Adkins Interview Ahead of Southend

[Barney]

The_Green_Man it was touched on the other day that recruitment, whilst mediocre in quality, quantity was something that was a conscious decision by the Club to avoid the tired legs at the end of last season. It's baffling that it was allowed to happen because all the permanent signings were brought in on 2-3 year contracts. He'll have seen the staff list when he arrived

The injury situation though, was a little unique, but with the exception of James Wallace and Coutts, I think the rest of the signings picked up injuries once they arrived, even then it'd be surprising if alarm bells weren't rung with medical staff when Wallace and coutts arrived. Adkins has inherited a lot of injuries but again they were known when he arrived

I don't think either are really excuses, others have mentioned, we desperately needed a centre half or two, but he brought in two strikers and a winger initially.

All of the above aside, Adkins hasn't yet shown progress in 16 league games. If anything things should be improving as players come back to fitness. The only players I can say that I've been truly impressed with are Billy and Kieran Wallace, perhaps throw Baxter in there as well.

Phipps and Adkins have both claimed mitigating circumstances for the bad start, Phipps blaming Clough for much of it. It makes me wonder what Adkins did before he took the job and more so since he's arrived.

It's great that Adkins covers bases in interviews and he talks positively, but he's got to start taking some responsibility for things that haven't worked. He's talked up players and what he wants from them for 5 months now and it's not worked.

On the same token, I'd be interested to know what has worked for him. He said when Hammond came in that he was a leader and an athlete. Not on present showings he's not. Will he reassess in January and perhaps state he's not the player he was 5 years ago? Or will we sign him on a two year deal?

I still can't believe some are defending his recruitment approach.

Signing in completely the wrong order, and all but one of them being really poor players.

Woolford - Past it, one of the worst signings of recent years. Terrible.
Sammon - Old, past it, unathletic, too slow.
Edgar - Older than ideal, not a leader, wimps out when intimidated. Too skinny - beanpole.
Hammond - Talked up as some sort of messiah. Could not be further from the truth. Way too old, un-atheltic, too slow, and if he's a leader I'm not a human. It's worth noting that all of this was predicted by myself prior to his arrival.

 

[SwissBlade]

I still can't believe some are defending his recruitment approach.

Signing in completely the wrong order, and all but one of them being really poor players.

Woolford - Past it, one of the worst signings of recent years. Terrible.
Sammon - Old, past it, unathletic, too slow.
Edgar - Older than ideal, not a leader, wimps out when intimidated.
Hammond - Talked up as some sort of messiah. Could not be further from the truth. Way too old, un-atheltic, too slow, and if he's a leader I'm not a human. It's worth noting that all of this was predicted by myself prior to his arrival.

It's worth saying that the judgements on individuals need to be made after more than a few games, but other than Sammon, I agree with your comments.

Absolutely agree about the priority of the signings, it's the most puzzling part of his tenure.

Reading between the lines from what Phipps has said regarding Cloughs failure to bring in a striker, it makes me wonder if the transfer committee were focussed on bringing strikers in to avoid the same again.

I also think that there was a real anti-Clough policy since he left and the committee thought it knew better and perhaps told Adkins that players like McEverley and Collins would come good under him. Plus with harris, Kennedy, Brayford all on the payroll we could get by... This is entirely my thoughts and only reading between the lines, putting 1&1 together to make 5 though.

Either way, we've still been too slow to react to problem areas

 

[metalblade]

I don't think ANY of Adkins signings have been worth a toss, I do think Woolford was brought in as a hurried replacement for the soon to depart Murphy and Billy Blunt was just the crowd sweetener, as for Hammond what does Adkins see in him ? I'd send him back in the morning he is fucking rubbish and even slower than Billy in his third failed stint at the lane. Sammon, surely this loan was arranged by Clough who else would want this bald headed donkey ? Edgar looked half decent in his first few games or was it Jay Mc who made him look good to us, whatever we soon knocked any quality out of him as we seem to do with any player we sign of late.

 

[Fiery Blade]

So metalblade ................you are not impressed with any of Adkins signings ???
But, don't worry ........we have Super Scout Lee Turnbull ..........he'll sort things out !

 

[Sirius]

So metalblade ................you are not impressed with any of Adkins signings ???
But, don't worry ........we have Super Scout Lee Turnbull ..........he'll sort things out !

This Mr Turnbull I have heard of. When is he starting his new job at the Lane?

 

[Bladesman]

Things are pretty shit right now, but it's a decent interview, tbf. Covers lots of bases, & sounds in control & full of belief.

Can't complain really (well at least not till we get humiliated at home to that orange-faced bastard's bunch of fourth-division estuarine cloggers, that is...).

I thought the same and seemed to be fairly honest about Deigo as well. Seems like it's not just injuries keeping him out of the team.

If the recent loaning out of McNulty is anything to go by then I think Adkins has decided who is staying and going. If rumours are correct then he is offloading at least 10 players. Its just a case of how quickly he can get rid of them.

 

[Grappler]

Can those who went to Crewe confirm these chances we created?

Don't remind me of that out pal.......

 

[Pollingtonblade]

But this interview sounds the same as all the others with excuses about injuries and what we WANT to do!

Actions speak louder than words and to be quite frank these interviews are beginning to grate.

Here's a prediction we'll win Saturday and lose the Saturday after - just like last season we can't find the consistency.

What's all this Bollox about keeping in touch till January about? Are we suddenly going to turn into Real Madrid at the chime of midnight on December 31st?

If he's referring to the transfer window we don't get our business done until back end of January (the excuses being the FA cup and teams don't want to sell yadda yadda) so even if we spent some brass in January it won't make a difference until Feb when we'll be double figures away from top two.

Here's a thought for next season why not get our squad built in the summer, revolutionary but we wouldn't have to 'keep in touch' and could set the pace?

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Adkins also said "If we'd have won the last two and one other game we'd have been top of the league"

I can understand an 8 year old Blade getting piss took out of him by a Pig saying that at school in some form of defence but a fucking professional football manager!!!!!

OK If we'd have won 3 more games 4 years ago we'd have gone up, if we had won 5 or 6 more games in 10/11 we'd have stayed up, if we'd have beat Wigan we'd have stayed up - if my auntie had a cock she'd be my uncle!!!!!

 

[Rodley]

People used to whinge about Warnock on the radio, then Clough, now Adkins. They all trot out the same old cliches. I don't know why people get so irate, clamouring for them to say precisely what they want them to say. It's just football.

 

[mosbolad]

I never listen to these supposed posts as Barny, as a person, gets on my nerves.

He's full of cliches, sayings and other prepared phrases but hardly ever is there any actual substance behind them.

He's getting more and more annoying as the days go by. And that's an aside from the remarkably poor forum performance to date.

Ooo, done it again, I really couldn't resist. You cross 'em I'll nod 'em in Barny!

 

[HighfieldBlade]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037vr73

Long interview 15'

• Baxter - fitter, needs to hit good passes more consistently
• Hammond - does unsung work connecting the team - still needs to adjust though
• Scoogs - good going forward - sometimes we don't get him the ball in the right area
• Coutts - need to get fitness levels up
• Consistency of selection - a theme throughout
• Wallace - needs to get fit (says he might never have done a full week's training - in his whole career)
• DDG - injured, needs to get fit, then look for a loan
• Injuries - gives nothing away
• Been creating chances - need to be as clinical as possible

There's more than that. Worth listening to. But I always think that.

UTMB

Certainly appreciate the time and effort you've put in to summarising that interview (and others), especially at 15 minutes duration. With my cynical hat on, Adkins is beginning to sound rather trite and tiresome. I'm sure he means well, so I'm probably doing him a bit of an injustice.

 

[Ted Danson]

People used to whinge about Warnock on the radio, then Clough, now Adkins. They all trot out the same old cliches. I don't know why people get so irate, clamouring for them to say precisely what they want them to say. It's just football.

Warnocks interviews were great in my opinion, passionate and often humorous and hed never slag his own players, often blames the ref which used to annoy people but on the majority of times he did I think he had valid points, he spoke like a fan rather than a manager which I liked.

Cloughs were no nonsense interviews and he came across like he was speaking the truth and as someone else mentioned he sounded like he was hurting after a loss.

Adkins, is full of shit and spin which I cant stand, there's no point trying to spin something which we've all seen with our own eyes

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Apart from Fleetwood, I've seen every game Hammond has played....Adkins is absolutely right. I haven't noticed him make a crunching tackle, nor have I noticed him play a slide rule pass, make a great covering tackle, create space for others, win his share of headers or get a shot on target. Knows his stuff does our leader. Cant wait for the adjustment.

He made a couple of excellent tackles against Millwall in the 2nd half that stuck in my mind. He made a couple of good ones against Fleetwood at the lane too. He also makes good decisions in terms of when to give away the foul to break up an attack. But for me, he needs to improve. He’s given the ball away too cheaply and too often and his all round game looks a bit too slow.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

What is his role then?

From what I’ve seen of him I’d say it’s sitting deep, protecting the back 4, taking the ball from them to start attacks and trying to break up opposition attacks. Although against Worcester, when Adams went off early, he seemed to play a slightly different role. Slightly ahead of and to the right of Coutts who seemed to be trying to play the role I have described. For me, he should play the defensive midfield role providing a platform for others to play their game. The only thing that worries me about him there is that he has let midfield runners get away a couple of times.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

What a fuck up Atkins made of this summer's transfer window. Wasn't he supposed to be watching DVDs of last season's matches?

Rather than identifying areas we could all see as the major weaknesses (central defence and central midfield) his first signings were Sharp, Sammon and Woolford.

And yes, agree with Barny, Atkins' interviews are consistently dreadful. For all of Clough's faults, he interviewed really well and I always made a point of listening on audioboo.

His "we've got a calls in" became a little bit wearisome, but he was fairly cliche free. He always seemed to give proper answers to the questions and was honest, and often quite critical, when asked for his opinion on our performance.

Why are those that are most critical of our manager the ones who also don't know his name?

 

[Trigger Blade]

Can those who went to Crewe confirm these chances we created?

Yes, we did create chances, that's the most frustrating thing, the first one after about two minutes and I thought we'd have a field day.

We got loads of crosses into the box and didn't get on the end of any of them. We created a few chances at Fleetwood too, with the same outcome. In both cases, I felt we created more chances and ended up without actually scoring. Apart from one solitary penalty of course

 

[grafikhaus]

Certainly appreciate the time and effort you've put in to summarising that interview (and others), especially at 15 minutes duration. With my cynical hat on, Adkins is beginning to sound rather trite and tiresome. I'm sure he means well, so I'm probably doing him a bit of an injustice.

It was pretty much repeated on 'Wednesday Heaven' last night. The bit where he intimated that 'the fans don't see the work Hammond does' got roundly slagged, and rightly so.

Why are those that are most critical of our manager the ones who also don't know his name?

Whether it Atkins or Adkins, I'm finding the 'Adkins Diet' increasingly hard to swalllow.

 

[jt64]

Did he really use the words "Scougall" and "Messi" in the same sentence?

 

[MobileBlade]

I never listen to these supposed interviews as him, as a person, gets on my nerves.

He's full of cliches, sayings and other prepared phrases but hardly ever is there any actual substance behind them.

He's getting more and more annoying as the days go by. And that's an aside from the remarkably poor managerial performance to date.

Sounds a bit kettle pot and black to me

 

[MobileBlade]

Did he really use the words "Scougall" and "Messi" in the same sentence?

And Maradona

 

[Revolution]

Did he really use the words "Scougall" and "Messi" in the same sentence?

Was the sentence "Even Messi is taller than Scougall"?

 

[derryblade]

We all know the shortcomings of the squad, we witnessed it last year and they are still apparent now. A new manager, backroom staff, five new signings and still no nearer to a consistent side producing a winning run, jury still out Nigel

 

[BushBlade]

But this interview sounds the same as all the others with excuses about injuries and what we WANT to do!

Actions speak louder than words and to be quite frank these interviews are beginning to grate.

Here's a prediction we'll win Saturday and lose the Saturday after - just like last season we can't find the consistency.

What's all this Bollox about keeping in touch till January about? Are we suddenly going to turn into Real Madrid at the chime of midnight on December 31st?

If he's referring to the transfer window we don't get our business done until back end of January (the excuses being the FA cup and teams don't want to sell yadda yadda) so even if we spent some brass in January it won't make a difference until Feb when we'll be double figures away from top two.

Here's a thought for next season why not get our squad built in the summer, revolutionary but we wouldn't have to 'keep in touch' and could set the pace?

Because the board wouldn't fund it until he'd reviewed what they spunked their money on with Clough. Which he couldn't do as so many were injured. We were stuck with them and it's clear he's having to ship some out before he can bring more in. As Swiss said, he was allowed to bring in strikers because we were depleted in that area. It would have been much harder convincing the board we need defenders when they thought we'd be fine with Collins and one of McEv, Bash, MacGahey, Kennavaro, and even harder to convince them we needed even more midfielders.
Hopefully, they're now convinced.

 

[BushBlade]

Warnocks interviews were great in my opinion, passionate and often humorous and hed never slag his own players, often blames the ref which used to annoy people but on the majority of times he did I think he had valid points, he spoke like a fan rather than a manager which I liked.

Cloughs were no nonsense interviews and he came across like he was speaking the truth and as someone else mentioned he sounded like he was hurting after a loss.

Adkins, is full of shit and spin which I cant stand, there's no point trying to spin something which we've all seen with our own eyes

And plenty of people said Warnock's interviews were cringeworthy.
Whatever a manager says he's going to piss people off if he's not winning games.

 

[BushBlade]

We all know the shortcomings of the squad, we witnessed it last year and they are still apparent now. A new manager, backroom staff, five new signings and still no nearer to a consistent side producing a winning run, jury still out Nigel

So how long does it take? Is NA such a good coach he can turn crap into gold, or like most managers, does he need to flush the crap away and bring in his own players? He's evaluated the squad, now give him a window to throw these fuckers out of and bring in some energy.

 

[PeteBlade]

Warnocks interviews were great in my opinion, passionate and often humorous and hed never slag his own players, often blames the ref which used to annoy people but on the majority of times he did I think he had valid points, he spoke like a fan rather than a manager which I liked.

Cloughs were no nonsense interviews and he came across like he was speaking the truth and as someone else mentioned he sounded like he was hurting after a loss.

Adkins, is full of shit and spin which I cant stand, there's no point trying to spin something which we've all seen with our own eyes

Thinking Warnock had valid points the majority of the time he slagged off is a classic example of selective memory!

 

[chipsncake]

So how long does it take? Is NA such a good coach he can turn crap into gold, or like most managers, does he need to flush the crap away and bring in his own players? He's evaluated the squad, now give him a window to throw these fuckers out of and bring in some energy.[/QUOTE

Bring in his own players? He's already tried that and has shown he is not to be trusted. The players we have may be crap but they should be good enough to compete better than they are doing at this level. Maybe it's just that Adkins and co are unable to ignite the spark.

 

[grafikhaus]

So how long does it take? Is NA such a good coach he can turn crap into gold, or like most managers, does he need to flush the crap away and bring in his own players? He's evaluated the squad, now give him a window to throw these fuckers out of and bring in some energy.

He's at it again on FH tonight. 'We're 16 games in...' Yeah, that's over a third of the season gone, 7 wins out of 16 and, not including exits from the League Cup and JPT. He's allowing the players to think that sideways and backwards passing is acceptable. It's not. It's the soft option/shadow play. I fully expect the fans will soon get the blame for 'making the players nervous about trying anything.' He's no nearer to turning the team around - who finished miles off the pace last season - than the day he arrived.

We'll see the same old, same old tomorrow. Ten passes across the pitch/backwards (at a pace where the opposition are more likely to die of boredom than be caught off-balance). Then the 'killer ball' or cross - straight to the opposition.

Personally, I think NA is drowning not waving and it's horrible to think that yet another manager has failed to turn us round. If you don't believe me, come back after we've played Wigan on Boxing Day when, given the upcoming fixtures, I fully expect us to be (a lot) nearer the bottom than the top.

 

[BushBlade]

Maybe it is and maybe the solution is to see how many managers we can employ and sack before we either all lose interest or we accidently find the new Alex Ferguson.