| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked 14:48 - Dec 4 with 11874 views | Woolfenthen |
2 years on, who would have imagined where would be |  | | |  |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:17 - Dec 5 with 1434 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:06 - Dec 5 by Dyland |
Whilst that is almost certainly true, he's still correct.
As others have said, Cook got in some gems who wanted to play for him again, but he had the money to do so. The player purchasing was a bit spray and pray, even if we have some to thank him for. The big bum note for Cook wasn't his treatment of some of the old guard (that will be subjective, of course) but rather his tinpot management team. He's a proper old school manager, and whilst I've nothing against him I've also not really got much to praise him for either. |
The fact that those players wanted to play for him again (even dropping a division to do so) suggests he had something about him other than a cheeky grin. Morsy, for example, must've believed Cook would get us up pretty quickly. |  |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:20 - Dec 5 with 1424 views | Herbivore |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:14 - Dec 5 by The_Flashing_Smile |
Blimey, you wouldn't even have Roy Keane in our worst 3 managers?! He's been very lucky there IMO!
I don't know - I saw signs, but perhaps I was clinging to that period where we had an upturn too much. There's no doubt he made some odd appointments in the coaching department. I quite liked Nsiala and I'm not sure at the time Woolfy was playing any better (although, again, you could look at coaching here rather than merely blaming the player).
My thinking is probably also swayed by what he'd achieved previously. On paper he seemed the best appointment of the Evans era - I think on TWTD we welcomed the appointment to a man at the time. |
The TWTD hive mind has shown many times that it's fallible. We were mostly pretty happy with the Hurst appointment and look how that turned out. I'd have him bottom three with his two immediate predecessors, all for slightly different reasons but in Cook and Lambert's case they had us performing like a bottom half League 1 side over sustained periods of time and just looked like they had no real idea how to change that. No doubt McKenna is a bit special, but I'd have backed most managers to come in and do a better job than Cook with that group of players. We had about a 6.games spell under him that was decent but everything before and after that was so, so poor. |  |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:30 - Dec 5 with 1402 views | Funge |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:14 - Dec 5 by The_Flashing_Smile |
Blimey, you wouldn't even have Roy Keane in our worst 3 managers?! He's been very lucky there IMO!
I don't know - I saw signs, but perhaps I was clinging to that period where we had an upturn too much. There's no doubt he made some odd appointments in the coaching department. I quite liked Nsiala and I'm not sure at the time Woolfy was playing any better (although, again, you could look at coaching here rather than merely blaming the player).
My thinking is probably also swayed by what he'd achieved previously. On paper he seemed the best appointment of the Evans era - I think on TWTD we welcomed the appointment to a man at the time. |
To be fair, 5 of our last 6 managers would probably make the all-time 5 worst.
All the Pauls & Keane; you could pretty much place them in any order you like.
Lambert probably the worst of the bunch, in my opinion, but it's like choosing your favourite skip - they're all full of rubbish. |  | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:31 - Dec 5 with 1397 views | Funge |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:20 - Dec 5 by Herbivore |
The TWTD hive mind has shown many times that it's fallible. We were mostly pretty happy with the Hurst appointment and look how that turned out. I'd have him bottom three with his two immediate predecessors, all for slightly different reasons but in Cook and Lambert's case they had us performing like a bottom half League 1 side over sustained periods of time and just looked like they had no real idea how to change that. No doubt McKenna is a bit special, but I'd have backed most managers to come in and do a better job than Cook with that group of players. We had about a 6.games spell under him that was decent but everything before and after that was so, so poor. |
I've heard that Neil Harris was very much in the running after we got rid of Cook - imagine how that might've gone.... | | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:34 - Dec 5 with 1389 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:31 - Dec 5 by Funge |
I've heard that Neil Harris was very much in the running after we got rid of Cook - imagine how that might've gone.... |
Well quite. Recently sacked by League 2 Gillingham. Sometimes it's a good thing when ships pass in the night! | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:35 - Dec 5 with 1390 views | _clive_baker_ |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:31 - Dec 5 by Funge |
I've heard that Neil Harris was very much in the running after we got rid of Cook - imagine how that might've gone.... |
He was spoken to and absolutely desperate for the job. To the extent he became like a jealous jilted ex lover apparently, leaving VM's on Ashton's phone. From what I heard (from a relative of his) we did leave him the dark for quite a while to be fair to him, while we were evidently trying to get McKenna out of United. I'm not sure if Harris would've been the fall back or not, but he definitely met with MA. |  | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:37 - Dec 5 with 1384 views | Herbivore |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:31 - Dec 5 by Funge |
I've heard that Neil Harris was very much in the running after we got rid of Cook - imagine how that might've gone.... |
I remember that link, at one point it was looking very likely I seem to remember. Thank Christ it didn't materialise in the end. Interestingly though, McKenna has probably had the most mixed reception of some of our recent appointments, lots questioning whether he had the experience and whether he was what we needed. Turns out he knows exactly what we need, and it's him. | |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:39 - Dec 5 with 1378 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:37 - Dec 5 by Herbivore |
I remember that link, at one point it was looking very likely I seem to remember. Thank Christ it didn't materialise in the end. Interestingly though, McKenna has probably had the most mixed reception of some of our recent appointments, lots questioning whether he had the experience and whether he was what we needed. Turns out he knows exactly what we need, and it's him. |
It'd be interesting to see some threads from back then, I've no idea what I said about the appointment of McKenna (but it would probably have been something along the lines of 'give him a chance'). | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:42 - Dec 5 with 1369 views | Herbivore |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:39 - Dec 5 by The_Flashing_Smile |
It'd be interesting to see some threads from back then, I've no idea what I said about the appointment of McKenna (but it would probably have been something along the lines of 'give him a chance'). |
Think I was in the same boat as you. I knew nothing about him before he became our manager. Could see he had good coaching pedigree but it's about a 50/50 chance how well that translates into success in the top job, lots of excellent coaches haven't made great managers. I definitely didn't go in hard early by calling him smarmy though, I know that much. | |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:43 - Dec 5 with 1364 views | Funge |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:37 - Dec 5 by Herbivore |
I remember that link, at one point it was looking very likely I seem to remember. Thank Christ it didn't materialise in the end. Interestingly though, McKenna has probably had the most mixed reception of some of our recent appointments, lots questioning whether he had the experience and whether he was what we needed. Turns out he knows exactly what we need, and it's him. |
For years and years, we've bemoaned the fact that the lot up the road always rolled the proverbial 'double 6' when it really mattered (and fck knows it's been tiresome....)
.... our appointment of McK might've been the ultimate double 6 roll. | | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:56 - Dec 5 with 1352 views | itfcjoe |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:07 - Dec 5 by The_Flashing_Smile |
I'm pretty sure the players weren't good enough, and you can see that from where they've ended up since. But hey, it's all water under the bridge. If we all knew what McKenna was about to bring we'd have all been happy to jettison Cook, myself included.
I might be wrong but I've always been of the belief that managers need time to implement their style, particularly when a complete rebuild is needed. What McKenna has done has tipped that theory into a cocked hat, but I don't think we've EVER seen a manager hit the ground running as well as McKenna has. He seems to be a one off. |
We finished 5 points of the top 6 and under Cook managed to pick up 5 points from 7 games with Rochdale, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon x2, Northampton, Charlton and Shrewsbury without scoring a single goal.
For all of Lambert's faults, and there were many, we never really had any trouble beating the bottom 6-7 teams - he'd have been hopeless in the play offs as PL couldn't beat anyone in the top 6 though!
But from the position we were in, we should have been in the top 6, and from there who knows.
With your last point, I think that is changing - when you look even at the bottom of the league with these new highly qualified coaches you've seen Danny Rohl go in at Sheff Weds, and Marti Cifuentes at QPR and both look instantly better and look decent straight away - I think maybe Cook being from the old school in that regard may mean your point was true with him - but this new breed can get complicated ideas across quickly and well and see quick improvements - where KM is a one off is that he has been able to go from quick improvements to ongoing and continuous improvements |  |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:00 - Dec 5 with 1340 views | Herbivore |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:56 - Dec 5 by itfcjoe |
We finished 5 points of the top 6 and under Cook managed to pick up 5 points from 7 games with Rochdale, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon x2, Northampton, Charlton and Shrewsbury without scoring a single goal.
For all of Lambert's faults, and there were many, we never really had any trouble beating the bottom 6-7 teams - he'd have been hopeless in the play offs as PL couldn't beat anyone in the top 6 though!
But from the position we were in, we should have been in the top 6, and from there who knows.
With your last point, I think that is changing - when you look even at the bottom of the league with these new highly qualified coaches you've seen Danny Rohl go in at Sheff Weds, and Marti Cifuentes at QPR and both look instantly better and look decent straight away - I think maybe Cook being from the old school in that regard may mean your point was true with him - but this new breed can get complicated ideas across quickly and well and see quick improvements - where KM is a one off is that he has been able to go from quick improvements to ongoing and continuous improvements |
Could have put Matt Gill in charge for the play off games. | |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:31 - Dec 5 with 1309 views | _clive_baker_ |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:56 - Dec 5 by itfcjoe |
We finished 5 points of the top 6 and under Cook managed to pick up 5 points from 7 games with Rochdale, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon x2, Northampton, Charlton and Shrewsbury without scoring a single goal.
For all of Lambert's faults, and there were many, we never really had any trouble beating the bottom 6-7 teams - he'd have been hopeless in the play offs as PL couldn't beat anyone in the top 6 though!
But from the position we were in, we should have been in the top 6, and from there who knows.
With your last point, I think that is changing - when you look even at the bottom of the league with these new highly qualified coaches you've seen Danny Rohl go in at Sheff Weds, and Marti Cifuentes at QPR and both look instantly better and look decent straight away - I think maybe Cook being from the old school in that regard may mean your point was true with him - but this new breed can get complicated ideas across quickly and well and see quick improvements - where KM is a one off is that he has been able to go from quick improvements to ongoing and continuous improvements |
We had games in hand over a lot of the top 6 too. Top 2 was unlikely, but even that wasn't completely out of the question, but top 6 should certainly have been achievable. We were 2 points off the playoffs with a game in hand when he joined, fresh off the back of 3 consecutive wins.
Annoyed me at the time how our fans were putting that final 16 games down as something of a 'free hit'. It wasn't a free hit, it was a good opportunity to get us promoted if he didn't clown it up. 4 wins and just 11 goals from his 16 games in that run in, against the opposition we were up against, was nothing short of dire. | | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:34 - Dec 5 with 1304 views | TresBonne |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:56 - Dec 5 by itfcjoe |
We finished 5 points of the top 6 and under Cook managed to pick up 5 points from 7 games with Rochdale, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon x2, Northampton, Charlton and Shrewsbury without scoring a single goal.
For all of Lambert's faults, and there were many, we never really had any trouble beating the bottom 6-7 teams - he'd have been hopeless in the play offs as PL couldn't beat anyone in the top 6 though!
But from the position we were in, we should have been in the top 6, and from there who knows.
With your last point, I think that is changing - when you look even at the bottom of the league with these new highly qualified coaches you've seen Danny Rohl go in at Sheff Weds, and Marti Cifuentes at QPR and both look instantly better and look decent straight away - I think maybe Cook being from the old school in that regard may mean your point was true with him - but this new breed can get complicated ideas across quickly and well and see quick improvements - where KM is a one off is that he has been able to go from quick improvements to ongoing and continuous improvements |
Oh wow, I had forgotten about that run where we couldn't score in a brothel. Fun times really, watching all that unfold on the telly with no one in the ground. |  | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:40 - Dec 5 with 1297 views | itfcjoe |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:31 - Dec 5 by _clive_baker_ |
We had games in hand over a lot of the top 6 too. Top 2 was unlikely, but even that wasn't completely out of the question, but top 6 should certainly have been achievable. We were 2 points off the playoffs with a game in hand when he joined, fresh off the back of 3 consecutive wins.
Annoyed me at the time how our fans were putting that final 16 games down as something of a 'free hit'. It wasn't a free hit, it was a good opportunity to get us promoted if he didn't clown it up. 4 wins and just 11 goals from his 16 games in that run in, against the opposition we were up against, was nothing short of dire. |
Maybe it was my fault, but I couldn't get over how badly we chucked that in so he just had no leash or goodwill from me going into the new season and the way that players were treated (and contrary to popular belief I was much, much more annoyed at the academy players just being given the heave ho so carelessly than the senior players who I thought all bar possibly Chambers should really have been released)
What Gill and Walker (as they were running the team then) did in their 4 games was just the basics really, getting the ball from front to back quickly, using likes of Norwood, Jackson, Parrott to run the channels, get us starting points up the pitch and then play from there. It was all that squad needed to try and get over the line.
Obviously things have worked out incredibly since - but Cook in his 8 months ballsed up 2 chances of promotion, and that was unacceptable and a bit of good recruitment when spending a load doesn't cover that for me | |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:55 - Dec 5 with 1270 views | _clive_baker_ |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:40 - Dec 5 by itfcjoe |
Maybe it was my fault, but I couldn't get over how badly we chucked that in so he just had no leash or goodwill from me going into the new season and the way that players were treated (and contrary to popular belief I was much, much more annoyed at the academy players just being given the heave ho so carelessly than the senior players who I thought all bar possibly Chambers should really have been released)
What Gill and Walker (as they were running the team then) did in their 4 games was just the basics really, getting the ball from front to back quickly, using likes of Norwood, Jackson, Parrott to run the channels, get us starting points up the pitch and then play from there. It was all that squad needed to try and get over the line.
Obviously things have worked out incredibly since - but Cook in his 8 months ballsed up 2 chances of promotion, and that was unacceptable and a bit of good recruitment when spending a load doesn't cover that for me |
He seemed to throw the towel in so early, threw the players under the bus with his comments in the press and once he did that the season was gone, there was no coming back. Left himself with no choice but to oversee the clear out he did as had completely boxed himself into a corner with his comments publicly. Seemed an effort to deflect any responsibility from himself IMO.
As you say we didn't need to be great, we didn't need to be future proofing a sustainable style of play, it was a 2 month project at that point. Play to our strengths, be direct, and hope we have enough quality in the final 3rd to get results. Should've let Gill carry on until the end of the season really.
Cook's treatment of players in that summer was shameful. I seem to remember a handful of us (yourself included) saying that at the time and getting pelters for it. Perhaps I had a bit of bias, but when a friend has been in the club since they were 7 and barely given the courtesy of a 2 minute conversation before being asked to empty their locker it irked. Even said at the time, it's not necessarily that its done, but how it's done (although that it was done in a couple of instances I thought was short sighted).
I do maintain a bit of gratitude for the summer arrivals though. Simply because a few of those signings have been so pivotal since, not least Morsy, Chaplin and Walton who were arguably our 3 POTS last year and only here because of Cook.
On balance he was certainly a flop. | | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:56 - Dec 5 with 1262 views | leitrimblue |
I'm probably as big a Paul Cook fan as you gonna find on here. ( Sligo Rovers fan etc) But I think it's almost pointless comparing Cook with Mckenna. 1 is a good lower league manager, the other is a young world class coach and potentially the best manager of his generation. |  | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:59 - Dec 5 with 1244 views | Herbivore |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:56 - Dec 5 by leitrimblue |
I'm probably as big a Paul Cook fan as you gonna find on here. ( Sligo Rovers fan etc) But I think it's almost pointless comparing Cook with Mckenna. 1 is a good lower league manager, the other is a young world class coach and potentially the best manager of his generation. |
Which one's which? | |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 14:05 - Dec 5 with 1222 views | tractorboy1978 |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 12:56 - Dec 5 by itfcjoe |
We finished 5 points of the top 6 and under Cook managed to pick up 5 points from 7 games with Rochdale, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon x2, Northampton, Charlton and Shrewsbury without scoring a single goal.
For all of Lambert's faults, and there were many, we never really had any trouble beating the bottom 6-7 teams - he'd have been hopeless in the play offs as PL couldn't beat anyone in the top 6 though!
But from the position we were in, we should have been in the top 6, and from there who knows.
With your last point, I think that is changing - when you look even at the bottom of the league with these new highly qualified coaches you've seen Danny Rohl go in at Sheff Weds, and Marti Cifuentes at QPR and both look instantly better and look decent straight away - I think maybe Cook being from the old school in that regard may mean your point was true with him - but this new breed can get complicated ideas across quickly and well and see quick improvements - where KM is a one off is that he has been able to go from quick improvements to ongoing and continuous improvements |
I think crucially, McKenna was also fully aware he couldn't build Rome in a day. He instantly improved us but was savvy enough to use what he had as effectively as he could and to focus on building a foundation based on a solid defence and not conceding many. It's almost laughable looking back now that the main 'complaint' a few had at the end of that 2021/22 season was that we didn't score enough goals! |  | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 14:59 - Dec 5 with 1157 views | Steve_M |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:55 - Dec 5 by _clive_baker_ |
He seemed to throw the towel in so early, threw the players under the bus with his comments in the press and once he did that the season was gone, there was no coming back. Left himself with no choice but to oversee the clear out he did as had completely boxed himself into a corner with his comments publicly. Seemed an effort to deflect any responsibility from himself IMO.
As you say we didn't need to be great, we didn't need to be future proofing a sustainable style of play, it was a 2 month project at that point. Play to our strengths, be direct, and hope we have enough quality in the final 3rd to get results. Should've let Gill carry on until the end of the season really.
Cook's treatment of players in that summer was shameful. I seem to remember a handful of us (yourself included) saying that at the time and getting pelters for it. Perhaps I had a bit of bias, but when a friend has been in the club since they were 7 and barely given the courtesy of a 2 minute conversation before being asked to empty their locker it irked. Even said at the time, it's not necessarily that its done, but how it's done (although that it was done in a couple of instances I thought was short sighted).
I do maintain a bit of gratitude for the summer arrivals though. Simply because a few of those signings have been so pivotal since, not least Morsy, Chaplin and Walton who were arguably our 3 POTS last year and only here because of Cook.
On balance he was certainly a flop. |
There are only so many variations of "I'm not going to blame the players......but, it's the players" anyone should be able to stand. It's certainly fewer than the number of times Cook tried it in that season.
The impact Matt Gill had is telling in terms of both Lambert's time here from November 2019 and also Cook's first attempt. Similarly McGreal and Gilmartin managed to get the team ready and organised for Sunderland at home in little over a week.
I think even without the local contacts that you and Joe both have, the utter carelessness in our treatment of players that Summer was abysmal. |  |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 16:56 - Dec 5 with 1080 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 13:31 - Dec 5 by _clive_baker_ |
We had games in hand over a lot of the top 6 too. Top 2 was unlikely, but even that wasn't completely out of the question, but top 6 should certainly have been achievable. We were 2 points off the playoffs with a game in hand when he joined, fresh off the back of 3 consecutive wins.
Annoyed me at the time how our fans were putting that final 16 games down as something of a 'free hit'. It wasn't a free hit, it was a good opportunity to get us promoted if he didn't clown it up. 4 wins and just 11 goals from his 16 games in that run in, against the opposition we were up against, was nothing short of dire. |
If we were that good, and top 6 was such a shoe-in, why didn't we just stick with Lambert?
Any manager coming in because the previous one was sacked is usually coming into something broken/going wrong. Very difficult to just immediately fix whatever that is (and without a transfer window, so you're just stuck with the players the last guy left behind).
This isn't excusing Cook of everything, I'd agree he should've done better. But you're making out it was easy. And even top 2 wasn't out of the question?! Again, if that's true why sack Lambert? | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 17:08 - Dec 5 with 1070 views | tractorboy1978 |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 16:56 - Dec 5 by The_Flashing_Smile |
If we were that good, and top 6 was such a shoe-in, why didn't we just stick with Lambert?
Any manager coming in because the previous one was sacked is usually coming into something broken/going wrong. Very difficult to just immediately fix whatever that is (and without a transfer window, so you're just stuck with the players the last guy left behind).
This isn't excusing Cook of everything, I'd agree he should've done better. But you're making out it was easy. And even top 2 wasn't out of the question?! Again, if that's true why sack Lambert? |
Lambert wasn't sacked solely for footballing reasons though was he? He was goading Evans into sacking him for weeks before it actually happened. He really didn't want to be here and could smell a pay off. His press conferences and criticism of Evans and the infrastructure basically made his position untenable. | | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 17:17 - Dec 5 with 1053 views | _clive_baker_ |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 16:56 - Dec 5 by The_Flashing_Smile |
If we were that good, and top 6 was such a shoe-in, why didn't we just stick with Lambert?
Any manager coming in because the previous one was sacked is usually coming into something broken/going wrong. Very difficult to just immediately fix whatever that is (and without a transfer window, so you're just stuck with the players the last guy left behind).
This isn't excusing Cook of everything, I'd agree he should've done better. But you're making out it was easy. And even top 2 wasn't out of the question?! Again, if that's true why sack Lambert? |
Lambert was a busted flush, he had managed to p1ss off everyone and we were certainly not making the playoffs if he stuck around IMO. We started well enough, but really since about this time of year we were on a downward spiral.
I hear what you're saying, that might lead to the question 'if 2 managers tried and failed perhaps, its not the manager?. On this occasion I do think they just both happened to be turds though, and given how universally disliked Lambert was it might've actually represented an opportunity for Cook to go in and galvanise a squad that, IMO, had more potential than they were showing and had already shown just 6 months prior (and indeed the 3 games prior once Lambert stepped back). There's countless examples of a 'new manager bounce', much like Redknapp at Spurs, they couldn't beat an egg under Ramos and he transformed them overnight to something much closer to their real level.
Don't get me wrong we weren't world beaters, but we didn't need to be and neither were our opponents. In hindsight just a couple more wins from the 12 out of 16 we didn't would've got us in the top 6. | | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 17:34 - Dec 5 with 1030 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 16:17 - Dec 4 by _clive_baker_ |
We were painfully inconsistent under Cook, at times we showed glimpses of what we were capable of. Just a month before his sacking we went away to Wycombe and won 4-1, he left us with a league win and the Celina 'wonder goal', but we never found a stride under him or looked like being strong enough to challenge for promotion.
What is always in his defense is his recruitment though. He signed Walton and Hladky, Morsy probably wouldn't be here were it not for his time with Cook at Wigan, same for Evans, he signed Chaplin who had played under him at Pompey. Burgess, Edmundson, Burns, Edwards, Aluko. He brought JD back from the dead after Lambert had done his utmost to ditch him for the 2nd time in his career.
Didn't all work out of course, he needlessly overlooked Woolfenden and signed a few duds (Pigott and Harper), but they weren't all going to when you bring in 15 odd permanent signings in 1 window. Certainly deserves a bit of credit for bringing the nucleus of the side that have done such good things over the past 2 years IMO. |
Things have worked out perfect for us, but I do think had Walton and Morsy started the season we wouldn’t have dropped those early points and we’d have improved. We did sign Fraser and Piggot who were two of League Ones best players before joining, Louie Barry was one of the highest rated youngsters in the country too, it wasn’t as if we didn’t recruit well we were just inconsistent and missing leadership at the start. People also forget that Bonne was actually a Championship player before he joined us, mad to think he’s now in the 4th tier, especially as he was one of our better players under Cook and more than good enough for League One. |  | | |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 17:49 - Dec 5 with 996 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| 2 years ago today, Paul Cook sacked on 17:17 - Dec 5 by _clive_baker_ |
Lambert was a busted flush, he had managed to p1ss off everyone and we were certainly not making the playoffs if he stuck around IMO. We started well enough, but really since about this time of year we were on a downward spiral.
I hear what you're saying, that might lead to the question 'if 2 managers tried and failed perhaps, its not the manager?. On this occasion I do think they just both happened to be turds though, and given how universally disliked Lambert was it might've actually represented an opportunity for Cook to go in and galvanise a squad that, IMO, had more potential than they were showing and had already shown just 6 months prior (and indeed the 3 games prior once Lambert stepped back). There's countless examples of a 'new manager bounce', much like Redknapp at Spurs, they couldn't beat an egg under Ramos and he transformed them overnight to something much closer to their real level.
Don't get me wrong we weren't world beaters, but we didn't need to be and neither were our opponents. In hindsight just a couple more wins from the 12 out of 16 we didn't would've got us in the top 6. |
It's just that on one hand you say "Top 2 wasn't out of the question... We were 2 points off the playoffs with a game in hand... it was a good opportunity to get us promoted..." and on the other (referring to Lambert) "We were certainly not making the playoffs... we were on a downward spiral." The first statements contradict the second ones.
I appreciate new manager bounce is a thing but it doesn't always work. I just think it's harsh to lay all the blame at Cook's door for that bit of his tenure. He was an experienced manager with a good pedigree up to that point, so if it was that easy to get in the play offs (and the players were good enough) then why didn't we? I find it hard to believe the answer is simply Cook became a rubbish manager overnight. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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