Question

[Northyorksblade]

I miss decent hardworking players who are managed by someone who knows what they are doing

 

[PeteBlade]

Agree with you, Bergen.

And appointing Nigel Adkins exemplifies that attitude - the ultimate "quick fix for getting out of Division Three" man.

I've no idea where the fallacy of Nigel Adkins being a "quick fix" has come from.

There's absolutely no logic behind it and it makes sense whatsoever.

 

[BushBlade]

It's complicated but there are a number of factors that can be identified:

1. Boom and bust. We came down with a squad of hugely overpaid players that we struggled to get rid of. KM was forced to gamble on us getting back first time round. It cost him a lot of money and when we failed he decided to cut costs drastically. That lead to Wilson failing and getting sacked and Weir being appointed. Then we get the Prince's money and seem to have gambled it all on going up last season. When that failed, we've embarked on another cost cutting exercise.

2. Wrong managerial appointments. Wilson was/is an average manager capable of getting results if he has a good set of players. His limitations were exposed in his second season when he had the difficult job of rebuilding the side on a lower budget. If we'd have got a better manager when we came down he may well have got us up anyway, irrespective of the Evans business.
Weir was just shit and Clough came with a reputation for doing OK on a limited budget (at Derby) which wasn't really the type we needed, we should have gone for someone who'd previously spent his way out of this league quickly, as that seems to have been the brief.
3. Lack of continuity. Each manager is completely different from his predecessor so inherits a side full of players that aren't suitable for what he wants to do.
4. Transfer policy. We rarely pay transfer fees and when we do they're often on the wrong players, e.g Brayford. We sign too many on high wages on free transfers who'll have no resale value and too few players who'd cost money but are likely to have a higher resale value.
5. Wage bill. Unsustainable and it means that any money we make on transfers gets swallowed up in running costs instead of being reinvested in good young players
6. Lack of coherent strategy -see all the points above. In simple terms, there is no one at the club who knows how to run a football club.

All of the above are interconnected and the saddest, most frustrating thing is that we are repeating the mistakes we made in the championship. It's a snowball effect whereby each bad decision leads to more bad decisions and further decline.

We're in a hole and the board are trying to dig their way out of it.

 

[Sirius]

The people at the top haven't got a clue what they're doing, the players are shit, and the manager is clueless. The problem is that there are lots of problems.

Unfortunately the bloke on top of the shit pile may well know what he's doing which makes things much worse.

 

[I should coco]

We're in a hole and the board are trying to dig their way round in circles.

There, fixed that for you.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

In the late 90's, Mike McDonald, the fat fucking spawn of Satan said the reason we had to continually sell our assets and couldn't bring anyone in was because our attendances were too low and if we drew capacity crowds like his beloved Man Citeh, things would be different.

Crowds are much higher now yet the same problem persists.

The fact that we haemorrhage cash on an annual basis at this level is what's even more frustrating. We have been (and presumably still are) paying people wages that are substantially higher than others at this level. With the crowds and revenue we get, a reduced squad intelligently assembled and paid at a League 1 level with a handful of higher wage earners should be at worst moderately losing money. Presumably if you swapped our entire squad for Walsall or Burton's on the same wages they're being paid, we'd actually make a profit. The investment has been crucial in securing us financially, as we weren't in a good place in 2013. But the downside of it has been to pay over the odds for a crushingly average squad of disinterested players.

 

[I should coco]

Presumably if you swapped our entire squad for Walsall or Burton's on the same wages they're being paid, we'd actually make a profit.

AND if we kept a manager for more than 12 months.

Aren't we still paying for Wilson (not sure?). Weir and Clough, all of whom would still be 'in contract' if we hadn't given them the heave ho?

And the idiots still ring up FH and want to know 'where the cup run money went'?