What went wrong last season then? How come we had the worst (or 2nd, can't quite remember if Rotherham surpassed us) form in the league in 2024?
I feel like we've got a very good thing going, not perfect, but better and more organised than most of the teams around us. This includes Speakman, KLD and the coaching staff. We don't have megabucks, and we're working within a specific remit that is a bit different to the majority of Championship clubs, so far this has worked very well, moving us from a top-8 League One team to a team that has very real Premier League ambitions. Last season was a disappointment on the pitch no doubt, but the team is essentially the same-one that got us into the playoffs the year before, so massive changes are not needed, just a coach with good ideas and a few tweaks to the playing staff (a striker the main one). When you start to take out certain important pieces, as we did with Mowbray we started to see the wheels come off, I think we were 8th when Mowbray got sacked and although that was just a single man we weren't able to keep things together and ended up near the bottom. If we take out Speakman, whomever comes next will have a new spin on what has already been built and may decide to deconstruct it, which can take time, something I think we all agree, we don't have too much of. We had more than a decade of sacking managers every 18-24 months, I'd really love us to find some consistency now.
This is where the manager appointment is absolutely key this year, I honestly think we still have a squad good enough to compete top half of the table at least but tactically we were absolutely horrendous with no consistency whatsoever. Form wise, over the last 10 games of the season we were 3rd bottom which is definitely relegation level and that is solely down to the head coach appointment of Dodds, some of the basic setups and team selections were just weird. We need to get the right person for the current squad initially, no matter if Speakman is still here or not. For all we know our first manager target was Still, we offered him a good deal, waited around and he f*cked us over when another team came in. 2nd choice may well have been Rosenior, who again appears to have been swayed by another club taking an interest. If thats correct we have done the right thing and moved onto another option rather than waiting for him to decide if we are good enough, he's not the right man if he's willing to wait for a better offer. The biggest worry for me is how possible candidates may view the club, media reports are making us look a bit desperate and the statement on Friday from KLD seems to have made things worse now that Rosenior is out of the picture. I'm sure we will have someone in soon but christ knows who that may be!
Some good points mate, I think timing wise right now with the transfer window etc probably make it difficult to get rid of him now, fresh eyes can be a good thing though, a new dof doesn’t mean we rip the whole thing up just have to find the right one but again that’s easier said than done, ultimately I’m siding on moving on from speakman just the issue of the timing we move for me
I wonder if now is the time to look at an ex-player appointment. An O’Shea, Cattermole or Yorke? I would be reasonably happy with O’Shea mind.
Come on man, does anyone think managers turn jobs down because they weren't first choice? That's one of the most mental things I've heard on here and there's been plenty to choose from
If all of the things we're reading are true, it does suggest the club have stringent demands, you can choose to view that positively or negatively. Positive: We have very clear parameters and understand exactly what kind of candidate we want and what we want them to do. Negative: We're being too specific in our demands on the head coach and are not allowing them the freedom to do what they want.
You make yourself look more of a ( jump on the bandwagon lad every time you write something) have you ever considered thinking for yourself? By the way I still stand by that but I don’t think it says everything is well.
A chaotic shambles of an absolute cesspit that is SAFC - even the mags at work have stopped taking the piss
I actually believe them that there are other candidates that haven't been "outed" yet. They'll have definitely spoken to more than just one at a time. But its also very clear that the club are using the Echo to leak that.
It might be a completely true statement, especially if said candidate is also currently unknown to management. They’re just assuming they’ll find him eventually.
