Adkins out

[grafikhaus]

That's just the problem with our managerial choices over the years IMO. We always pick managers based on past glories. Those who have been sacked by their previous club or clubs and are moving back down the pyramid. They are inevitable tainted by failure.

We need to appoint somebody on the way up for once. Of the mangers currently around there are 2 we should be looking at if we are to make a change - Chris Wilder or Justin Edinburgh.

Now this makes a lot of sense. Just as most top managers were not particularly good footballers so managers who have the odd 'success' a few years ago seem to 'rest on their laurels'. We need somebody who has the 'Blades Ethic' (when we used to have one.) Belligerence, 'backs-to-the-wall', 'never-say-die'. Every manager since Warnock has drained this from us. And yes, there's every chance Warnock would have rescued this season and probably got us into the play-off, but he's now engaged elsewhere.

I see no alternative.

We will lose at Fleetwood on Saturday. How much more can the (rapidly-declining) Adkins supporters take?

 

[SUFC Guy]

Different managers and same players. To me the players are to blame so get them out this summer and let's start again with the same manager in place.
One more season for NA and a brand new squad (barring Done, Sharp, Adams, Bash, Edgar, Brayford and young pros) to turn it around.

UTB!

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

That's just the problem with our managerial choices over the years IMO. We always pick managers based on past glories. Those who have been sacked by their previous club or clubs and are moving back down the pyramid. They are inevitable tainted by failure.

We need to appoint somebody on the way up for once. Of the mangers currently around there are 2 we should be looking at if we are to make a change - Chris Wilder or Justin Edinburgh.

I just think saying Wilder 'is on his way up' is stretching the point a bit given he's been hovering between the conference and League 2 for 15 years. Edinburgh has also been a manager for almost 10 years now and is currently doing his best to de-rail Gillingham's season.

 

[wizadry]

Those players are getting away with murder, they get paid handsome sums of money and to put on a performance like last nights for us fans deserves every slagging they get, they disrespected the supporters of this club big time last night and should have a long hard look at themselves.

 

[Smirth]

I just think saying Wilder 'is on his way up' is stretching the point a bit given he's been hovering between the conference and League 2 for 15 years. Edinburgh has also been a manager for almost 10 years now and is currently doing his best to de-rail Gillingham's season.

Has Wilder even been sacked? He's managed his way up gradually yes but he's built up experience of the lower leagues on his way. The way he has managed Northampton this season in the face of all manner of offf field issues is admirable.

It was Edinburgh who got Gillingham up in the top 6. Yes they are struggling now but it was always going to happen as their team were over achieving. Still done a good job as they were relegation candidates when he was appointed.

 

[1889]

What concerns me about Adkins is, that whilst many people look at his pedigree, his four promotions and previous lower league success, I cannot see the slightest glimmer of improvement, not one crumb of a suggestion, that we are on the up and it is now MARCH.
Adkins has been in control at Utd for 8 months and in that time I cannot, hand on heart, point to a single positive change that he has brought to the club? Not one, in 8 months?
That, in my opinion, is the only part of his CV that should be considered before allowing him to oversee the complete root and branch review of the playing squad this summer.
I am told by several people who've known him that he is a really nice bloke. My opinion is that he's gone from an enthusiastic physio handed the caretakers job at Scunny, full of fresh bright ideas and positive energy to someone who has lost his way, over complicated his role, believed his own press and is now more concerned with his own public persona than the performance of his team.
I'm sorry, but I think we should pay him off and would confidently predict Utd will be his last managerial position.

 

[bornablade]

I am not in any pro-Adkins camp. I am however very much in the pro not-sacking another manager camp. I was one of the 65% who wanted to stick with Clough at the end of last season but the board lost their nerve.

We should give Adkins 12 months. Write off this season and start laying down some markers of where we should be from August 2016 until mid February 2017. This will give him 2 transfer windows. I would imagine that no one would be satisfied with anything less than top two by February 2017. If this is not achieved then it will give sufficient time for a new manager coming in to resurrect the season.

This strategy is not set in stone. For example if we are languishing in the relegation zone by November then pull the plug, bring someone else in to make the most of the January 2017 transfer window.

This could be the toughest year as Blades we have faced. If we can just show a further 12 months patience then we could come out the other side with exactly what we as supporters deserve.

 

[Bladeloyal]

We have to get a manager in that fits with the blade mentality . Adkins first and biggest mistake was who he handed the captains arm band to ,that had the alarm bells ringing 8 months ago .

 

[YES Blade]

We have to get a manager in that fits with the blade mentality . Adkins first and biggest mistake was who he handed the captains arm band to ,that had the alarm bells ringing 8 months ago .

The Blade mentality didn't really work when we had a manager who was also a supporter (Micky Adams) in fact it was a fucking disaster!

 

[Rollerball]

Young, hungry manager?
Brian Deane is available I believe add warnock as DoF a half decent assistant and we may just have the start of a decent managerial group.

 

[Bladeloyal]

The Blade mentality didn't really work when we had a manager who was also a supporter (Micky Adams) in fact it was a fucking disaster!

I said blade mentality a good fit .micky was a sheffield lad yes and it didn't work .doesn't mean he had the right mentality .he never played a first team game for us .he never sampled the warmth the anger the hatred us blades give .he was away to long

 

[Dkc]

The Blade mentality didn't really work when we had a manager who was also a supporter (Micky Adams) in fact it was a fucking disaster!

I disagree with your assessment of Adams. He inherited a crap team, did his best to keep us up, failed and was sacked. But if we'd retained Adams I would bet that we would be in a better position than we are now - five new managers later. We also sacked Warnock after relegation and many if not most regret that decision now.

I'd keep Adkins, but if he does go I agree that we should look to someone with the "Blades mentality" - a motivator and scrapper in the mould of Warnock, Bassett or even Adams.

 

[mida]

Blades' fans deserve what they've ended up with (crap manager of a crap team).

To sack Clough was a stupid, hasty decision... he did very well in a short space of time. People running the club just as stupid as many fans.

Fickle supporters think they deserve success and fail to realise that only one club can finish top of the league (Burton - well done Cloughie).

 

[Pierre's PC]

Keep sacking managers less than 12 months in to their contracts and I'm sure the quality of the candidates will only improve...

Adkins hasn't covered himself in glory so far in his SUFC career but laying the blame solely at his door when everyone agrees that the playing staff are the main problem seems a bit pointless.

No happy clapping from me as I can't believe we are still in this position however, by the same token I'm not going to spit fire and brimstone in criticism of a manager who by the sounds of his interview last evening is losing patience in public for the first time.

 

[LSF]

Leaving aside 'Who should the next manager be?', 'It's all McCabes fault', 'we can't go on sacking managers' blah, blah after last night, Adkins must go.

For those who didn't go, you missed a quite remarkable game. I have never, ever seen a more shambolic performance from a bunch of so-called 'professional footballers'. Devoid of effort, skill and played out in near-silence from the (highly dubious) attendance of almost 18k. Think 'going to the cinema' and being presented with a blank screen for over 90 minutes.

To illustrate the incredibly-poor nature of Division 3, Burton - the top team - were crap and won't survive in the Championship without a hefty load of dosh (which they don't have). But at half-time and with the score unbelievably still 0-0, they did exactly the same as Wigan t'other day. While Adkins delayed returning his bunch of useless cunts onto the pitch, Burton were out and raring to go. Our sustitutes, as usual, had spent the half-time interval pissing about and looked like kids in a school playground. What are all these so-called 'backroom staff' meant to be doing?

Clough (like Wigan) told his lads to 'up their game by 10%' and the points would be theirs.

It's not worth giving individual scores for the players. Long didn't have much to do but looked at fault with the goal. The rest? Apart from (maybe) Sharp and Adams, I'd ship the fucking lot out. After just 30 minutes I'd have Baptiste going back from whence he came. Done stood out with his 'headless chicken' routine. The rest simply didn't give a fuck.

As I've said elsewhere, a few points less and we'd be in a relegation scrap from which we wouldn't survive. To have the first half-hearted 'attack' of the half 5 minutes from the end, just a goal down and at home shows a team who have simply given up. We don't run, anticipate, shoot, use dead balls. There's nothing there.

When people go on about Clough, Wilson, Blackwell and Adkins they're just comparing levels of shittiness. Not that Adkins can compare with any of those. He is Weir, Robson and Adams rolled into one - shite and utterly clueless.

I'll be interested if anybody tries to defend Adkins. After last night, all excuses have run out.

You make some excellent observations there Graf!
Guessing you are of similar era to me? I'll say this much after last night, I never thought I'd see anything as piss poor, inept, soulless, heartless, disorganised and ability shorn in a United shirt (not that it is a United shirt) as Dougie Brown, John Flood, Craig Fenwick, Mike Guy, Tony Moore et al. The teams of that dark period went out and played with a lack of belief, ability and spirit, it was soul destroying to watch.
As bad as we've been been at different junctures over the years, my yardstick for shitty depths has always been that awful period, and we'd never sunk quite that far IMHO.
Last night, sadly, we did.
It was appalling, the players, apart from McEveley and Collins looked like they cared not a jot.
The manager floundered about unable to do anything about it, that speaks volumes.
Dark days indeed....

 

[Bladesince59]

Someone needs to re-build a squad, we may as well let Adkins at least try and do that given he has actually done it successfully before. We can't keep giving managers 12 - 18 months at best, particularly when they haven't had chance to build anything. I agree the performances on the pitch hardly merit such faith at the moment but he's been there and done it before.

It's also better spending £3-4M on players than a similar amount on another compensation job.

But where is this £3-4 M coming from? Or is it £3 to £4,000,000?

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

But where is this £3-4 M coming from? Or is it £3 to £4,000,000?

If people are saying we should sack Adkins then it must be there.

 

[Finnieston]

The football is the most shite boring turd I've watched in 47 years , nobody other than William Henry Folkes can dress it up as anything else .adkins and his two clowns out

Most people wanted Clough out after mass hysteria set in. Looks like a good decision that , he is now going to win the league and get promotion with someone else. Lets make the time a manager sets foot in a club and if no promotion signs in 5 months ,,then get rid . that would be interesting. We could have 2 managers a year to bawl at instead of one.
And think about all the shit players we could talk about. You could go on your holidays come back and a new manager and 11 new players installed............That's the future for football. Sod stability that's boring

 

[Bladesince59]

If people are saying we should sack Adkins then it must be there.

You reckon it would cost £4 mill to offload Adkins?

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

You reckon it would cost £4 mill to offload Adkins?

and his staff.

Maybe not that much but you take my point. And the squad would still need re-building.

 

[Bartleby]

Someone needs to re-build a squad, we may as well let Adkins at least try and do that given he has actually done it successfully before.

I'm in general agreement with you post, but has he successfully rebuilt a squad before? I think his biggest successes have come when he has inherited a decent squad and then got the best out of it, certainly the case at Southampton. With us he has inherited what is now showing to be a very poor squad with what seem to be some serious issues in terms of attitude as well as ability.

 

[nopigfansintown]

I disagree with your assessment of Adams. He inherited a crap team, did his best to keep us up, failed and was sacked. But if we'd retained Adams I would bet that we would be in a better position than we are now - five new managers later. We also sacked Warnock after relegation and many if not most regret that decision now.

I'd keep Adkins, but if he does go I agree that we should look to someone with the "Blades mentality" - a motivator and scrapper in the mould of Warnock, Bassett or even Adams.

This is the biggest parallel to the current situation. Many extremely highly paid largely players who decided that they weren't going to play for the manager or board. Definitely more sinned against than sinning. Anybody that saw how devastating this was for him couldn't fail to be sympathetic.

 

[spongebobblade]

We can't keep swapping managers....... However that's no reason to stick with one who just doesn't look up to the job. We have to find the right one. I'm becoming more concerned that Adkins isn't that man.

 

[grafikhaus]

You make some excellent observations there Graf!
Guessing you are of similar era to me? I'll say this much after last night, I never thought I'd see anything as piss poor, inept, soulless, heartless, disorganised and ability shorn in a United shirt (not that it is a United shirt) as Dougie Brown, John Flood, Craig Fenwick, Mike Guy, Tony Moore et al. The teams of that dark period went out and played with a lack of belief, ability and spirit, it was soul destroying to watch.
As bad as we've been been at different junctures over the years, my yardstick for shitty depths has always been that awful period, and we'd never sunk quite that far IMHO.
Last night, sadly, we did.

April 23rd, 1962 was my first match LSF and yes, I've seen some crap down the years. But as long as I live, I will never see dross like that served up last night.

In fact, it's difficult to put into words how bad we were/are. There are usually the odd bright sparks in any game. Not last night. When Sadkins did his 'deckchair re-arranging' by introducing D C-L, Whiteman and the lamentable Baptiste all hope was gone. I didn't see McCabe (that's him missing for the last 3 home games) and it shows that everybody has given up the ghost.

Football Heaven should be fun tonight...

 

[I should coco]

Football Heaven should be fun tonight...

Brian-"when you've managed a team"-the Blade saying I told you so.
Mark the Pitsmoor Pig and Mick from Rawmarsh laughing their cocks off.....

I think the dogs might get a long walk tonight between 6 and 7.

ISC

 

[Bladesince59]

I'm in general agreement with you post, but has he successfully rebuilt a squad before? I think his biggest successes have come when he has inherited a decent squad and then got the best out of it, certainly the case at Southampton. With us he has inherited what is now showing to be a very poor squad with what seem to be some serious issues in terms of attitude as well as ability.

Precisely my point on another thread. He is a proven manager when he has proven players. He certainly doesn't have them at the moment and the evidence that he has ever managed to find, recruit and motivate said players is a bit thin. We got the right manager for the wrong team.

 

[Ginger Gnome]

Last summer, there was no call for a mass clear-out of players, we only really needed a couple of additions, cutting the numbers a bit would help, but there was nothing massively wrong with the squad. The players we did bring in failed to address the key weaknesses in defence and midfield, that's down to the manager.

Now, Adkins apologists blast this squad as all useless and happily write off this season as we were just waiting for a clear out in the summer and could never achieve anything with what we've got. Adkins himself claims that the players can't handle playing for this club in this division, except most of them have managed that just fine for the previous couple of years, the difference between the players last season and players this season is the man in charge of them.

How many times has Adkins picked the same 11 from game to game? Why do so many players come in for an odd game then vanish again?
Why not play a system that plays to the players' strengths?
Why rush Harris straight from injury to the starting line-up when K Wallace was doing just fine?
Has the previously effective Brayford/Flynn partnership down the right wing even been used? Has Flynn even played more than a couple of games in a row in the same position?
Why loan out an attacking left back, then immediately switch to a wing-back system that he was the best fit for?
If Sammon was a player he didn't even want, why use him so often?

There are too many mysteries of Adkins' own making for me to have any belief in his ability to change things around. The players he brought in will all be on decent wages, and even if every out of contract player leaves, that means a lot of new signings/signing on fees/agents fees even if all new recruits are brought in on the cheap. There isn't a single thing about Adkins' reign that suggests he should get more time, he doesn't have a clue what he's doing and can't get any kind of performance out of the players he's got.

All the reasons given for him to stay amount to
It's the players, it's not his squad
It's the board, lack of investment, assumptions about broken promises
You can't keep sacking managers, he needs more time, costs too much in compensation
He got 4 promotions before

Nobody ever uses anything from his time at the club as a reason for him to stay as he has accomplished absolutely nothing, and the more time he has, the worse the performances get. At least with David Weir you could instantly see what he was trying (and failing spectacularly) to achieve. After 9 months, I have no idea what Adkins is doing. I'm not sure he does either.

There simply isn't a single footballing reason why Nigel Adkins should be employed as the Sheffield United manager.

 

[PeteBlade]

Simple truth is , its whats needed, he isnt working, Blame the board the players the new pitch the fans , but it was Adkins job to improve things on the pitch
We are going backwards, cant score, There is no discernible plan of tactics , no bringing in of better players, , but worst of all , no passion
Can put up with players being shite , but passionless , that falls at the managers feet , full stop

We need someone better , we could all argue who , but this one is not the one

Please stop passing off your own arm chair based opinion as 'facts' and 'truth'.

You've only just stopped saying the fans negativity is causing our malaise and that we would finish in the top 2.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

People keep saying, that if we sack another manager "we'll back to square one" Well after 8 ish months in charge Mr Adkins has took us backwards since the last "square one".
So he'll be no great loss if he goes.

 

[Jostein's Bandage]

The thing with someone like Chris Wilder is he motivates his players. No, he hasn't ever done much before this season but he is pretty solid. I think we need to scale down expectations and start again, Adkins seems to have a knack of pissing players off. He seems like a shit or bust manager. We need someone to come in and slowly turn it round. Someone here for a long time, who can motivate players not alienate them. And more to the point, Adkins has proven that he hasn't got a clue who to sign. He may have promotions at this level, but he clearly doesn't know this level very well. We need someone who does, like Wilder, Keith Hill, fat bastard leeds-face, someone down to earth who can bring in players who actually want to get stuck in and get the team to scrap for points.