Lets Be Honest Terrible Season No Excuses

[1danewhitehouse]

And also the other old chestnut: ALL the fault lies at boardroom level (& with Clough) - Adkins gets a free pass because who on earth could deal with a situation like this?

(Meanwhile, Barnsley - in crisis just a few months ago - sit in 6th place, as Gillingham crumble, & previously shit Scunny offer the only challenge to the Dingles nabbing that last play-off spot).

Even if there is no alternative to Adkins (a depressing thought, but what is the realistic alternative?), he's been a dreadful let-down so far.

Even the green shoots of recovery are choked off when a bit of pressure arrives on the scene. Pressure makes cubic zirconium...

I wouldn’t say he gets a free pass, just that he should be given time to do the job properly and there should be some acknowledgment of the mitigating circumstances he’s worked under compared to Clough last season who had so much more room for manoeuvre in the market.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Let's allow him to carry on taking things backwards "because we've sacked too many managers".

Reduced the wage bill

Accrued a similar number of points to last season.

Generated around £1million (net) in transfer fees.

Only brought in 2 permanent signings (so no legacy of lumbering anyone with a massive squad).



Oh yeah, he’s dragging us back massively.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

If the club is fucking stupid enough to get rid of Adkins (and they are), then I'll just spend the whole of next season trashing the new bloke at every given opportunity on here.

Boy that'll be annoying.....

No doubt everyone else will be doing it within a few months too as the new bloke struggles to cope with the restrictions imposed on him. It’s the cool thing to do don’t you know.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Oh, I agree it's been shit.

I'm just saying Adkins doesn't really deserve the loyalty he's been shown, in the sense of absolving him from all responsibility for our historic underachievement this season.

For all the "sacking club" nonsense that's peddled about us, we seem pretty adept at allowing managers to stumble into underwhelming second seasons (Wilson, Clough...). If Adkins's second season is underwhelming then we truly are headed down the shitter.

But, admittedly, performances have been much improved recently and we do have the makings of a 40-goal partnership up top for next season. So it's not all doom & gloom, despite today's no-show. In hope rather than expectation, I'm imagining some dramatic leap forward next season. It's all down to Adkins's recruitment & McCabe not flogging off what remains of the family silver. Fingers firmly crossed.

Re Wilson having an underwhelming 2nd season. The loss of

Evans

Quinn

Williamson

Lowton

LJF


Made that 2nd season extremely difficult for him. He found an absolute bargain in Blackman but McCabe intervened again a few months later with another sale. He also signed Murphy who turned out to be an excellent buy though he didn’t produce his best form under Wilson.


I think Wilson did well to keep us up there in a sense. In another sense, the league that year was as bad, if not worse than this year so we kind of stayed in contention almost by default. I think rather than managers ballsing up the best opportunities to get up it’s been a case of timing our investment such that the best opportunities have coincided with the strictest austerity.



But I think any manager shedding players left right and centre whilst being given very little back to reinvest in the squad deserves some understanding, sympathy and loyalty. Binning them off whilst continuing with those actions above them very rarely brings any improvement.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Aw c'mon alco.

We could have a FRESH START. Bring in some NEW TALENT, and all that.

It's the Blades Way. If the team has been stripped of it's footballing ability by shitty transfers out, recruits duds and bobbins replacements for nowt and the team fucks up the season, sack the fucking manager. Okay, he's not exactly Mourinho, but even lil ol' cynical me has faith in this bloke. I have no faith in the board, mind.

I think we should sack the pitch instead.

pommpey

I agree with quite a lot of the stuff you put on here pommpey and agree with the overall sentiment of this post. However, I note that you seem to have an unhealthy fixation on the pitch.


The rules only allow us to spend 65% of turnover on the football budget so I don’t see why spending the rest on upgrading the playing surface is such an issue?

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I don't buy the cough left us awful players line. That squad should have been strong enough to get out of this Sunday league. He has to go for me. To not make the top 6 is a joke of the wankiest order.

On what evidence should it have been good enough? It was good enough to scrape a playoff place last season and lose to an average Swindon team. If you take the best player out then why is it suddenly good enough?


Alcock, Higdon, JCR, j. Wallace, Freeman, McNulty, Dimaio, Harris etc. have been moved on and look where they are playing. They’re either in relegation dogfights in this league or playing at a lower level. Yet many say they’re good enough to be in our team. That tells you all you need to know about the quality of the squad inherited.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Oh aye, not saying it's been an easy ride for Adkins, nor that the board haven't done similar to what they did after Nobson's spendathon & imposed relative austerity.

More that Adkins has been nothing like decisive enough in clearing out the deadwood & in implementing his ethos, & that his use of his limited budget has been uninspiring & inflexible (as well as unsuccessful, e.g. in the case of Dan Burn).

You're left wondering, at times, whether the task is just too much for a clearly decent guy like Adkins, who expects everyone to share his sunny outlook on life, but who's found himself in a bit of a warzone at the Lane. Then, on the other hand, when you see what's happened over recent weeks with his chiselled down squad, you think maybe he is on the right lines (belatedly).

Just saying really that he shares responsibility (with the board, not Clough) for another disastrous season. With his previous record of instant success down in these depths, he should have performed much better than he has done.

So you’re saying none of the responsibility lays with Clough? He assembled the majority of the squad. He signed players like Wallace, Freeman, McNulty, JCR, Scougall, Higdon, Alcock etc. whom Adkins has since managed to ship out as they drop down the table. Surely their presence on the wage bill has hindered Adkins this season and they have proved by the fact that they are bit part players at clubs further down the pyramid that they were not good enough to take this league by the scruff of the neck. Adkins hasn’t been faultless. Woolford and Sammon have been poor signings whilst Hammond and to some extent Edgar have divided opinion with Sharp and Baptiste being considered very good signings. That’s a very even mix in terms of transfer fee success. But if we didn’t have the forced sale of Murphy to contend with, we could safely say that the ins were on the whole, far better than the outs.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

i would keep Adkins ahem.. i'll change my mind in five minutes for one simple reason
i do NOT want a new manager to come in and give any of these wasters ANOTHER NEW clean slate.. so they can waste another year proving how crap they are. He'd better get rid of the crap though. SOON.

To be fair to the bloke he’s already got rid of a pretty big chunk of the crap either on loan or permanent. I think he’ll be suckered into giving Flynn and McEveley new deals but overall, the outs should provide some room to bring some better players in.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

What makes it so hard to swallow is this was without a doubt the most shite set of clubs ever in L1 and it was there for the taking. With the money support, managers and players at our disposal how the hell did we r**k up AGAIN.

To be beaten by Rochdale, Bury, Fleetwood, Gillingham, Colchester, Crewe, Southend, port Vale et al in one season is undefenceable.

So tired, be glad when this season is history and I'm not looking forward to another season of embarrassments.

We weren’t beaten by Fleetwood this season (unless you count the JPT shoot-out where we fielded a weakened team).

 

[1danewhitehouse]

He won't, he will keep Hammond and Woolford and McCevely as captain for starters and probabley sign Sammon.

He’s openly said things haven’t worked out for Sammon here and barely played him lately but let’s not let that get in the way of making things up that he’ll ‘probably’ do to have a go at the bloke.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Agree with the OP. I have serious doubts with where the team/squad is going under Adkins. The quality we had in the squad at the start of the season has slowly been squeezed out and replaced with Adkins dross. When it was obvious we were getting nowhere yesterday I thought come on Adkins get this changed, then I saw the bench and there was next to nothing to bring on to change the game. Bringing on Woolford and Sammon said it all.

Thanks to Adkins all the better players, many of who were instrumental in beating numerous Prem teams in the last couple of years, have either been loaned out or are out of the first team picture - Scougal (out on loan), McNulty (out on loan), JCR (out on loan), Reed (played well in his last run in the team, but now stuck in the reserves), DdG (scoring for fun in the reserves but yet not even getting a sniff near the first team). Any of these would have been better options than Sammon and Woolford. Add the absent Brayford (ok injured but his form under Adkins has been poor and he is a lot better player than he is showing under the current manager) and Baxter (not directly Adkins fault for his absence but the player hasn't being managed well by the posh scouser) and quality is going out of the window under Adkins.

Those type of players were never the problem at the Lane, it should have been about getting solid players down the spine of the team and that problem still exists, as it has for the last 2 seasons. He finished the game with Basham on the right, Woolford on the left, Sammon up top and a midfield three of Coutts, Cuvelier and Flynn, the bloke just hasn't got a clue about putting out a balanced, effective team.

I would say another season of Adkins could see us relegated but it won't come to that as he'd get sacked first, however it would mean another wasted season in this division. My feeling is cut our losses with this guy, it simply isn't working between SUFC and Adkins and make sure we get the right manager next time, for me that would be Wilder or Warnock.

Quality been squeezed out? That’s funny. Players who had the odd decent game in the cup but repeatedly let us down in the league due to their poor attitudes and are now all plying their trade further down the pyramid (well, those that can get a game). The only quality was Murphy and he was sold against Adkins’ wishes. Sharp and Baptiste have more quality in their little toes than McNulty, Scougall, Collins etc. have in their entire bodies.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

. Hopefully we'll see a huge improvement this summer. There will be no excuses when the next season kicks off.

Agree. I’ve been saying for ages let’s judge him after he’s had a summer to shift the out of contract players and bring in his own. Then he can be fairly judged.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

And it's going to have to be done with no money... Unless we sell first. Which is why I think most of them are going to be retained.

This is an issue. We don’t seem to be splashing the cash anymore do we? But then neither do a lot of league 1 clubs. Adkins will have to wheel and deal like the other managers in the league (bar the odd exception like Wigan, Wolves etc.). He’s not a million miles away now with how the team are playing but we still need to improve in certain areas.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Biggest issue that I can see, your Lordship, is the fact that I just don't see us having the money to do what needs doing. Yesterday, I could have counted on one hand the players I would keep next season, if we had the choice. The problem is, I don't think we have that choice.

We have some choice. OK, we might keep McEveley and Flynn (and possibly McGahey) on reduced terms due to their versatility and our thrift. But JCR, Flo, Howard, Kennedy, Harris, Wallace, McFadzean and Sammon will surely be gone.


We’ll then see if we can set up permanent deals for Freeman, Scougall and McNulty.


We’ll probably be stuck with Woolford and Coutts for another year unless someone comes in for them (Clough for Coutts?). Adkins takes the blame for Woolford.


We’ll probably sign up Hammond and Edgar. I don’t think we’ll be able to get Baptiste.


If we’re operating on anything like the same scale in terms of wage budget next season, the 8-11 outgoings should easily create space for 3-4 incomings of better quality. But it’s a big if. Adkins may be told to make do and use the kids instead.

 

[Grappler]

We have some choice. OK, we might keep McEveley and Flynn (and possibly McGahey) on reduced terms due to their versatility and our thrift. But JCR, Flo, Howard, Kennedy, Harris, Wallace, McFadzean and Sammon will surely be gone.


We’ll then see if we can set up permanent deals for Freeman, Scougall and McNulty.


We’ll probably be stuck with Woolford and Coutts for another year unless someone comes in for them (Clough for Coutts?). Adkins takes the blame for Woolford.


We’ll probably sign up Hammond and Edgar. I don’t think we’ll be able to get Baptiste.


If we’re operating on anything like the same scale in terms of wage budget next season, the 8-11 outgoings should easily create space for 3-4 incomings of better quality. But it’s a big if. Adkins may be told to make do and use the kids instead.

"...Adkins may be told to make do and use the kids instead..."

That might be the most likely thing

 

[Barney]

Reduced the wage bill

Accrued a similar number of points to last season.

Generated around £1million (net) in transfer fees.

Only brought in 2 permanent signings (so no legacy of lumbering anyone with a massive squad).



Oh yeah, he’s dragging us back massively.

Erm, 5th --> 9th.

Last time I checked, this is going backwards.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Erm, 5th --> 9th.

Last time I checked, this is going backwards.

Still every chance of accruing more points than last season. The manager doesn't control the points spread across the league. Either way, the overall level of performance has been pretty much the same. When you consider the steps forward off the pitch (getting the squad size down, getting kids involved, generating fees etc.) we are in better shape than that Clough left us in at the end of last season.