A couple of results said it all today about managing a club in this division. Brum were managerless and playing s**t. They got beat 8-0 by Bournemouth at St Andrews and then appointed Rowett around the same time as we got Slade. Today they stuffed Reading 6-1 with a far inferior squad (so we're told) to us. We got lucky to beat Reading 2-1 with a pen and an own goal when they only had 10 men in the second half. Which club has really come on the most and turned it around?
Their manager was the Burton boss wasnt he ? Slade was the Orient boss. I think its just the way the championship is. Notice Blackpool got a good draw today and won last week against Brum. Funny old game Saint.
Yes isaw, Rowett was the Burton manager, but I don't see any problem with that. Just had a look and he was actually appointed there 3 weeks after Slade came to us, not at the same time, so he's had less time to sort things than our man. He's only had 7 games in charge (Slade has had 10) and has won 4 of them, drawn two and just lost just the one. He's lifted them off second bottom to 15th spot beating Watford and Forest along the way. This a results based business (I'm reluctant to call it a game these days) and he's delivered big time. From being down and outs he's motivated a very lowly rated squad in a way that Slade has failed to do with a much better set of tools to work with. In fact, "set of tools" seems an apt description of our squad with bloody DIY amateur using them.
Sorry Sparks, I haven't seen any evidence that our 'set of tools' is better than Birmingham's squad. In fact we haven't seen half of our squad. We are obviously heading for a mass cull during January.
hampshire - maybe it's the tool that using them? Reminds me of my time spent on development sites. You'd see some guys turn up with the shiniest set of brand new tools you'd wish to see, but they were often bloody pathetic at using them. Then you'd get the guy with a bag full of well worn old tools that had seen some service, but boy, could he bloody use them - he'd jump over those shiny-tool boy's heads every time! I just look at something like the acquisition of Adeyemi from Brum. Many Brum supporters were distraught when he left the as he was a rising star and a shoe in up there. Down with us he can hardly get any game time - that says it all about "perceived squad quality" at our club.
So far we have only seen one bag of tools and not the other one. Maybe the unused bag of tools will be on ebay in January.
Here's a Jonesyesque quote from Slade, “The key is to learn from this. This is a team who might win promotion to the Premier League and we have to learn and progress to that level. At times we were behind Bournemouth and it gives me an idea exactly where we are.” From that I would expect wholesale changes for the next game, but then I expected that following the Rotherham game. The key was to learn from the Rotherham fiasco.
hampshire - It'll probably be a bit of a wrench, but we could lose a few spanners no problem. Bob - I couldn't believe Slade started yesterday with the same 11 that were so poor against Rotherham. That was his opportunity to send out a real message to the "elite" he's been favouring up till now by making significant changes to the personnel and system. That says it all to me - the guy has no vision at all and is going to take us nowhere with his current approach.
Yikes... when was the last time you guys let 5 in , that 5 in the 2nd half against Preston maybe .Barring a semi miracle , no promotion this season.Should make an interesting summer for the" The Capital Gang "
