Even TM has shades of Neil and has mentioned getting the recuritmment right and needed a better balance. Vast majority of post match he has said so. Reminds me of the Neil 'banging the door down' comments. No one wins against speakman.
It seems very rare that we get a manager who is a perfect fit for the club. It would be, in my opinion, madness to cut him free in pursuit of a certain model. Mowbray is 59 and could comfortably manage for another 10 years.
TM is a proper football man and says it as he sees it. More patience than most and lives working with young players. But even he knows he has been let down in some areas of recruitment. Keeps mentioning it.
True, but Neil was banging on the door asking for experience, Mowbray has shown what can be done with younger players. Squad full of 31year olds is really working out for Baldy down at Stoke isn't it? You are right re Speakman though. He is running this club and it's his way, or the highway
I’m pretty confident (based on guesswork ) that the below happened. Neil going was half a shock. They always had Mowbray lined up as a backup anyway after the dillydallying when Johnson went KLD and Speakman didn’t actually want Mowbray long term. They saw him as a really good short term option to get the best out of the players this season Their intent was to spend this season floating around mid table, not get relegated and then appoint their young, long term maverick manager this summer on a 3-4 year deal In order to protect ourselves in case no new manager was found, Tony was given a 2 year deal not a 1 year deal. Possibly with clear break clauses this summer hence Tony now using the press to put pressure on them to renew him In the mean time KLD and Speakman have found the guy they want long term but have been taken aback both by the success of the end of this season as well as the popularity of Mowbray. They probably expected people to WANT Mowbray to be short term I think they’re stubborn and clear of mind enough to stick to their plan. If we had been promoted this would have been incredibly difficult. Now we haven’t, I’m definitely leaning towards them replacing him. As I said earlier - Mowbray has mentioned “politicians who think they know better”, which is a pretty decent way of explaining Speakman if you didn’t like him. So I think that’s what he’s referring to. I think he knows he’s gone and I think he knows it’s controversial. If we do it and we are lower half by Christmas then Speakman is going to look a twat. If we are in the top 4 he’s going to look a genius. And if he looks a twat, I’m sure he’d talk his way out of it anyway. So yeh. I love what Speakman has done to our club. But I really don’t like this. Does it change how I feel about this team and this club? No. But it will if it goes wrong, and that will be on Speakman, not whichever manager comes in.
Mowbray wants more experience and balance. Said it lots. Wont get it. That's why he will likely be out the door.
Yeah, it has been more noticeable, but he feels more aligned with the club's model than Neil ever was. As I posted elsewhere last week, had Neil stayed the core of the team would have been Batth/Wright in defence, O'Nien & Pritch in midfield, with the likes of Hum, Ba, Michut etc sidelined. I prefer the current way we are playing to anything Neil served up
I am not comparing the managers. But they both wanted the balance and recuritmment re addressed. They won't get it.
Other than decent backup for Stewart, I'd say our squad is well balanced - it's the injuries that have killed us. You cannot account for the sheer number of long term injuries we have had. If anything, I'd be looking into the medical side of things and try and understand why
On Speakman running it how he wants and being stubborn even in the face of mistakes… I think most of us will forgive that whilst progress under him remains rapid. Both full seasons he’s been here we have achieved our targets (and then some), after years of not getting anywhere near our targets. It will be ok whilst he keeps doing that. And frankly I’m delighted with the overall job he’s doing and what he’s done for the club, despite the glaring mistakes. As for every glaring mistake there are 3 glaring upsides. But when it starts to go wrong he’s going to look an idiot and I really worry about how that all plays out. He will be the kind to double down on mistakes rather than fix them.
I’m just an outsider looking in but you seem to have a very promising young team who should improve if anything. Replacing the loans will be difficult but not impossible. It’s a dreadful league although the teams coming up should be ok which will make it harder and the teams coming down will inevitably be top six but you’ve got a better chance than most of being up there again.
On the other hand, given the success this season and rapid development of some players it's probably time to tweak the model anyway. 2-3 experienced heads in over the summer will see us challenge properly. We need a core of physically robust players who are used to playing twice a week all season.
I'd say the squad is well balanced - 8 of our players are what you would call experienced, we have options in every position bar striker. You could maybe argue we need more experience in midfield, but Dan Neil has been excellent in Evans' absence and I wouldn't want to stunt the development of the likes of Ba, Michut, Ekwah, Alese, Hume etc by bringing in a 29yo Championship player with this fabled "experience" I'm very confident that our season would have turned out differently without the season ending injuries to Stewart, Evans, Ballard & Batth. You could argue that Speakman/the club should have done more to replace Stewart, and I see absolutely no sense in letting Wright go out on loan if we didn't have the confidence in Anderson, but apart from that I don't see that we need major surgery. GK: Patterson, Bass RB: Hume, Huggins, Gooch CB: Ballard, O'Nien, Anderson CB: Batth, Wright LB: Cirkin, Alese CM: Evans, Matete CM: Neil, Ekwah, Michut RW: Roberts, Dajaku, Lihadji AM: Pritchard, Embleton, Bennette LW: Clarke, Ba ST: Stewart
To be honest - on “replacing the loans” being difficult. Amad is clearly a level above anything in this division let alone our team. No team could replace him talent for talent. BUT… he’s played the whole season without a striker. I’d genuinely rather we had had Stewart fit up top all season, with Roberts and Clarke either side of him. We’d have been so much more effective. So whilst replacing Amad would be difficult - I don’t think we need to try to replace him directly like that, as we have Roberts who can do a lot of what he can do but to a slightly lower level. Clarke would be the bigger miss. Gelhardt will be easy to replace. Michut is essentially already replaced by Ekwah BUT hopefully gets made permanent anyway as I think it’s 2.5m EUR only now that we’ve stayed down
Again, it depends on who, what position and which young players they replace. I'd certainly concede we should be more flexible in our recruitment and accept the need for short termism as part of the wider model. There must have been an experienced CDM kicking his heels in the PL who could have done the Evans role for half a season. Even if it meant sacrificing one of the younger players All in all, this season has been a good one - every one of those younger players will be better for the experience and I'd suggest (Speakman will love this) that every signing we've made has appreciated in value.
Speakman does not walk on water, if he did, he would have pulled a striker out of the hat in January. As for TM, I can own up and say I was wrong... he has proved to be just what we needed and need! Not sure that it makes sense to sack him now after such a good season, particularly when he was faced with team damaging injuries.
Good post mate....agree 100%... from my perspective the future looks very bright.It seems to me that KS and the recruitment people are doing an outstanding job. There are a number of clubs looking for a sporting director and I hope none of them come to KS with an offer that can't be refused. Those who don't like him and criticise at every opportunity would do well to consider that the grass isn't always greener. Apart from JD...which was sentiment driven more than anything...I can only think of Alves and the German goalie,who haven't really worked out. We're miles away from the club we were two or three years ago,and the way TM has handled these young players this season has been brilliant. I've looked forward to each and every match,knowing I was going to see some fantastic football. We now have a platform to build from,get our injured players fit and ready to go,add to the squad where we need to,and I'm sure we'll enjoy next season even more than this one,and will be much more ready to deal with the rigours of the Premier League in 12 months time.
Was class as always. Loved the start as bass was going right through. Also Speak To Me off new album was a highlight for me. Got tickets for Twickenham next month . I’ve seen them on every tour since 1982
