own players, and also look at last season and see what needed adding to turn a 5th place team into a top 2 team. In fact, any fan could have told him. Yet he didn't address any of the weaknesses.

Adkins is massively under achieving. I agree he needs time, but if Clough was as as bad as everyone makes out, then the new Nigel is currently much worse.

 

[Jehovah]

Its been a rubbish relationship so far. I'm starting to think about looking elsewhere.

 

[Hunkerby]

Short term thinking is how we got into this position in the first place.

 

[bornablade]

Adkins was perfectly honest when he took charge. He said from the outset that this team wasn't good enough for task at hand and it didn't taken him long to realise it.

He needs until 12 months from now to make his mark on the squad, that means getting rid of a lot of shite and bringing in some players who are actually half decent/have a pulse.
Adkins will get it right, just not with this bunch of no hopers.

I cannot recall Adkins saying the team wasn't good enough. If he did and since then he has spoke in completely opposite terms. Taking into consideration his interviews during the season my concern is that he believes these players are good enough and January will disappear without any significant in comings.

 

[madeinsheffield]

There's no Murphy and despite never been his biggest fan no Doyle either, along with the beard. So I don't think you can say same team. I read a quote that stated team needed improvement for promotion

 

[Hunkerby]

I cannot recall Adkins saying the team wasn't good enough. If he did and since then he has spoke in completely opposite terms. Taking into consideration his interviews during the season my concern is that he believes these players are good enough and January will disappear without any significant in comings.

When Adkins joined the club he definitely said the team was not good enough for promotion - link/source below.

 

[Woodwardfan]

When Adkins joined the club he definitely said the team was not good enough for promotion - link/source below.

6 month report:

5 signings, none of whom adding expected value as yet. 4/10

Style of play: too many changes in formations, still not a settled way of playing. Tried to play 4-4-2 without suitable players. Disrespected the league maybe. 2/10.

Team selection: Too many changes; few players regard themselves as automatic choices with the confidence that goes with that. 3/10

Media: Always puts on a brave face and teases out any possible positives. Misjudges his audience which is depressed and pessimistic. 4/10

Overall rating: 3/10

Although this is " not where we all want to be" at this stage, it is still too early to judge any manager as regards his capability to fulfill his brief over a reasonable period.

The job has proved far more difficult than I for one expected and I think Adkins is in shock at this stage and urgently needs a change of fortune. Brayfrod's return and Done's fitness together with Baxter's form could help bail him out. Sharp has to get amongst the goals and Long has to win his own battle. It's all a bit fragile frankly.

To date Adkins doesn't seem to be a "lucky manager"; we seem to sweat blood and tears for all our points which seem to fall into the laps of other teams.

 

[Canterbury Blade]

Not his fault
Brayford's injury
Players contracts, especially expensive ones for undesirable players which cannot be undone in an instant.

Probably not his fault
Letting Murphy go
Not attracting loan players from higher Divisions (a la Coady, Milton Keynes etc)

His fault
Signing players with no apparent hunger
Not playing or inspiring the youth (Che would have come through anyway)
Wasting wages from the budget on marquee signings and journey men
Not engaging with the fans in a meaningful way
Selecting McEveley as Captain

Better
Farming some of the undesirables away on loan
Returning Collins to the fold (NOT my choice of player and NOT for the long term but it was stupid last year to isolate him when we were crying out for a centre half)
Ending the midget recruitment and recognising this is a tough Division requiring a balance
Getting a better return from Baxter

Conclusion
The last few years wont be undone in an instant or even a season.
The Transfer windows in January and especially the Summer need to be a watershed for movement in and out.
Lets not forget his 'understanding' of the Division is historic and he has been used to the higher levels, he needs to relearn his understanding.
He definitely needs to understand the passion of the fans at United and learn how to get the best out of us.
Who else is there who could do more with what we have? Deano and Wilder maybe, but not at this stage of either the season or their own personal development and we do run the risk of looking at matters through red and white eyes!

Basically, Adkins needs our support for another year and then lets judge him next December.

 

[BushBlade]

Not his fault
Brayford's injury
Players contracts, especially expensive ones for undesirable players which cannot be undone in an instant.

Probably not his fault
Letting Murphy go
Not attracting loan players from higher Divisions (a la Coady, Milton Keynes etc)

His fault
Signing players with no apparent hunger
Not playing or inspiring the youth (Che would have come through anyway)
Wasting wages from the budget on marquee signings and journey men
Not engaging with the fans in a meaningful way
Selecting McEveley as Captain

Better
Farming some of the undesirables away on loan
Returning Collins to the fold (NOT my choice of player and NOT for the long term but it was stupid last year to isolate him when we were crying out for a centre half)
Ending the midget recruitment and recognising this is a tough Division requiring a balance
Getting a better return from Baxter

Conclusion
The last few years wont be undone in an instant or even a season.
The Transfer windows in January and especially the Summer need to be a watershed for movement in and out.
Lets not forget his 'understanding' of the Division is historic and he has been used to the higher levels, he needs to relearn his understanding.
He definitely needs to understand the passion of the fans at United and learn how to get the best out of us.
Who else is there who could do more with what we have? Deano and Wilder maybe, but not at this stage of either the season or their own personal development and we do run the risk of looking at matters through red and white eyes!

Basically, Adkins needs our support for another year and then lets judge him next December.

Agree with that apart from the historic bit. He got Saints promoted in 2011. Has L1 really changed that dramatically since then?

 

[1danewhitehouse]

. Yet he didn't address any of the weaknesses.

.

That’s not true though is it? We saw McEveley and Alcock as our CBs to finish last season. Adkins brought Collins back into the fold and brought in Edgar. That is essentially a new pairing which for a short time, did ok when we went on that run earlier in the season. Edgar has had fitness issues and we’ve seen Basham, McGahey and McEveley have to deputise. He worked for a long time to bring Hammond in who seemed to be what we needed. A tough tackling, experienced defensive midfielder who is a little younger than Doyle. Should have been an upgrade but has struggled to settle in. By all accounts there was some improvement though against Barnsley. Losing Murphy means he could really do with another winger and the one he brought in is utter garbage. He deserves some criticism for that.

I admit that it's not happening for him at present but people completely ignore the fact that he has essentially had a new first choice CB pairing from that which Clough worked with that season and has signed a defensive midfielder. He's been trying to sign another centre half too in Burn. People seem to overlook all of this when saying he's not addressed any issues or identified any issues. I strongly suspect that Collins and Edgar would have a decent clean sheet record if

a) Edgar had stayed fit and
b) we had played to keep it tight as we did under Clough

 

[SandyMcBlade]

And on the face of it that's basically the problem, Clough played a defencive game and we drop points by trying to sit tight on 1-0 and we finish up just scraping into the top six,
Adkins plays the attacking game and we're scoring more but dropping points left right and center and letting 4 and 5 goals in in matches and are resting in mid table....
What P.O most fans is that the real problem with both styles of play has stuck out like a sore thumb to every one else except the two respected and exspireanced professional manager WE DON'T HAVE A SPINE and it's just sapping the confidence out of those players who are trying to do their best....

 

[rtifati]

Not his fault
Brayford's injury
Players contracts, especially expensive ones for undesirable players which cannot be undone in an instant.

Probably not his fault
Letting Murphy go
Not attracting loan players from higher Divisions (a la Coady, Milton Keynes etc)

His fault
Signing players with no apparent hunger
Not playing or inspiring the youth (Che would have come through anyway)
Wasting wages from the budget on marquee signings and journey men
Not engaging with the fans in a meaningful way
Selecting McEveley as Captain

Better
Farming some of the undesirables away on loan
Returning Collins to the fold (NOT my choice of player and NOT for the long term but it was stupid last year to isolate him when we were crying out for a centre half)
Ending the midget recruitment and recognising this is a tough Division requiring a balance
Getting a better return from Baxter

Conclusion
The last few years wont be undone in an instant or even a season.
The Transfer windows in January and especially the Summer need to be a watershed for movement in and out.
Lets not forget his 'understanding' of the Division is historic and he has been used to the higher levels, he needs to relearn his understanding.
He definitely needs to understand the passion of the fans at United and learn how to get the best out of us.
Who else is there who could do more with what we have? Deano and Wilder maybe, but not at this stage of either the season or their own personal development and we do run the risk of looking at matters through red and white eyes!

Basically, Adkins needs our support for another year and then lets judge him next December.

Agree with much of that but I wouldn't necessarily give him until next December.

I think it would be folly to allow him to plan for another season if there isn't serious improvement between now and the summer.

And I think you hit the nail on the head with him better understanding the fans.

The manager doesn't need to be Bladey Blade to connect with us - look at Bassett.

We'd rather be told the truth than be shovelled positive thinking, motivational rubbish.

He goes on about everyone being United, but I don't think that will happen until he begins to understand the mentality of most of us.

I reckon that's "pessimistic", "sceptical" and "sick of the play-offs".

 

[Kenilworth]

How can it be an anniversary if it's only 6 months?
Has the term anniversary lost it's original meaning or summat?

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Has it really been 6 months already?
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun.

 

[rtifati]

How can it be an anniversary if it's only 6 months?
Has the term anniversary lost it's original meaning or summat?

Yes it has unfortunately. It's now a common journalistic trick for providing a "news hook" to hang a flimsy story/rant on.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

His fault
Signing players with no apparent hunger
Not playing or inspiring the youth (Che would have come through anyway)
Wasting wages from the budget on marquee signings and journey men
Not engaging with the fans in a meaningful way
Selecting McEveley as Captain

I'll keep banging on about it because it's often forgotten, but for me one of his biggest errors in judgement so far this season was to call off the Colchester game due to internationals when days before he'd said he wanted to play. We'd just beaten Swindon by harnessing the power of Gus Uhlenbeek to make it four in a row in the league after the horror of Gillingham. We were due to miss Adams, Edgar, and the already-dropped McFadzean. Instead we cancelled it, and had the disastrous Bury and rearranged Colchester game that sapped all confidence from us. We've not been able to get any level of consistency since frankly, and given we were only going to miss two players (one of whom, Adams, had been mixed in terms of performances anyway) it seemed baffling and a mistake at the time. We may well have still lost had we gone ahead with it, but I personally think we'd have ended up with some points.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Tomorrow marks six months of the Nigel Adkins era and I'd say he’s probably fortunate he's in the football business.

In most other jobs, he'd be sitting down tomorrow with his manager to mark the end of a probation period, comparing performance after six months against set objectives.

Wholly met / met / not met? Hmm...

Poor decision making in the summer to give everyone a fresh start, poor signings, less than sparkling football, no clear settled formation or starting XI and, most of all, incredibly disappointing results.

Regarding expectations, Chesterfield are an interesting comparison. League One is probably their natural level, yet they saw fit to sack Saunders after just six months and are only 4 points worse off than us.

If it wasn't for his previous success in League One, plus the lack of any obvious, realistic alternatives, I think Adkins' days would be numbered. As it is I think he'll get another six months to try and salvage the situation.

Disagree.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Misjudges his audience which is depressed and pessimistic.

Speak for yourself.

 

[WF10BLADE]

Speak for yourself.

To be fair if we lost to the blue and white filth you'd be on here professing it's great it wasn't 6

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

His fault
Signing players with no apparent hunger
.

Agree with much of this post but not this part eg

Billy.
The Fish.

Both evidently play with desire.

Woolford's not set the world alight but he knows it and isn't pretending otherwise.
Edgar - we'll see. I'd rather he was competent than hungry.

Hammond - we'll see - could be the defining decision of Adkins' and the Blades' future. If he's not up to it and Adkins persists it could all go very wrong. I can't see this happening though.

And apparent to who btw.

 

[Gavlar]

Adkins was perfectly honest when he took charge. He said from the outset that this team wasn't good enough for task at hand and it didn't taken him long to realise it.

He needs until 12 months from now to make his mark on the squad, that means getting rid of a lot of shite and bringing in some players who are actually half decent/have a pulse.
Adkins will get it right, just not with this bunch of no hopers.

Good point, but if he knew it wasn't good enough, esp the defence, why didn't he do something about it?

 

[Tyler Durden]

Good point, but if he knew it wasn't good enough, esp the defence, why didn't he do something about it?

Tough one to answer, but reading between the lines in his early interviews I have to wonder if constraints were placed on him from upstairs which were tighter than he expected. Possible that the high wage bill stopped him getting the right players in and the prospect of having to pay compensation to players with less than 12 months on their contract wasn't acceptable to the board either, so he was probably told to make do.
I can only speculate though.

 

[AlienBlade]

That’s not true though is it? We saw McEveley and Alcock as our CBs to finish last season. Adkins brought Collins back into the fold and brought in Edgar. That is essentially a new pairing which for a short time, did ok when we went on that run earlier in the season. Edgar has had fitness issues and we’ve seen Basham, McGahey and McEveley have to deputise. He worked for a long time to bring Hammond in who seemed to be what we needed. A tough tackling, experienced defensive midfielder who is a little younger than Doyle. Should have been an upgrade but has struggled to settle in. By all accounts there was some improvement though against Barnsley. Losing Murphy means he could really do with another winger and the one he brought in is utter garbage. He deserves some criticism for that.

I admit that it's not happening for him at present but people completely ignore the fact that he has essentially had a new first choice CB pairing from that which Clough worked with that season and has signed a defensive midfielder. He's been trying to sign another centre half too in Burn. People seem to overlook all of this when saying he's not addressed any issues or identified any issues. I strongly suspect that Collins and Edgar would have a decent clean sheet record if

a) Edgar had stayed fit and
b) we had played to keep it tight as we did under Clough

Clough also claimed to be signing x player and z player.. saying the are signing them (Burn) and actually signing them are two different things.

When people actually look at the goals we have conceded when we had McEvely in the side... most of them was nothing to.do with McEvely... it was actually this wonder pairing you are suggesting... (a competent defender would clear his lines first for example edgar didnt and we conceded) collins does this alot... but as soon as someone sees McEveleys name on the team sheet they assume it was all his fault... Collins has had i think 6 clean sheets this season... Edgard 5 but more. The defence hasnt been sorted... adkins actually brought back a player who we all knew was useless in collins and only the ones who wanted to go against anything clough said actually wanted him back in the side...he has been the one constant in our fall from the Championship... he was publoc enemy no1 in the first season... had a decent 2nd season (1st in league 1) and has been poor since.

 

[AlienBlade]

Tough one to answer, but reading between the lines in his early interviews I have to wonder if constraints were placed on him from upstairs which were tighter than he expected. Possible that the high wage bill stopped him getting the right players in and the prospect of having to pay compensation to players with less than 12 months on their contract wasn't acceptable to the board either, so he was probably told to make do.
I can only speculate though.

If that was the case... surely you wouldnt have splashed out on Woolford... or Sammon (having already splashed out on Sharp... who wont have been cheap) you would prioritise if things were that tight....