Adkins out

[Poole Blade]

You are taking the piss, yes?

If I was taking the piss I would have suggested Darren Ferguson

 

[Treeton Blade]

I think he had the rug pulled on him around November time. Hence the lack of signings in the JTW.

It explains why Adkins was desperately trying to get players out on loan or permanently just to hopefully free up some money. He did manage to do that but only to enable the loan of Baptiste.

Bit of a shambles behind the scenes I`m afraid

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Nige says he'll bring back the glory days. . . . . . . Patronising cunt!

 

[BushBlade]

I'd suggest the second of your two positive reasons for keeping him could be interpreted as a negative. All managers work within parameters & Adkins will have (presumably strict) parameters limiting him next season the same way that he has had this season. It's more of an excuse for his failings rather than an endorsement of his capabilities.

The first - his previous record - is, I admit, a compelling reason for many as to why we should stick rather than twist. As you say though, arguable. He was able to bring his vaunted positivity to bear in both situations in a way in which he hasn't been able to (&, I'd argue, won't be able to in future) here. Can't argue with his impressive previous record, just that it seems very much a case of "past glories" after what we've had to endure this season.

The basic problem with Adkins is that he wasn't part of any long-term plan - just the most recent & most blatant example of the quick fix mentality which dominates the club (fans as much as board).

True, he was a panic appointment after we sacked Clough. I've been surprised at how different he is to Clough in both personality and his approach to football and management. He's pretty much the polar opposite (viewed from a distance).
I'm a big believer in continuity; last week on another thread I commented that Warnock was probably the perfect manager for a team assembled by Evans, similar personalities, similar approach to the game.

We don't do this, we just stumble from manager to manager, each completely different from the last, each with a different approach to how to win games and what they want from their players. We give players three year contracts but only keep managers for half that time.

The board seem to have little understanding of how to analyse what is needed at any point in time; where we are as a club and what kind of manager we require. Is it someone who has a track record of building sides from scratch, someone with a proven record of taking over underachieving clubs and turning them round quickly etc? We just seem to have a very facile approach to recruitment

 

[BeatleBlade]

Who's actually going to want to come here if we sack Adkins? The board won't put any money in, will expect automatic promotion with a squad of average players and some who don't want to play for us. Also, you've got to deliver it one year or you're out!
Sure, we'll get in someone who just wants to be paid off but what sane person would join us? The more I hear about it the more surprised I am Adkins took the job really.

 

[zablade]

Oh dear

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Who's actually going to want to come here if we sack Adkins? The board won't put any money in, will expect automatic promotion with a squad of average players and some who don't want to play for us. Also, you've got to deliver it one year or you're out!
Sure, we'll get in someone who just wants to be paid off but what sane person would join us? The more I hear about it the more surprised I am Adkins took the job really.

Won't someone always be willing to come, sign a contract, fail, get sacked, and pocket the compensation.

Isn't this what happens - though on a totally different scale - at places like Real Madrid and Chelsea.

 

[Grappler]

My worry was the way he chased Dean Hammond, continually, who has not turned out to be a great midfielder, but maybe he was brought in for another reason? To bring stability to the dressing room?

I am not a fan of sacking managers every season though.

 

[BeatleBlade]

Won't someone always be willing to come, sign a contract, fail, get sacked, and pocket the compensation.

Isn't this what happens - though on a totally different scale - at places like Real Madrid and Chelsea.

Yeah but we don't want someone in who doesn't give a toss about getting fired or not. We've got players who don't care every week because their contracts run out so we don't need a manager who does that too.

 

[United Aren't Back.]

Interestingly this seems to be the first real 'Adkins out' thread.

I don't think Adkins realizes how patient the fans have been, even now, And I think a large majority would keep him for next season.

I agree with much of your sentiment in terms of his strange decisions, together with this being our worst season in 35 years. At this point his position is untenable.

However, I'm worried as to who would be the next boss if he is sacked.

The only replacement I can think of is Wilder. Maybe Appleton at Oxford, the fella at Rochdale, Chris Morgan??!!

As an example of how hard it is to think of the right fit for us, think of Steve Cotterill. He stormed the league last year with Bristol City (I can't remember if they threw money at it or not) and also won the Paint Pot trophy. He has very recent success at this level and Bristol City played good stuff. However, there is no way I would think Coterill would be a success here. I think he would be too soft, indecisive and just crumble under the pressure. Would be interesting to see what other fans thought.

So where do we turn. It's open for debate, but we currently have one of our worst managers in the last 35 years if you take into account relative budget, how we've gone backwards since last season, he's been here all season after a full pre-season etc....

but where are the decent suggestions for an alternative?

It's a sad state of affairs.

I think we'll start August with Adkins in charge, I think McCabe looks back and realizes it was a mistake to sack Warnock, Blackwell, Wilson and Clough at the times he sacked them, and will keep Adkins in hope he can turn it around.

Cotterill too soft. On what do you base that?
No discipline at all under Adkins, and a useless team made worse by our bumbling idiot with his positive wankspeak after each game.

 

[Coily]

Oh Nigel...

 

[yorkshirecoast]

Oh Nigel...

It's the fans' fault.

Seriously, he's taking the piss.

 

[Grappler]

We all talk about a big pay off, for NA and his staff, if they get the boot in Summer. However, I wonder if McCabe and co put any clause in place saying that a certain table position was required by the end of the season or it was curtains, no pay off?

Only say that because a few times, Phipps said something like "Nigel knows what is required, promotion, nothing less", and I am sure NA said that himself.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

sacking manager after manager has been the single factor in our inability to go up.

Every year we fail, we sack whichever poor bastard has the job and roll the dice again. Manager No. 284648 comes in and has to deal with a mish mash of players bought in under the reigns of the previous three, none of which form a team but rather a collective of individuals because they've been bought in by various different blokes to fit with whatever the previous blokes were in the process of building before the rug was pulled with 30% of the job done. He has to rebuild, isn't given the time, gets sacked and we're back at square one again.

We now have a watershed moment whereby we can have a clear out, allow the bloke we've currently got to actually have a stab at doing it his way without the shackles of contracted players he doesn't want or need but has to crowbar in because nothing else is available or affordable due to the aforementioned unwanted players chewing up the playing budget.

This season has been wank. There is no sugar coating that and Adkins has to shoulder the blame for that. Some of his signings have been poor but I don't blame him for turning to his old pals when he's surrounded by inexperience, inability or, if rumours are believed, disruptive attitudes splitting the camp. Hammond, Woolford et al are sticking plasters to stem the bleeding before the summer surgery.

Can we please, just for once, let a manager have a bit of time to have a proper go, his way, with a team full of his players, before we decide he's been a failure? Or do we just keep going around the same circles that have failed for the past half decade?

If your answer to that is 'no' ask yourself if we'd have been better of sticking with Clough, or Wilson before him? Perhaps the only one we were correct to sack, with hindsight, was Wier. Sacking hasn't worked before, and it won't work now.

 

[Bladesince59]

Warnock wouldn't crumble. Get him in

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

We all talk about a big pay off, for NA and his staff, if they get the boot in Summer. However, I wonder if McCabe and co put any clause in place saying that a certain table position was required by the end of the season or it was curtains, no pay off?

Only say that because a few times, Phipps said something like "Nigel knows what is required, promotion, nothing less", and I am sure NA said that himself.

This is motivational stuff from all parties.

Adkins always had to balance short term promotion with long term development.

In the end promotion proved to be well out of reach.

There's every indication that the Board think they have found their man and they will stick with him long term.

 

[west_yorks_blade]

Adkins came in with the specific remit to get us up this season. I remember him being quite clear about this when he first arrived and the board were clear that this was their expectation too.

He has failed to do this and should go. He has failed his fundamental objective.

Of course he won't fall on his sword and miss out on a large wedge of compensation, so he is bound to blather on with optimistic nonsense until McCabe pulls the trigger.

He may not have had the financial backing that he / we expected, but he has brought in some right poor players. He has also managed to make existing players worse. We have demonstrably gone backwards during his tenure.

A very sad state of affairs to us all, to have to contemplate this as another season bites the dust. But I don't think he should stay. He doesn't deserve to.

 

[PeteBlade]

Cotterill too soft. On what do you base that?
No discipline at all under Adkins,

On what do you base that?

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Oh Nigel...

Adkins had no reason to send that on Twitter and mention it in the media . If we finish up with a heavy defeat on Saturday It will just back fire on him. Sometimes it is better to keep schum and use common sense when the odds are not in your favour , as it only comes back to bite you in the arse . All for being positive but sometimes it can be mistaken and read as bring deluded .

Hope we get a result or we may see the inevitable of the beginning of the end . This bloke either has a death wish or there is method in his madness ( compo ) or McCabe and Adkins are on the same wave length.
UTB

 

[jt64]

sacking manager after manager has been the single factor in our inability to go up.

Sacking manager after manager in the absence of an underlying plan from higher up is the problem. We should be able to sack Adkins and have someone come in who will operate under a similar set of goals/philosophies/budgets etc, so that we don't get into the situation where the new guy is ripping everything up to build "his" team

 

[PeteBlade]

Some brilliant comments on here.

Sack Adkins and worry about who we bring in later

Wilder knows the league inside out because he's in the league below so he'll have done research on league one

We bought an expensive left back so we have enough money to sack another manager

Absolutely priceless!

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Adkins had no reason to send that on Twitter and mention it in the media . If we finish up with a heavy defeat on Saturday It will just back fire on him. Sometimes it is better to keep schum and use common sense when the odds are not in your favour , as it only comes back to bite you in the arse . All for being positive but sometimes it can be mistaken and read as bring deluded .

Hope we get a result or we may see the inevitable of the beginning of the end . This bloke either has a death wish or there is method in his madness ( compo ) or McCabe and Adkins are on the same wave length.
UTB

Trying to lift the crowd and the players.

I don't believe for a minute we've got a chance but I appreciate his efforts.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Adkins had no reason to send that on Twitter and mention it in the media . If we finish up with a heavy defeat on Saturday It will just back fire on him. Sometimes it is better to keep schum and use common sense when the odds are not in your favour , as it only comes back to bite you in the arse . All for being positive but sometimes it can be mistaken and read as bring deluded .

Hope we get a result or we may see the inevitable of the beginning of the end . This bloke either has a death wish or there is method in his madness ( compo ) or McCabe and Adkins are on the same wave length.
UTB

It's not his job to provide dispassionate analysis, he's trying to rally the troops on and off the pitch.

More power to his elbow.

 

[Champagneblade]

sacking manager after manager has been the single factor in our inability to go up.

No it hasn't. Hiring crap managers has been the single most significant factor:

Speed - appointed with no experience whatsoever to manage a Championship club.

Adams - out of his depth two levels above where he was doing ok. We actually overlooked Eddie Howe to give it to him!

Wilson - fresh off the back of guiding Swindon to relegation from the league we'd just been relegated to. Had 3 chances to build an Evans contingency and chose a crock (Hoskins), a spent force (Beattie) and an untried youth (O'Halloran)

Clough - in order to secure promotion hired a bloke who had never managed a league promotion at all. He might just manage it on JFH's coat tails.

Adkins - about the only one that made some sense. Been promoted before from this division more than once. We can't have studied his time at Reading much to have realised what a spent force he is.

It's making poor recruitment decisions which costs us not the realisation when disappointing results transpire and we eventually acknowledged we got the wrong guy.

 

[yorkshirecoast]

It's not his job to provide dispassionate analysis, he's trying to rally the troops on and off the pitch.

More power to his elbow.

He's not making a very good job of it. I've never known such an unmotivated team or pissed off set of supporters.

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

It's not his job to provide dispassionate analysis, he's trying to rally the troops on and off the pitch.

More power to his elbow.

Agree to some extent but wouldn't it be a bonus and help us all if the odds were with us to win . Bet Adkins wouldn't put a months salary on a bet to win . No didn't think he would.

Power to his elbow for not losing his money and being sensible.

UTB.

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Trying to lift the crowd and the players.

I don't believe for a minute we've got a chance but I appreciate his efforts.

My view and it's only a view , it has the opposite effect . Fans feel he is deluded ( although not all want him sacked )

If we lose it just back fires on him.

Also if rallying the troops includes the players . Will they listen or believe him , they haven't in the past taking previos results and performances into account .

 

[Blade82]

I'd trust this spam fritter I've just bought from the chippy to make better footballing decisions than McCabe. Until he goes it doesn't matter who the manager is.

 

[Jostein's Bandage]

Fucking suicide. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read on a football forum. And I came here from BladesMad.

If you called me stupid in person, you'd be scraping your fucking teeth off the floor. But obviously you wouldn't do that, being an internet pussy. The board are responsible for hiring a new manager, unless you work for the board you are talking like a fucking prick. How am i supposed to know who the next manager should be? Unlike pricks like you i don't think i know everything. I'm not paid to know who the next manager should be, if i was then i would fucking know. 90% of the time clubs fire a manager, they don't know who the next one will be. THAT IS WHY THEY HOLD INTERVIEWS. Not a hard concept to grasp surely?

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Cotterill too soft. On what do you base that?
No discipline at all under Adkins, and a useless team made worse by our bumbling idiot with his positive wankspeak after each game.

You are joking . Cotterill is only good for getting a team out of league 1 and would do a good job at it. We need a manager who can get us out of league 1 into the premiership.

More like a sketch from Monty Python down at the Lane these days . Which one , take your pick.

Parrot - Nigel

What the Romans did for us - Nigel

UTB