thats one thing we would never know, but looking at the managers i reckon we would have gone down due to tactics applied by nw & running out of idea's, ok it took a while for sparky to get us going & in the end we started to produce at home which under neil it was abysmal. i would have liked to know what players nw was looking to get in & can't believe it would have any what mark got in, have resect for neil but in the end he sort lost it but wish him well.
Warnock would never have managed to bring in Cisse and Zamora, and probably wouldn't have had the foresight to try for Diakite either. I'm not saying that these three players alone kept us up, but without them we would certainly have been relegated. So no - if we had kept Warnock, we'd be playing Charlton next season.
Changing Managers saved us and was a very bold thing to do. Ask Blackburn supporters if they'd have wanted Kean gone in January for Hughes , they would have bitten your arm off. Ask West Ham fans if they did right by sticking with Avram Grant? It was a gamble but when warnocks time was up we didnt look like winning another game did we ? The plot had well and truely been lost . NW set us on a journey but simply run out of ideas in my book.
Warnock was shafted in the summer unfortunately, so even allowing for the last-minute signings he was on a hiding-to-nothing. The home defeats against Man Ure, Sunderland and Norwich consecutively really left him vulnerable and our league position would have deterred a lot of potential signings coming here to play for a manager who might not survive a few games. He will always be remembered fondly as the legend who gave us our greatest season in decades but ultimately was never given the right circumstances to show whether he could have succeeded at the highest level. On the balance of probabilities we would have probably gone down...
No symapthy for Warnock, he never replied to the email that I sent him when he left despite saying that we would reply to every single one. Was it because I'm Irish?
People defending NW will point their finger at the goons. But he said it himself the other day, if he had it his way he would've signed routledge, graham and naughton. That's his level. Would these guys have kept us up? Who knows. Let's move away from NW. He has zero association with the club now. Instead we should be talking about the guy who kept us up, negotiated a tricky run-in, made our home a fortress, plucked two fantastic loan signings from his a**e, invigorated several players deemed unworthy by his predecessor etc....
No I don't think he would have done. I've always said the writing was on the wall when he called Tarrore an idiot after the sky game. You don't do that in public to a young player. It was a critical mistake that started the downfall. In all honesty I think the rot had set in at the end of the championship yer. The defence was poor in those last 10 games and we got promoted going backwards as opposed to Swansea and Norwich who were improving teams. The change was needed.
No chance, we were imploding and would have been down with Wolves. Warnock was getting less than a point per game and we were getting worse by the week. How can anyone say he would have kept us up?
I was gutted when NW left - he only did good things for us and got he hands well and truly tied in the Summer. I have nothing but respect for the man. In all honesty though, looking back, I think he was losing the dressing room a bit. He might have got them pulling together again because that is one of his major strengths and he left us in the position we finished in but I probably reckon we'd have just fallen short. If he'd have had free reign last Summer and had the proper chance to bring in the likes of Danny Graham etc then I think he'd have had them pulling in the same direction (a la Norwich) and we'd have survived. Ultimately, whatever the circumstances, I believe that he could have kept us up but couldn't have taken us to the next level (which Mark Hughes definitely can do).
Spot on Ironman even if you can't spell Traore. That was a shocking outburst IMO and totally inconsistent with his molly-coddling of some other players. Let's not forget he convinced Traore to come to LR in the first place however and that he, along with Ferdinand, were his success stories from that manic transfer window. Even so, given the amount of money spent 2 successes from 5 is still a really poor return and on that basis alone he had to go - it's no good telling me he didn't have enough time, he should have had his research done anyway.
He didnt reply to me either Glad he went now! Seriously we would have gone down had he stayed unfortunately.
Who knows but our form wasn't very good and not all the players he brought by the end of August have been much of a success. DJ, Betty, Barton, Gabbidon, Young, SWP not much to shout about but Traore and Ferdinand have done well. Warnock would have spent again in January but I don't know if he could have convinced the likes of Cisse and Zamora to join. Would he have won the battle of minds with Barton had he stayed? I reckon the owners would have sided with Barton over Warnock if push came to shove. On balance I reckon we would still have been biting our fingernails on the last game of the season if Warnock had stayed.
Qpaaaagh. Spelling isn't my strong point to be honest. Adel got the bus home the next game and all he says is oh well that's Adel. Double standards of the worst kind. I liked NW , how could you not but I feel Peters principle seems to apply with NW and premiership football.
Qpaaaagh Agree with the signings too. They seemed to be signings an arm chair manager would make doing fantasy football rather than deeply researched. Swp heard of him, Barton, heard of him, Ferdinand heard of his brother he must be alright.
