Incredible. If he'd rather work with what we have then his judgement is incredibly poor. Oh and before anyone says he's protecting the players he has to work with by not slagging them off in public and saying we need improvements, well **** the players. They're hardly covering themselves in glory over the past year and they need a good kick up the arse.
I do agree with him about not wanting to take a huge gamble on someone. Blindly rolling the dice on a player is unlikely to keep us up. However, probably my two biggest concerns when we appointed him were both in relation to recruitment. Firstly, he himself wouldn't be able to provide us with access to players who we otherwise wouldn't have been able to sign. He doesn't have the contacts or the relationships etc. Secondly, a manager who is grateful for the opportunity is hardly likely to go around making demands on the board (eg I want this player, or I want that player). They're just going to accept whatever situation is presented to them. The power in that relationship is held by the club, not the manager.
Every signing has an element of gamble about it, but you minimise the risk by due diligence and paying out for someone who has a proven record. Preparing for disappointment.
18 games left, and a point per game would leave us on 33 points. We’re gonna need a fair few wins if we’re to stay up now, which is why I think we’ll go down.
If that’s the case, it would need five wins and five draws in the remaining 18 games to get to 35 points. Doable? Yes, but I have no confidence that this team could manage that. The trouble then is that if we can only win four of the remaining 18, not five, then we would need eight draws, so we’d only be able to lose six more games. Loads of variables and this is all hypothetical, but you get what I mean. Time is running out.
Thing is, I have no issue with having taken a bit of a risk on a manager after Ralph. Better that than a Dyche or Big Sam. But the type of risk I mean is a Marcello Gallardo, who hadn’t managed outside South America. I could get behind that risk. A risk with excitement attached. Not Nathan bloody Jones.
I see the arguement of a Losing mentality., I'd argue yesterday that had our goal stood we would of have won comfortably., The VAR Ref ****ed us. and this could have a huge impact come the end of the year. Lets not forget, They had a favourable result against Sheff utd before us.
It’s doable but a big ask, given that we’ve averaged 0.75 ppg. We will need to average 1.11 ppg for the remaining games. Do you really think 35 will be enough?
Unfortunately other teams are strengthening and building. Leicester are recovering Wolves are recovering, great manager and signings West Ham - too good to go down. Added ings Forest - gelling more and more, decent squad, added a PL experienced striker So that leaves the relegation 3 as Bournemouth, Everton and us unfortunately. With a chance of catching Leeds. Although they seem to be playing well (better than us and the others)
Rather than 5 wins and 5 draws out of 18 (losing only 8 more), I reckon we should look at 7 wins. We can lose 11 then. And one one more point in the bag In that scenario. #positivity
This is also part of our problem. I’ve re-looked at the table, and two wins for us with two losses for Forest puts us level with them. It’s so tight between 7 or 8 teams that survival is there for the taking. The problem is I don’t think we’re capable of taking it, as I can’t see us getting more points than those teams around us.
Interesting podcast from The Game (the football section for The Times) about whether appointing NJ was a terrible mistake - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ILLF6DIKFn7fQkzz8eZJ6?si=fd8f7a5ad242482c