Adkins has to stay

[RMBlade]

For me I would keep him... Just. His signings have been average overall
Above average
Billy
Baptiste
Average
Edgar
S**t
Woolford
Sammon

His interview's on a whole are pretty repetitive but what can say differently week in week out twice a week. Sundays interview I can see how people are taking it as him having a dig, but people are taking it way out of proportion IMO!

The big worry for me appears to be his tactics, it took him 30+ games to find his "best" formation and starting 11. I think we saw improvements once we started playing a consistent tactic, however more improvements are required. His substitutions have been questionable at times too not only personnel but also the timings of his changes, but his bench is usually weak.

For me any one out of contract (Long has already signed a new one) can go. If we are struggling to bring in enough players I don't mind keeping hard working players like McEverley as a squad player. From the current squad there aren't many I would keep in the starting 11.
Assuming 4-4-2
-----------------Long---------------
Brayford* Baptiste New New
New----New------New-----New
-----------Sharp--Adams*--------

Brayford* I would happily sell to reinvest into the first team
Che* He isn't a striker and doesn't do the defensive work as a LM in 4-4-2 I would sell if we can get a decent fee and reinvest
Baptist - Obviously he is on loan but if we can get him next season for a reasonable fee/loan then i'd take him.

There seems to be quite a lot of work to do especially in the midfield. Pace out wide, strong solid box to box CM's please!

 

[RMBlade]

I thought the issue was that Fulham didn't want him to leave so turned down the loan request?

I believe they were open to letting him leave until 2 of their CB's got injured, therefore they needed Burn to cover.

 

[The Crab]

For me I would keep him... Just. His signings have been average overall
Above average
Billy
Baptiste
Average
Edgar
S**t
Woolford
Sammon

His interview's on a whole are pretty repetitive but what can say differently week in week out twice a week. Sundays interview I can see how people are taking it as him having a dig, but people are taking it way out of proportion IMO!

The big worry for me appears to be his tactics, it took him 30+ games to find his "best" formation and starting 11. I think we saw improvements once we started playing a consistent tactic, however more improvements are required. His substitutions have been questionable at times too not only personnel but also the timings of his changes, but his bench is usually weak.

For me any one out of contract (Long has already signed a new one) can go. If we are struggling to bring in enough players I don't mind keeping hard working players like McEverley as a squad player. From the current squad there aren't many I would keep in the starting 11.
Assuming 4-4-2
-----------------Long---------------
Brayford* Baptiste New New
New----New------New-----New
-----------Sharp--Adams*--------

Brayford* I would happily sell to reinvest into the first team
Che* He isn't a striker and doesn't do the defensive work as a LM in 4-4-2 I would sell if we can get a decent fee and reinvest
Baptist - Obviously he is on loan but if we can get him next season for a reasonable fee/loan then i'd take him.

There seems to be quite a lot of work to do especially in the midfield. Pace out wide, strong solid box to box CM's please!

I think the trouble with interviews is that the demand for them is so high these days, that of course they are going to say the same, and they are going to be analysed to the Nth degree. If a lot of interviews have to be given, then they are going to sound similar.

I see it a bit like this. Every day our lass asks me how my day at work has gone, so what do I say different? My job never changes, bottom of the food chain, everyone's bitch, twats are still twats. I'm a day older and a day more bitter. It's impossible to spin that into something different. My reply has just turned into a shrug of the shoulders and a sigh.

 

[RMBlade]

I think the trouble with interviews is that the demand for them is so high these days, that of course they are going to say the same, and they are going to be analysed to the Nth degree. If a lot of interviews have to be given, then they are going to sound similar.

I see it a bit like this. Every day our lass asks me how my day at work has gone, so what do I say different? My job never changes, bottom of the food chain, everyone's bitch, twats are still twats. I'm a day older and a day more bitter. It's impossible to spin that into something different. My reply has just turned into a shrug of the shoulders and a sigh.

Shame he didn't do a Ranieri (apologies for the spelling) Dean Hammond and Connor Sammon could have come and poured champagne over his head after we won the title... could have spiced it up a little.

 

[The Crab]

Shame he didn't do a Ranieri (apologies for the spelling) Dean Hammond and Connor Sammon could have come and poured champagne over his head after we won the title... could have spiced it up a little.

I bet you ten quid the useless bastards would have missed him totally

 

[RMBlade]

I bet you ten quid the useless bastards would have missed him totally

The press conference would be over before Hammond got there!

 

[blade too long]

Have you not fucking paid attention to how slow we generally do things over the summer?

"What's the rush"

Well I'll fucking tell you - we have just finished our lowest position in 30 odd years and have a spineless set of mercaneries representing us. I would think the employers would want shut of the cunts as fast as possible !

its still not possible to get rid till their contracts expire ,which is either end of May Or end of June
its not like they will be doing training or anything now
as no one excep toffice staff will be in work till pre season starts , except a new manager perhaps

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Bye, Nige.



http://postimage.org/

 

[FriethBlade]

Hear me out

I know a lot want him out but just hold your horses. What are the common denominators in our past 5 dreadful yeas in this league? The squad. (And McCabe but that's a story for a different day)

We clearly have a squad with not enough good senior pro's to handle the 'nice guy' approach, and not enough grounded youngsters to respect his style - the complete opposite of Leicester. However, the other approach, the fiery Nigel Clough didn't work either. And if a new manager came in we would be keeping the majority of this squad together, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. So what would we do from there?

At least if Adkins stays he gets rid of the crap, the bad eggs, the piss takers, the wage wasters.
He has as much if not more to lose than we do, if he fails again he won't get another job outside League 1. He won't be putting blind faith in his old mates, and hopefully this time he'll be allowed to sign more than 4 players, and hopefully the technical board will give them a thorough going over before even talking to them.

The work has to start now, we have to start telling the crap we don't want them and start talking to the free agents we do. There are plenty of good free agents about but they'll get snapped up quick. Now's our chance to sign Dan Burn for gods sake!!! And try and negotiate with Boro for another year for Baptiste. (Who would replace Edgar for me, him and Baptiste would be as solid as it gets)

Even if it's not working with Adkins after that the next man won't have to worry about having to do much work to his squad because we SHOULD have a squad of quality over quantity after this farce - that's what the technical board is there to do... right?

If Adkins stays so do the likes of Hammond, Woolford et al and that is reason enough to get rid.

We need a manager who knows the lower leagues and who to sign from them not a jobs for the mates manager.

Someone like Michael Appleton a

 

[The Crab]

its still not possible to get rid till their contracts expire ,which is either end of May Or end of June
its not like they will be doing training or anything now
as no one excep toffice staff will be in work till pre season starts , except a new manager perhaps

To be fair, I think BTL is right here. hopefully a lot of the dross will be getting released. But they haven't given a shiny shite all season, so they are not going to have a road to Damascus moment and fuck off now. They are earning a good wage from us, and they will milk all they can until the end of their contracts. They won't be going anywhere that will pay anywhere near what they've been getting here, in fact some of them I wouldn't trust to get my burger order right.

 

[Gordon cowans]

We have played some of the poorest football ive ever seen at the lane,if we keep him im very nervous for the new season,eitherway lets hear some official statement out of the club so we can get on with it...........,and maybe our summer of sack him/keep him threads can hopefully be about our great new players and our shite leaving

 

[Finnieston]

Sorry he has to go we finished 5th last season and needed a centre half and a forward he signed 6 players and we now need almost a full team he blames the fans for complaining about loosing 4 nil at gillingham and at home tu scunthorpe does anyone really thinks hes going to see the light and sign young and hungry players sorry time to go

If we do get a new manager what do we expect the next man to do in ten months. That seems to be the deadline.
He has got to evaluate players when they return from their breaks. Bring in new players. Find a playing system that suits.
Bearing in mind players dont return early for pre season. And then of course be top of the league by chrismas when his ten months is up. And social media sacking time again...........You are having a laugh mate....The real world is totally different.
Even if Adkins is sacked i feel for his replacement if thats your criteria.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

its still not possible to get rid till their contracts expire ,which is either end of May Or end of June
its not like they will be doing training or anything now
as no one excep toffice staff will be in work till pre season starts , except a new manager perhaps

Well how come other clubs have released players?

 

[Sean Thornton]

Well how come other clubs have released players?

Their managers have the cojones to tell their favourites they are shite and won't be getting a new contract after all?

 

[blade too long]

Well how come other clubs have released players?

because its the summer break they may have released them , but they still pay their contracts up
we are mid process
some do it as they have May holidays booked
some might have some on week to week contracts and are getting shut as fast as possible
some young players will have the wonderful zero hours contracts where they can get dumped on a whim
some small clubs will shut all the offices as soon as possible as their club shop sells 5 shirts a week, theyll turn off the lights after the last home game

our club had 2 teams in cup finals this week who needed support of the staff

 

[The Crab]

Well how come other clubs have released players?

Pure guess, but maybe they have been told they are going to be released and are free to look for another club, but still have to be paid to the end of their contract?

 

[finlaytheblade]

Pure guess, but maybe they have been told they are going to be released and are free to look for another club, but still have to be paid to the end of their contract?

Thats it exactly !!

 

[Newbury Blade]

Totally agree...

Young ambitious players who are on the way up come at a price, that's the reason we never seem to recruit them, Adkins will not be backed in this way weather turnbull identifies them or not ( tbh he could just log on here and we'd tell him who to go for, and we wouldn't be far off ) if the latest rumours from Turkish media are to be believed interviews have been held with yuksan in London by sellahatin baki....

I genuinely think we have a better chance of the desired clearout of tossers if the prince has his own man in charge, I'm as dissolutioned as anybody, but I'll try owt to get us out of this league, why not foreign manager and a few players, the British way hasn't worked for us has it...

Morsy didn't come at a price, or not much of one ... and tell me he would not have been more effective than Hammond.

 

[coaxingstar71]

I wouldn't contest your point Woody.

Sharp would not have been my signing. I'd have preferred a player with an outstanding attribute. Blistering pace or power and aerial prowess. Maybe having Deane and Agana set an unrealistic bar last time we were here!

I also agree the team isn't exactly set up to get the best from him, but who is it set up for? No pace at all, few players who can beat a man, few players who shoot accurately from distance to notch goals or create rebounds that the likes of Sharp feed off.

If you gave me back the 300-500k fee and 10-12k wages then I'd have been fine to give McNulty or Done more game time and improve the defence and midfield.

That said, 20+ goals does represent individual success so I won't be hypocritical and deny credit where it is due.

Absolutely, unequivacably, 100% agree with everything you've said and it's quite a relief that others feel the same way about the signing of Billy.

 

[blade too long]

 

[Ginger Gnome]

If we do get a new manager what do we expect the next man to do in ten months. That seems to be the deadline.
He has got to evaluate players when they return from their breaks. Bring in new players. Find a playing system that suits.
Bearing in mind players dont return early for pre season. And then of course be top of the league by chrismas when his ten months is up. And social media sacking time again...........You are having a laugh mate....The real world is totally different.
Even if Adkins is sacked i feel for his replacement if thats your criteria.

If we'd at least competed for a play-off place then there'd be a lot less pressure on Adkins, even some of those blindly backing him all season with "it's the players" and "you can't keep sacking managers" have turned against him in the last few weeks. Ten months might not be long enough for total success, but it's enough to not be an abject failure.

Adkins seemed to have no idea about his players when he took over, as if he'd never even bothered to watch a video, anyone with a clue knew that Baxter and Scougall are useless wide, we had no midfielders suited to 2 in the middle, any manager who takes the job should have done their homework before he even meets the players. As for systems, he twatted about for months trying to force 4-4-2 to work rather than just starting out with last year's formation and working on his own system from there.

Top of the league by Christmas is unimportant, having the potential to push for promotion is what's needed. Around Christmas we were about level with Wigan, they pushed on, we didn't as the manager was still dithering about trying to work out what he was doing after 6 months in the job.

Any manager who comes in well-prepared for what he's got to do can succeed here without any unrealistic expectations from fans. Despite how poor we were, we didn't finish that far from the play-offs, but rather than struggling while Adkins established himself in the role and fine-tuned the team, we just had spurts of inconsistency and indecision by an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing and drifted further and further from the play-off spots.

 

[yorkshirecoast]

I suspect a poll after Sundays result would have looked quite a bit different to the one we recently had. As time goes on though, the want for the required action will start wearing off as poll figures and expectation levels will gradually stoop back to what they were.

64% voted to sack him on Blades Mad. VIP Blades also seems to be anti-Adkins on the whole.

 

[Barney]

64% voted to sack him on Blades Mad. VIP Blades also seems to be anti-Adkins on the whole.

This board has always been the more positive one.

 

[BushBlade]

I really don't think that Sharp has been a success for the team. I am a career long fan of Sharp and wanted him back each time he returned, in fact Warnock' s decision to sell him for 100k was appalling and looked it at the time.

There's no point having a 20 goal striker and finishing eleventh. Sharp has no height or pace but is red hot in the penalty area, good scorer and assister. If you sign him you have to complement him with players who can play to his strengths and cope with his weaknesses, the team system has to provide him with service to his feet in the final third.

Adkins has not done all that. The worst failing has been the lack of bodies in central midfield in the final third. Sharp loves his back to goal and a threaded ball to feet, he's not that keen on speculative crosses. Adams has been a slow learner as his co-striker rookie and its been tough for Sharp.

Signing Billy was Adkins' biggest mistake, bigger than making McEv captain or Hammond.

Billy's a great striker but he's most suited to two up top, or in a 451 where the midfield runs beyond him and he receives the ball to feet.

Our team was built to play 1 up front, to counter and to grind out results. We lack pace and creativity in midfield.

You can argue that Clough's style of play was never going to get us to an automatic spot because too many clubs were happy to sit back at the Lane, happy to come away with a draw. We'd always end up in the top six but not the top two.

You have to be braver, to be able to attack teams at home, to dominate them. That's what Adkins thought he could do, that's probably what the board told him they wanted. So he bought Billy; the only bit of quality uncle Kev was ever likely to pay money for, the returning hero, the Blade, the bums on seat signing.

And that's where his problems started. He spent months trying to find a formation that suited Billy (essentially undroppable, our version of Shearer) and suited our midfielders, all of whom are 'specialist' midfielders (basically, good at one job) rather than the box to box types you need for a four four two.

Obviously, it's been compounded by Sammon losing all confidence and turning into a wreck of a player and Hammond losing his legs and turning into a wreck of a player but Adkins took a big gamble getting Billy and hoping he could mould a 442 out of the players we had. He couldn't and it's cost him

 

[yorkshirecoast]

Signing Billy was Adkins' biggest mistake, bigger than making McEv captain or Hammond.

Billy's a great striker but he's most suited to two up top, or in a 451 where the midfield runs beyond him and he receives the ball to feet.

Our team was built to play 1 up front, to counter and to grind out results. We lack pace and creativity in midfield.

You can argue that Clough's style of play was never going to get us to an automatic spot because too many clubs were happy to sit back at the Lane, happy to come away with a draw. We'd always end up in the top six but not the top two.

You have to be braver, to be able to attack teams at home, to dominate them. That's what Adkins thought he could do, that's probably what the board told him they wanted. So he bought Billy; the only bit of quality uncle Kev was ever likely to pay money for, the returning hero, the Blade, the bums on seat signing.

And that's where his problems started. He spent months trying to find a formation that suited Billy (essentially undroppable, our version of Shearer) and suited our midfielders, all of whom are 'specialist' midfielders (basically, good at one job) rather than the box to box types you need for a four four two.

Obviously, it's been compounded by Sammon losing all confidence and turning into a wreck of a player and Hammond losing his legs and turning into a wreck of a player but Adkins took a big gamble getting Billy and hoping he could mould a 442 out of the players we had. He couldn't and it's cost him

You are joking I hope. Sharp is arguably the only thing Adkins got right. And how can you say we are set up to counter attack? With our lack of pace it takes us 10 mins to get from one end of the pitch to the other.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

64% voted to sack him on Blades Mad. VIP Blades also seems to be anti-Adkins on the whole.

Out of interest, how many voted?

 

[BushBlade]

You are joking I hope. Sharp is arguably the only thing Adkins got right. And how can you say we are set up to counter attack? With our lack of pace it takes us 10 mins to get from one end of the pitch to the other.

I meant under Clough. When we had Murphy and Scougall (and JCR sometimes).

I'm not in any way having a dig at Billy, he's done well but having him has created tactical problems that could only have been solved by making more changes to personnel than Adkins has done.

To get the best out of him you want two box to box CMs, proper wingers/wide midfielders and a big partner with a bit of brain, like Keogh at Scunny. He'd have scored thirty in this league if we'd done that.

We're lucky he's been able to carry the team at times this season but if we'd had a lone striker instead of Billy, our midfield would have been more effective, as it became once we'd got Baptiste in and could play 352. We would have had a settled 451 like last season instead of arsing around with different formations and players.

It might have worked better if Sammon hadn't been shit, or Hammond too old, or if we'd kept Murphy but it's all conspired against Adkins to create a huge tactical headache.

 

[Ricky]

Out of interest, how many voted?

1015 by the looks of it on the Bladesmad Twitter page.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

1015 by the looks of it on the Bladesmad Twitter page.

I'm assuming that users of that particular forum can only vote once like here? Impressive total if true – I didn't realise they had so many more members of their forum than here.

 

[Ricky]

I'm assuming that users of that particular forum can only vote once like here? Impressive total if true – I didn't realise they had so many more members of their forum than here.

The poll was posted on Twitter, so it's due to their number of followers - around 11k, which is a similar number to what S24SU has.

Not sure which has most members. I suspect this one does now.