You've got to be joking Weighty? Leadbitter is capable of playing well but aside from the last few months he was a complete liability, the number of passes that went missing was criminal and worse.. in dangerous areas.
3 Good months doesn't make up for all the poor performances that went before it! Take the Peterborough debacle when he was culpable for at least 2 of their goals. I'm glad he's putting in some decent performances now but lets face it, he sure owes them! He should have been transfer listed at the end of last season
he has been poor this season and i'm not bothered if he leaves but he has not been **** all the time he has been here....
I'm not saying that he is worth what we paid for him but he is far better value than say Priskin or Norris and as i say prior to this season i bet he was in most people's prefered starting line-up i can't be bothered to scan back and prove that comment(we will just have to presume i'm right). I don't think he deserve's the amount of stick that he gets he appears to be a model pro off the field not a lazy player or a liability. IMHO
I cannot see how people can be so doom and gloom, we've only lost 3 games in the last 17 and actually have some decent quality players in our team atm and players who actually want to be here and play football. This is the best we've played consistenly since ME has come in. Yes Jewell has his flaws and we all think we know best and cannot understand some of his decision but this is the same with any manager!! I think people need to take more aof a measured look at things like performances, progress over the course of a season and the situation we have found ourselves in and then form 'realistic' expectations. Noone is happy where we have finished this year or that we have a negative goal difference, but that doesn't mean we have'nt progressed. And there is a difference between expectation and ambition, just because some of us have more realistic expectations doesn't mean that the ambition is low!! I think many people are frustrated more at the mismanagement over the past 10 years, specifically Keanes when it looked like we may well go up and now Norwich are up there people get even more frustrated. Like I've said before I expect those who are most doom and gloom now will be the one's who expect us to be challenging for automatic promotion next season come the end of the summer!! As for players over the summer at the very least we need a GK, CB & RB for us to finish near the playoffs I think we need GK, 2 CB's, RB & ST. Plus if we really want to push on add a DM, a winger & another striker to that. As for leadbitter, I've always though there was a good player in there although not worth what we paid and I think there are a few reasons for his poor performances and why he is finally coming good. Like up until now we haven't had any players for the past 3 years who showed any type of form(we all wanted Walters out but look at him now!!), He had to play DM with Norris as his partner, he got made captain and i think he struggled with this. I hope he does sign but on lower wages and starts a fresh, could be an important player for us next season. All the players who we were criticising at the start of the season and under Keane are gradually getting some decent performances in there.
Still don't rate Jewell but time will tell. Not many positives to take from this season, probably more negatives but we have seen a slight improvement towards the end of this season. Of Jewells signings i think Chopra has been a let down but many will disagree with that, Bullard has been ****e at best and i think everyone will agree with that, JET was ****e and lazy but has realised he has to buck up his ideas and is now starting to show promise, i would say that the gk situation has been a poor one at best and should have been sorted in the summer, Murphy is ok but nothing outstanding and personally i wouldn't make the loan deal permanant, Sonko is ok as cover but not the answer, Bowyer is too injury prone and the legs may have gone, finally Cresswell & Drury have been the shining lights and were a great signing. All in all i'm not overly impressed but lets hope Jewell has learnt from his mistakes. Some of the linked players so far do not look encouraging but it is only paper talk/rumours so we will have to wait on that front. At the moment i'm not calling for Jewells head but i am calling for Cleggs head CLEGG OUT!!
Would not be bothered to see Leadknob leave. He has done ok recently but I just feel that we could have someone more effective in the middle. There are plenty of players out there who can offer more, either in an attacking sense or defensively, than he does. A midfield pairing of Hyam and Drury is the way to go for me. Drury has certainly shown he has the range of passing to be the playmaker and open defenses up, while Hyam does a good job of sitting and protecting the back four.
This has definitly been a season of two halves which overall has left us understandably dissapointed. And while Jewell will never get any awards for managerial brilliance hes done enough for me to think we can do well under him. The signings in the summer as i have agreed with all along were plugging a gap, i dont think any one expected the plug would fail in the dramatic way that it did. Sqaud at 7-1 thrashing * 13 Stockdale * 03 Cresswell * 05 Delaney Booked * 22 Carson (Smith - 46' Dismissed ) * 29 Ainsley * 06 Leadbitter Booked * 07 Edwards * 09 Emmanuel-Thomas (Kennedy - 54' ) * 11 Martin Dismissed * 15 Andrews * 10 Chopra (Ellington - 71' ) Squad against peterbrough at home when we won 3-2 * 32 McCarthy (repalced stockdale as another loan keeper) * 03 Cresswell (started both) * 05 Delaney (started both) * 20 Smith (substituted on then was sent off in first game but starts in place of ainsley) * 06 Leadbitter (Started both) * 07 Edwards (started both) * 09 Emmanuel-Thomas (Bowyer - 65' ) (started both) * 11 Martin (Started both) * 17 Drury (Stevenson - 70' ) (in team in place of andrews - jewell signing despite crawleygate) * 10 Chopra (Scotland - 88' ) (started both) * 27 Murphy (takes carsons place) (jewell signing) So thats 7 of the starting 11 at peterbrough origninally that are part of a starting line up when we have been playing very well in the second half of the season The people who didnt start Stockdale - went back to fulham Ainsley - hardly covered himself in glory, but still at club and signed new contract Andrews - loan ended, not entirely sure where hes ended up Carson - fighting for a place in team with murphy The point being that those four players arguably were not the reason for the the thrasing, and all of them jewell would get crictism for leaving out, the rest of the team have undoubtedly improved and just in general we have obviously improved greatly martin was punished and has come back playing his best football leadbitter is also playing some of the best football of his time at town this suggests to me despite some tactical flaws jewell can get players playing, albeit if it has taken a long time the fact that despte four players the line up now is very similar also supports the notion that jewell had a long term plan for the season but the players he wanted to play just wernt doing it for him at the start of the season and he had to plug the gaps while he worked with them the signings after the peterbrough game also support this i think Sonko came in to add the steel to the defence we all desperatly wanted and initially did very well we got Bullard in to add to the midfield but to everyones dissapointment hasnt lived up to expectations at all Murphy came in on loan and after a bad settling in period has also been one of our better performers, jewell has acknowledged that he is taking up carsons place in the team which would mean if he didnt come in 8 of the peterborough 11 would be part of the regular starting line up what im trying to say is that this season has been one of annoying repair work but the fruits of (some of) our patience and "faith" is beginng to pay off because jewell has now had the time to put his influence into the squad. yes it not been as instant as we would have liked but there are only so many managers out there who can do that especially from the position we were in. i said before january i would base my opinion on jewell on how he used the january transfer window, ok the transfers were hardly ground breaking but the change to the team have obviously been what we needed and the performances this side of new year have been far and away from i could possibly have expected before new year and i only hope that he can maintain the little bit of momentum and form we have over the summer but we all know that if offers come in for JET, martin cresswell or any other of our good performers a lot of the decision is out of jewells hands especially if the money but for the first time since magilton i can confidently predict a team that looks relativly similar each side of the summer and signings are only needed to advance our position not to save ourselves from potential relegation.
or another way of looking at it is: Jewell stumbled across a winning formula which most of us had been talking about for much of the time beforehand and we went on a decent run and we were talking about the play offs... and then he went back to his old ways and we turned **** again.....
thats a very short sighted way of looking at it, which is why i used my peterborough games example the team hes using now (the team he stumbled upon) is the team he used at the start of the season (which everyone could see needed strengthening) but wasnt returning the right results regularly. yes since turning good we went through a little blip but all teams do, over the course of the second half of the season only very rarely have we deserved to lose and we now seem to be building a good momentum for next season, and we seem to be a team not a group of players now.
I have to say that is the biggest load of bollocks I have ever read on these pages. As Mike has shown in a fair and balanced post, the team has remained very consistant over a fairly long period. The team that Jewell stumbled upon is basically the same team as we have now so how did he turn us back to a **** team again. SORRY I forgot that comment doesnt help your agenda does it? We win its the players that deserve the praise, we get beaten and its down to Jewells **** up. The truth is we were never going to reach the play offs after the start we had this season. We have never been good enough or close enough to these teams to ever take the opportunity seriously and if you want to have a go at Jewell then you could do it in a fair way and point out his actual failings. The lack of a goalkeeper for example which definately hasnt helped. He could improve on his substitutions and you could also point out that the signing of Ellington especially was pointless and a waste of wages. It would be a lot easier for you just to admit you hate Jewell and you wont be happy until he has gone but it strange how the same people who hate him so much are also the same people who thought making the play off were actually going to happen. It strange really, especially considering that some on here think I think Jewell is a fantastic manager (which I don't) yet I havent once got excited by this seasons chances. The stupid thing is that I think for 99% of categories we all consider this season as a failure. Whether its players not living up to expectations, the match day experience, the league position. The only difference is that some have seen positivity in the last 3 months and others havent.
Yes but you've missed the whole point. The side we have now is NOT the side he stumbled upon and that's why we haven't continued to climb the table. Not only that but your argument about four different players not contributing to the defeat is sheer nonsense. Anyway the main culprit at Peterborough was Leadbitter and he's now playing well because he's in the shop window.
tractorbhoy I will hate any manager who is not capable of taking us to the Premier League and is completely inept or lacks the hunger to be a great manager. There are others who would be worth paying millions of pounds of salary to.
