Say we were to sack Adkins, something I don't want to happen, why would Benitez come here? Pretty sure he could get a more high profile job if he wanted to, plus sacking Adkins will show what Cortese is like and he will probably get slated by quite a large section of the football community, much like he did when he got rid of Pardew, so that may also put certain managers off. Especially ones with big reputations like Benitez as they may see it as walking into a virtual lose lose situation which will only damage their reputation.
I was determined not to post here and indulge this horrific rumour mongering..... but here I am. Adkins should, and will, be given more time. Unless relegation is on the cards at christmas he will be given a full season, next season is when pressure will be on him to push into euro places. As people have pointed out we are 2 years ahead of schedule, think despite cortese's reputation for being impatient he will be happy with consolidatin prem league status.
So we stick with a sub standard defence till January and Adkins regardless of results and lack of quality buys ? Fack me this is one cushy job .
I will be made up with 17th position , I am not happy with our buys or not the ones we have bought as such there are a few dodgy ones , Gazzaniga when we should of broke the bank with Butland and Rodriguez when he is played out of position and we could of got more for less . Half arsed buys they are that WILL stay if we get relegated . Hardly pushing on is it ?
I don't think Cortese will think that unless Nigel tells him that,quite honestly.............The concern maybe that they perhaps didn't get the targets they had set themselves during the transfer window.......IE The Birmingham Keeper, the left back etc. To be honest I would think Nigel maybe concerned why we lost when playing well and in the lead. not particularly Cortese. He may of course be a bit red faced if there was a recent shareholders meeting after spending 30 million of their money but no doubt he was able to re-assure them....
So we get someone new in. How will this help strengthen defence given that the transfer window is shut and options for free agents are limmited? Do you really think if Adkins went now rafa or someone else would magically get our defence sorted? If anything the argument is there for a new/additional defensive coach. On a slightly seperate note does anyone feel our 433 formation may be behind us shipping goals?
Give them time, I'm quite happy with wat we've bought- investment for the future. But I do agree defence should have been given more attention. However, we can only buy players that want to come here and play, I'm certain we had tagets but couldn't get the deals done. Gaza looks promising and I've heard good things, if anything we should be questioning the signing of cody when we could have had a ready to play keeper to back up/take over from SKD.
The changes have been made though and we'll need time to get ourselves together. Having a different man at the top won't change that. We need to look at the bigger picture here and not to too quick to make panicked decisions based on a few bad results against teams we never expected to win anyway. Do we have a good squad? Yes we do and we can make it better in January. Do we have a good manager? Yes we do. What would we stand to gain by replacing him? Not a lot in all honesty, we have more to lose. The strategy of going young, sustainable and ambitious is one that Cortese will be very much involved in and he'll have anticipated the pace of progress.
Agree with this Itchen I'm not at all convinced that a different manager could get any more out of this squad. Obviously a new man would bring in new players but as we have all said not until the new year.
If we get relegated he will go , if Southampton are in the bottom 3 in December he will go , I have absolutely no doubt about that at all , Cortese is not a football man he is a realist and he will want no part of a sinking ship , he stated he would not get us relegated whilst in charge and I am not forgetting that if we do and its his fault for not allowing or buying good enough players to stay up .
Good grief I agree with some of that. Don't think you can criticize his spending though. £29 million is in the top 5 spends.
