Something has to give mind, the silence bar the stupid statement last week is deafening the club are getting absolute pelters on every social media channel going internal and external. Speakman out has been trending, it’s a mess
I won't go into more detail but you'll be right. Me and the Bob have found a message off years ago so we may message. See what happens. But it is right currently. It's just not good enough. I am genuinely blown away that we have allowed ourselves to go into the euros without a head coach. Not sure people understand the significance of this.
What happened to the Pritchard/Batth type signings? In the early KLD days it was the primarily youth signings, but also those more experienced pro's who at one point had higher ceilings but had lost their way a bit at their current clubs. We'd give them a chance at a lower level to try and reignite their careers, we've lost sight of that profile.
My biggest gripe with Speakman is that he isn't even implementing the model he talks about so much. You have to set a playing style as the DoF and then bring in a head coach to implement that style. Doing that means you don't need to give the coach involvement in transfers as them players will fit the system that is already set. However we wait until we appoint the head coach and let them dictate the playing style but still don't give them a say in the transfer market which leads to players not fitting. Would also make the head coach search much easier if we already narrowed it down to coaches who fit the predetermined style. He wants to run the European DoF/Head coach model but isn't implementing it at all.
Its not just those signings but if you think about signings like Ballard, clarke, roberts they all had a good number of games under their belts in english football so they could hit the ground running We went away from that last summer, some of those signings may turn out to be class for us but every window is an opportunity to get better immediately and we didnt do that last summer Hopwfully theyve learned from it but the longer we go without a manager the more worried i get
That was the key difference from Summer 22 to Summer 23 for me. People will call Ballard and Clarke 'kids' which they are, but they were also proven quality at Championship level (Ballard with Milwall and Clarke with Leeds). Last summer was way way too lopsided.
They were the signings id be saying to my dad we should have made yrs a go - sign young players from the big teams who could hit the ground running We have had 2 good summer windows out of 3 - so thats the hope im clinging too for this summer
Definitely room for improvement. I just don't think he's utterly incompetent or the actual devil. As I said I want to see who we end up with as coach and how the squad looks when the window closes. As far as I'm concerned he's earned that much.
How anyone can defend Speakman is beyond me, if he was in this position at 99% of other clubs in the country he would've been peddled for sheer incompetence, it's beyond a joke now.
There's hope for sure. We have the quantity for a squad, its about the quality now. The premier league market hitting the crazy heights it has now, leaves quality younger players available for clubs like us at reasonable prices. You add a quality CDM and ST to our side, get a few lads consistently fit, then all of a sudden we are where we were 12 months ago. One of the frustrating things about this head coach search for me, regardless of what anyone thinks of the running of the club, or Speakman or whatever, is that this is some job for a head coach. Imagine getting it right here? Taking us back to the prem, 40k+ at the SOL every fortnight. Yes its red and white tinted glasses and a few beers in me, but bloody hell, its a cracking job for the right person.
Folk havent defended him for this tho, some are saying they are waiting to see who is appointed before they make judgement - thats fair! Some are saying hes done a lot of good for the club - thats also fair
It should be, but we have a shockjng reputation as a club of not giving managers time so thatll put folk off for sure If someone comes in and gets it right here tho - wow what a feeling thatll be for them
The Head coach situation alone, starting from sacking Mowbray with having no plan and giving us the spiel about Beale then putting his mate Dodds in charge is enough to undo all the good work for me, no other club in the land would have wrote off half a season.
Thing that’s knacked me off is that they took their foot off the boil. Complacency. They failed to recognise that the likes of Batth, gooch, pritch at al. allowed the younger lads to flourish. Binned them off and signed more youngens. That’s when I was concerned. We ended last season on such a high and they’ve done everything possible since to completely undo it all.
I couldnt agree more with your comments. The problem is people forget the good he's done and the longer this drags on the worse it will get. The owner must have some idea of what is going on and can't be left out when blame is being dished out. For the record I do like the owner and some of speakmans signings have been good but as you say he's had a poor 12 months or so. Needs sorting quickly or we are risking a poor start to this season.
And most arent defending any of that (tbf a lot on here were wanting TM gone, the issue was the replacing of him) What some are saying is hes also done a lot of good with us, its easy to forget that as its in the past now and at the minute we dont seem to be in a great place (no team can be in a good place without a head coach)
