I agree with some of what Finchy said about Revell. Unfortunately we could not offer him what Orient could. I dont agree with the Alan Smith thing though. Yes, he was following O'Neil but thats no excuse for ripping a team apart that was consistently performing. On the contrary, Smith inherited a very good footballing team with an excellent blend of players from our conference days and more recent quality additions like Garner and Regis. Smith treated players who had done nothing wrong (like Paul Hyde) appallingly and replaced them with rubbish whilst employing a dreadful long ball tactic. He was also particularly aloof towards supporters clubs. I understand the point you are trying to make but Smith has a shocking record and hasnt managed anything since he left us. He was sacked by Palace and hasnt managed for EIGHT years. Im not saying Gregory was any good but id have taken him over Smith any day of the week.
I don't know the details of his recent move to Rotherham, but Alex Revell did nothing wrong when leaving us. This isn't the premier league, players at our level need to get the best deals for them and their families and Orient clearly offered him a much better deal than we did. Finchy is right, it was a stupid move on our part given his end of season form.
i wonder what sort of deal rotherham offered him to leave orient,this time next season i wonder if rotherham were in the bottom 3 alex would have his bags packed again
the cold hard fact is that there are not many loyal players left in the game,we are lucky to have matty b a true blue in my eyes
Devonblue, why do you think Martin O'Neill left Wycombe? Because he felt he could take us no further and the team that was there was not good enough to go any further. If it was the ambition to go to a higher league club then why didn't he go to Forest, his main club as a player? O'Neill has always been loyal and at Wycombe, Leicester and Celtic turned down a lot of potentially more lucrative jobs until realistically he could do no more. As for the football under Martin O'Neill, it was always effective football, not the free flowing football people mistakenly appear to remember. Along with the good games under Martin there were some frankly awful ones as well but results were good so its easier to forget those games. The football under Smith was actually pretty good the first season until Christmas to early March ruined us the first season. We put 3 past Orient, 4 past Bradford and 4 past Oxford. In fact even in the second half of the season we put 4 past Stockport, 5 past Bradford, 4 past Burnley and 4 past Carlisle! How many times we have scored that many goals past teams since then? Not often. By no means is he my favourite manager but I just feel we have had a lot worse in Gregory, Adams and post cup semi final going to his head Sanchez. However he had certainly lost the plot and the team by the start of the second season!
Rocky I think it is difficult for lower league players to show loyalty as they are not paid sums that will set them up for life. Yes they are paid well but their careers last 10-15 years if they are lucky. They then have to work again thereafter. They therefore want security of longer contracts if they can get them! I can also understand from the point of view of clubs it can be risky for them to invest in longer contracts but at the same time they then risk losing players to other clubs who will do!
finchy i agree to some point about lower league players but it goes right to the top in the premiership as well ,how many times do you see a player kissing the badge and 2 weeks later he is doing the same at another club.a prime example was judas sol campbell saying that he owed everything to the spurs fans on the tuesday and then the next day signed for the gooners,UNFORGIVABLE he could have signed for any other club in the world but he chose spurs arch rivals what a ****
Finchy, I am well aware of the reasons surrounding O'Neils departure as (unfortunately) I am old enough to remember the non league days. You are right that O'Neil's Wycombe team didnt always play free flowing football and I dont think I suggested that they did. I think the Forest part of your argument is a slightly dodgy one - O'Neil was incredibly loyal to stay with us but lets not forget that Forest were in a bit of turmoil at the time with the Clough era over and relegation from the PL - not saying Martin would have left but there were other circumstances involved. Also using 'goals scored' against other teams as a basis for Smith being a decent manager is a bit tenuous. You ask how many times have we scored that many goals since then - how many games did we win? Where were we in the table when Smith got sacked? The facts are, Alan Smith was a shocking manager who took Wycombe backwards as Adams and Gregory did aswell. Smith hasnt managed another team (apart from Palace) since leaving us in 1996. Thats 15 years! Aside from the football side of things, I remember him refusing to answer a number of fans questions at an AGM in '96 and generally being aloof. Bad manager mate, plain and simple.
My point was Devonblue was that for a period he wasnt too bad, the period in which I said the football was good, was up till Christmas. Our record in the league till then was W8 D9 L4 so 33 points from 21, which was top half form and included a 14 match unbeaten run. I think it will have been very difficult for anyone to have taken us forward after O'Neill as he had taken us far beyond what we could have expected and the thing that O'Neill does is make a team of ordinary players play far above their potential. This is why I think that no matter who would have been there would have been perceived as a bad manager and were fighting a losing battle with the fans as they were following the messiah! In fact the club has got nowhere near where we were under O'Neill since then. And I openly admitted by the second season, he had lost the plot and we were struggling but when others such as Gregory and Adams left where were we? Gregory - we were in freefall and Adams - we were in the league below. However, I do agree his attitude with fans was poor but then what about Sanchez and Lambert, not exactly fans friendly when with us?! I guess we will just have to agree to disagree!
Yes fair play, I take onboard your point Finchy, 'God' was always going to be a hard act to follow. Im particularly anti-Smith since I was one of those at the AGM who he snubbed! History is history and we now have a manager, who I believe, will go on to manage at the top level. BLOOS!
I don't have a hated player. Mickey Bell, mentioned above is one of my favourite ever players, along with Dave Carroll and numerous others. The most unpleasant and selfish individual was Tony Adams. He has a incredibly high opinion of himself considering he has absolutely no aptitude for football management. A very good player but just terrible for Wycombe.
