Wilder - Get Rid Now, or After Last Game

[Carlton Blade]

There are bigger issues at the club than just Wilder. Mainly that there just aren't enough people and the people who are there are under qualified.

But I think it's extremely fair to question a manager who'd send out that XI that started the match. The ways to consistently attack with that team are very limited. Hoof at Burrows, force everything through Hamer. We tried neither, it was 10 minutes before Hamer touched the ball.

I don't see any argument that a man who sends out a team as poorly set up as that, plus has not shown any ability to consistently change things against good teams (4 wins, 3 draws, 13 defeats in 20 against the top half) should be trusted to run a full club, recruitment and all, with a £30m+ 1st team budget in 2026. If he's to stay, let him focus on improving players and the next result.

Personally, I think his matchday work is now poor enough that even without structural change, there's a strong argument that he's a below average manager at this level and should be replaced

 

[nopigfansintown]

It's a huge rebuilding process. It always was, starting summer 2024. The foundations were laid then, but that's all. Now we are back to square one with a sack of highly paid shite on the books. It'll take two years if everything is done perfectly but probably three. That's how much the summer has set us back. If we don't get this summer right we'll be in a dogfight at the bottom and will likely go down in the next two years.

 

[SouthStandGBlock]

Don't bother pal. We don't need yellow-belly fans like you at the Lane.

To watch our yellow belly team?

 

[Shadota]

Heckingbottom a Blade, was he?

Or Dave Bassett?

Maybe some people just appreciate managers who've achieved promotion(s) with us, and don't appreciate managers who've achieved bugger all with us.

I think you'll find that's a fairly common feeling amongst most football fans.

It's only in the strange world of S2 that having achieved something for the club leads to ridicule and sneering from sections of the fanbase, and ludicrous short-sighted calls to replace proven, competent managers with unproven gambles.

What is the deal with this absurd thinking, that because Wilder led us to promotion 9 and 7 years ago, that we should give him free reign now to have us play like we're desperate to return to League 1?

EVERY fan appreciates the good times that Wilder gave us. But it's outrageous to look at the turgid shite his team is delivering this season, and think, "Well he got us to the PL over half a decade ago, so I think we should give him longer".

I've never seen fans of a football club go so far out of their way to defend a manager who has so clearly had the game pass him by like has happened to CW. It's cult-like at this point.

 

[The Crab]

It appears to go much deeper than Wilder. Root and branch clear out required.

This.

Anything else is just moving chairs on the Titanic

 

[Keen Blade]

When everyone in our section of the South stand is actually laughing out loud and taking the piss out of our manager and players there is probably something not quite right. They were a laughing stock in that first half, so shite and clueless it was funny.

The owners are not there to witness it and Wilder & his line-manager Bettis are certainly not going to tell them.
The whole creaking edifice is riddled with nepotism , even down to the sycophantic biographer Danny Hall.

It's like watching a car-crash in slow-motion.

And we'll end up mangled all over the road unless and until the owners implement their own plan and install their own man at the Lane.

But they can't see it coz they're too distant and too ignorant (in the proper sense of the word) of the football business here.

So the backslapping old boys' "club within the club" continues without effective control from above.

The owners proudly trumpet the CV of all their advisers , men who've done this that and the other in the sports business across the pond
BUT
those guys are not HERE to witness what we fans know from past experience is an inexorable decline.

We're not guilty of "being entitled".
We know that for most clubs , taken over the decades , success & failure comes in cycles.
But it's heartbreaking when you can see it and the guys who ought to be in the driving seat can't see it through the Wilder mist on their windscreen.

 

[Kenworthy’s Tash]

This season hasn't been a success. Far from it.

But it could have been alot, lot worse.

The bar at the start of the season was top 6. That was the target.

After Selles was sacked it was still hopeful of top 6 but first to get us out of the relegation battle.
Even after Wilder took charge I didn't feel performances started to really turn a corner till Wednesday away.
That's 16 games in. And we were still in the relegation zone at that point.

As the season has gone on its clear that yes we have some quality in the squad but also some real dross.

A great deal of the crap this season does point to 14 or so players in last summer of which most barely any start games for us. And it's not like when we see them they look good.

Wilder doesn't get a free pass. Tonight was poor and that first half was utter gash. Had he been here since the season started and he recruited this lot.
Then I think changing manager would be a fair and wise choice. As it is, I remain to be more balanced and think to give him a crack and re assess.

F**k me, Selles was sacked after 6 games on the 14 September! Wilder has had the vast majority of this season and when you look at the squad most of the players are his signings either from his disastrous January transfer window or from last season. This is on him.

 

[PrestwichBlade]

Heckingbottom a Blade, was he?

Or Dave Bassett?

Maybe some people just appreciate managers who've achieved promotion(s) with us, and don't appreciate managers who've achieved bugger all with us.

I think you'll find that's a fairly common feeling amongst most football fans.

It's only in the strange world of S2 that having achieved something for the club leads to ridicule and sneering from sections of the fanbase, and ludicrous short-sighted calls to replace proven, competent managers with unproven gambles.

As ever, no one is begrudging previous success, but mate, in football terms that was eons ago. It shouldn't really have been allowed to come to this, but use the evidence in front of you now. Unfortunately, I fear he's going to end up leaving us right where he found us.

 

[Bladesince59]

He's 6 years past his sell by
L

 

[Ecco1889]

Got a bit heated on the kop near me,some fans will not hear a bad word against CW,no matter what evidence they witness

 

[Keen Blade]

This.

Anything else is just moving chairs on the Titanic

Totally agree ,
And I thought American businessmen were supposed to be ruthless ...
But seemingly not when they are ignorant of the business they are in
And
Too distant to recognise what's going on
Too distant to even begin learning the business .
Such that they MIGHT give themselves a chance of recognising what's going on.
They are a recipe for disaster if they stay this blind.
It's almost too late now for them to avoid the decline - they learn far too slowly and by the time they've woken up from their trance , to see reality , it'll all be over bar the shouting.

It's not a little question like
"this manager or another manager"

It's a big question like
"Wtf are you doing , buying a business in an unfamiliar field , in an unfamiliar country and having no control over it "
"Not even getting in your own man ,
From that business field
In that country
To crack the whip and sort it out !"

"Just leaving it to shuffle along
In its own idiosyncratic way
Towards a downward spiral"

 

[bornablade]

For those still with the belief that our manager has performed some type of miracle after the Selles debacle.

Just look at Southampton - after 5 games they were 6 points ahead of us. They didn't sit around feeling sorry for themselves.

They are now 19 points ahead of us. In the play-offs and with a game against Ipswich at home to come have a good chance of going up automatically. (and almost Hecky-like they've got themselves into an FA Cup semi final).

That's ambition.

 

[CPB]

Rubbish. He should have had us in play offs with the squad he has.

You having a laugh? Are you winding up?

I'm not saying we should have been relegated with the players we have. Although that was where were heading.

But as this season has gone on its clear we have so much dross in this squad. Complimented by some players of quality. I remember thinking it first game back for Wilder too. That we've filled a squad very poorly.

In this squad for a top 6 team I wouldn't want to see the majority from our squad.

I would like to see the back of Mee, Hjelde, McGuinness, Hoever, Chong, T.Davies, Shackleton, Soumare, Matos, Ings, Ogbene, Cannon. I'm willing to give Tanganga and Rothwell more time (chance) but potentially them too.
And this season I wouldn't be disappointed to see Burrows and Campbell depart but last season they were excellent.

That 12 to potentially 16 players. And of last summer's signing the only one I'd truly be keen to keep is Bindon.

 

[CPB]

For those still with the belief that our manager has performed some type of miracle after the Selles debacle.

Just look at Southampton - after 5 games they were 6 points ahead of us. They didn't sit around feeling sorry for themselves.

They are now 19 points ahead of us. In the play-offs and with a game against Ipswich at home to come have a good chance of going up automatically. (and almost Hecky-like they've got themselves into an FA Cup semi final).

That's ambition.

They have a better squad though too. 1st season parachute team. Their manager has done excellent though.
Most people also would have expected Leicester to not go down with their squad. And they are also 1 season parachute.

Norwich are the ones I'd say that have exceeded better having been in a similar position to us. And they aren't a parachute team at all.

 

[metalblade]

Please COH sack him NOW before he does any more damage to the club. We are sick to death of signings that are recovering from injuries, sick to death of the same old tactics, sick to death of the same old excuses from never my fault Wilder. Give him a pair of specs he could be a stunt double for Keir Starmer he talks that much irrelevant shit. We don't want anymore journey men here for their last pay day get someone in to develop the youth we have at the club rather than wasting millions on duds like Brewster and Cannon. Sleep walking into league one with this busted flush in charge.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Don't bother pal. We don't need yellow-belly fans like you at the Lane.

Hey - the Blades have a lot of Yellowbelly supporters from darkest Lincs!!!

 

[ben1987]

He’s shite, his recruitment is shite, his tactics are shite, his team selections are shite. The footballs shite.

Footballs moved on, he hasn’t.

Can’t wait to watch him blow a load of cash on former players with injury problems, stick them on 3 year deals. Cripple the club going forward and serve up this shite again next season.

If I was an Oxford fan I’d want us investigating for match fixing after that first half.

 

[Chris the Blade]

Last night epitomised the state of our club. Terrible football, clueless manager and kids around us spending the whole game with their backs to the pitch chatting to their mates. Complete and utter shambles. But it's ok because he's one of our own.

 

[54yrblade]

He was 'one of our own'. It's overused. If he was, and wanted the best for the club, he'd walk. But he won't.

 

[Lord Eddard Muir]

Sack Bettis, get in a new CEO, and let them decide what to do about the manager's seat.

 

[Back post bob]

It's quite frightening the position we are in I cannot remember in all my life such a poor squad of players we have.
The question is who could come in and maybe get a tune out of these players also start the process of wheeling and dealing to get rid of the Dross and bring new players in.
Wilder has first hand experience of the squad is it worth giving him the summer to rebuilt?.
If we had owners and someone at the club who knows football to sit down with Wilder today and ask him what the plan is surely they have decided who goes and what we need to bring in.
Get this wrong and we are in serious trouble.

 

[LBA_Blade]

I don't think it is. I think we have some quality to get us through games, even put a good run together for a while, but there's some utter dross in it.

Players like McGuinness and Chong. There's a reason they got relegated last season. Bindon will be a good player, possibly at a level above this, but he isn't ready. Cannon is an awful footballer and I'm not even sure he belongs in the Championship. Davies is getting credit for being better than the disaster we expected when in reality he's weak backup on a good day. Rothwell is exactly what we were warned about by his last club. Tanganga is the new Robinson - every time I start to defend him he does something awful.

Some of these aren't Wilder's fault. Some are. But mostly they've been carried by the players that are good enough, and they aren't good enough to compensate for it over the course of a season.

The Davies comment I 100% agree with, the advantage to having conceded 3 is at least he isn’t being shown to be strong competition and with him being out of contract in the summer hopefully it’s fine to say our goodbyes

Regarding Cannon, he is a striker that has been played down the left AM/Winger role and last night down the Right AM/Winger with Chong playing in behind Bamford, the team sheet must have been selected off a dice roll or something. Using the below goal against Leicester shows where Cannon wants the ball. He needs to be playing as a front 2 with Bamford not on the wing. It would be like signing McBurnie or Sharp and playing them as an AM/Winger

 

[luffenhamblade]

Got a bit heated on the kop near me,some fans will not hear a bad word against CW,no matter what evidence they witness

Problem is it is six of one and half a dozen of the other - for most of us there are positives and negatives for Wilder unlike the blinkered views at either extreme. For me it’s time for a real change come Nov / Dec if he can’t get it together right from the start of the season and demonstrate positivity, consistency and strong results on the pitch. If he does, I'll be perfectly happy for him to continue (just like any other manager before some plonker comes up with the Bladey Blade crap!)

 

[SBSP]

Has he gone yet?

 

[Blademan89]

Its a very poor squad with players who think thebetter than they are and wilder clearly has lost the dressing room.

Players gave up a long time ago and just going through the motions, most thinking and planning what they doing for their holidays, needs a big clear out.

If tom pages court case is to believed and des Taylor did have a hand in some recommended signings other year, then im not sure why we havnt offered him a job. As Hoyland is absolutely gash as our head of recruitment / scout (but another bladey pals act with wilder).

 

[Bladesman]

The problem Wilder has made in the second half of this season as I said elsewhere, he has let too many players know they won't be here next season. So now he has nearly half a squad that show up if they feel like playing a bit of football.

Players should be motivated to play anyway but at the moment we come back off of 2 good results where they do look bothered to that last night. He's partly the reason for that, stating some things publicly that he should have said last game of the season.

I am still happy for Wilder to stay only because he works better on less money. If COH get new investment or want to spend some money then they need to be wise about how much they are prepared to give Chris.

Wilder does need to review what his tactics are going into games. When we move the ball quicker we actually look decent and open teams up quite easily. We don't do it often enough and it's because the players don't look motivated enough to bother.

 

[Lane Ender]

Please COH sack him NOW before he does any more damage to the club. We are sick to death of signings that are recovering from injuries, sick to death of the same old tactics, sick to death of the same old excuses from never my fault Wilder. Give him a pair of specs he could be a stunt double for Keir Starmer he talks that much irrelevant shit. We don't want anymore journey men here for their last pay day get someone in to develop the youth we have at the club rather than wasting millions on duds like Brewster and Cannon. Sleep walking into league one with this busted flush in charge.

Sums it up that and it will happen if he stays .
Said it before but he should have gone after the Norwich game gutless from COH

 

[Tarqs]

The problem Wilder has made in the second half of this season as I said elsewhere, he has let too many players know they won't be here next season. So now he has nearly half a squad that show up if they feel like playing a bit of football.

Players should be motivated to play anyway but at the moment we come back off of 2 good results where they do look bothered to that last night. He's partly the reason for that, stating some things publicly that he should have said last game of the season.

I am still happy for Wilder to stay only because he works better on less money. If COH get new investment or want to spend some money then they need to be wise about how much they are prepared to give Chris.

Wilder does need to review what his tactics are going into games. When we move the ball quicker we actually look decent and open teams up quite easily. We don't do it often enough and it's because the players don't look motivated enough to bother.

Take the red and pen from the hull game and we get nothing and it's another crap performance.

We were crap until then.

 

[ekke287]

Problem is it is six of one and half a dozen of the other - for most of us there are positives and negatives for Wilder unlike the blinkered views at either extreme. For me it’s time for a real change come Nov / Dec if he can’t get it together right from the start of the season and demonstrate positivity, consistency and strong results on the pitch. If he does, I'll be perfectly happy for him to continue (just like any other manager before some plonker comes up with the Bladey Blade crap!)

And what are the positives?

We sat through dull and uninspiring football last season and ignored the lack of plan because we could hold a lead.

We sat through the manager bad mouthing opposition pre-game only to get humbled on the pitch when it mattered most.

We sat through the endless fines and ridiculous behaviour stemming from a near total lack of discipline.

We sat though watching us capitulate on the biggest stage in a game that was there for the taking for the majority.

We sat through the vast majority of this season watching him experiment, drop players seemingly based on personal preference, continue the lack of discipline, publicly slate players and, crucially, have little to no direction or play style.

Yes, he’s “rescued” us from a relegation fight, but it’s not like he came in and we turned around. Remember Charlton at home? First game in charge, huge banner, lose 0-1.

How many points dropped from winning positions? How many questionable lineups? How many nonsense subs that make no impact? How many signings of players that aren’t up to speed or past their best?

This is the evidence to work with, not his previous record. If your mum was in nursing home getting abused for a year, would you leave her there because it won’t an award five years ago?

It’s time to move on. The owners did this at the right time with the wrong decision. We have to back their next choice as we’re sleepwalking to abjectivity and backwards progression.

We as fans need to understand that it takes time and patience, and stop expecting overnight miracles. It doesn’t happen in football.

 

[luffenhamblade]

And what are the positives?

We sat through dull and uninspiring football last season and ignored the lack of plan because we could hold a lead.

We sat through the manager bad mouthing opposition pre-game only to get humbled on the pitch when it mattered most.

We sat through the endless fines and ridiculous behaviour stemming from a near total lack of discipline.

We sat though watching us capitulate on the biggest stage in a game that was there for the taking for the majority.

We sat through the vast majority of this season watching him experiment, drop players seemingly based on personal preference, continue the lack of discipline, publicly slate players and, crucially, have little to no direction or play style.

Yes, he’s “rescued” us from a relegation fight, but it’s not like he came in and we turned around. Remember Charlton at home? First game in charge, huge banner, lose 0-1.

How many points dropped from winning positions? How many questionable lineups? How many nonsense subs that make no impact? How many signings of players that aren’t up to speed or past their best?

This is the evidence to work with, not his previous record. If your mum was in nursing home getting abused for a year, would you leave her there because it won’t an award five years ago?

It’s time to move on. The owners did this at the right time with the wrong decision. We have to back their next choice as we’re sleepwalking to abjectivity and backwards progression.

We as fans need to understand that it takes time and patience, and stop expecting overnight miracles. It doesn’t happen in football.

And that's what I mean by one extreme! Nobody is happy with where we are right now.