And we sat back as if we had Ballard & Batth there ... ... just seemed a bit of a white flag to me, we didn't go for them at any point. I can't remember us causing them any problems tbh.
I think blaming this season solely on Mowbray, or Beale, or Dodds, or Speakman, or the recruitment, is too simplistic. A combination of things happened to lead to a bad season. I think expecting appointing a particular head coach to right all the wrongs is too simplistic too.
Yep. Think i've said it before that nobody is to blame but nobody is blameless. We can appoint Pep but if our recruitment is poor again nothing will change, just like if our recruitment is good but we appoint a poor coach we will also be bad again. We need full alignment with the model, we can't have another Mowbray situation playing out in the media. It's why I keep banging on about how I am concerned about the structure and who is actually making the decisions.
Absolutely. I am certain Mowbray is a good coach, but if he doesn't want to work within the club's structure, it's pointless employing him. We need total buy in from everyone who comes in and, like you say, the structure needs to be clear.
I would add injuries to key players at various times during the season also didn't help. Huggins in particular seemed to be a turning point
I think Mowbray was more than happy to work in the clubs structure. His problem, in my opinion, was he was experienced enough to know he had been delivered a sub-standard squad to achieve the targets he had been set. When the rest of the club mgt team fail to do their job it is only the head coach that pays for their mistakes.
They bullied us and it was a game too far for a young, patched up, over achieving side. I had no complaints at the time, I just wish we had built on that success...
Definitely agree with your last sentence. You're probably right with the second sentence. I don't think his public complaints about it helped anything in the end though.
Imo TM was on board with everything within the club. Soon as the results were bad he blamed a lack of experience which caused a falling out with the board.
It may just be me but I'm always surprised managers never realise any of this until a highly paid contract is signed. Highly experienced but totally oblivious to anything relating to the squad, set up, etc.
Anderson can’t have possibly been any worse than Gooch in a back 3, Ronald McDonald wouldn’t have been any worse than him. Ekwah played at CB several times for West Ham, Michut was on the bench.. He was stubborn and tried to overload the midfield again in a game that it was never going to work.