How long do we give him?

Surely it will appear harder for any team that contrives to lose to bottom side Rotherham!

 

So how long do we give him then?

 

Until the end of the season fail to finish top 6 then goodbye.
Lose in the play offs or promotion give him another season.

 

Ah right, at least we can employ Paul Jewell in the summer!

 

I'm quietly confident that we will sign Jurgen Klinsmann.

 

We've already given him far too long. So in answer to the question minus 4 & half months.

 

I think I said -6 months, about a month ago on this thread!

 

I'll split the difference minus 5 & 3 quarter months.

 

Sign him up Delia - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38939432!!!!!!

 

So fantasy forum does football manager apprentice simulation - 'you're fired' (except that he isn't because it's only a fantasy). Sad really, as is so often the case when fantasists realise that reality is something quite different to what they imagine.

 

The cold reality of football management is judged by results.
Are you implying that as fans we don't get to discuss Alex Neil's performance as our manager?
After 86 pages you have decided that this is a non topic ?
At the moment Rick the uber loyal Alex Neil fan club that still think we will get promoted are the fantasists.
Sad that you think 1 away win since October is acceptable for a relegated Premier league club with highly paid expensive players.
Sad that Wigan bought an entire side with the exorbitant price we paid for their Dutch winger and we still failed to win away.

 

If you want to talk about reality, DD the reality is that AN is going to be our manager for the rest of the season. I had my doubts about him and the players when we hit that bad run of results. What irritates me now is that being 'judged by results' is entirely selective. You and others ignore the early season run that took us to the top of the table as well as our record over the last 7 matches where we've won 4, drawn 2 and lost 1 after a red card in the first half. Your discussion of AN is similarly selective, focusing on the loss to Rotherham and ignoring the 4 wins when you go on to talk about the Wigan result. I'm happy to talk about all aspects of AN, good and bad, but you and others seem to only want to talk about the negative. That gets irritating.

 

I answered the question from the OP "How long do we give him".
I too believe he will be our manager until the end of the season but if we FAIL to reach the play offs then as a manager he has FAILED to get the best out of this group of players and FAILED to recruit the sort of players that will strengthen our squad.
If we finish in the play offs regardless of if we go up then he has SUCCEEDED in proving that he has potential to do it again next year.
I'm sorry that you find criticism of a highly paid football manager irritating but maybe you should avoid this particular thread because it's pretty apparent that the OP and many supporters have become increasingly irritated by horrendously bad form away from home and a board that ignores the fan base .

 

I said at the beginning of the season that the minimum for success this season would be finishing in the top 6, so I agree with you about that. It's the selectivity that I find irritating. Take Cromer's post #1701 above: "Surely it will appear harder for any team that contrives to lose to bottom side Rotherham!" The focus is on the only match we've lost in the last 7, and that because Oliveira lost his cool and got sent off in the first half. Similarly, you say that our away form is "horrendous", but is it? In 12 away games we've won 4, drawn 4 and lost 8, which, IMO is disappointing certainly, but not 'horrendous'. You also say that the Board "ignores the fan base", by which you seem to suggest that 30,000+ fans agree with you. I'd say that a lot of those were concerned about the bad run of results but are also encouraged by the corner being turned in our last 7 games, both in terms of performances and results.

 

The horrendous away form stretches back further than the last 12 games I'm pretty sure last season we had the worst record.
We have been more competitive at home and that gives me optimism but someone mirrored our last season at this stage being in 7th and on similar points .
The catalyst for that surge at the end may have been driven by replacing Adams , some may argue that Adams may have got us promoted we will never know.
I think we will win today but being 5 points behind an inform Sheffield Wednesday we will need to follow that up with consecutive wins HOME and AWAY and looking at our season as a realist and not as a fantasist I don't see us picking up enough points to close the gap .
Also your maths is wrong if we had won 4 (four) drawn 4 (four) and lost 8 (eight) in our last 12 (twelve) away games then you are ignoring 4 (four) of those defeats for some peculiar reason.
Also the ignoring the fans comment was based on the wall of silence and contrived in house interviews with Mr promotion promotion promotion.
Now he's gone the silence from the board is defeaning.

 

Yes, you're right, it's the last 16 games I was describing. Other than that, I've given my views about why the selectivity and lack of objectivity is irritating, but I don't think there is any point in going on about it further.

 

I think we have got to a situation where we are judging our chances of getting 6th spot based on recent form. Yes, we have improved,especially at home, but losing to Rotherham and drawing against Wigan, both bottom three sides, points to a side still unable to beat sides away who must be beaten to give us a chance of 6th place. Sheff Wed won yesterday and are now 5 points ahead in 6th place. Derby could overtake us with a game in hand so potentially we could be back in 8th place once all teams have played the same amount of games. We can't afford the 'luxury' of dropping 4 points against bottom three sides. I am pleased AN did not win the Manager of the month award at this would have endorsed his credentials as our manager. I noticed that a recent poll suggests that the jury is still out with regard to the fans supporting AN as a manager. Are we getting into the realms of hoping that other results go for us for NCFC to finish 6th? I think so.

 

Which is one of the reasons I said sometime ago that AN should be judged on performances and other things not just points accumulated. When I started to look beyond our position in the table and started to do some 'pointless analysis', most members were very dismissive, although to be fair RER was one of the few that appeared interested. As it is the analysis wasn't far of where we are as a team, where as our position in the table flatered us, mainly because of the way the fixtures fell. Yes we are starting to accumulate points, but we're starting to play again the teams we got points off last time, despite generally playing poorly, so really we shouldn't be surprised.

 

Pretty much agree with this although I would say he's failed if he doesn't get us promoted. As I've said many times before even if he gets us promoted, which I doubt. I would still replace him at the end of the season, indeed in my mind we should have sacked him many months ago.