Robson - did you overreact?

[sheffielder]

Weird one with Robson. I always thought that his team was close to clicking and that's why it took until Feb ( I think) to push the button.

Alas I look back now at my own stupidty

 

[Sheffsteel]

Weird one with Robson. I always thought that his team was close to clicking and that's why it took until Feb ( I think) to push the button.

Alas I look back now at my own stupidty

To be honest I thought the same.

Remember in his early matches we used to dominate midfield but never look like scoring. Some excellent patient possession but hardly any goal mouth action at either end. It was a massive culture shock for msny of our fans who preferred the more exciting “hoof ball”.

Thought he was on the right track, we just needed more urgency up front. Robson received criticism for the slow build ups and the fans made it clear he needed to be more direct, so Robson seemed to change her style to being more direct but some of the players weren’t suited to hoof ball so we struggled..Also the entertainment value was low as the players were stuck between styles and didn’t seeem to know what they were doing.

It’s always the difficult balancing act between getting results or providing entertainment.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Let it go mate, old news. Now that wanker Adrian Heath, still not over him.

What was up with him?

 

[Jan Age]

I will never forget the appointment or forgive it. It completely ruined my holiday that year.

 

[LS16Blade]

To be honest I thought the same.

Remember in his early matches we used to dominate midfield but never look like scoring. Some excellent patient possession but hardly any goal mouth action at either end. It was a massive culture shock for msny of our fans who preferred the more exciting “hoof ball”.

Thought he was on the right track, we just needed more urgency up front. Robson received criticism for the slow build ups and the fans made it clear he needed to be more direct, so Robson seemed to change her style to being more direct but some of the players weren’t suited to hoof ball so we struggled..Also the entertainment value was low as the players were stuck between styles and didn’t seeem to know what they were doing.

It’s always the difficult balancing act between getting results or providing entertainment.

Exactly this.

I read an article earlier this season which was written in the context of the legacy that Pulis leaves at clubs where he manages. Essentially, the proposition was that, history shows that it takes the majority of clubs who have had a prolonged period of playing a relatively direct style, a long time to effect a change of culture if they look to introduce a passing/possession style game.

The reason advanced is that managers of that ilk, will build a squad of players with particular characteristics suited to a direct style of play, which, without the benefit of huge finances, it can take a several seasons to overhaul and will lead to a period in the doldrums.

The conclusion was that Pulis and managers like him, could provide short-term fixes but have a limited shelf life at a club (primarily because the fans get bored) and over the long-term, their effect can more often be 'toxic' for the club. WBA and Stoke have arguably seen that. In fact, Stoke have compounded it by having a period of Rowett's style this year. They could well take a while to sort themselves out, albeit they have parachute money to assist for a couple more years.

Robson arguably found himself in such a position in 2007. Some good players, who ostensibly should have been capable of getting us back up, were brought in but it always felt that we still needed '1 or 2 more' to finish the overhaul. Given that we arguably needed 4 players just to replace what Jagielka gave to the squad, that probably isn't surprising.

McCabe showed ambition to a point, but instinctively, he is not an ambitious man and he quickly re-trenched after the initial West Ham-fuelled anger started to abate, and McCabe has seen that signing Beattie has not instantly put us at the top of the league.

Consequently, when Robson stated that he needed a fulcrum to control the midfield in a possession style of play (Ivan Campo), and someone to provide the bullets for the potent array of strikers at our disposal (Giannakopolous), McCabe baulked at further spending. Similarly, when Cahill was available on a permanent transfer for £1.5m, the shutters had come down on further spending. They could have been the signings to make it all click into place but it would have required an investment that was beyond McCabe's comfort zone.

We, therefore, ended up with a squad that, in the crucial midfield area, was still suited to the old style of play notwithstanding the quality added elsewhere. As such, it is no real surprise that Blackwell was able to come in and instantly get a tune out of it and go on a terrific run for the remainder of the season.

 

[bricktop]

I thought when Robson was appointed it was going to be an utter disaster, and during one game quite early on in Robson’s reign I told LS26BLADE that Robson would set us back 10 years, and that is exactly what he did.

I can see the reasoning behind why he was appointed and that was also a crock of shit as well. The board wanted us to raise our profile by signing big name players but that was the wrong way to go at that time, as the big name players we wanted was only here for one last pay check with the exception of the excellent James Beattie.

With the subsequent managerial appointments the only one I disagreed with was Wilson and I was spectacularly wrong about that The rest of the appointments you could see and understand the thinking behind them and they was all what we needed at the time but they all kept on inheriting the failures of other managers.

I felt sorry for Blackwell and Adkins because they both inherited a job lot of dross from the previous incumbents wasting money and didn’t have much room to manoivete. Blackwell steadied the ship for a while but ultimately couldn’t prevent the slide and had gone past his sell by date. Adkins came to a expensively assembled squad where he had very little room to manouvere but to his credit he spent all his money on a certain Billy Sharp.

I had very high hopes for Speed but I felt he was a little out of his depth, and wasn’t too disappointed when he left for Wales as I couldn’t see things improving.

Adams was the right manager to bring in to get back to basics and scrap our way out of relegation but turned out to be at utter disaster

Weir was also not cut out to be a manager and that quickly became apparent but mercifully his reign was cut short before he was allowed to do too much long term damage.

The one who was a huge failure was Clough, you take away the two semi finals which were both good to have and memorable, he presided over one very poor league campaign where he spent a lot of money on assembling a squad that was filled out with journeymen with the odd honourable exception such as Coutts, Basham and Freeman, a lot of the rest weren’t up to scratch and we suffered for it.

I’m just thankful that in the summer of 2016 McCabe and the powers that be went out there and brought in a manager who was moving up in the world, someone who knew what we was about, what we would respond positively to and someone who wouldn’t take any crap from anyone and continually push the side to get better. Little did we know for all the managerial failures that on the 10th go at picking a decent manager to turn it round it would a success so spectacular as the others were all spectacular failures.

 

[Weasel]

Robson was the biggest disaster to happen to this club in recent times.

The squad that came down was strong enough to go back up (and win the Championship). With the right management and a couple of replacements we could have easily gone back to the Premier League the next season. I even go as far as to say the 07-08 squad was stronger than the 06-07 one (although obviously Jags was a huge loss).

Not only that, but if we'd found a manager that could also recognise/bring through young talent, we'd could have had the likes of Walker, Naughton, Maguire, Brooks, Calvert-Lewin, Ramsdale, etc come through the ranks and be pushing to be part of a Premier League squad (and even if we sold them, we'd get a hell of a lot more than we did). Another manager playing different tactics would also recognise Sharp's obvious goal scoring ability when played to his strengths, and we could have had him banging them in for us for the past 12 years.

I honestly believe everything was in place for us to become a sustained fixture of the Premier League. We only had to see it for a few years and keep the core of the team to be in the *huge* money going around now.

The game has change beyond anyone's wildest imaginations in the past 10 years. Robson was a dinosaur even back then, and he (and I would argue Blackwell) set this club back at least 10 years from where we were now. We're just damned lucky we eventually found Wilder!

For sure, there's a lot conjecture and ifs and buts in the post, but if we'd hired the right manager in that year, the sky was (potentially) the limit. But McCabe wanted to rub shoulders with Robson, so here we are.... (after dossing around in League 1 for 6 years).

Robson was boobar - we're still living with and suffering from that decision 12 years later. Everything that happened after that was due to his appointment. I don't like Blackwell, but the one piece of slack I'll give him is that he had to rely on a huge turnover of players and many loans, because the bank had already been pushed out for an instant return under Robson.

Absolutely bang on the money imo. Agree with everything.

 

[JohnDenver]

To be honest I thought the same.

Remember in his early matches we used to dominate midfield but never look like scoring. Some excellent patient possession but hardly any goal mouth action at either end. It was a massive culture shock for msny of our fans who preferred the more exciting “hoof ball”.

Thought he was on the right track, we just needed more urgency up front. Robson received criticism for the slow build ups and the fans made it clear he needed to be more direct, so Robson seemed to change her style to being more direct but some of the players weren’t suited to hoof ball so we struggled..Also the entertainment value was low as the players were stuck between styles and didn’t seeem to know what they were doing.

It’s always the difficult balancing act between getting results or providing entertainment.

Must admit I don’t recall this passing football. I just remember a talented but but disorganised rabble who seemingly cared little about the shirt and had all the pace of a geriatric ward XI.

Robbo would buy expensive players who were on the decline. Stick them in a 442 like Fergie did. Then just expect the magic to happen. The contrast with Wilder and Knill is absolute.

 

[I should coco]

The other scary thing about that list, is that 7 of the 8 were sacked (Speed the exception), meaning we paid off them and their staff. Bear in mind our usual 3 year contracts for managers and factor in how much we paid for their failed signings, its quite unbelivable how much money was wasted over that period on failed appointments

Weers muneh gone?

 

[benn5712]

Robson and Kidd. We only needed Brian Tyldesley for the set.

 

[Gee]

I thought James Beattie was a great signing and him having that dodgy Beattie flew bullshit KM came up with cost us automatic promtion that year.
The only reason we landed him was Robson, just a shame he didnt know how to utilise him properly.
I still thought it was great football to watch though under Robson. More importantly the carpark protests were even better entertainment and they were included in the ticket price. Bonus!!!!!!

 

[Cassius Kray]

We brought in Hugo Egiogue...

Ah yes, the top hat-wearing, mustache-twirling, international man of mystery.

 

[TTMeysh]

I just had a nasty moment watching Sky Sports News when Lee Hendrie's goblin face appeared on the screen, and now this thread. Talk about PTSD.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Was OK with Robson initially - when he called the Derby at H'boro "just another game" - that was it for me.

UTB

 

[SwissBlade]

Thought it was a shocking appointment at the time & history has proven just that!

Adkins?

 

[guancheblade]

But was it all bad?

Suppose beating both West Brom and Citeh on the telly were pretty satisfying.

 

[BritishSteel]

I probably did take it to far to be overreact to be honest. Went and joined ISIS because I was so upset by the whole debacle.

 

[Hamburg Blade]

I probably did take it to far to be overreact to be honest. Went and joined ISIS because I was so upset by the whole debacle.

How did you get back?


Asking for a friend.

 

[BritishSteel]

How did you get back?


Asking for a friend.

Due to drinking as much as Robson was at the time I joined the wrong ISIS.

www.bobdylanisis.com