I can't believe we are back to this already. A few bad pre-season results and now Paul Jewell doesn't think his players are good enough. Frankly, if we have a problem with set pieces and crosses PJ then that is either down to poor training or because you have a new GK and CB who need time to gel as a unit. Can we **** PJ off now and finally get a manager in who has the belief to get us in the Premier League with whatever players are at his disposal? Ian Holloway? Jim Magilton?
So we as fans are allowed to say the squad isnt good enough but when the manager says it he should be sacked - dont get the logic there. I doubt Jewell has just realised the squad isnt good enough - he has been saying since the end of last season that we needed to add 4 or 5 players to the first team squad, which we havent done yet. Reading between the lines, we have had our budget cut - hence the haggling over Davies so we are basically saying he needs to improve a very average squad whilst spending no money and get instant results, even before the transfer business has been completed. Would you like him to turn water into wine and walk on water at the same time. AND if you are seriously suggesting any manager alive (or dead come to that) would have confidence in getting our current squad promoted I think you may need to be declared insane. We all know that Jewell made a major cock up on signings last summer and that he has a lot to prove before fans trust him. We also know that a repeat of last seasons results will not be tolerated but this seems ott to say the least.
i'm here to stick the boot in a little spoke to my old man this morning - he went last night and reckons he sees no hope for you under jewell. he said you're miles off challenging and he thinks it'll end in him being sacked by christmas and having to start again with someone else. it was only a friendly though. having said that, you should see some signs of progress by now...
What's he supposed to say after 2 preseason friendly losses to lower league opposition, " we're ready and will be top 6!? " He probably wants a reaction from the players. He treated the friendly properly last night, with his first 11 in mind I think and also 2 subs. He feels very let down by the players. He isn't getting any help in terms of financial backing. That wouldn't change for another manager either! We're clearly tightening our financial outgoings, and we're finding it tough to bring in who we'd like. AGAIN that won't change with another manager! Joe Royle worked miracles in such a situation. Very few managers can! Whether people like / hate Jewell, he will be in charge until Christmas minimum I think, so accept it. Jim Magilton!?!?!? Don't make me laugh. When Jim was doing quite a good job, and the money came the squad was very weak on the left wing. What did he do? Sign 3 central midfielders! Jim wasted TONNES of money. I certainly don't want him again. Why would Ian Holloway join us from Blackpool!? Zero reason!
And, on managers who will claim to get our very average squad promoted, I think a certain Roy Keane done just that, spent £10m in the process and he done well for us didnt he!
I'm kind of pining for some of the football we played under Jim. We were very far from perfect then but we had hope and our expectations were nearly realised. Paul Jewell is starting to grip my **** It's not about signing players, it's about sorting out the players we've got now. Why can't he do it? Is it because he's over 10 years past his sell by date? Is it his hand picked coaching staff that are not good enough? Evans hasn't got a ****ing clue at to what he's doing. This is football, not business. Biggest mistake, appointing a snake catcher as CEO rather than someone who knows the in's and out's. I'm falling out of love with our club during this tenure. We're in a **** situation
Monkey, the football under Jim pre ME was good but after his rush of blood to the head with the money available we lost all sense of cohesion and I dont think we have ever found it again. I havent seen any of the pre season action so Im not sure if things are continuing from last season or not but last season we conceded 10's of goals due to individual errors rather than poor team play. Im not sure you can coach out this kind of mistake, although we can obviously work harder as a team in general. Some of Jewells methods may well be out of date and there is a question mark over that but the general idea is still the same. Stop the ball getting into the box but if it does get there first and clear it. I do agree that I no longer have the same feelings about the club that I did pre ME. I think its that missing link from the club to the fans that makes me feel so distant these days rather than anything happening on the pitch. Sheepshanks was a great link and spokesman. These days unless it comes from Paul Jewell then we dont hear anything offical and have to put up with newspaper rumours instead. The situation definately does not help to stabilise a club that is not on very sound footings.
I think you might be being a little harsh on yourselves here. Southend were almost promoted to L1 last season, in fact they had a bad wobble at the end which knocked them out of the auto positions into the play-off's, which they screwed up. They are a handy outfit and held us well when we played them in our L1 season. My mate went to the match and said that your wing play was dreadful and you were nothing worry about up front. But as new faces come in that is all going to take time. As for the goals, your defence has had a few new arrivals and this also takes time to merge into a defence that knows and trusts eachother, look at us last season in the prem always chopping and changing and we conceeded loads. Having said that, the biggest problem for you guys is Jewell. Same old excuses. We need to do this, we need to do that.....................etc......... He did buy players and it has not worked out. I think unless you have a barnstomer he will be gone at Christmas, look at how long Keane lasted though you may hang on to him for longer.
When Jim left we had a squad of players that nearly scraped into the play offs! Personally I think we've made good signings this summer but it sounds like Paul Jewell doesn't have any belief!
There would be no point in sacking Jewell now, he's brought in his own players and it is now his team, it wouldn't be fair on a new manager to come in halfway through the close season and try to sort the team out. Besides which who would want to come here, I would certainly rather have Jewell here than the likes of Magilton. You also have to think about what type of manager would come here, our best bet would be a young manager from lower leagues. This type of project is likely to be a long term one and how long would it be before our fans start wanting instant success and decide we need yet another change?
Hampy, Magilton was the one that was so obsessed with Norris that plymouth knew they could add an extra 1 million on his price and we still would have paid! we are in a totally different world to when he left, do you think Magilton would be any better at attracting players on a limited budget as PJ? last night it sounded like Damo was at fault again, we really need to get rid of this donkey and get an experienced head to organise the defence! christ how i wish we had a JDV type of player now!
My thoughts are that ME is holding money back to see how the start of the season goes, if we are like last season come October he will get rid of PJ and get somebody new in to have a couple of months to look at the squad and sound new players out for January.
I Think there are 4 ways to look at this . 1 Its only a friendly , the team will be experimenting and trying out different options with no one wanting an injury before the season starts . So effort will be minimal . 2 These lower league teams play out of there skins as if its there cup final . ( a lot of big guns are put out of cup games by these so called minnows . Ask Man U and liverpool ) 3 PJ doesn't have a clue . 4 The players are just crap with PJ doing the best he can with a bad lot . I myself am slightly more biass to 1 and 2 ( at the moment ) only the first month of the new season will tell . coyb
Has it really come to this already? Wanting a manager sacked after 2 friendly defeats!! Listen it is slightly worrying that we defend the way we have done, I have to say I don't think Delaney helps at all and tbh I don't really have high hopes for Loach, I know most do on here, I have a feeling ALB will be our Number 1 come the end of the season. Loach isn't a dominanting GK and with our defence that is what we need, not someone who doesn't have confidence to come off his line!! It seems strange looking back at conversations on here that people were saying we are shaping up well they're pleased with the squad etc, it goes from one extreme to the other, I think sometimes fans can be majorly guilty of loosing all perspective. We've lost 2 friendly games, if I recall rightly we won most of our friendlies under Keane one season and looked in good form and look what happened, similarly I recall under Lyall we lost all of our friendly games and went on to win the league!! I think aslong as things don't go the way they did last season Jewell will be here for some time, although I'm not sure the fans will have patience but we need to be realistic in our expectations. I think fans are frustrated at how poor we've been since ME has been here, but that's not going to change over night!! What we need now is a bit of continuity, one of the major problems over the past few years has been the complete upheaval of our squad year after year, this has to stop!! People keep saying Jewell is 10 years past his sell buy date but I do recall he lead Wigan to a 10th place finish and a league cup final in 2006 and kept them up the following year!! He may be a bit of an old fashioned manager but the game isn't that different now as it was 5 years ago!! Guru completely agree we need to get rid of Delaney asap and get someone experienced and commanding at the back even if that's a player in the twilight of their career, we need some stability at the back. Loach is young and doesn't seem very confident or commanding, Edwards is relaxed and not really a defender, Cresswell is good but he's still young and not one to really command the back line, perhaps Smith will eventually but he's still young and making mistakes!!
it's not the friendly defeats PTC. If I put someone in charge of something in my company and they came to me and said 'I can't do it' then i'd be having a conversation with them about moving on. In these situations bad results usually follow bad attitude, not the other way around. We've seen it with Guardiola and he rightly called time.
Lancs, keeping on the business analogy, if you asked somebody to head up a department at your company but then refused to give him the tools to make changes would it be his fault or your fault that things didnt change? Sadly football relies too much on cash these days for anybody to turn us around without a bit of financial freedom. There should be no need to go and spend £10m but I think it has to be at least £2m.
You completely choose to miss the point PTC! Jewell has admitted that this team simply isn't good enough so who's fault is that? Bad management by basically slagging the players in the first place, that's hardly going to motivate them! This is his team now with most of his signings over 18 months and yet we still have the same weaknesses that he vowed to do something about! He has had the best part of 3 months in which to put things right and yet nothing has seemed to change! Jewell is yesterday's man and he should just admit that he is not up to it and should resign now or Clegg should put the poor bastard out of his and our misery!
JWM, what do you expect him to say. We all think the squad is **** so if the manager says 'we are great' you would call him deluded and an idiot. He then agrees with us that we are **** and your still not happy. I think you may aswell just admit that you dont want him here and will automatically hate everything he says. If he had wasted millions building the squad then I would agree he should have done a lot better but he has had next to no money whatsoever. We all know he has missed out on targets due to our constraints this year. Our signings have been on average £100k players. What do you really expect him to do?
tractorbhoy. Anyone is given a budget to work with. You don't just write blank cheques! We have Jimmy Bullard on our wage bill. Who made that decision?
I agree Lancs, everyone is given a budget to work on and he is doing so. I havent got any problem with this but when your talking about rebuilding in a multimillion pound business then doing it with nothing is hardly going to enable you to compete with the best around unless you are a genius, and regardless of you views on Jewell, I doubt anybody would put him in the genius category. On Bullard, He was a free transfer but as you say we are paying his wages. I have no idea what they are but would imagine they are at the top end of our budget. Is he worth that wage? - on his day yes but they have been few and far between. I would happily make him the top earner in the squad if he played like he did during his loan period but he does have history of not always being reliable. So yes, possibly a **** up, although I think our budget has been slashed since last summer. No real logic behind this guess except last summer we spent over £1m on JET who was relatively obscure and now it seems we are arguing over every fiver.
