He's answered the questions you ask me. He's not your usual businessman. He's literally obsessed with football and England remains the 'home'. I happen to believe him. Others clearly don't. Not sure what more he could realistically be doing or saying for people to cease distrusting him, his ambitions and motivations. Of course, he's made mistakes; that's not the question. As said, only time will ultimately tell but I see no evidence to the contrary.
Yes of course. In the same way that Exeter City can finish in the top six of the Championship. You utter whopper.
Like I said, silly me. My point is people are supposing we would have won the play offs if we'd made it and hanging Rosenior for it rather than accepting the reality that blowing money on loans and short term signings are why we're in the mess we're in this season when our chances of going up were incredibly slim.
Ha I love how frequently we've started with 1 to 5 over the last few years.....brings great balance to a defence
The reason I think people are entitled to not believe him is the order of events and how the Summer played out, with him getting a role at Fenner and immediately prioritising them over us to our detriment this season. You could almost entirely place the blame for the performances this season at Acun's feet, from deciding to sack Rosenior after backing him and giving him a new deal, to hiring Walter off the back of a recommendation from a mate rather than going for someone like Selles at the time (where a lot of us were pushing for a young exciting manager working in England), to delaying new signings and 'writing off' the first half a dozen games of the season, to delaying sacking Walter because he stubbornly thought it would work.
Exeter don't compete in the Championship. Preston are still in the FA Cup. Try again. Or better yet, for once, understand the point being made which I explained to brady in a subsequent post.
Acun and LR both thought we would reach the playoffs hence the investment. Acun did his part and trusted LR to do his.... Nobody knows if we would have won it if we got there, but we would have had just as much of a chance as any of the other teams. Everyone involved at the time gambled and we ended the window with a squad that should have reached top 6. The fact we didn't means it really easy for people like you to look back in hindsight and slate that decision. But if we had of made it and gone up I'm sure you'd of been saying it was a masterstroke, not complained about the spend and acun was right to back LR when people wanted him gone etc ( no matter how much you'll reply saying you wouldn't have ).
You forgot Giles soiling the number 3 shirt too. My god, we’ve had some ****e hogging the good squad numbers over the years. Surprised Slater didn’t put his foot down last summer and demand the number 8 shirt instead of Mehlem having it. I’m not his biggest fan but seniority dictates he has first dibs on in the summer. Belloumi should get number 11. Like you said, I can’t believe we’ve let Sinik have it for three years. I would’ve taken it off him last summer. He’s not played a minute all season so he doesn’t even need a squad number at all. I’m also not a fan of three centre-halves having 4, 5 and 6 at the same time. It should be centre halves as 4 and 5 and defensive mid as 6 or centre-halves 5 and 6 and defensive mid as 4.
No hindsight needed. As others have said, plenty of us were saying similar at the time. But at the time we were dismissed because of the chance to make the play offs and go up, and subsequently were dismissed as using hindsight to complain about the decision making, when neither was true. It was perhaps the most closed of closed shops seasons the Championship has ever seen with the strength/form of that top 4, and everyone could see it at the time. As Drew pointed out, even with Norwich and WBA in good form, neither put a dent on Southampton and Leeds even despite Southampton's wobble (which we capitalised on when we beat them). Everyone could see that this season would be far more open with Luton, Burnley and Sheff Utd coming down (admittedly Sheff Utd have adapted far better than many expected they would), but Luton are second from bottom. Sunderland are a legitimate chance of going up automatically, and if we had been smarter with our investment we could have been in their position or at least competing for a more achievable promotion via the play offs. If we had gone up last season I absolutely would have been amazed as it would have been one of the most unexpected promotion seasons ever. They happen sometimes, but particularly to get over both Southampton and Leeds would have been arguably the biggest achievement in the club's history. So yes I would have heralded it as absolutely genius. But that's not what happened and what happened was pretty much what most of us expected to happen.. I thought we were likely to make the play offs which is why I said (before LR was sacked) I'd only give him until November to improve or sack him, so that was disappointing, but I never thought promotion was anywhere near likely if we had made it.
I honestly think you're missing it GFAW. I doing think he's done a thing which would convince the vast majority he's not to be trusted. In fact his trust in people may have cost him in more ways than one. He's already done some fabulous things for the club and as such you'd be pushed to find anyone who didnt like him for his unwavering belief in his club, our club. For me, if Acun does something I think ok, I'll roll with that. I hope he's around for a long time and has no need to contemplate selling.
Some have a different day different stance, yesterday was 'never' getting promoted, today is 'chances of going up...incredibly slim'. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
They're one and the same. It's why I brought up Preston winning the FA Cup despite people thinking that was silly. They have a 'slim' chance of winning the FA Cup as they're still in it, which is why on any bookie you will see odds offered for them winning it, as there is literally a chance, but the reality is they are never going to win it this season. We could have made the play offs and had an incredibly slim chance of winning the play offs, but we were never going to.
I don't believe he did prioritise them over us. He was very open and clear that he had to share his time more than previously, but that he remained fully commited to what he seeks to achieve with us. His mistake appears to have been trusting those he delegated to. (this particular debate is nothing to do with blame for last season, this season, whatever). For HT2, sorry but you do distrust him if you are not believing what he has said (that it is not about the money). Anyway, off to bed. Nice to have a civil debate for a change. Thanks. #twt
I think Acun has done a lot right but he just needs to learn from his mistakes. I mentioned on the podcast today that we're now seeing a similar cycle emerge to under LR. LR solidified our defence, stabilised the club and had everyone pulling in the same direction, got us out of trouble, and then reloaded and went for a play off place in his second season. I could see something similar happening with Selles, and I just hope that this time around if Selles doesn't make the play offs next season he won't be sacked for it, but is instead allowed to continue to build and develop. We're already seeing lessons being learned with key members of the squad being here on permanents not loans, so hopefully it's a good sign.
Syd, youre a smart guy but thats a daft statement. Its about impetus. If we had gone into the play offs, we'd have won maybe 6 on the bounce or whatever it was. 2 leg semi, one game final...
I'm not quite sure how you can say he didn't prioritise and then in the same breath say he had to give more time to Fener than us, which is one and the same. He owns us, he's just on the board (or whatever his actual role is) at Fener. As soon as he re-focussed on us, deals got done. If he'd spent time at the beginning of summer doing that for us perhaps he could have spent the last few weeks involved at Fener and we would have had a better start to the season. Who knows.
How would we have won 6 on the bounce when we drew with Watford and Ipswich before the Plymouth game? If we'd beaten Plymouth and WBA had lost we would have made the play offs on a grand total of 1 win on the bounce. Anyway, as I said in my first reply on this topic, it's been done to death but people keep going back to the well. It's done now and if people don't like people complaining about LR's sacking, then the same has to be said about the "We should have gone up with that group of players" statements. It's the past, time to move on.
