Hi folks, Just interested to read your early appraisals of Big Mick and how he's coping. I've enjoyed some of his interviews (as always) – always good for an honest quip. Very difficult job in store and although results have been hit and miss (as you'd expect), he's already put as many points on the board as his predecessor did in more than twice as many games. Taking everything into consideration, you must be a heck of a lot more confident you can survive now than you were under Jewell, but how has he changed things (assuming he has)? You all know my thoughts on the 'quality' of your squad so I won't bore you all with that again, but do you think you need three, five, ten(!) January changes to assure yourselves of Championship football next season or can Mick get the best out of the current crop? There seem to be a clutch of sides who are going to struggle all year so you've at least got some running mates down there – so long as there are a few down there you've got a good chance of finishing above three of them. Also intrigued to find out if you think Mick will still be your manager in 24 months time. Gut feelings on that? Cheers.
Far too early to come to any conclusions. We are a long way from out of the woods. We may very well have a poor squad but I'm sure you and many others thought that when Gareth McAuley, Jordan Rhodes, Jon Walters, Damien Delaney (I could go on and on) were at the club. What I can say is that centre back and goalkeeper are huge problems for us. Aside from that i think it's a waste of time analysing it at the moment.
The worrying thing for me is that under a new manager you normal get that bounce when things improve dramatically before settling down. The results have been good enough, albeit saturdays was hardly great but the performances are still very poor. At the end of the season I will take poor performances but getting points and staying up so its not a true complaint - even if it does mean you have to make that extra effort to turn up. Some of his decisions seem very strange to me. Dropping Murphy on Saturday is understandable but to play without any height in the attacking half of the pitch seems bizarre, especially when our goal kicks are punted hopefully up field, it is just senseless. Orr has been terrible at RB and as much as it was sensible moving Edwards from this position it seems that we have addressed one issue but created another. The biggest worry and it has nothing to do with MM is how our squad is going to shape up. The amount of loans and short term contracts is worrying in itself but add to that the amount of players who will be out of contract next summer and it means we need a total rebuild again. Will MM be here in 24 months time? If we stay up, I think that will depend on the people at the top of the ITFC empire. If we continue to penny pinch and refuse to get in the managers number 1 targets then spend twice as much on someone else (Davies, Taylor) then I doubt anyone will put up with it. If we set up a realistic budget, support the manager within reason and dont only worry about 'operation premiership' then we have a chance but it looks currently to be a massive rebuilding operation so I hope we give him the time and tools required. If we go down with the current lack of visible spirit and determination then I wouldnt blame him if he walked away.
i think you've had a bit of a bounce tractorbhoy. your performances probably will be quite poor throughout the season because you are one of the weakest teams in the league, but there has definitely been an upturn in results so far, though as yorkie says, it probably is far too early to say – i was just looking for first impressions really has the atmosphere improved at all inside your ground? fans singing mick's name etc?
Evans left it far too late in sacking Jewell in the first place! He should have sacked Jewell immediatley after the last game of last season and it was bloody obvious in the summer that Jewell wasn't being backed with money so why the **** did Evans leave it until we were deep in the ****! We are where we are and I believe that MM will dig us out of this mess but he needs time and a cheque book in January.
I think I did say that the results have been there - its the lack of effort and performances that are the worry! You look at the 'names' and the performances and its truly unbelievable how these reputations have been earnt. NRC is someone whose reputation means he should be able to walk through games but he looks completely out of his depth. You could put the same comment against several of the players used aswell. The atmosphere was fairly average on Saturday. PR has never been the liveliest of grounds and to be fair the North Stand did try at times but a mix of the weather and the lack of spirit on the pitch made it difficult for us fans to summon up the enthusiasm. I sat there despairing at the woeful display and wondered why I bothered turning up when it seemed none of the players wanted to be there! As JWM said in his post Evans made a total bulls up by given Jewell half support - not sacking but not giving him funds. MM may be very talented but he's not a miracle worker and so surviving will be enough for me. The Jan window is very important though and I hope Evans realises how badly he has performed over the last 24 months.
I don't think the performances have always been bad under Keane and Jewell and clearly the problem wasn't the calibre of the players we had, it's winning mentality, it's fighting until the 95th minute. I saw an incredible passage of play from the weekend where Heitinga sprints and fights, he covers, watches the attackers and the expression on his face is like he's saving a child from getting mauled by a lion - and at the end he makes a superb block that prevents a certain goal and earns his side a point,That contrasts with our lot where they're resigned to conceding and shrug their shoulders and look around at the other players. It's not the players' faults, it's the rut we find ourselves in.
MM is Brilliant and we will be in the Prem within two seasons........................................
