For a few reasons I think the club have missed the boat by leaving Dodds in charge till the end of the season. For one...Any new coach coming in would have a good look at what he had to work with, almost a free hit, a rare commodity for an incoming coach. Also. he would would have time to suggest potential players we would need. as we have found out over the years, negotiations for players takes forever. I also think it would have progressed the sales of season tickets. The way this season has petered out is bad, the place is flat and in need of a spark. I'm sure there will be those who say the guy we want is already in a club and we have to wait until the end of the season to secure his services,, but if, for any reason that went tits up, then we are back to square one. I don't think the club have handled this very well at all. I can't believe that there isn't a quality qualified manager out there somewhere who would be ready to go right now.
Ironically, when he does move on, he'll be a DOF with experience of delivering players who got promoted and made the playoffs without overspending. Exactly the kind of "experience" that a lot of other clubs in the football league will be looking for.
I think we've been stuck in a cycle of poor decisions arguably since last summer when the rumor they were looking to replace Mowbray came out. Each one compounding the last. There's signs that it's changing off the pitch, which is good. That seems to have taken someone leaving and a new person coming in, however.
I take the view that the club have identified their ideal candidate and have secured the necessary assurances that they will take the job. The club have taken the brave decision to write off this season and take the criticism that will inevitably come their way. Of course this is SAFC and inevitably our ideal candidate will either bugger off somewhere else or will prove to be a flop I am actually quite hopeful, this time, that we will make the right decision and a coach will be appointed that will be in charge for a number of years and will take us forward. I mean, come on, the law of averages states that we can't keep getting it wrong all the time.
They'll also look at his (current) failure to take the next step and our wildly unbalanced squad completely reliant on a single player most of the time.
Yeah there's DOF's out there doing a similar job to KS and in their first job that would be deemed good enough for us because they have "experience" when infact they have exactly the same as KS just somewhere else. I don't think we need experience as such, but more people who fit into what we want them to do. There was a bloke called Camoli? (I think) who was deemed a mistake at Liverpool but has then went to Toulouse who had an ageing squad and lingering around Ligue 2 looking bang average, sound familiar?!?! He's transformed them into the youngest team in Europe, assembled using data. Sound familar?!?! fighting regularly for European places and cups in Ligue 1. (There's a long read somewhere on the Internet about them if anyone is interested) How can he be useless at one place and class at another? It's because he fits into what Toulouse want and didn't at Liverpool. We need the right people in each position who best fit what we are trying to achieve as a football club, whether they're 20 or 100 doesn't matter in my eyes.
None of the below is a defence of KS, just comment on what other teams may see in him. Academy products making it into first team will look very good on his cv as this is the cheapest and most effective way to bring through new players, the signing Jobe will also look good as has serious potential l. Triantis is having a very successful loan. U18 players regularly starting in U23 being fast tracked towards first team. KS won’t just be judged on league position by other teams. I’m sure he’d argue he’s managed wage bill to be sustainable while waiting for commercial side of club to improve.
At the end of the day we don't know exactly what Speakmans remit is but from the outside looking in he's done a good job. Youngest squad in the league, developed talent for a profit when we sell, promoted youth and has us competitive rather than the basket case we were. It's the fans who feel he's failed as we have made the playoffs or auto promotion.
He’s absolutely spot on to be fair about experience and I worried as soon as Mowbray left that some managers will be reluctant to come here because of it. I also think the club will have learned from this season though.
Also it's been mentioned so many times how inexperienced the squad is. This is very true, however we will still finish mid table, how good will they be in 2 years with the experience people are crying out for. We will have a team of players who's value is more than we could afford to buy. Problem is people want the rewards now. Yes its frustrating watching how bad we have been this season. If the likes of AA, Ba , Jobe, Rigg and others develop the way we hope how much talent will we have on the pitch. People want us to be signing them at that stage now, we couldn't afford them. We have to start somewhere, we will continue to sign raw talent every window, not to play in the first team but to develop. That's how it works, problem is when KLD came in we didn't have any raw talent that was there to develop, this is the hardest part of the process, the start. We need that balance of bringing that bit of experience in till all the cogs are in place. There has to be patience from the fans, we over achieved last season and under achieved this season. Some think it's the end of the world. Look at Arteta for instance, in his first 2 seasons Arsena theyl were **** but the club believed they were doing the right thing and stuck with it. Is KS the right man for the job, I don't know but what ever happens they need to stick to the plan if they think its right. Unfortunately for some fans this isn't how they want the club to do things and will not accept there will be set backs especially in the first few seasons, this is only the first one.
I agree with some of your post. The problem is he lost a lot of good will from the fans because of the total screw up with the Head Coach position which completely derailed our season from December onwards. TBH, I'm still stunned that KLD signed off on the idea of MD as caretaker until the end of the season, when there was still plenty of games left to play. This decision left the fans paying for sub standard, low quality 'entertainment' for the last 5 months of the season. Scandalous
I honestly feel that if managers are releuctant to come here because of the lack of experience within the squad then they are the type of cheque book managers that we don't want. I want a manager who feels that he can prove how good he is by working with the talent we have, not one that needs to buy success or make excuses
But if all goes well in a better position moving forward by waiting for the right man rather than making a knee jerk appointment.
For me both Dodds and Proctor just need to get back into the AOL and help with player development. The link to the new man and his team. The new man needs to be able to bring a couple at least and from a new team. Seems they want Still. Hopefully it happens.
Speakman made that call and KLD pays him to make them. However, I do think it's another large bit of evidence that Speakman isn't doing a good enough job and why he may be away in the post season. KLD won't want this relegation form to go into next season. Needs to be big chances and new desire to head up the table.
