I have not posted much after the defeat by Villa because I needed time to digest it and what it means for us as a club. It could still get worse depending what happens at the Stadium of Light tomorrow night. I basically feel very let down by CH and the players and even McNally, everyone who has a braincell could tell this was going to happen as far as a month or even 2 ago. Why could the people who run our club not see it? We have had ample opportunities to get safe but have held back instead of showing a little endeavour to get us over the line and now it is coming back to bite us in the arse. I have been telling anyone who will listen that you cannot rely on Wigan to mess up as they ALWAYS pull it out the bag when needed and surprise, surprise whats happened?! I hate to say it but........ Hughton has got about as much testosterone as Jelly fish and I doubt he can get our players fired up for it now as its too late. Once again we have to rely on other teams such as Stoke and Villa to keep us up. FFS! For all the pro CH supporters please remember that he was meant to have improved our defence, have you seen our goal difference? And don't talk to me about clean sheets it means bugger all if you go down on GD. Also he is meant to be master of transfers right? What the hell happened in January? We ended up with Becchio and Kamara? What a disaster! We needed a goal scorer! No 2 unknowns in the PL. Couple the above with the results and the poor displays I think there are enough reasons to get shot and to be honest I think we should as giving CH our parachute payments to spend scares the hell out of me. I am bitterly disappointed it has come to this and everyone from McNally down should apologise for the total **** up they have created. It could have been so easy.
We brought a goalscorer who was in red hot form and effectively put him immediately into the freezer, giving him almost no chances whatsoever. Boggles the mind as to why CH hasn't played Becchio! On the plus side, we still have Surman and Fox, who are brilliant at Championship level, and could be relied upon to stay should we go down.
Bit gutted that we took the transfer approach we did in january now. If Hughton didn't have faith in a striker why did we force morison out to get him? I can see the logic in Kamara but we surely couldn't expect him to be top dog. The lack of faith in Jackson and Becchio just goes to show how poorly hughton rates our strike force and thats where I feel let down, one in the lack of faith and 2 in the lack of faith shown in Hughton from McNally to not get him the person he wanted in January, cause Becchio can't be that person. It's come back to bite us. The Wolfswinkel deal is now looking worse and worse, with it being announced a couple of months after jan Mcnally must have harboured a deal for the end of the season to save some cash, surely to keep the team developing we should have just paid what they wanted in Jan to avoid this mess.
I honestly believe that if we stay up, things will improve next season. Our style of play will improve and we won't be troubled by relegation again. *If* we stay up.
For one minute I'm not condoning what CH has done, but we must be careful what wish for You only need to look what has happened at clubs like Wolves & Blackburn who went down, managers got sacked and one has gone straight through the other door and Blackburn narrowly avoiding it. As i read somewhere else, CH has been a good manager in the championship with Newcastle an Brum but he is out of his depth in this league. I won't lay any blame at McNally's door for what has happened because he along with the majority of everyone else expected us to be safe and that isn't his fault! Some clubs take knee jerk reactions and they cost them, sometimes they work but very rarely. Its a tough position to be in, cause i dont want to go back to new manager after new manager and hopeless signings and unrest within the club. It could easily be caused with one wrong decision this summer. McNally has that choice to make, and will be his biggest yet! As for me personally, Im on the fence as to what we should do if we go down. But if we stay up then theres no choice but to get rid, being a prem side would intice a much better manager than being in the champ.
I will though say that failing to sign a top striker has been one of our biggest problems but finances dictate that this season unfortunatly and there is nothing DM or CH could do about that.
Thats been the consoling factor for the whole second half of the season and suddenly from looking over our shoulders we're now well and truly in it. Funny thing is Hughton's the kind of guy i'd want to manage us in the championship if we got relegated.
I really fail to see why anyone would want him in charge next season. Can anyone tell me a single thing that he offers us? He's had his chance and ruined us, he doesn't deserve to keep his job.
I really can't believe how vital next week is. A win and we're looking forward to a striker to be very excited about, and other signings predominately aimed at getting said striker the ball where he wants it. A defeat and we're staring into the abyss, wondering just what we will have to spend in the summer, and how many of our players will get poached. I'm still, just about, in the "Hughton-in" camp for 2 reasons: 1) I don't know of any manager currently available who'd do a better job, either in the championship, or in the Premiership. 2) Evidence from previous clubs indicates he can get a team to score goals, and that will be the key focus this summer. If we get the right players in, then hopefully we'll maintain the defensive solidity* we've found this season, and look to pose a significantly greater threat going forward. He's a nice guy (yes, I know that doesn't win points), I can at least understand his interviews, and seems to have an eye for a signing. If we stay up, and if he can sort out the attack, he's a pretty good candidate for someone we could have in charge for several years. *I've seen a couple of arguments about our goal difference showing we're not that much more solid, which I don't think makes sense. We've conceded something like 15-20 goals less this season, we've just not scored as many, so the goal difference won't show the improvement to the defence.
A solid defence is no good if you cant score goals, 38 draws would not be enough to stay up, you can not sacrifice attack to stay 'safe' in defence, its fools gold IMO
I'm not saying Hughton has got the balance right, we have been far too defensive at times this season, and there's been several games where we've looked content for a point from kick-off and it's cost us. However, I actually thought the way we were set up against Villa was pretty good, and the balance was better than of late. It's most likely too little too late, but if we line-up similarly against West Brom at least we'll be more likely to create some kind of chances, than against say Fulham or Newcastle.
expecting the team to change at this late stage under this amount of pressure is a huge mistake, we can only hope for the best now and that the boys really 'want' this no matter what, if we had changed this 5-6 games ago.............
Yes it was better. Then he bottled it and took Wes off and brought on a striker he has now not offered a contract to. That is bizarre. He says selections are just his preference not necessarily a reflection of the player. Even more bizarre.
I think we've got the guys to put it in the net, it's the set up and service to them that's suffered. That's a tactical issue and CH should have it sorted or at least be seen to be trying to fix it rather than just carrying on the same way.
