Come on lads I think you all owe me some respect and gratitude. My constant criticism of Hessy last season which received regular abuse from the Hessy diehards, you would have to say on reflection was well-founded. I even forecast the rise of the new messiah and how well he would do. Anyway enough gloating, I would like to know honestly if Hessy had been given another season, where do you think we would be now?
Mid table at best, because we would have lost a lot of the games we drew, even if Hess had the same players as MA has got, I don't believe he would have got them performing anything like Mad Dog has.
We're 5 points clear at the top and looking good for promotion which makes it hard to whinge about things. I know lets dig up the past and whinge about that.
Its inspirational not whingeing, our fortunes have changed so much under MA although John Still would of done an equally good job brb!!!
Your original post inspirational? WTF? Do me a favour. brb's post tells us all we need to know As for your question. If we had Hess at the helm, with the back-room staff we've now got, I reckon we'd be doing ok. Probably play-offs, maybe pushing the top 3. MA seems to have had that certain something to pull a few extra results out of the team. And he is great at the PR and getting everyone behind the team. But Hess is no mug as a manager. Keeping us in the Championship for 5 years proved that. Successive 8th placed finishes with no assistants wasn't as bad as you seem to think either. Maybe a better question might be "How would we be doing with Hess as manager and MA & Schofield behind the scenes".
If we are honest it is all pointless conjecture, we will never know so there is little point in getting over excited about it
But it is good fun pointing out Lenny's earlier post..............John Still?? As other posts above correctly point out, Hessy did the best he could with what he had and on his own. Not perfect by a long way but he never let the club down. Things have changed, the finances, the attitude, in fact everything. People have short memories and Hess, over the years, has done a lot and given a lot for the club. What he could have done with the backing MA has, I don't know.......however MA has brought a definite wind of change, so lets enjoy it and not bemoan the past.
If Lenny wants a wind up he should have picked his subject better, Allen is the peoples favourite at the moment so would be much better bait. Allen waxes lyrical about Birchall, if you see him at training he's special, what that lad can do with a ball, some of the goals he scores, so is Allen lying or just a idiot for not playing him. Now that is much more like a wind up.
I think the answer is simple. we would be in exactly the same position as now and I don't think I was the only one who expected allen to march to the top of the league with the foundation he had inherited. Full marks to him but it is just what was expected. The big differences this year come from two areas. Firstly the clearout of deadwood (Maccammon/Spiller/King/Fuller/Weston/Richards/Oli) which freed up a massive chunk of finance. Secondly the financial windfalls (Gazza/Jarvis/Bertrand). These two elements have supported the backroom recruitment which has been influential. Last year there was no backroom for financial reasons. So what would be different if Hessy was in charge? I reckon there would have been more emphasis on recruiting players with a future rather than a past, even though some of the oldtimers have been outstanding they may struggle in league 1. There would have been more emphasis on getting the best out of what we have got, in particular Jackman, Lee and Whelpdale. The youngsters might have got more of a look in even if it is only last ten minute appearances for the likes of Essam and Miller but to be fair to Allen he has tried to do this with Dack and succeeded with Davies. And Birchall would probably have had a run of four games by now and either won a place or been moved on. Overall Allen has done fine and looks likely to stay until the end of the season at least during which time he can do things his own way after which Hessy will take over again. To Allen's credit he attributes his success the Hessy's past and current input as he explains in some detail in the programme notes for the Aldershot game.
There would certainly have been more emphasis on being less fit under Hess. He liked players running out of puff halfway through a game.
Vinney - spot on. I do like the comment BSG on pointless conjecture, of course it is. Lets face it nobody talked about stimson when he left did they???!!
Yes brb. Sadly for King he last kicked a ball on 29 August since when he has been injured. Hugely disappointing for the guy but exactly what most people would have predicted.
Bristol407 - I had not realised that in regards to since the 29 August - I wrongly assumed he was playing.
So what about the nine games on the trot he played when we started looking decent defensively again last season. Do you not remember the Torquay United match and the reaction from the crowd when he scored? He was not deadwood and shouldn't have been let go. FULL STOP.
No doubt in my mind that King should've been let go. Think about where we are now; we may not have had the funds to sign Adam Barrett, or to bring in Tom Flanagan, and having Simon there maybe or maybe not being fit every week, the likes of Callum Davies would've been placed down the pecking order. Even Connor can't get a look in now. You can't stick to sentiment on this occasion. We all loved Simon King, but the time was undeniably right to move him on.
