Adkins

[LoughboroBlade]

I maintain that Adkins's first mistake was to agree to rearrange the Colchester game at a time when our form was good – particularly given he'd said originally he wanted to go ahead with it. It completely sapped the momentum we'd built up post-Gillingham, and since then it's all been very stop-start.

We can't wait to the end of the season to start the rebuilding process – the exodus needs to start in January if at all possible. If that means some creative means to rid us of a few whose contracts are soon up, where we take a financial hit, so be it. If we can't use this financial clout to bring in the people we want, let's at least use it to help get rid of those we don't want.

We might have been doing better with Clough currently had he stayed, but as things stand I'm far happier to give Adkins a chance to reshape the squad than I would have been for Clough to do so. We are after all having to deal with the effects of some of his squad reshaping.

 

[tyneblade]

I can't help thinking that however poor our teams have been over the last 5 seasons, the consistent failure to replace Paddy Kenny with a goalkeeper of an acceptable standard has cost us more points than anything else. It is the main reason why we are still in this league and when Adkins arrived it was one area where i thought that we could make rapid progress. As a keeper himself he must be able to see frailty there and understand its impact on the team as a whole.

Committing resources to the likes of Connor Sammon before we had fixed such a fundamental problem makes me seriously doubt Adkins ability and judgement.

 

[s35blade]

If there's one thing these posts have shown to me, is that for once people are looking at the players we've got instead of blaming the manager.

 

[chipsncake]

If there's one thing these posts have shown to me, is that for once people are looking at the players we've got instead of blaming the manager.

Yes ,odd that, especially as Adkins is as culpable as anyone at the club for our current demise.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

I'm a big fan of Adkins but getting worried now. I thought the Gillingham game was the blip, turns out it was the next 4 wins that were the blip!

Got to question his decisions like making McCevely captain, I can still hear the ethos of WHAT THE ****.

And Hammond, hung his coat and reputation on him. Will be interested to hear William Henry Foulkes views on him as Keiiffff Edwards said he gave the ball away in dangerous areas all afternoon.

Hammond lost possession 2 or 3 times in our half, hope (I'm using that word a lot) it's just him getting up to speed.

Not read anything on here since yesterday, so no idea if it's been mentioned but he's also standing around admiring their finish - and Bash's valiant but doomed attempt to stop it.

More generally we put out pretty much a full strength side yesterday with attacking intent throughout. We had 4 shots on target in the first 5 or 10 minutes. We had Done, Adams and Sharp up front and we still didn't score.

All I can think is we need to play quicker, with more intensity.

Also Done, Sharp, Adams might be too many cooks, maybe Sammon needs to be in there. He was part of our 4 game blip wasn't he?

Genuinely perplexed about yesterday.

 

[Rodley]

I would look at every contracts which is up, and if we didn't want to keep them we should transfer list/loan them now. Happy to contribute to their wages until the season ends

Thanks to good work from Foxy :

Mark Howard - bye
George Long - Loan out or play. If no improvement, bye
George Willis - extend possibly

Craig Alcock - bye
Neill Collins - bye
Bob Harris - bye (too injury prone)
Terry Kennedy - bye (ditto)
Jay McEveley - bye
Harrison McGahey - Loan him out and unless performs well, bye

Jose Baxter - bye
Jamal Campbell-Ryce - bye
Florent Cuvelier - loan him, if he can't manage an injury free half season, bye
Ryan Flynn - bye
Keiron Wallace - extend

We still have too many bad midfielders under contract. These should be listed. (Coutts, Scougal, Woolford, Basham)

Higdon - Bye
List McNulty immediately.

Maybe they'll buck their ideas up when they know they need to find another employer to pay for their cars and expensive lager? It's about time these bunch of wasters had a huge boot up the arse.

I think that clear out will be positively cathartic! Harsh on Bob Harris and TK, who've got good attitudes and plenty of tenacity. But we do need change.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

If there's one thing these posts have shown to me, is that for once people are looking at the players we've got instead of blaming the manager.

It's a collective responsibility. The previous manager was given sanction to bring in a glut of players that seem to be showing they're not up to the job, so that manager and the board have to accept some responsibility. Is there a clear policy on transfers? Doesn't appear to be one, swinging between the manager being given his head and tight board control having the final say. The scouting system is not right, too reliant on one person under the previous manager and a bit of a mystery under the current incumbent. Some transfers have a logic to them (Sharp, Hammond, Woolford) others don't (Sammon, Edgar). Hopefully, January will see significant movement in and out, in fact I think the board will expect leavers before any arrivals.

 

[derryblade]

I would look at every contracts which is up, and if we didn't want to keep them we should transfer list/loan them now. Happy to contribute to their wages until the season ends

Thanks to good work from Foxy :

Mark Howard - bye
George Long - Loan out or play. If no improvement, bye
George Willis - extend possibly

Craig Alcock - bye
Neill Collins - bye
Bob Harris - bye (too injury prone)
Terry Kennedy - bye (ditto)
Jay McEveley - bye
Harrison McGahey - Loan him out and unless performs well, bye

Jose Baxter - bye
Jamal Campbell-Ryce - bye
Florent Cuvelier - loan him, if he can't manage an injury free half season, bye
Ryan Flynn - bye
Keiron Wallace - extend

We still have too many bad midfielders under contract. These should be listed. (Coutts, Scougal, Woolford, Basham)

Higdon - Bye
List McNulty immediately.

Maybe they'll buck their ideas up when they know they need to find another employer to pay for their cars and expensive lager? It's about time these bunch of wasters had a huge boot up the arse.

Would agree with that, would also hope the board investigate the possibility of paying up some players contracts. Too many players appear to be in a comfort zone, it needs shaking up as much as possible.

 

[O'erTheer]

Hello red and white friends, hope you don't mind me joining your discussion.

Someone earlier in the thread described Adkins as a "snake oil salesman", and looking from afar, that partly rings true.

I think before accepting the United job, he evaluated the club's recent history and the squad.

What he saw was a Division 3 club, but a club that had been in and around the playoffs for consecutive seasons,
with some pretty amazing cup runs to boot.

And he thought, "When I get in there with my psychology degree and super positivity, we can get another 5 or 10 percent
out of these players no probs. That last manager was a right miserable get, and even he got them in the playoffs and the semis!"

So in he breezes with his psyhco-babble amp turned up to 11, and sets about instilling "confidence" and "belief".

You know the score, talk everything up, tell everyone they've got a clean slate.
Maybe even promote them beyond their abilities to try and prove they can do it, that they can be "winners", just like him!

Which is all well and good.

But if it doesn't come together pretty quickly, all the positivity starts to sound like verbal fart.
The players lose confidence, then the fans lose confidence and then the board lose confidence.

And the manager starts to resemble a dodgy stage hypnotist whose best trick's just fallen flat.

 

[super_pig]

It's this sort of kneejerk reaction

that we've been having every sunday morning for the last four years!! that knee is jerking away nicely. i think the board shot themselves when they brought in a really decent manager with a track record and now we can all see it isn't really the manager at all. although Clough bought some total dogshit. we need to offload all of them like Powell did at Charlton.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Adkins starting line up had 4 players coming back from injury flynn,Harris, coutts and done and Hammond hardly had any football at all this season,all five are not match fit as it takes a run of games to ac heave that.
For me that tells me Adkins is far from happy with what we are producing and is trying to find a. blend so far he has failed but at least he is proactive in trying to cure our alarming recent performances.After yesterday's match we have used 28 players so far and after only 16 games that must be close to a record for us.I would think he will have marked the card of a fair few by now but players under contract are difficult to get rid of when the club's who would possibly take them won't pay the level of pay we do.
What can adkins do ? its a real problem and I don't envy him,I do think he will pull us together somehow and struggle on until he can get
Reinforcements . Some of the players look dejected with no bottle we hit a low at Crewe under clough and he found a way to get results
Albeit with a negative approach and it maybe Adkins will have to curb his style of football as he will have found out by now we don't have enough energy or athletism to play on the front foot .
I do think he was right to give everyone a chance as he would lose credibility amongst the players if he took third party advice and threw a
number of players to the wolves before seeing for himself what they could do.It's still all to play for but Adkins knows the room for mistakes is getting smaller by the game.

 

[sitwell]

I can't help thinking that however poor our teams have been over the last 5 seasons, the consistent failure to replace Paddy Kenny with a goalkeeper of an acceptable standard has cost us more points than anything else. It is the main reason why we are still in this league and when Adkins arrived it was one area where i thought that we could make rapid progress. As a keeper himself he must be able to see frailty there and understand its impact on the team as a whole.

Committing resources to the likes of Connor Sammon before we had fixed such a fundamental problem makes me seriously doubt Adkins ability and judgement.

Yes cant believe Howard didn't notch a couple against Crewe yesterday instead of the rest the bunch of sorry shot shy tosspots. The goalkeeper had fuck all to do with yesterdays result and to use him as an excuse for the rest of them and the previous managers is poor form.

 

[bornablade]

On last nights P&G Andy Giddins was emphasizing to all Blades that they mustn't miss the interview with Adkins. His most frankest yet. At last I thought. Let it rip Nige. Don't hold back. Heads will roll. Etc. etc.

What a bloody let down. Same old cliches. Same old stretch out the answers so the interviewer runs out of time. You'd have made a great politician Nige.

Phipps wants us all to play our part. Be United. Well we could do with someone at the club telling us exactly what is going on and how is this going to be sorted out. Communication is a two way street. As fans we express our opinions on forums etc and yet the club tells us nowt. Just keep playing the party line.

This is the worst I've felt about the club since December 1979.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

I agree I think if we fail this year....I have an inkling that we wont see the Prince, Phipps and Baki. They will pull out. The club will then say they have even less money and will be penny pinching even more. I think Adkins will move on if this is the case and would just resign - he knows being sacked would be a death knell for his managerial career at big clubs/decent level after he got sacked at Reading and would have too start right at the bottom again - if he wanted to carry on in management.

Be interested to see where we are in 12 months. I do feel we will still be in this league. That the foreign owners will be long gone and we will end up with someone like McCall as manager and a side full of kids and cheap signings.

Hope I am wrong!

No..you are spot on.

 

[finlaytheblade]

So the prince is going to run away having put 15+ million into the black hole your having a laugh surely

 

[Deadbat]

So the prince is going to run away having put 15+ million into the black hole your having a laugh surely

You seriously believe he has put 15 million in?

If they go....they'll take whatever they can with them. They are businessman and at the moment are getting nowhere fast with this 'project'. I just think they will get bored with it all. They have changed managers twice, changed players and it still aint working. I dont think they have a scooby doo how to get us out of this league.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

So the prince is going to run away having put 15+ million into the black hole your having a laugh surely

Just surprised you have posed that question - why shouldn't he pull out?

Simply a business decision - losing money, cut your loses. People pull out of business ventures all the time when they see it not working. These people have money, they lose money and make a sound headed decision not to lose any more.

What they do then, is regroup and find another venture somewhere else.

It is how entrepreneurs work.

Wouldn't surprise me one iota if it happened.

UTB

 

[finlaytheblade]

You seriously believe he has put 15 million in?

If they go....they'll take whatever they can with them. They are businessman and at the moment are getting nowhere fast with this 'project'. I just think they will get bored with it all. They have changed managers twice, changed players and it still aint working. I dont think they have a scooby doo how to get us out of this league.

Are you one of a number of fans Deadbat who thinks the club is run on fresh air,we have been losing money ever since the paras hoot payments stopped according to Phipps we lose 5 million every season we spend in this division we may average 19000 gates but that no way near keeps us in the black ,I am not a scholer (as my posts may show)it's basic maths Deadbat come on!!!

 

[Grappler]

On paper, Adkins was just about the best manager we could hope for. On paper, we have players that should be more than good enough for League One. Such a shame that football isn't played on paper!

Not sure what isn't clicking here, something obviously not right though. Losing to the bottom of the league without scoring a single goal. A team that had not won at home for months!

 

[JohnDenver]

On paper, Adkins was just about the best manager we could hope for. On paper, we have players that should be more than good enough for League One. Such a shame that football isn't played on paper!

Not sure what isn't clicking here, something obviously not right though. Losing to the bottom of the league without scoring a single goal. A team that had not won at home for months!

1, Adkins puts his faith in existing players.
2, Those players don't perform.
3, Different starting XIs tried by Adkins.
4, Those players don't perform.
5, Different formations tried Adkins.
6, Players still don't perform.
7, Poor players lose understanding, confidence and continuity.
8, Adkins concludes 1 was a mistake.

9 - ????????

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Not sure what isn't clicking here, something obviously not right though. !

midfield primarily - centre to be specific.

Centre half if you want to move on to the next area of concern.

We DO have decent players round the edges, but we don't have a dominate core strength to allow the players on the edges to play and be confident.

UTB

 

[Grappler]

midfield primarily - centre to be specific.

Centre half if you want to move on to the next area of concern.

We DO have decent players round the edges, but we don't have a dominate core strength to allow the players on the edges to play and be confident.

UTB

I agree midfield is crap, Basham not good enough (so far), Hammond looks like a lost cause already, Baxter has good games and bad games. Said it before, the days of having a Lee Williamson type attacking midfielder. is what is sorely missing.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

I agree midfield is crap, Basham not good enough (so far), Hammond looks like a lost cause already, Baxter has good games and bad games. Said it before, the days of having a Lee Williamson type attacking midfielder. is what is sorely missing.

yes, agree with you too - Basham worked in a 5, in fact a few of them worked in a 5, - sadly in a 4, Basham is struggling to change.
Don't get me started on Baxter - was he mentioned more than a couple of times yesterday? He hides when the going get tough.
Oldham fans are laughing at us for how managers have been playing him.

UTB

 

[Barney]

midfield primarily - centre to be specific.

Centre half if you want to move on to the next area of concern.

We DO have decent players round the edges, but we don't have a dominate core strength to allow the players on the edges to play and be confident.

UTB

Sorry, for me the defence has been and will continue to be the main problem.

Midfield needs signings, but doesn't just about every position bar the strikers?

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Sorry, for me the defence has been and will continue to be the main problem.

Midfield needs signings, but doesn't just about every position bar the strikers?

Defence was last years problem and remains this years problem as well.

Midfield last year was 5 and coped reasonable well - this year it is 4 and is hopelessly inadequate.

Please keep up - perhaps defence wasn't considered on BM last season.

UTB

 

[Barney]

Please keep up - perhaps defence wasn't considered on BM last season.

UTB

If you're telling me to keep up because I see a different area as the main problem, then you need to grow up.

 

[wizadry]

Are you one of a number of fans Deadbat who thinks the club is run on fresh air,we have been losing money ever since the paras hoot payments stopped according to Phipps we lose 5 million every season we spend in this division we may average 19000 gates but that no way near keeps us in the black ,I am not a scholer (as my posts may show)it's basic maths Deadbat come on!!!

So, if we are losing £5million with gates of nearly 20,000 most weeks then how come teams with 2 to 3,000 in the same league get by alright? We are being run by and took the piss out of by a bunch a muppets. I suppose it could be a toss up as to who the bigger muppets are, them or us.

 

[Tezza1889]

Spineless bastards right across the first team, don't worry tho lads, more beer in the pumps, fuck sheff Utd...

 

[Tezza1889]

So, if we are losing £5million with gates of nearly 20,000 most weeks then how come teams with 2 to 3,000 in the same league get by alright? We are being run by and took the piss out of by a bunch a muppets. I suppose it could be a toss up as to who the bigger muppets are, them or us.

Edit...quoted wrong shit....x

 

[Deadbat]

Are you one of a number of fans Deadbat who thinks the club is run on fresh air,we have been losing money ever since the paras hoot payments stopped according to Phipps we lose 5 million every season we spend in this division we may average 19000 gates but that no way near keeps us in the black ,I am not a scholer (as my posts may show)it's basic maths Deadbat come on!!!

I don't believe anything that comes out of any of the boards mouths sadly. Years of being lied to, best players sold, terrible managerial appointments, blaming everyone but themselves.. We will wait the AGM and the figures but I dont buy the money allegedly being spent to keep us afloat. If we are paying so much then it is entirely their fault. They can blame Clough all they went but they signed the checks and they sanctioned so many signings and the bloated crap squad. They name the managers and they are in charge.

They have made bad decision after bad decision. I have no patience with them at all.

So according to Phipps they are spending all this money just to keep us mid table in League One. Frightening.