i'm in the minority, i feel it would be a big mistake to get rid of pj and i can't see the point of worrying about acadamy status. Another manager would come in and change everything again and in a years time we could be in the same position. I think Clegg is just an evans puppet so him going would change nothing. I think wait and see with the academy, see what happens and upgrade if it benefits us, simples.
Ive said on other posts that I am torn and really cant see both sides of the argument and can agree with parts of both sides aswell. The summer signings mainly looked good and other than Ellington there wasnt one that either didnt excite me or didnt make sense. Although mainly short term the players should have been able to bring stability to the squad and he did show a glimmer of hope of moving away from obvious signings with Drury and Cresswell joining the team. His approach seems like the approach of a Town manager. He is open, mainly honest, approachable and I can see where he is coming from. He encourages ball playing football rather than 'hoof it' mentality of Keane and also seems to favour an attacking approach. However we are playing like a bunch of idiots and our defending is nothing short of laughable. Our run is diabolical considering how much 'talent' and experience is in the squad and when you consider how much has been spent in both transfer fees and wages on assembling this squad it makes you wonder if you wouldnt have been better of going to the local park and signing players with no pedigree whatsoever. Although not all this has been spent by Jewell he does still have the squad to choose from. Although the whole team is playing badly he still seems to leave certain players out in the cold. The likes of Priskin, Healy, Hyam and Peters have all been used sparingly at best whilst the players ahead of them have constantly failed to impress. We signed Chopra even though we knew about his problems and that seems to be a questionable idea at best, especially thinking he has been pathetic, I would ask whether his mind wanted to come here or his bank balance (or lack thereof) And putting McCarthy straight into goal considering that ALB has not let us down is both unfair, confidence bashing and somewhat unfounded at best. Although I dont think we made bad signings in the summer, with the exception of Ellington, it is obvious to all that they have been a massive let down and other than Cresswell, and either that is bloody unlucky, our coaching staff is failing them in training, our they had obvious issues during their signing on process/ medical, which we overlooked or ignored. I have also never seen so many individual errors and moments of sheer incompetence/ madness on a pitch ever and this for me is one of the reasons why I havent turned against Jewell yet. No matter how bad/ good your training or instructions are all footballers should know the basics. We have conceded goals from such simple things as passing straight to their striker, taking a throw on and throwing it straight to their player. making an unchallanged defensive clearance and heading to the owner oppostion player in sight, not marking, not closing down and not putting in a tackle. A lack of concentration (watch wed's highlights for confirmation) means we have probably conceded at least 10 goals and god knows how many points this season. I can see why people are clambering for Jewells head but how the same people can be moaning about a lack of contract renewals for the idiots on the pitch just confuses me. Im not sure if Jewell can sort this out but Im not convinced that an outsider can do any better either.
As ever tractorbhoy a very balanced piece and I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying!! Why our are views always in the minority??
PTC, I can see why there all of the other views come from. I can also see why some feel 'any' change may be better than staying the same. Im also not convinced we are in the minority as we have had no major grumblings at matches just the odd voice. I actually dont feel that any 'side' has a majority as there seems so many issues currently. I think everyone on these pages and all other Town fans feel that a change is required but its what and who is replaced rather than a swell for 1 aspect only. A club that is moving away from being the focal point for a region (maybe a bit ott but you get the idea) a spending power that has never been seen before, failures from Chairmen, through manager, coaching staff and players. Jewell has faults but I dont see him in training. He says sensible things and I find that I normally agree with him. Am I gullible or does he talk a good job- possibly. He does have history of building a team but also of failure. Most people say he was blameless for Derby but he couldnt turn them around. I still keep coming back to the argument that no matter how bad his training methods can be, the players shouldnt be making the simple mistakes that are at least partially keeping us in the bottom 1/4 of the league. We are nowhere near 'decent' but I think if you remove the individual mistakes we would be at least 6 or 7 points better off and not looking over our shoulder.
Indeed and even though currently I don't think it is the right thing to do to sack PJ, if he were to be got rid of you can't really argue against it. There is clearly a good argument as why he should go, it is at this moment hard to keep arguing that he shouldn't. The biggest problem is we lack good defensive players, all of our defenders are prone to make mistakes, Sonko is ok but he also sometimes is positionally awful like Delaney, whilst 2 decent CB will not solve all our problems, it will certainly be a major improvement. Another thing is a lack of leadership, especially with Andrews gone, we don't have a player in that team to take the game by the scruff of the neck or get the players motivated or stop them feeling sorry for themselves!! We need a De Vos or a Magilton shouting at the players!!
Personally I cant see how professional players on tens of thousands of pounds a month can need somebody else to organise or motivate them but it does seem that both are lacking in our team (along with common sense, taking responsibilty and thinking) I agree that a new RB and possibly a CB with these qualities will help (I say possibly because I have some faith in the Smith/ Sonko partnership) but you need to defend as a team. Leadbitter is not an attacking midfielder but he doesnt do the tackling or tracking of a defensive midfielder either. JET cant be bothered to move unless the ball is within a mm of his foot and other than goals I wasnt overly impressed with Andrews. For a player on loan from the premiership I thought some of his passing and ball control was horrendous. When we had the likes of Magilton, Mowbray and Holland in the team, i dont think anybody realised just how important solid, unspectular, sensible players can be. We rated them all but I dont think even we appreciated how much of our success came from having an 'leadership' running through the core of the team.
Some of you amaze me! 11 defeats out of the last 14 games and you still think Jewell needs time! Time to do what exactly? Time to get us relegated!
JWM, The one thing I can say for certain is I would rather Edwards, Delaney and Leadbitter left the club than Jewell. I cant see any reason to keep any of those 3 here. I have every respect for your views and I can understand them aswell. As I put in my first post I have very mixed views on Jewell and I can not say that Jewells departure would not be best for the club. I would hate for this club to be relegated and if I thought it was best that Jewell did go I would have no problems in saying goodbye just as I actively tried to tell everyone during the previous season that Keane was an idiot whilst everyone was defending him. I think it does say something when your club is in such a bad position as ours and nobody can see 1 united way of moving forward!
I feel Edwards can still offer something, but only at right wing. A good sub to bring on when Martin is tiring or in the event our proper right back gets injured. He's not a bad player, just not a right back.
He wouldn't be a bad fullback if he had 2 decent CB's helping him out. Although he is positionally poor at RB, I think he's more effective in an attacking sense than he ever was on the right wing!!
