There really is no way Les Reed is influencing the team style of play. He does a good job as development ,manager and that is where it ends. Nigel would have walked if that really was the case.
I love how people are now believing the rumour of reed/cortesse controlling everything, when it practically started on this thread.
I agree , if this was the case the directive would of come from Cortese and seeing as he does not get involved and simply signs the cheques it has to be absolute rubbish . Reed develops and Adkins manages , their strings are pulled by Cortese .
As I said I'm only saying what I have been told, I did not say Reed makes Adkins obey him. All I did say is Reed wants all levels at Saints to play 4-3-3.
Olly I know , this is a whispered very quiet post as it could be deemed neagtive by the sandal clappers if they see it .
Les Reed is quoted as an Executive Director now, and he must have some clout, we do need guidance and leadership, but perhaps it's not coming from the right people? With the lack of genuine information from within the Club, we can only speculate, with all of the baggage that goes with it.
Les reed is more powerful in the football club than Adkins, that's a fact. Whether he has wrongly taken some of Adkins duties is the debatable bit. Why people think the rumour that Cortese (knows nothing about football) picks the team, is more realistic than Les Reed (know's about football) picking the team i've no idea.
That adkins picks the team and is encouraged to play 4 3 3, but has no restrictions and can definatley change it in game for tactical reasons
I suppose you could discount a few of the Blue Phew voting to sack him, but they are entitled to have an opinion!
My bad thought it said 30 per cent when I posted. This hangover's clearly more severe than I thought.
Let beddy do the math. He could possibly come up with 90% voted for NA to stay, and we could post the results to NC
Absolutely Adkins must STAY. As fans we are absolutely CRAZY to be discussing getting rid of him. This guy has lead us from the bottom of League one to the Premiership in ultra quick time. I said at the start of last season when we were getting some great results that it was too early for us as we'd need to strengthen massively if we got up and that's difficult as players take time to settle. Arsenal aside I think we've been well in with a chance of picking up something in each and every game this season. On the ball we look really good in main. Our problem is quite clearly at the back. Our defence (left and centre) is making appalling errors week in week out. They're defending worse than they did last season (which at times wasn't great either). It's not as if teams are playing beautiful football to score past us or that we're getting caught out by clever set plays or the offside trap. Our defence is making serious basic errors game after game. Nigel will not be saying to them - "don't close players down when they're in the box" or "when that player drills it across the box, just let it run on through to your man" or "bring players down in the box/handball it in the box". These are individual errors. Problem is short of changing the personnel that are playing in those positions it's very hard to erradocate them - only Jose, Jos, Yoshi and Fox will be able to tell you why they've done some of these stupid things. I guess if there is any criticism in this it'd have to be why we didn't concentrate more of our focus on recruiting some stronger defensive players, but lets all face it - go back through the transfer rumours - everyone wanted us to sign the attacking players. We all thought we needed a CB and a LB, but not to this extent. We're currently playing some of the best football I've ever seen us play and if we can get these defensive lapses in concentration/poor decisions erradocated then we have the makings of a good side. Get rid of the manager and I think we'll have a real tough one on our hands as he'll have the same problem defensively and may start to try and change the way we play, which could take away our attractive passing style. As fans we want to see our team beat everyone in the land, but we have to be realistic that we can't achieve that over night. I think we have enough to stay up but defenders have to stand up and be counted here. If we don't stay up, then I don't think there'd be a better man to get us back up here again. Just out of interest, those of you who think he needs to go - who do you think is going to take us to the next level anyway? Harry Redknapp? The blose who gets teams playing attractive but has leaky defences? Remember it was Harry that brought in Callum Davenport to plug our leaky defence all those years ago... Or maybe Sven could come and spend all the money we have on overated players? Every manager we've ever had has made questionnable decisions - Strachan playing Chris Baird in the Cup Final was one - that one paid off, but what about the decision to bring in Delgado, Chala, Delap??? Together as one. Give Adkins the time he deserves to take this team forward. Don't let him be a victim of his own success!!
