The Scale of the Task

[1889]

Do you know how football managering works? Being unemployed for 6 months is normal.

He could have taken any Championship job that came up. Walked into it. He's vastly more successful than most managers below premiership.

Do you know, a record 20 Championship team managers were sacked in the season prior to June 2015. None of whom saw fit to approach the vastly successful Adkins as a replacement?

 

[Borbokisfreekick]

There is not the money available to rebuild this squad in one summer, people better get that idea out of their heads.

This is a two to three season process starting from May onwards and the powers that be better decide sharpish whether they think Adkins is the right man and stick with him.

If they don't think he's the right man get it over with and make a move for someone else ASAP.

It's shouldn't have even got to the point where people are saying its a 2/3 year process. We weren't that far off last season, with the addition of a center half, striker and decent winger we'd have been right up there.

Why allow a manager to bring in so many players and then sack him, stupidity by the board.

And then bring in a manager who has different objectives from a playing style and give him an automatic excuse that the squad is too big.

The squad last year just needed a few tweaks.

It's shouldn't take 2-3 years. Adkins has got what he wants now, he's cleaned the squad out to bare bones. By the boards prior excuses it seems they have got what they want as well. So they really have no choice other than to back Adkins in bringing in new players. Otherwise what was the point in sacking the previous manager and blaming him for building a bloated squad!

It really is all on the board now. If they don't allow Adkins to bring in around 8 new players on the summer we will go down to League 2 next year, without a doubt.

Because if we start out with what's left of this squad with no major additions and Adkins in charge, we won't be any higher than mid table come December, Adkins will get the sack, a new manager will come in and his only option will be to get a load of expensive loan signings in January and we'll be in the same position as when we went down from the championship and we'll go down.

This really is the biggest summer we've ever had in terms of recruitment.

 

[Jostein's Bandage]

Gambling is misleading in my opinion. Signing a player from the lower leagues is no bigger a gamble than signing an unwanted player from a higher division. Clearly someone like Kamar Roofe is likely to be more influential than Connor Sammon. It's not "easy to say now", it was easy to say looking at the records of the two players. Clearly Bradley Dack is likely to be more influential than a fading old journeyman like Woolford. It's not really got anything to do with not gambling, it's the board who for some reason will cough up silly wages for hasbeens and neverhasbeens than fork out transfer fees. The board were unwilling to pay transfer fees (apart from tiny amounts) before Princey arrived and have now reverted back to that state after overpaying for Brayford etc. Not saying we could have ever got those two players, but there are players we could get.

The board place too much emphasis on where a player is currently playing (or more to the point, not playing) and from everything seen so far Adkins is in the same mold. Bassett wasn't scared, he had faith in his abilities to find hidden gems. He could find a barrel of them. Adkins and the board are a perfect match, because they both love a sticking plaster approach. We'll end up with a squad full of Woolford and Hammond plodders signed on the cheap. I can't believe people think this is the right way to go. Sleep walking into division four like the last time. The board are never going to properly fund a team capable of promotion, the only way forward is a manager who knows how to scrap, unearth hidden gems and motivate his team. Adkins just isn't that kind of manager.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Do you know, a record 20 Championship team managers were sacked in the season prior to June 2015. None of whom saw fit to approach the vastly successful Adkins as a replacement?

Leeds and Watford accounted for eight of those.,of the remainder, I think only five dismissals were after Adkins was sacked by Reading.

Doesn't quite look the same does it.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Gambling is misleading in my opinion. Signing a player from the lower leagues is no bigger a gamble than signing an unwanted player from a higher division. Clearly someone like Kamar Roofe is likely to be more influential than Connor Sammon. It's not "easy to say now", it was easy to say looking at the records of the two players. Clearly Bradley Dack is likely to be more influential than a fading old journeyman like Woolford. It's not really got anything to do with not gambling, it's the board who for some reason will cough up silly wages for hasbeens and neverhasbeens than fork out transfer fees. The board were unwilling to pay transfer fees (apart from tiny amounts) before Princey arrived and have now reverted back to that state after overpaying for Brayford etc. Not saying we could have ever got those two players, but there are players we could get.

The board place too much emphasis on where a player is currently playing (or more to the point, not playing) and from everything seen so far Adkins is in the same mold. Bassett wasn't scared, he had faith in his abilities to find hidden gems. He could find a barrel of them. Adkins and the board are a perfect match, because they both love a sticking plaster approach. We'll end up with a squad full of Woolford and Hammond plodders signed on the cheap. I can't believe people think this is the right way to go. Sleep walking into division four like the last time. The board are never going to properly fund a team capable of promotion, the only way forward is a manager who knows how to scrap, unearth hidden gems and motivate his team. Adkins just isn't that kind of manager.

I meant gambling as in signing players from lower leagues you hadn't worked with before rather than playing safe with previous signings such as Hammond. At some cost.

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

How people can say Adkins was misled by the board is laughable. The blokes been unemployed for 6 month after being sacked by Reading due to poor performance and he is offered a lucrative three year contract at Sheffield United. In all seriousness, irrespective of what he was told, or what his own research had revealed, there is no way that anyone in his position would have turned down the opportunity. To suggest otherwise is just ridiculous.

If anyone has grounds to feel misled it is the board, certainly Adkins would have given assurances that he could turn around the football clubs fortunes, both in and out of the arena etc etc. Unfortunately he has failed spectacularly, the players may not be world beaters, but they all performed better individually and as a group under Nigel Clough. To say the players are shit is far too simplistic, I'm afraid you just don't get to be a professional footballer for very long, if you are.But a huge part of the managers job is to make the team gel, create a great spirit, identify leaders, weed out the negative influences and get everyone fighting for the cause.

Whatever situation he found when he started, ten months is plenty of time for him to turn things around or at least start to show some green shoots of improvement? But there is nothing, he spouts that bizarre pseudointellectual nonsense that alienates most of the fans and will doubtless be received in exactly the same way by the players? His signings have been unimaginative, whilst he has moved on players, some of whom were arguably of more value than some who remain? His squad selection, substitutions and tactics are at best questionable. In fact, when you look at Adkins tenure, if he was deliberately trying to get paid off, he couldn't have done a better job.

Give him another season? That's a joke, right?

For some reason it does appear that the squad of players for whatever reason have not bought in to the Adkins plan from the seasons first match at Gillingham . Collectively the players either don't understand or want to understand what they have got to do . Everything seems half hearted in a game , that's why we are losing so many games . Clough at least seemed to have a power hold over them , but even he seemed to be losing it on occasions.
Is it that these days players do not respond at this level to overload intensity of information or instructions

Is Adkins making a simple game complicated , and this alleged lack of discipline with players just down to a lack of respect for Adkins , and they actually thought they could do a league 1 Chelski and get him the sack.

Who knows , but no one seems to be in control or knows what they are doing which is bourne out in results.

UTB

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

I'm not sure I understand your point, but since you brought him up, I honestly believe Neil Warnock would have this current squad of players in the play offs.

Warnock would have us in the play offs . No doubt about it . He would bring a belief to all .

Something is lacking with Adkins and I just cannot put a finger on it . I wish I could have a in depth chat with a senior pro at the lane and find out what the real crack issue is within the dressing room.

Saying our problems and issues are down to Clough and and the players is just too simplistic of a excuse IMO.

UTB

 

[FriethBlade]

It's as big a gamble signing the likes of the above who are in decline and suffered bad injuries in the past and they cost more in wages and have no resale value.

Maybe we need someone like Wilder who knows these lower league players and can bring them in on a budget

For some reason it does appear that the squad of players for whatever reason have not bought in to the Adkins plan from the seasons first match at Gillingham . Collectively the players either don't understand or want to understand what they have got to do . Everything seems half hearted in a game , that's why we are losing so many games . Clough at least seemed to have a power hold over them , but even he seemed to be losing it on occasions.
Is it that these days players do not respond at this level to overload intensity of information or instructions

Is Adkins making a simple game complicated , and this alleged lack of discipline with players just down to a lack of respect for Adkins , and they actually thought they could do a league 1 Chelski and get him the sack.

Who knows , but no one seems to be in control or knows what they are doing which is bourne out in results.

UTB

Adkins needs to bring 4-5 good lower league players in who will run through brick walls for him and be his men. We have too many players who have made their money and aren't easily motivated anymore. Hes done the right thing clearing loads of peripheral players out but the fact he's brought Hammond and Baptiste in on loan seriously worries me.

We need to be bringing in the likes of Pierre from Wycombe, Roofe and ODowda from Oxford, Lutons centre forward who's name escapes me etc and rebuilding with a younger, fitter, stronger, less injury prone squad .

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Adkins needs to bring 4-5 good lower league players in who will run through brick walls for him and be his men. We have too many players who have made their money and aren't easily motivated anymore. Hes done the right thing clearing loads of peripheral players out but the fact he's brought Hammond and Baptiste in on loan seriously worries me.

We need to be bringing in the likes of Pierre from Wycombe, Roofe and ODowda from Oxford, Lutons centre forward who's name escapes me etc and rebuilding with a younger, fitter, stronger, less injury prone squad .

I know that , you know that and so do 20,000 others also know it . Problem is does Adkins . Ok it cost money to buy players but let's stop bringing in players from the championship . ( Hammond ain't on peanuts ) . We do need players who have a hunger and desire to succeed and better themselves.

Adkins with his transfer and loan dealings to date , has not helped himself in giving the impression that he knows what he is doing . That's got to be a worry .

UTB

 

[1danewhitehouse]

we've gone backwards since Adkins arrived. he originally had the same players at his disposal as Clough who got us to the playoffs? players in
hammond .. old crock
baptiste.. crock
woolford.. old .. crap
sammon .. crap
edgar.. ok
billy.. good but didn't actually need a striker?

not good reading

How is Hammond a crock? I don’t think he’s missed a game through injury since we signed him has he?


We didn’t need a striker? You’re happy having top scorers hitting the 12-13 goal mark each season? I’d argue we maybe needed a different type of striker but I think we needed one for sure.


If we’re counting all loans and freebies as his ins when comparing with Clough we need to consider all the outs from Clough’s squad too



Steven Davies

Michael Doyle

Jamie Murphy

Jason Holt

Ben Davies


That’s 4 players who were part of Clough’s team and one squad player who Adkins lost without having any say in the matter. And as the season has gone on…


Craig Alcock

Marc McNulty

Michael Higddon

Conor Dimaio

Stefan Scougall

Bob Harris

Kieran Freeman

JCR

Jose Baxter

Callum McFadzean

James Wallace

Neil Collins


Have all been sent packing one way or another.


That’s a total of 17 players that were available to Clough last season that for one reason are no longer part of our current squad compared to 6 incoming players. One of those 17 was our best player. 7 of our 8 top scorers from last season are no longer playing form the club for one reason or another (only Done from the top 8 is still playing for us). We certainly needed to replace those goals. There’s probably going to be a few more out in the summer (Flynn, Cuvelier etc.). We’re going to need some serious ins to have a real crack at it.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I know that , you know that and so do 20,000 others also know it . Problem is does Adkins . Ok it cost money to buy players but let's stop bringing in players from the championship . ( Hammond ain't on peanuts ) . We do need players who have a hunger and desire to succeed and better themselves.

Adkins with his transfer and loan dealings to date , has not helped himself in giving the impression that he knows what he is doing . That's got to be a worry .

UTB

I think the fact he had such a big squad which was desperately lacking in physicality and character/ leadership will have prompted him to go with experienced players he knew would compete physically and that he knew had the right attitude. Hopefully, with much clearer decks, he won’t be limited to doing that and will cast the net wider to try to find some up and coming talent. We just don’t know at this stage. The circumstances come the summer are going to be different to those he walked in to and I think we can only make a full and fair judgement after we have seen how he handles the summer rebuild.

 

[bladesmanluke]

I predict that this will be a similar pre season to the one prior to our relegation from the championship. Faint hope of a promotion challenge... More retarded decisions in the board room and then possibly relegation again

 

[BushBlade]

I predict that this will be a similar pre season to the one prior to our relegation from the championship. Faint hope of a promotion challenge... More retarded decisions in the board room and then possibly relegation again

Yes we've become like a Greek tragedy, where you know it's going to go tits up, you just watch it to find out how. Will we allow Adkins to sign loads of players and then sack him after a couple of games? Will we sack him at the end of the season and appoint Bladey flavour of the month manager and let him sign loads of inadequates before sacking him in March and putting Deano in charge? Or will we go for four different managers in a season? Maybe we'll appoint an alcoholic and let him sign who he wants?

 

[grafikhaus]

There is not the money available to rebuild this squad in one summer, people better get that idea out of their heads.

You shouldn't need vast sums of money to get out of this piss-poor division. That's where good management comes in. Have Burton 'splashed the cash'? Walsall? Gillingham? Southend etc? Yet they're all light years ahead of us.

I bet Bolton - as skint as they are - will 'do a Wigan' next season. They'll take a few months to find their feet and then, with wise loans and tweaks, end up miles ahead of United. The excuses really are running out.

 

[Fiery Blade]

Fact is that Clough did a far better job with his 43+ bloated squad than Adkins has done !
Whatever his CV History tells us this seasons performance has been abject !
He stated at the start of the season that his target was to get promoted - he has failed with a capital F
He doesn't seem to be able to motivate, his tactics and team selection is woeful and he treats the fans like idiots - Why on earth do some supporters want him to clear the decks and start again - There is only one thing I want him to clear is - HIS DESK !
He clearly does not have a clue !!!

 

[Darthblade]

How people can say Adkins was misled by the board is laughable. The blokes been unemployed for 6 month after being sacked by Reading due to poor performance and he is offered a lucrative three year contract at Sheffield United. In all seriousness, irrespective of what he was told, or what his own research had revealed, there is no way that anyone in his position would have turned down the opportunity. To suggest otherwise is just ridiculous.

If anyone has grounds to feel misled it is the board, certainly Adkins would have given assurances that he could turn around the football clubs fortunes, both in and out of the arena etc etc. Unfortunately he has failed spectacularly, the players may not be world beaters, but they all performed better individually and as a group under Nigel Clough. To say the players are shit is far too simplistic, I'm afraid you just don't get to be a professional footballer for very long, if you are.But a huge part of the managers job is to make the team gel, create a great spirit, identify leaders, weed out the negative influences and get everyone fighting for the cause.

Whatever situation he found when he started, ten months is plenty of time for him to turn things around or at least start to show some green shoots of improvement? But there is nothing, he spouts that bizarre pseudointellectual nonsense that alienates most of the fans and will doubtless be received in exactly the same way by the players? His signings have been unimaginative, whilst he has moved on players, some of whom were arguably of more value than some who remain? His squad selection, substitutions and tactics are at best questionable. In fact, when you look at Adkins tenure, if he was deliberately trying to get paid off, he couldn't have done a better job.

Give him another season? That's a joke, right?

Regrettably ........ you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Most of our first team squad have demonstrated, over an extended period, that they are incapable of performing at this lowly L1 level.

The wizard of Oz couldn't have made this sad lot into a genuine promotion chasing squad !!

UTB & FTP

 

[BushBlade]

You shouldn't need vast sums of money to get out of this piss-poor division. That's where good management comes in. Have Burton 'splashed the cash'? Walsall? Gillingham? Southend etc? Yet they're all light years ahead of us.

I bet Bolton - as skint as they are - will 'do a Wigan' next season. They'll take a few months to find their feet and then, with wise loans and tweaks, end up miles ahead of United. The excuses really are running out.

The problem for any manager at the club is that they inherit a huge wage bill. It was Wilson's downfall and now it could be Adkins.

The reason clubs like Burton are successful is because they have a sustainable plan and aren't under pressure to get promoted immediately. So the manager has time to build a team and work within a sensible budget. When a player is sold, or they profit from a cup run, they can use the money to strengthen the team.
Rather than pay stupid money to players they invest in scouting so that if they do have to sell, they're prepared for it and have several players lined up who could take their place for less than they sold the player for.
And players on £2k a week on their way up are a lot less likely to be hard to manage than senior seen it done it types who've paid off their mortgages and have money in the bank.
Put the manager of any of the clubs you mentioned in Adkins' position and they would also struggle.

Wigan are slightly different in that they had the parachute payments and who knows how much Whelan has funded them this season? I'd guess their wage bill is a lot higher than ours and they've spent more on transfer fees. They're more like us when we first came down but they strengthened in the JTW better than we did, as they understood the implications of not going up.

Bolton have got rid of most of their debt and have new owners so you'd expect them to invest next season. I suspect this will become the norm, whereby there is always one club that comes down that will be able to outspend us. Which means we have to wake up and stop making the same mistakes over and over again; stop thinking we can shortcut the rebuilding process by signing poor value for money players from the leagues above and start doing things properly, like scouting and developing players. And we won't be able to do that until we've cut the wage bill significantly (more than we will be able to do this close season) or accept the mistakes of the past have to be paid for, pay for them and invest more on top.

I'm fed up of hearing how much the owners are losing. It's their fault and they need to take responsibility for their inept decision making.

 

[Darthblade]

The problem for any manager at the club is that they inherit a huge wage bill. It was Wilson's downfall and now it could be Adkins.

The reason clubs like Burton are successful is because they have a sustainable plan and aren't under pressure to get promoted immediately. So the manager has time to build a team and work within a sensible budget. When a player is sold, or they profit from a cup run, they can use the money to strengthen the team.
Rather than pay stupid money to players they invest in scouting so that if they do have to sell, they're prepared for it and have several players lined up who could take their place for less than they sold the player for.
And players on £2k a week on their way up are a lot less likely to be hard to manage than senior seen it done it types who've paid off their mortgages and have money in the bank.
Put the manager of any of the clubs you mentioned in Adkins' position and they would also struggle.

Wigan are slightly different in that they had the parachute payments and who knows how much Whelan has funded them this season? I'd guess their wage bill is a lot higher than ours and they've spent more on transfer fees. They're more like us when we first came down but they strengthened in the JTW better than we did, as they understood the implications of not going up.

Bolton have got rid of most of their debt and have new owners so you'd expect them to invest next season. I suspect this will become the norm, whereby there is always one club that comes down that will be able to outspend us. Which means we have to wake up and stop making the same mistakes over and over again; stop thinking we can shortcut the rebuilding process by signing poor value for money players from the leagues above and start doing things properly, like scouting and developing players. And we won't be able to do that until we've cut the wage bill significantly (more than we will be able to do this close season) or accept the mistakes of the past have to be paid for, pay for them and invest more on top.

I'm fed up of hearing how much the owners are losing. It's their fault and they need to take responsibility for their inept decision making.

Agreed totally !

But what is this "scouting" thing you mention ?

Does this mean they take the players out camping in fields and award them badges for completing certain tasks ??

UTB & FTP

 

[BushBlade]

Agreed totally !

But what is this "scouting" thing you mention ?

Does this mean they take the players out camping in fields and award them badges for completing certain tasks ??

UTB & FTP

Yes, they have to call Adkins 'Akela'.

 

[Tezza1889]

How people can say Adkins was misled by the board is laughable. The blokes been unemployed for 6 month after being sacked by Reading due to poor performance and he is offered a lucrative three year contract at Sheffield United. In all seriousness, irrespective of what he was told, or what his own research had revealed, there is no way that anyone in his position would have turned down the opportunity. To suggest otherwise is just ridiculous.

If anyone has grounds to feel misled it is the board, certainly Adkins would have given assurances that he could turn around the football clubs fortunes, both in and out of the arena etc etc. Unfortunately he has failed spectacularly, the players may not be world beaters, but they all performed better individually and as a group under Nigel Clough. To say the players are shit is far too simplistic, I'm afraid you just don't get to be a professional footballer for very long, if you are.But a huge part of the managers job is to make the team gel, create a great spirit, identify leaders, weed out the negative influences and get everyone fighting for the cause.

Whatever situation he found when he started, ten months is plenty of time for him to turn things around or at least start to show some green shoots of improvement? But there is nothing, he spouts that bizarre pseudointellectual nonsense that alienates most of the fans and will doubtless be received in exactly the same way by the players? His signings have been unimaginative, whilst he has moved on players, some of whom were arguably of more value than some who remain? His squad selection, substitutions and tactics are at best questionable. In fact, when you look at Adkins tenure, if he was deliberately trying to get paid off, he couldn't have done a better job.

Give him another season? That's a joke, right?

This ^^^^^^


If he's so fucking brilliant then why did he see having 40 players to build a team out of as a problem? And also why are we not seeing anything in terms of a side that are playing consistently and well, he's the genius Nigel Adkins isn't he, nope, instead he's going around falling out with everybody left right and centre banging on about endeavour like its a word that confuses the ordinary fan, contrast this with warnock over at Rotherham who's very quiet with the media at the moment but getting everybody on the same page and having an instant impact....

Sorry, but that's how I gauge a good manager, they have an instant impact on any team they inherit, and the nucleus of a decent first 11 were definitely within the 40 professionals so why are we 5 places worse off in the worst league one in decades if we have the equivalent of Bill shankly managing us (in league one terms)..

He'll be sacked after Southend away should we not get anything this weekend out of the mighty Crewe at home..

To be honest, I have to agree that if we weren't stigmatised as being trigger happy with managers, I'd have been happy to see him sacked at Xmas, I am not seeing any benefit at all from this apparent genius, really, I'm not..

 

[Champagneblade]

How is Hammond a crock? I don’t think he’s missed a game through injury since we signed him has he?


We didn’t need a striker? You’re happy having top scorers hitting the 12-13 goal mark each season? I’d argue we maybe needed a different type of striker but I think we needed one for sure.


If we’re counting all loans and freebies as his ins when comparing with Clough we need to consider all the outs from Clough’s squad too



Steven Davies

Michael Doyle

Jamie Murphy

Jason Holt

Ben Davies


That’s 4 players who were part of Clough’s team and one squad player who Adkins lost without having any say in the matter. And as the season has gone on…


Craig Alcock

Marc McNulty

Michael Higddon

Conor Dimaio

Stefan Scougall

Bob Harris

Kieran Freeman

JCR

Jose Baxter

Callum McFadzean

James Wallace

Neil Collins


Have all been sent packing one way or another.


That’s a total of 17 players that were available to Clough last season that for one reason are no longer part of our current squad compared to 6 incoming players. One of those 17 was our best player. 7 of our 8 top scorers from last season are no longer playing form the club for one reason or another (only Done from the top 8 is still playing for us). We certainly needed to replace those goals. There’s probably going to be a few more out in the summer (Flynn, Cuvelier etc.). We’re going to need some serious ins to have a real crack at it.

McNulty had a far better goal scoring record than Sharp.

13 goals including only one pen in 18 starts vs 16 including 4 pens in about 38 games.

MM probably on a third of what BS is on too.

Even given the sub appearances MM is better than 1 in 2 and BS about 1 in 3.

A good partner for MM would have been a better spend.

 

[Revolution]

McNulty had a far better goal scoring record than Sharp.

13 goals including only one pen in 18 starts vs 16 including 4 pens in about 38 games.

MM probably on a third of what BS is on too.

Even given the sub appearances MM is better than 1 in 2 and BS about 1 in 3.

A good partner for MM would have been a better spend.

That's not a 100 percent fair comparison as McNulty did not score all of his goals in starts. He played many more games than that.

I'm happy with the Sharp signing. He may have missed a few along the way but he's won us a lot of points. I would have kept Mcnulty at the club too.

This is some credit I give to Adkins - he got a goal scorer in up front. Shame he has no notion that midfielders need to score occasionally too.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

McNulty had a far better goal scoring record than Sharp.

13 goals including only one pen in 18 starts vs 16 including 4 pens in about 38 games.

MM probably on a third of what BS is on too.

Even given the sub appearances MM is better than 1 in 2 and BS about 1 in 3.

A good partner for MM would have been a better spend.

But McNulty's performances had dipped, his attitude had been questioned etc. His all round game was lacking. Done was preferred to him in the latter stages. Surely it would have been a partner for Done (which is why I said different type of striker).

 

[super_pig]

How is Hammond a crock? I don’t think he’s missed a game through injury since we signed him has he?

well he can't run very fast and is blowing out of his arse after ten minutes.. will that qualify?

 

[super_pig]

Rather than pay stupid money to players they invest in scouting so that if they do have to sell, they're prepared for it and have several players lined up who could take their place for less than they sold the player for.

surely this is standard practice??

 

[BushBlade]

surely this is standard practice??

For whom? Us? Not as far as I'm aware. I think Adkins commented on our lack of scouting when he first arrived.
But even if we did it, or are doing it, we're still hampered by the losses caused mainly by our wage bill which seems to make the owners reluctant to invest in transfer fees and prefer to use any incoming fees to reduce their losses.

There's no one cause for our decline, it's a complex combination of a number of poor decisions and the subsequent consequences which is why it's going to take either time or money to unravel.

 

[grafikhaus]

This ^^^^^^


If he's so fucking brilliant then why did he see having 40 players to build a team out of as a problem? And also why are we not seeing anything in terms of a side that are playing consistently and well, he's the genius Nigel Adkins isn't he, nope, instead he's going around falling out with everybody left right and centre banging on about endeavour like its a word that confuses the ordinary fan, contrast this with warnock over at Rotherham who's very quiet with the media at the moment but getting everybody on the same page and having an instant impact....

Sorry, but that's how I gauge a good manager, they have an instant impact on any team they inherit, and the nucleus of a decent first 11 were definitely within the 40 professionals so why are we 5 places worse off in the worst league one in decades if we have the equivalent of Bill shankly managing us (in league one terms)..

He'll be sacked after Southend away should we not get anything this weekend out of the mighty Crewe at home..

To be honest, I have to agree that if we weren't stigmatised as being trigger happy with managers, I'd have been happy to see him sacked at Xmas, I am not seeing any benefit at all from this apparent genius, really, I'm not..

I'd largely agree but this managerial caper is extremely complicated. There are a few managers who just 'click' with a club - Nigel Clough at Burton, Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, Darren Ferguson at Peterbrough who prove they're not the geniuses they're cracked up to be when they move elsewhere (NC at Derby and us, Howe at Burnley, Ferguson at Preston and now Doncaster) and fuck up big time. Nobody on earth thought that Ranieri would take relegation-favourites Leicester and probably win the PL. Did Pearson assemble the ingredients allowing Ranieri to be the chef? And possibly even more remarkable - Carvalhal at Swillsborough. 15 clubs in 18 years. There's some kind of chemistry that is undefinable or everybody would be doing it.

Which brings us to NA. A close look at his managerial career may suggest he's may not be the 'promotion specialist' some may think. It could be that Scunthorpe are Adkins' 'Burton' - a team he's comfortable at where the expectations aren't so high. He was at Iron from 2006-2010 and, yes, he did get them promoted to the Championship in 2007 but promptly got them relegated the following season before guiding them back up again in 2009. So hardly an unblemished start to his senior managerial career. Had Brian Laws - who fucked off to Wendy - laid the ground work? Surely Billy Sharp's 53 goals in 82 appearances skew Adkins' record at Scunny? (I seem to remember he had a shit-hot strike partner beside him, who's name escapes me.)

Moving to Southampton, his record is truly impressive. However - and I'm not seeking to decry NA's efforts - Saints had just moved into a brand-new stadium after years at The Dell shithole, had massive investment from the Liebherr family and an enviable conveyor-belt of young talent coming through the ranks.So why was he dismissed? Hard to say, but it's probably that Saints were ready for the next step up and thought Adkins had taken them as far as he could. An admirable attitude and one which I wished more clubs would take (us with Warnock in 2006 being a prime example).

Reading? Not entirely a disaster, but not good enough for a club seeking to return to the PL. The Blades? An unmitigated disaster so far and a record he shows no signs of improving on.

Finally, I'll have to do the stats.but 14 wins out of 37 league games and no significant Cup runs would make a 40% win perentage as shown in Wikipedia extremely unlikely, but I may be wrong.

So is Adkins 'lucky' or just 'misunderstood'? Someone once said that the definition of a good Chancellor of The Exchequer is one who knows when to get out. A football manager is probably the same and perhaps Adkins' time was the end of his stint at Southampton.

 

[robbiez666]

I think, what many forget, is that there's so much luck involved with football. Sure, you can mitigate that to some extent through planning, but it plays a huge part.

 

[Silent Blade]

A good partner for MM would have been a better spend.

Eh? McNulty isnt good enough at this level and he isnt getting full games or getting regular starts in L2. I am not that keen on Sharp but he is a far better player than McNulty

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

I'd largely agree but this managerial caper is extremely complicated. There are a few managers who just 'click' with a club - Nigel Clough at Burton, Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, Darren Ferguson at Peterbrough who prove they're not the geniuses they're cracked up to be when they move elsewhere (NC at Derby and us, Howe at Burnley, Ferguson at Preston and now Doncaster) and fuck up big time. Nobody on earth thought that Ranieri would take relegation-favourites Leicester and probably win the PL. Did Pearson assemble the ingredients allowing Ranieri to be the chef? And possibly even more remarkable - Carvalhal at Swillsborough. 15 clubs in 18 years. There's some kind of chemistry that is undefinable or everybody would be doing it.

Which brings us to NA. A close look at his managerial career may suggest he's may not be the 'promotion specialist' some may think. It could be that Scunthorpe are Adkins' 'Burton' - a team he's comfortable at where the expectations aren't so high. He was at Iron from 2006-2010 and, yes, he did get them promoted to the Championship in 2007 but promptly got them relegated the following season before guiding them back up again in 2009. So hardly an unblemished start to his senior managerial career. Had Brian Laws - who fucked off to Wendy - laid the ground work? Surely Billy Sharp's 53 goals in 82 appearances skew Adkins' record at Scunny? (I seem to remember he had a shit-hot strike partner beside him, who's name escapes me.)

Moving to Southampton, his record is truly impressive. However - and I'm not seeking to decry NA's efforts - Saints had just moved into a brand-new stadium after years at The Dell shithole, had massive investment from the Liebherr family and an enviable conveyor-belt of young talent coming through the ranks.So why was he dismissed? Hard to say, but it's probably that Saints were ready for the next step up and thought Adkins had taken them as far as he could. An admirable attitude and one which I wished more clubs would take (us with Warnock in 2006 being a prime example).

Reading? Not entirely a disaster, but not good enough for a club seeking to return to the PL. The Blades? An unmitigated disaster so far and a record he shows no signs of improving on.

Finally, I'll have to do the stats.but 14 wins out of 37 league games and no significant Cup runs would make a 40% win perentage as shown in Wikipedia extremely unlikely, but I may be wrong.

So is Adkins 'lucky' or just 'misunderstood'? Someone once said that the definition of a good Chancellor of The Exchequer is one who knows when to get out. A football manager is probably the same and perhaps Adkins' time was the end of his stint at Southampton.

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Some great points and good analogy of Adkins and the clubs he has managed . To me the Reading situation is more akin to ours than looking at Scunthorpe and Southampton. Has Adkins built on what Brian Laws had done at Scunny and what Alan Pardew had built at Southampton . Southampton had a brilliant production line of young talent already and Sharp , Hooper , knew were the net was at Scunny.

Adkins may be fantastic for kick starting a good team into a very good team , but it does seem that history tells us , he cannot sort a club out that is in a mess ie Reading , SUFC.

Thing is , it's the definition of a mess for us , bearing in mind last season we were in the play offs , and beating everybody in front of us into the cups. The bloke has taken us backward . Buck stops with Adkins.

Adkins has not been able to move forward a good side , with a couple of additions , to make a promotion chasing side . He either miscalculated the task in hand or given poor information by Morgan and co .

I think our problem is simply a bit of both . For that reason and that reason only , he should get next season , albeit he is a lucky bastard because he is still in a job , and we have sacked too many managers in the past on knee jerk reactions for a lot less .

He has to earn our respect as well as the players , and at this moment in time , he appears to be losing on both fronts and the season is nearly done and dusted.

UTB