Some slack for Mr Adkins ! !

[finlaytheblade]

All this talk of sack Adkins (Barneys mob ),where are we as a club.
For sure we all thought with Nigels record he would have us in top few going for automatic but reflecting on that we were over confident,as he said when he took the job at that point in time the squad wasn't good enough ( I think most of us would agree with that )we wernt.
He initially brought in 4 thinking I presume!, the additions would bolster the squad sufficiently to bring it up to the required standed. Pre-season went pretty well so confidence was high.Bang brought back down to earth 4 nil loss at gills we seemed to recover well from that and went on a short winning streak, bang it all goes pear shaped in the autumn.
My reaction to that is he got his initial assessment of what we had wrong,the weaknesses we had were still there. Accepting that he had to give all the squad oportunity to show what they could bring to the table,he am sure realised we wernt good enough.His recruitment ime sure ( he would agree ) has been hit or miss and only one player has been a great success (sharp ) Edgar And Hammond do add something but he would ime sure agree they have not been great ( more to come from them 2 I think ), Woolford for an experienced player at this level has been very poor and the least said about Sammon the better,how on earth he's made a
living playing centre forward beats me ( a centre forward who can't head the ball how embarrassing is that!).
His recruitment has been patchy so far but I think his early season opinion on our strengths and weaknesses may have been miss guided by the surge we had after gills defeat ,as the season progressed
the weaknesses became very obvious but really too late to rectify.I think Hammond was brought in as a leader and enforcer, but as he hadn't played any first team football it took him a while to get up to speed
acrewin loads of bookings on the way (he does give it all his got though so I can see why Adkins rates him).
More to come from him ime sure.
Where does that leave us ! he took the 1st third of the season to really assess what we had (maybe he took too long but he did say he would give every player a chance).Shrewsbury was the point when he decided enough is enough and since then he's been thrashing around trying to find the best formula to get the best from what he's got.He's hopefully now hit on the best way forward ( 3at the back ) for the squad as it stands and perhaps a couple of loans will improve it enough to get us over the line. Playing a new way will have its hiccups as it takes time to bed in a shape, Rochdale a classic example played well but on the day
Didn't punish them and we got punished in the end.We havn't been creating much of late so 3 at the back might give us more going forward ( if the last 2 games are anything to go by ) .
.ON the back of all this sack him ! ?.definitely not.
We are obliged to keep only Sharpy and Woolford so Adkins has the option to release the other 3 and if Adkins feels Woolford is not the answer I think he would move on also.
Changing managers has cost us dear as on the back of every change we have got deeper in the shit stretching right back to warnock ,surely by now the lesson has been learned (I think it has ).
We have to stay with Adkins his experience counts for a lot,the youths and 21s are going great guns ,that side of the club is fine.
He has made mistakes he probably would accept that, but all managers do ,its about learning and getting it right in the end.
Get behind Adkins and the team we can do it this season. Are you listening Barney and his mob.☺

 

[Sean Thornton]

Half way through it went for my inhaler.

Back in a bit.

 

[Jon Bon]

Half way through it went for my inhaler.

Back in a bit.

I passed out before the end of the third paragraph. Just coming round in the first aid room now.

 

[west_yorks_blade]

I misread this as

Some slackers for mr Adkins

And assumed he had secured a couple of loanees

 

[Barney]

Can't even be bothered to read it you can tell it's going to be a load of pie in the sky drivel from seeing the name finlay at the side and the way it's written.

 

[DHeppenstall]

Can't even be bothered to read it you can tell it's going to be a load of pie in the sky drivel from a look at the OP and the way it's written.

pot meet kettle

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Jeez, Finley! Let it all out, whydontcha?

Anyway, can't say I agree with: "Accepting that he had to give all the squad opportunity to show what they could bring to the table...".

Indeed, that's mainly where Adkins went wrong to start with IMO - he should have bitten the bullet & got on with the necessary clear-out right away. (What experienced manager goes into a club not knowing anything about the players there?)

But, admittedly, playing the tough guy isn't Adkins' strength. So you can see why he delayed the inevitable - that, & having to build cameraderie, & having his hands tied as regards incomings.

We are where we are though. Adkins knows the club now & he can painlessly release players without creating any excess of bad feeling this summer, replacing them with his own. Question is: will "his own" be small town, low budget Scunthorpe style or big city, well-funded Southampton style?

 

[Pierre's PC]

 

[Ecco1889]

It would be incredible if we could somehow nick a promotion spot,however,it's not gonna happen,and if it did, the euphoria would soon wear off at the thought of Hammond,woolford and sammon in the championship,god help us...

 

[Lane Ender]

I,ll reply in full after tomorrows game.
Could have more ammo to throw at the doubters.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Jeez, Finley! Let it all out, whydontcha?

Anyway, can't say I agree with: "Accepting that he had to give all the squad opportunity to show what they could bring to the table...".

Indeed, that's mainly where Adkins went wrong to start with IMO - he should have bitten the bullet & got on with the necessary clear-out right away. (What experienced manager goes into a club not knowing anything about the players there?)

But, admittedly, playing the tough guy isn't Adkins' strength. So you can see why he delayed the inevitable - that, & having to build cameraderie, & having his hands tied as regards incomings.

We are where we are though. Adkins knows the club now & he can painlessly release players without creating any excess of bad feeling this summer, replacing them with his own. Question is: will "his own" be small town, low budget Scunthorpe style or big city, well-funded Southampton style?

You hit on hit on his style there blade 14,and he would have told the owners the way he works at the beginning.
Giving everybody an oportunity was always going to delay what we all want, a successful team.He's stuck to his principles and I admire him for that. No way will the. board sack him at this time ,he ime sure will be here next season so why not get behind him and the team.

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

You hit on hit on his style there blade 14,and he would have told the owners the way he works at the beginning.
Giving everybody an oportunity was always going to delay what we all want, a successful team.He's stuck to his principles and I admire him for that. No way will the. board sack him at this time ,he ime sure will be here next season so why not get behind him and the team.

Yeah, as you say, each manager has their own style - Adkins' own style is conciliatory rather than confrontational. Which should work a lot better with his own hand-picked players around him, all of them pulling in the same direction.

Shame we've wasted an entire season but, maybe, in hindsight, it was unavoidable, especially with Adkins & his particular managerial style.

We need some momentum going into next season though, & for some of the green shoots that have emerged over recent weeks to gather strength & grow.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Half way through it went for my inhaler.

Back in a bit.

I passed out before the end of the third paragraph. Just coming round in the first aid room now.

You both missed the full stops and commas, of which there were sufficient?

 

[Toledo Blade]

All this talk of sack Adkins (Barneys mob ),where are we as a club.
For sure we all thought with Nigels record he would have us in top few going for automatic but reflecting on that we were over confident,as he said when he took the job at that point in time the squad wasn't good enough ( I think most of us would agree with that )we wernt.
He initially brought in 4 thinking I presume!, the additions would bolster the squad sufficiently to bring it up to the required standed. Pre-season went pretty well so confidence was high.Bang brought back down to earth 4 nil loss at gills we seemed to recover well from that and went on a short winning streak, bang it all goes pear shaped in the autumn.
My reaction to that is he got his initial assessment of what we had wrong,the weaknesses we had were still there. Accepting that he had to give all the squad oportunity to show what they could bring to the table,he am sure realised we wernt good enough.His recruitment ime sure ( he would agree ) has been hit or miss and only one player has been a great success (sharp ) Edgar And Hammond do add something but he would ime sure agree they have not been great ( more to come from them 2 I think ), Woolford for an experienced player at this level has been very poor and the least said about Sammon the better,how on earth he's made a
living playing centre forward beats me ( a centre forward who can't head the ball how embarrassing is that!).
His recruitment has been patchy so far but I think his early season opinion on our strengths and weaknesses may have been miss guided by the surge we had after gills defeat ,as the season progressed
the weaknesses became very obvious but really too late to rectify.I think Hammond was brought in as a leader and enforcer, but as he hadn't played any first team football it took him a while to get up to speed
acrewin loads of bookings on the way (he does give it all his got though so I can see why Adkins rates him).
More to come from him ime sure.
Where does that leave us ! he took the 1st third of the season to really assess what we had (maybe he took too long but he did say he would give every player a chance).Shrewsbury was the point when he decided enough is enough and since then he's been thrashing around trying to find the best formula to get the best from what he's got.He's hopefully now hit on the best way forward ( 3at the back ) for the squad as it stands and perhaps a couple of loans will improve it enough to get us over the line. Playing a new way will have its hiccups as it takes time to bed in a shape, Rochdale a classic example played well but on the day
Didn't punish them and we got punished in the end.We havn't been creating much of late so 3 at the back might give us more going forward ( if the last 2 games are anything to go by ) .
.ON the back of all this sack him ! ?.definitely not.
We are obliged to keep only Sharpy and Woolford so Adkins has the option to release the other 3 and if Adkins feels Woolford is not the answer I think he would move on also.
Changing managers has cost us dear as on the back of every change we have got deeper in the shit stretching right back to warnock ,surely by now the lesson has been learned (I think it has ).
We have to stay with Adkins his experience counts for a lot,the youths and 21s are going great guns ,that side of the club is fine.
He has made mistakes he probably would accept that, but all managers do ,its about learning and getting it right in the end.
Get behind Adkins and the team we can do it this season. Are you listening Barney and his mob.☺

The buck has to stop with Adkins, but the club still needs to back him. Only 8 months in the role now and he has been able to sign a few players, and let’s be honest they have been very poor, so our current plight is at the very least partially his fault.
You cannot wholly absolve him of responsibility the buck has to stop with him. His aim is to pick up the team and get them motivated. I must say Adkins talks a good game in his interviews, but this is not transferred onto the field.

The majority of the squad is not made up of his own players at the moment he is simply doing what he can with what he has. I know as fans we want promotion, or even having the team playing with some attacking flare, but we also want to see players play with passion, commitment, and with a work rate that never stops, we are getting none of that and Adkins must take the blame for not motivating the players and not getting them to play as a unit and winning football games.

I hope Adkins can create something with what he has, but so far it’s not looking positive, which is such a shame for all us Blades fans as we expected much more from him.

 

[Sean Thornton]

You both missed the full stops and commas, of which there were sufficient?

Was a sufficiency ?

 

[zablade]

I thought this was an OP by Barney until I spotted the L in there.

 

[Jon Bon]

You both missed the full stops and commas, of which there were sufficient?

I'm just a poor old man. My legs are grey, my ears are gnarled, my eyes are old and bent.

 

[HoodedClaw]

The majority of the squad is not made up of his own players at the moment he is simply doing what he can with what he has. I know as fans we want promotion, or even having the team playing with some attacking flare, but we also want to see players play with passion, commitment, and with a work rate that never stops, we are getting none of that and Adkins must take the blame for not motivating the players and not getting them to play as a unit and winning football games.

I wonder how much of an effect it's having with lots of players at the end of their contracts with, hopefully, little chance of getting extensions?

 

[robbiez666]

We don't need more slack, we already have Baxter.

 

[Gordon cowans]

He will get my complete backing,but would i accept his resignation & let sumone else take the seat..............absolutely

 

[finlaytheblade]

You both missed the full stops and commas, of which there were sufficient?

Cheers shoreham

 

[CarlMcBlade]

It's alright cutting him some slack. But Mr Adkins is a very lucky man, lucky in the fact his employers don't come to watch this fucking garbage week in week out. . . . . If they did he'd have already been dispatched by now.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Tony Stewart over at Toytown United would have fucked Adkins right off.

 

[Cyprus Blade]

If what I have read elsewhere on here is correct - namely that Clough wanted 7 new signings and that was why he went - I do have some sympathy for Adkins insofar as the squad he inherited (minus HM, Coady and Murphy) was poor and uncompetitive and those thinking Clough would have us in the automatics with those players are deluding themselves. Coupled with this I think Clough is probably culpable for landing us with Sammon rather than Adkins if you look at the timings.

A couple of cup runs seem to have stuck in people's memories far more than the imbalanced and run of the mill squad, drab, negative and boring football, defeats by teams we should have thrashed given their league position - with a result that Clough seems to be getting away with a lot of the responsibility for the mess that is Sheffield United. Typical Clough - he never accepted responsibility for anything bad when he was at the club. If I was able to be there tomorrow I certainly would not applaud him. Nor would I boo for that matter. I am just glad that he and his brother have gone and he can do no further long term harm to the club I love.

I do think Adkins took too long to sift through the players, but then again he commented on a general lack of fitness and high injury count right at the beginning and it took some while to get to see everyone for those reasons. I also think he was told from the off that there were limited funds available until the squad was brought down to size - again thanks to Clough. It also think it seems quite clear that there were changing room cultures, divisions and issues that arose during the Clough era to resolve. I think this may explain Hammond coming and some of the departures.

Don't get me wrong, the current state of affairs is unacceptable and needs to improve. Adkins has made mistakes, but to expect him to wave a magic wand to change what has developed over the last few years is, in my view, asking a bit much. I bet he wishes he had never taken this job on as it has turned into a ruddy minefield.

I hope desperately hope we avoid humiliation by JFH's Burton tomorrow as I wouldn't want to give Clough OBE (Other Bugger's Efforts) the satisfaction.

UTB

 

[CarlMcBlade]

I'm not deluded. It also takes a good manager not to tinker with a winning team as well. Clough will be preparing for the Championship this summer, while Adkins will mowing his lawn every other day.

 

[PeteBlade]

Tony Stewart over at Toytown United would have fucked Adkins right off.

What the shiny shit has that got to do with anything?

We aspiring to be Rotherham
Shitting United now are we?

 

[CarlMcBlade]

He is an example of a chairman who watches his fuckin team. Thus getting a feeling of what the fans want to watch.

 

[PeteBlade]

He is an example of a chairman who watches his fuckin team. Thus getting a feeling of what the fans want to watch.

Vast majority of fans wouldn't be all that bothered as long as it was winning football they were watching.

You think that they'll play champagne football under Warnock?

 

[breeny]

Ok, I'll cut him slack if he comes out and is honest as possible with players who are not in his plans. Tell us who is out and tell us how he's going to help those who are staying. He, and the board, need to adjust expectations for this season and the next, and if he sees youth players stepping up then he needs to say. Finally, he needs to let us in on a realistic transfer policy before all of our summer targets end up at Barca.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Missing the point pal. Nowt to do with Rovrum just pointing out that it would be nice to have an hands on Chairman who sits watches games . . Just like us and holds Adkins to account for some of these abject performances.