I can see why Stoke went for Neil, he has 3 promotions and sets his teams up well. What I'd be wary of is his insistence on using experienced players over youth - that approach can lead to financial issues down the line when you are buying players with little, or no resale value. Think it's well documented that his Hamilton and Norwich sides had an average age in the late 20s rather than our squad which is very young - that in itself could have been the start of the trouble behind the scenes - he seems to have little interest in developing youth players and that directly contradicts the KLD philosophy
Agree, but AN will argue he got us promoted by dropping the young players Doyle and Neil, and relied on the experience of Evans and Wright.
Yeah. wouldn't disagree and certainly over those 15 or so games it was the right call but over a 46 game season, or indeed a 2-3 year period as manager you want players to be developed to a point where they are the leading players in the squad. I'd argue Neil probably wasn't the man for that philosophy
Agree, as has been posted elsewhere, AN has a tendency to do well in the first year before things start to unravel.
You might be right there mind. And as Stoke have just spent two years getting rid of a shed load of old lags, you'd think they might have thought of that.
Just been thinking and still it’s still picking me off now. Why do you think Snake Neil left a day before the game. I know it’s for money etc but why then. Do you think he and Stoke done on purpose, do they see us as a promotion threat or even a relegation threat with them. Did think the team would crumble and think it’s 3 points less for us and a gain for them. I know there’s a long long way to go. It still gets to me now.
just being the biggest cock he could? Because he didn’t feel loved by the owners, upper management? Think it will hurt him a lot more then us in the long run.
I know you shouldn't focus on other teams results but I hope Swansea absolutely smash them tomorrow night.
I have heard, and I don’t know if there is any truth in it, that SAFC fined Neil for speaking with Stoke without permission. That would obviously be before Friday cos he’d been given permission by then. Wonder if he was called out on it and things came to a head quickly. Can anyone confirm if they’ve heard similar.
Also, KLD off up some mountain and he'd dissed Speakman a few weeks back, so probably timed to do the most damage to Speakman.
I had to turn it off, just looking at him makes me angry, he is my most hated manager to date. Motes is a close second of course
But then the club lowers itself to his level. I would be happy with the line "The new head coach is happy to work within the guidelines we have set out to protect the long term interests of the club"