| It's just not good enough at the end of the day 15:33 - Mar 20 with 4360 views | SomethingBlue |
Nice to see a better performance, because that was the absolute baseline expectation. But the points made the other night remain: it's a club used to losing, to not seeing things through, to not going the extra mile — and that applies off the pitch as well.
No blame to Cook, who has an enormous job and probably won't have to worry about the end-of-season distraction of play-offs as he rebuilds. The squad needs a reboot but so does the entire club, because things under Evans have run their course. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:46 - Mar 20 with 4283 views | Steve_M |
Yes, the mentality from the top down is too accepting of mediocrity. Too much of what happens off the pitch is done on the cheap and too much of the first team squad is erratic and uncoordinated.
It was nice to at least see what Cook would like us to do but the reaction to the equaliser happens far too often, a team used to losing and, worse, expecting it. That's been the case for the greater part of the last three seasons.
I really hope that the takeover isn't dead because I can't see the club moving forwards again with Evans still in charge either. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:53 - Mar 20 with 4259 views | SomethingBlue |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:46 - Mar 20 by Steve_M |
Yes, the mentality from the top down is too accepting of mediocrity. Too much of what happens off the pitch is done on the cheap and too much of the first team squad is erratic and uncoordinated.
It was nice to at least see what Cook would like us to do but the reaction to the equaliser happens far too often, a team used to losing and, worse, expecting it. That's been the case for the greater part of the last three seasons.
I really hope that the takeover isn't dead because I can't see the club moving forwards again with Evans still in charge either. |
We will not move forward with him in charge. I dread to think what the season ticket sales will be this time, to be honest, and also resign myself to the club using Covid to explain any problems away. It's time for some honesty and some genuinely meant self-examination. We don't hear a lot of it.
Cook is a good guy and deserves a fighting chance. That means an entirely new regime from the top, a refresh in most departments, and a transformation in everything about the way ITFC carries itself. [Post edited 20 Mar 2021 15:54]
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:53 - Mar 20 with 4254 views | clive_baker |
Yep. ‘Better than Tuesday’ is meaningless praise given how utterly dire we were.
I do think we were OK today, on balance over 90 minutes. We lost to a better side who showed more confidence on the ball and looked more threatening in possession. It was the same old story to a certain extent, we didn’t create enough, didn’t test their keeper enough and seemed to really lack in confidence. It’s a huge job Cook has on his hands here.
2-1 was about right today I would say. Plenty of time to get us going for a top 6 finish but with each defeat comes more pressure on the next one. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:57 - Mar 20 with 4194 views | SomethingBlue |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:53 - Mar 20 by clive_baker |
Yep. ‘Better than Tuesday’ is meaningless praise given how utterly dire we were.
I do think we were OK today, on balance over 90 minutes. We lost to a better side who showed more confidence on the ball and looked more threatening in possession. It was the same old story to a certain extent, we didn’t create enough, didn’t test their keeper enough and seemed to really lack in confidence. It’s a huge job Cook has on his hands here.
2-1 was about right today I would say. Plenty of time to get us going for a top 6 finish but with each defeat comes more pressure on the next one. |
Think the play-offs aren't going to happen. When the pressure is on, these guys wilt time and again. It's endemic. | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 16:04 - Mar 20 with 4136 views | clive_baker |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:57 - Mar 20 by SomethingBlue |
Think the play-offs aren't going to happen. When the pressure is on, these guys wilt time and again. It's endemic. |
I think a lot of it is confidence. We just don’t look like a side that believes we can win games or has the conviction to press for a 2nd goal if we do score. We’ve only had a lead of more than 1 goal for about 20 minutes in the last 1,000+ minutes of football which was Doncaster home. A couple of wins could bring that bit of swag to our play which just breeds more confidence. The issue is finding those 2 or 3 wins when we look so meek. | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 16:07 - Mar 20 with 4116 views | SomethingBlue |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 16:04 - Mar 20 by clive_baker |
I think a lot of it is confidence. We just don’t look like a side that believes we can win games or has the conviction to press for a 2nd goal if we do score. We’ve only had a lead of more than 1 goal for about 20 minutes in the last 1,000+ minutes of football which was Doncaster home. A couple of wins could bring that bit of swag to our play which just breeds more confidence. The issue is finding those 2 or 3 wins when we look so meek. |
A lot of it is characters too, which is kind of bound into the same issue I guess, and we just don't have them. | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 16:19 - Mar 20 with 4032 views | LankHenners |
Said on another thread I'm really getting sick and tired of composure and discipline going out the window as soon as the team gets put under pressure/concedes. On the pitch they're just too fragile and used to losing to be able to ride it out and get stuck in again. Today it was like the belief and confidence was flowing out of us and into Portsmouth as the game went on and it was incredibly annoying to see the amount of poor passes, half-hearted tackles, loss of 50/50s, second balls etc. in the 2nd half.
As Steve says it all flows down from the top and if the alleged hold-up with the takeover is on Evans' end then it really is stupid. For all he's a steady pair of hands and 'has the best interests of the club at heart', it's almost remarkable that he can't see that his running of the club has significantly contributed to it being where it is today.
Cook needs a summer like Mick had when he brought in the likes of McGoldrick, Berra, Tabb etc. (can't recall if they were all the same window but you get it) - get in really solid reliable players who are strong characters and won't take anything less than the very best as acceptable. Andy Warren was saying on the KOA pod that ideally Cook would like to bring in one player for every position on the pitch which is unlikely (and perhaps not wholly sensible) but we need to do something to shed this flaky skin and find ourselves something more hard-wearing. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 18:05 - Mar 20 with 3888 views | SomethingBlue |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 16:19 - Mar 20 by LankHenners |
Said on another thread I'm really getting sick and tired of composure and discipline going out the window as soon as the team gets put under pressure/concedes. On the pitch they're just too fragile and used to losing to be able to ride it out and get stuck in again. Today it was like the belief and confidence was flowing out of us and into Portsmouth as the game went on and it was incredibly annoying to see the amount of poor passes, half-hearted tackles, loss of 50/50s, second balls etc. in the 2nd half.
As Steve says it all flows down from the top and if the alleged hold-up with the takeover is on Evans' end then it really is stupid. For all he's a steady pair of hands and 'has the best interests of the club at heart', it's almost remarkable that he can't see that his running of the club has significantly contributed to it being where it is today.
Cook needs a summer like Mick had when he brought in the likes of McGoldrick, Berra, Tabb etc. (can't recall if they were all the same window but you get it) - get in really solid reliable players who are strong characters and won't take anything less than the very best as acceptable. Andy Warren was saying on the KOA pod that ideally Cook would like to bring in one player for every position on the pitch which is unlikely (and perhaps not wholly sensible) but we need to do something to shed this flaky skin and find ourselves something more hard-wearing. |
Think this sums everything up very well. And yes - just no resilience in this team, no ability to respond to setbacks. The vast, vast majority of them have no future here. | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 22:18 - Mar 20 with 3745 views | Steve_M |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 18:05 - Mar 20 by SomethingBlue |
Think this sums everything up very well. And yes - just no resilience in this team, no ability to respond to setbacks. The vast, vast majority of them have no future here. |
There were bits of that match, even after half time, were it was Portsmouth committing all the stupid niggly fouls and it was possible to think that maybe we could see out the next few weeks quite well. And then....
The last three years really have been sh1t for the club. Absolutely miserable. That’s why fans tried to make the best of relegation, not so much accepting failure as making the best of things despite it.
Edit: the wine was good last night. [Post edited 21 Mar 2021 9:46]
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 22:29 - Mar 20 with 3696 views | Stewart27 |
Yep.
The penny has dropped over the past few games that the squad isn’t good enough. That doesn’t make any justification for Lambert because he wasn’t good enough. His posts prior to us proved that.
I think we have the right manager but we don’t have the personnel to take us forward. We have the chance to get rid of a lot of tosh in the summer but with Evans at the helm I don’t see us getting close to what Cook needs.
We’re stuck in limbo if this takeover doesn’t happen. | | | |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 07:44 - Mar 21 with 3551 views | itfcjoe |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:53 - Mar 20 by clive_baker |
Yep. ‘Better than Tuesday’ is meaningless praise given how utterly dire we were.
I do think we were OK today, on balance over 90 minutes. We lost to a better side who showed more confidence on the ball and looked more threatening in possession. It was the same old story to a certain extent, we didn’t create enough, didn’t test their keeper enough and seemed to really lack in confidence. It’s a huge job Cook has on his hands here.
2-1 was about right today I would say. Plenty of time to get us going for a top 6 finish but with each defeat comes more pressure on the next one. |
As a team we build momentum incredibly slowly and lose it incredibly quickly - I think that will change over the next few weeks and we’ll make the top 6 but go nowhere from there.
The thing that sums up the mess of Evans ownership is backing Lambert with 4 loans in January and then appointing a manager that needs his own type of players. It’s lucky the salary cap isn’t happening because we’ve got the wrong type of manager for a short term bounce who uses the players he has like someone like Cowley would......we’ve got a manager who has a pretty set Plan A that doesn’t have the tools for it |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 07:56 - Mar 21 with 3523 views | textbackup |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:57 - Mar 20 by SomethingBlue |
Think the play-offs aren't going to happen. When the pressure is on, these guys wilt time and again. It's endemic. |
This goes back as far as the Blackburn game, where we needed a point for the playoffs.... and totally bottled it.
We feel 6th with a huge chunk of luck, and that set the tone for the players for me.
I hope 12/14 of this current squad goes. To be replaced with 5/6 first teamers with some bo11ocks.
I don’t respect or care for a single one of those lot. Regardless of what great blokes they may be
They are let downs |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 08:04 - Mar 21 with 3502 views | Herbivore |
I think the mentality and lack of character is a huge issue. Individually these players should have the talent to be doing much better than they are, but they just don't se yo have the will to win or the bravery to make things happen. Plenty of people mocked Mick's 'proper blokes' but the fact is those are the kinds of players you need when the chips are down, they are the kind of players that rinse every last drop out of their ability. Now we've got a bunch of players that don't seem to have the desire or belief. We've got youngsters who didn't look out of their depth in the Championship at 18 now looking like bang average third division players just a few years later. The Hurst signings have about one b0llock between them. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 08:14 - Mar 21 with 3458 views | textbackup |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 08:04 - Mar 21 by Herbivore |
I think the mentality and lack of character is a huge issue. Individually these players should have the talent to be doing much better than they are, but they just don't se yo have the will to win or the bravery to make things happen. Plenty of people mocked Mick's 'proper blokes' but the fact is those are the kinds of players you need when the chips are down, they are the kind of players that rinse every last drop out of their ability. Now we've got a bunch of players that don't seem to have the desire or belief. We've got youngsters who didn't look out of their depth in the Championship at 18 now looking like bang average third division players just a few years later. The Hurst signings have about one b0llock between them. |
Make you right on 99% of that, however MMs proper blokes still bottled that game at Blackburn. Had we won that going into PO games off the back of a win there would have been so much more confidence | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 08:27 - Mar 21 with 3403 views | tractorboy1978 |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 18:05 - Mar 20 by SomethingBlue |
Think this sums everything up very well. And yes - just no resilience in this team, no ability to respond to setbacks. The vast, vast majority of them have no future here. |
It's not a bunch of kids either. It's been a side with experience right through the spine of it since Cook came in. | | | |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 08:37 - Mar 21 with 3368 views | Mullet |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 08:04 - Mar 21 by Herbivore |
I think the mentality and lack of character is a huge issue. Individually these players should have the talent to be doing much better than they are, but they just don't se yo have the will to win or the bravery to make things happen. Plenty of people mocked Mick's 'proper blokes' but the fact is those are the kinds of players you need when the chips are down, they are the kind of players that rinse every last drop out of their ability. Now we've got a bunch of players that don't seem to have the desire or belief. We've got youngsters who didn't look out of their depth in the Championship at 18 now looking like bang average third division players just a few years later. The Hurst signings have about one b0llock between them. |
The problem is, we’ve got a mishmash and remnants of Jewell right through to Lambert and this last dreadful window. There’s been a huge erosion of Mick’s fantastic management on and off the pitch, a raft of injuries and squad churn that leave us where we are now.
The players and Cook weren’t at odds yesterday, but it’s clear that he was trying to get them playing much higher and faster at all times. After a long season and all that short term upheaval too, it didn’t quite come off. That will happen in time.
But you can see the damage done by certain managers and the elements of the fan base who drove a wedge between us and them over the years. Whether the stuff towards Toto, Jackson even KVY is just a coincidence or the berating of those”proper blokes” and the us and them those fans created just needs time, we’ll see.
After a couple of years and managers at this level though, it’s hard to see anything more pressing than the need for Cook to get a clean sweep in the summer. Hurst destroyed the club doing it, Lambert weighted down the body, giving us back our club to something even approaching what we had half a decade ago is now massive. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 09:08 - Mar 21 with 3266 views | ITFC_Forever |
When you consider the sheer number of games we have lost in the last 4-5 years, there’s so many that it seeps into the culture and before you know it, we become a club with a losing mentality - it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Standards slip throughout the club, mediocrity becomes acceptable and there’s a lack of self-belief. Cook will have realised this (or soon will) and will do his best to eradicate that in the playing squad.
As others have said, he isn’t the type to put up with second best and if he isn’t supported in this by ME, my fear is that he will simply walk - there are many other clubs out there who will take him and we are very lucky to have him. Lambert was a massive problem, but wasn’t the only one.
On a wider point, it’s blatantly clear that the takeover needs to go through for the good of all concerned. ME has to accept that and hand over the reigns.... as Muncher’s mega-thread says, you don’t come all this way down the path of a sale to then not go through with it, so hopefully the current stall in the progress is soon resolved and it can go through by the end of the season.
If it doesn’t, we will become mid-table regulars in L1, and the continuous down-grading of our ambition will carry on.
If we don’t go up this season, it will already be two seasons at this level and we will be in danger of turning into another Sheff Utd, Leeds, Charlton etc, all of whom spent far more time at this level than clubs of their size should. [Post edited 21 Mar 2021 9:58]
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:05 - Mar 21 with 3141 views | pointofblue |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 09:08 - Mar 21 by ITFC_Forever |
When you consider the sheer number of games we have lost in the last 4-5 years, there’s so many that it seeps into the culture and before you know it, we become a club with a losing mentality - it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Standards slip throughout the club, mediocrity becomes acceptable and there’s a lack of self-belief. Cook will have realised this (or soon will) and will do his best to eradicate that in the playing squad.
As others have said, he isn’t the type to put up with second best and if he isn’t supported in this by ME, my fear is that he will simply walk - there are many other clubs out there who will take him and we are very lucky to have him. Lambert was a massive problem, but wasn’t the only one.
On a wider point, it’s blatantly clear that the takeover needs to go through for the good of all concerned. ME has to accept that and hand over the reigns.... as Muncher’s mega-thread says, you don’t come all this way down the path of a sale to then not go through with it, so hopefully the current stall in the progress is soon resolved and it can go through by the end of the season.
If it doesn’t, we will become mid-table regulars in L1, and the continuous down-grading of our ambition will carry on.
If we don’t go up this season, it will already be two seasons at this level and we will be in danger of turning into another Sheff Utd, Leeds, Charlton etc, all of whom spent far more time at this level than clubs of their size should. [Post edited 21 Mar 2021 9:58]
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On a positive side Sheffield United, Leeds and Charlton all did eventually fight back, with the first two making the Premier League and Charlton would have probably survived in the Championship had it not been for the background chaos. | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:06 - Mar 21 with 3133 views | haynes_toe1 |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 15:53 - Mar 20 by clive_baker |
Yep. ‘Better than Tuesday’ is meaningless praise given how utterly dire we were.
I do think we were OK today, on balance over 90 minutes. We lost to a better side who showed more confidence on the ball and looked more threatening in possession. It was the same old story to a certain extent, we didn’t create enough, didn’t test their keeper enough and seemed to really lack in confidence. It’s a huge job Cook has on his hands here.
2-1 was about right today I would say. Plenty of time to get us going for a top 6 finish but with each defeat comes more pressure on the next one. |
Its interesting how quickly the Cowleys seemed to have turned Portsmouth mentality around after a poor run as yes, they grew in confidence as the game went on whereas we done the opposite. | | | |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:14 - Mar 21 with 3107 views | StokieBlue |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:06 - Mar 21 by haynes_toe1 |
Its interesting how quickly the Cowleys seemed to have turned Portsmouth mentality around after a poor run as yes, they grew in confidence as the game went on whereas we done the opposite. |
Portsmouth have had a much higher level than us this season though, they were pushing top 2 before the rubbish run and beat Hull 4-0 away only 2 months ago.
It's also possible that the players at Portsmouth just happened to fit better into what the Cowleys immediately wanted to do.
I'm not sure the two teams are directly comparable.
SB |  |
| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:23 - Mar 21 with 3090 views | azuremerlangus |
I find it sad that we appear to have thrown the towel in already. Yes there are lots to do in the summer from a long-term point of view, but there is plenty of the here and now to be getting getting on with.
We are hovering around the play-off slots so there is much to play for and within our control but the positive statements made don't translate into action on the pitch. |  |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:26 - Mar 21 with 3079 views | Mullet |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:05 - Mar 21 by pointofblue |
On a positive side Sheffield United, Leeds and Charlton all did eventually fight back, with the first two making the Premier League and Charlton would have probably survived in the Championship had it not been for the background chaos. |
They are the handful in a few decades. Which means a massive task for us and one we’ve not been up to. Still makes me chuckle we had the top six or die lot then switching to relegation is a good thing.
Look at the teams in the first three years of the Prem and where they are now vs where they have been. People seem to think it’s magic and fairy dust that gets you where you need to be in football unfortunately. | |
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| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 10:35 - Mar 21 with 3056 views | Ryorry |
| It's just not good enough at the end of the day on 16:07 - Mar 20 by SomethingBlue |
A lot of it is characters too, which is kind of bound into the same issue I guess, and we just don't have them. |
Esp without Downes - he's the only one who has the kind of passion, determination & drive to win that you need in every side.
If Jim Magilton is still able to run, kick a ball & were willing to sign up again for us, I'd put him straight into the starting line-up - think we'd soon see a difference!! |  |
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