It's clear to me that were in the same situation we were before Warnock was sacked,players in division over the manager.9 games without a win or even coming close is more to the point and i can't see it improving much. It looks to me as if the players are not happy with Hughes being in charge and this sums it up for me from twitter Alejandro Faurlin @alefaurlin Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. That says to me that there is discontent in the squad and can anyone tell me that squad we have is no better than a draw against reading with the right motivation and leadership?My answer to that is no as the players we have are far better than that. Ale Faurlin is one of our best players and is languishing on the bench so give me a reason for that? because it can hardly be tactical as he is one of our more efficient players.Diakete makes those penetrating runs but lacks the guile of Faurlin and is prone to over-enthusiastic tackles which leads to more bookings than he should get. What exactly goes on in defensive training sessions? do they have a game of hide and seek or do a "chuckle brothers"?Nelsen seems the only one who has any leadership qualities but he cant do it all himself.The decision or lack of it to get 2 recognized center backs in August is starting to haunt us. Hughes has had more than enough time with international breaks to get things right but still we stumble and stutter so what is the answer?Nobody knows what is going through Tony Fernandes's mind at the moment but surely the thought of changing things MUST have passed through at some stage?? He has invested a lot of money in Hughes and his backroom staff and maybe he thinks he owes him some loyalty,well only in extreme cases does loyalty work in football.Only in the exceptions of the likes of Alex Ferguson,Pep Guardiola who win silverware every season does that work. Ask any Arsenal fan how disgruntled they are with Wenger in the last few years but in Arsenals defence they operate at a profit.In my view the time has come to seriously look at where we are and stop all this "keep the faith" and "the squad will improve" stuff because many a fan who is as patient as me is starting to get very frustrated. I will end with one phrase the league table doesn't lie.
Superb Ade. After the first game i suggested that pre season had been a total waste of time and the fact he didn't address the defensive issues showed me enough to want him out back then!! He had the opportunity to build a squad to deal with injuries or suspensions yet he uses the injuries as an excuse. He is a very poor manager. I am not going to another away game while he is in charge!
Excuse after excuse after excuse mate and i'm sick of it,usually i'm patient but i think his time has to come to an end.
TF can't afford to sack Hughes and his backroom staff so he has to go along with he is my man and will turn it around. Reality is I can't see this happening and if Hughes stays its gonna cost him a lot more in television revenue when we are relegated.
Superb post Ade. Balanced and in no way a rant. I am seriously worried. Even if we were to suddenly click into gear tomorrow it still might take us until after Christmas to get away from the bottom 3 or 4 and that's with everything going right. The thing that worries me most is that our team is showing none of the characteristics that a MH team is meant to. I can't see a hard working, determined, super fit team that is difficult to break down. Our players are playing with no urgency and no obvious desire. Too many of them are just going through the motions. While I also consider myself a reasonably optimistic person, I have now lost complete faith in MH to turn this around. Why? Because I see absolutely no improvement. We may be passing the ball a little better but we can't defend for sh**e and are not able to score enough goals to beat anybody. MH must go now to give a new manager a decent run of games to get us going. MH out.
Brilliantly written, Ade. I'd love to say to TF, speaking strictly business, "It's time to cut the losses!" Innit? He is a businessman, after all.
excellent post ade and good reply from nuts, we will lose Faurlin in January unless we get Hughes out now
For me it's back to last season, same traits. 1. We don't score enough goals 2. We can't defend crosses Until we sort those two things out we will stay rooted to the foot of the table!
And that's exactly where the problem is HE. Hughes' fault was failing to sign the right defenders and striker in the summer. All he can do now is a damage limitation exercise.
Deeply worrying signs - Faurlin.....why not picked.....WTF???!! - defending set pieces.....with Stoke and Sunderland to come - look at the little gap opening up between bottom 3 & safety. Norwich, Wigan, villa all picking up points here and there and now it's 2 wins minimum to get clear - 2 or 3 teams have games in hand so could be a lot worse
so how much will it cost next season if we go down? all of these new signings will have clauses in their contracts about relegation. this is old ground that we've been over before.
Good posts, even if short on defenders we still have the players to get out of this. What was that phrase from nearly 100 years ago? "lions led by donkeys" Perhaps a player/s manager/s for the moment could be an option. I'm disappointed in TF's foresight.
