| Schooled at home to Northampton 07:56 - Feb 17 with 1033 views | homer_123 |
A team 23rd in the league, struggling like anything knocking the ball about with pace, purpose and intent. Movement off the ball, notably from their wider players, working as a team in closing us down.
If they had an ounce of finishing in them we'd have been turned over last night.
We afforded them time, we didn't pack hunt them or even seem to have any kind of cycle to work through as a team. We were, again, so so slow and ponderous on the ball passing across the back line with only Dozzell showing any kind of intent with playing a ball through the lines (until Judge came on).
Taking that game in isolation - it's one of the most abject performances I've ever seen from us. When you factor it into the current situation within the club, sadly the performance is neither new or surprising, just merely a new low for us to contemplate.
In short, right now, our Club is beyond broken. Lambert was right (and we have known this for a long time) it's rotten to the core (and Lambert is very much part of that as is his team and the players).
Lambert needs to go - that is beyond doubt. He is culpable and responsible for what happens on the pitch. Last nights performance illustrated (and not for the first time) that he is not capable to getting us to compete let alone push for promotion. It' is time he and his team depart.
Evans, however, does indeed need to take a very long hard look at why successive managers are failing. It is not enough to state that 'he funds the deficit' of the club on an ongoing basis. He is, ultimately, responsible for what happens within the Club, for every single aspect and it is clear that his tenure has seen a significant under investment in many aspects of the club that would support a manager to meeting the aim of promotion out of this division and pushing for promotion from the Championship.
Our problems run deep and won't be solved by simply changing the manager. It's the right start but until Evans has a significant change in approach and/ or hands the reigns over to someone fit to run the Club - we'll be forever heading backwards. |  |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 07:59 - Feb 17 with 993 views | chrismakin |
One of the key things they need to sort out at PR is what the hell is our recruitment policy
It's ok to say football finances are alot higher than they were years ago, but we are wasting so much money on a squad of over 50 players, 6 loanees included,
Need a squad of 25, plus youths, use spare funds to get CEO, Director of Football, Head of Sports Science etc etc etc |  |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:01 - Feb 17 with 977 views | IpswichKnight |
ME needs to run the club like that lot up the A140, employ a proper football experienced CEO/MD and tell them I only need to hear from you if you want to sack a manager and to decide on player budgets for the summer transfers and then the winter transfers. Everything else is your decision. |  | | |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:03 - Feb 17 with 970 views | Herbivore |
You say our problems won't end with sacking the manager, and they won't all end of course, but a lot of them will I think. You say how good Northampton looked (or how good we made them look), well they have a caretaker manager in place who has only implemented that way of playing in the last 2 games. If a caretaker manager can get second bottom Northampton knocking the ball about with purpose then that shows the difference a change in manager can make, and quickly.
Lambert has been here two and a half years and yet we still look like a team of strangers. I'm struggling to recall many (if any) games where we've genuinely looked better coached and more well-drilled than our opponents, even when we've won. That is so utterly damning and it goes some way to explaining our really poor discipline, the players are clearly playing frustrated
They know his time is up, they know he's hopeless, they know we should be capable of more.
If Lambert isn't gone this week the club may as well wind up. |  |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:05 - Feb 17 with 950 views | Herbivore |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 07:59 - Feb 17 by chrismakin |
One of the key things they need to sort out at PR is what the hell is our recruitment policy
It's ok to say football finances are alot higher than they were years ago, but we are wasting so much money on a squad of over 50 players, 6 loanees included,
Need a squad of 25, plus youths, use spare funds to get CEO, Director of Football, Head of Sports Science etc etc etc |
25 is too many. In fact we're only allowed a squad of 22 senior pros anyway. The 50 players we have include all of the youths, I think the only over age player we're leaving out of our sqaud is Harry Wright. | |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:09 - Feb 17 with 938 views | itfcjoe |
The manager has to take the responsibility for not getting a tune out of the players, Northampton were woeful, and sacked their manager and within 2 games their caretaker who used to manage Brackley has got them playing with confidence and has instigated some patterns of play down the flanks that were very good - previously Curle was a long ball man playing 352.
It's impossibly bad to be playing as poorly or as with as little intent or tempo as we do.
Evans is not the perfect owner, but the thing that makes this an attractive job, i.e. a decent level of funding and being left to your own devices, are what make it a very difficult job. Managers like to work with Evans, and Lambert with effectively 4 of his own men in alongside him (Taylor, Gill, Henry before he sacked him, and Walker) is bigger than any management team in this league. They have the bodies, they simply don't have the capabilities to do what is entailed in a big job. Happy to get the 5 year deal then phone it in rather than strive to improve and challenge Evans where he needed to, not helped by being cr@p on the pitch and losing any ability to ask for more......but then still gets 4 new signings in January |  |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:09 - Feb 17 with 930 views | homer_123 |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:03 - Feb 17 by Herbivore |
You say our problems won't end with sacking the manager, and they won't all end of course, but a lot of them will I think. You say how good Northampton looked (or how good we made them look), well they have a caretaker manager in place who has only implemented that way of playing in the last 2 games. If a caretaker manager can get second bottom Northampton knocking the ball about with purpose then that shows the difference a change in manager can make, and quickly.
Lambert has been here two and a half years and yet we still look like a team of strangers. I'm struggling to recall many (if any) games where we've genuinely looked better coached and more well-drilled than our opponents, even when we've won. That is so utterly damning and it goes some way to explaining our really poor discipline, the players are clearly playing frustrated
They know his time is up, they know he's hopeless, they know we should be capable of more.
If Lambert isn't gone this week the club may as well wind up. |
As I said, he and his team need to go and quickly. No question, no doubt - we need a change of management team for the footballing side, end of.
Yes, a new manager can come in and make a positive difference, again, not disputing that at all.
However, the single common factor since Magilton is Evans - we go backwards as a club regardless of what we do on the pitch (of course that includes what we do on the pitch as well as illustrated last night).
So a new manager might well, in the short to medium term bring about changes on the pitch but it is difficult to see lasting longer term success (or at least relative success, Championship football with a half decent team would feel like a success at the moment!) whilst Evans remains at the helm.
I'm acutely aware that Evans going or changing is extremely unlikely.
Hence, as we both agree, Lambert must go and now, like 9am presser, he's gone. | |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:12 - Feb 17 with 915 views | chrismakin |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:09 - Feb 17 by itfcjoe |
The manager has to take the responsibility for not getting a tune out of the players, Northampton were woeful, and sacked their manager and within 2 games their caretaker who used to manage Brackley has got them playing with confidence and has instigated some patterns of play down the flanks that were very good - previously Curle was a long ball man playing 352.
It's impossibly bad to be playing as poorly or as with as little intent or tempo as we do.
Evans is not the perfect owner, but the thing that makes this an attractive job, i.e. a decent level of funding and being left to your own devices, are what make it a very difficult job. Managers like to work with Evans, and Lambert with effectively 4 of his own men in alongside him (Taylor, Gill, Henry before he sacked him, and Walker) is bigger than any management team in this league. They have the bodies, they simply don't have the capabilities to do what is entailed in a big job. Happy to get the 5 year deal then phone it in rather than strive to improve and challenge Evans where he needed to, not helped by being cr@p on the pitch and losing any ability to ask for more......but then still gets 4 new signings in January |
Exactly this
Players Like Parrott, Jackson, Lankester etc put the ball in front of them and they will score goals, but having them away from goal isn't going to get the best out of them or having them hugging touchlines, or dropping 20 yards to get the ball | |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:19 - Feb 17 with 861 views | homer_123 |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:09 - Feb 17 by itfcjoe |
The manager has to take the responsibility for not getting a tune out of the players, Northampton were woeful, and sacked their manager and within 2 games their caretaker who used to manage Brackley has got them playing with confidence and has instigated some patterns of play down the flanks that were very good - previously Curle was a long ball man playing 352.
It's impossibly bad to be playing as poorly or as with as little intent or tempo as we do.
Evans is not the perfect owner, but the thing that makes this an attractive job, i.e. a decent level of funding and being left to your own devices, are what make it a very difficult job. Managers like to work with Evans, and Lambert with effectively 4 of his own men in alongside him (Taylor, Gill, Henry before he sacked him, and Walker) is bigger than any management team in this league. They have the bodies, they simply don't have the capabilities to do what is entailed in a big job. Happy to get the 5 year deal then phone it in rather than strive to improve and challenge Evans where he needed to, not helped by being cr@p on the pitch and losing any ability to ask for more......but then still gets 4 new signings in January |
Indeed Joe, not sure I have suggested that Lambert doesn't take responsibility for not getting the best (or anything for that matter) out of the players. | |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:20 - Feb 17 with 853 views | haynes_toe1 |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:09 - Feb 17 by itfcjoe |
The manager has to take the responsibility for not getting a tune out of the players, Northampton were woeful, and sacked their manager and within 2 games their caretaker who used to manage Brackley has got them playing with confidence and has instigated some patterns of play down the flanks that were very good - previously Curle was a long ball man playing 352.
It's impossibly bad to be playing as poorly or as with as little intent or tempo as we do.
Evans is not the perfect owner, but the thing that makes this an attractive job, i.e. a decent level of funding and being left to your own devices, are what make it a very difficult job. Managers like to work with Evans, and Lambert with effectively 4 of his own men in alongside him (Taylor, Gill, Henry before he sacked him, and Walker) is bigger than any management team in this league. They have the bodies, they simply don't have the capabilities to do what is entailed in a big job. Happy to get the 5 year deal then phone it in rather than strive to improve and challenge Evans where he needed to, not helped by being cr@p on the pitch and losing any ability to ask for more......but then still gets 4 new signings in January |
Evans is an awful owner. Not simply less than perfect.
If Evans had even the vaguest football sense and / or knowledge Lambert wouldn't be sitting on a 5 year contract and he certainly wouldn't still be in charge at our football club.
We won't be attractive to many decent managers because we'll be seen as essentially a graveyard over the past 10 years where the only manager we haven't completely destroyed is the one our fans hounded out of the club. | | | |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:22 - Feb 17 with 832 views | Herbivore |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:09 - Feb 17 by homer_123 |
As I said, he and his team need to go and quickly. No question, no doubt - we need a change of management team for the footballing side, end of.
Yes, a new manager can come in and make a positive difference, again, not disputing that at all.
However, the single common factor since Magilton is Evans - we go backwards as a club regardless of what we do on the pitch (of course that includes what we do on the pitch as well as illustrated last night).
So a new manager might well, in the short to medium term bring about changes on the pitch but it is difficult to see lasting longer term success (or at least relative success, Championship football with a half decent team would feel like a success at the moment!) whilst Evans remains at the helm.
I'm acutely aware that Evans going or changing is extremely unlikely.
Hence, as we both agree, Lambert must go and now, like 9am presser, he's gone. |
I'm not quite as pessimistic as you on the possibility of things improving under Evans. I don't necessarily agree that he's doesn't care, as some think, I just think he's pretty clueless. If he didn't care we wouldn't have spent decent money on 4 high end loanees for this level. I thinknif we appointed the right manager, someone with a long term vision and strategy who directed Evans on where we need to invest, we could see changes. The problem is that, aside from Hurst who was a disaster, all of Evans' appointments have been short term appointments.
Keane had one job previously and stuck it out for a couple of years and spent eye watering sums to achieve very modest success. Jewell again was brought in to try and achieve promotion quickly having done it twice before. Mick came in to rescue us and then get us up. Lambert hasn't hung around anywhere since Villa, and that didn't go well, and Norwich is his last success as a manager and we've seen since he left that they have a a structure there that enables managers to come in and be successful.
Evans often talks about longer term strategies and plans, but other than words on paper there's no evidence of them existing. And he doesn't have the footballing nous to implement them. Ideally we'd bring in a genuine DoF to give us some more structure and to be a bit more progressive on the footballing side of things. Evans wouldn't know who to appoint though, so we're reliant on a new manager being able to successfully combine that role with coaching and managing the team or seeing the need to bring someone else into the club. It's not impossible, but it will take Evans appointing the right manager and his track record as far as that goes is abysmal. | |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:24 - Feb 17 with 808 views | haynes_toe1 |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:22 - Feb 17 by Herbivore |
I'm not quite as pessimistic as you on the possibility of things improving under Evans. I don't necessarily agree that he's doesn't care, as some think, I just think he's pretty clueless. If he didn't care we wouldn't have spent decent money on 4 high end loanees for this level. I thinknif we appointed the right manager, someone with a long term vision and strategy who directed Evans on where we need to invest, we could see changes. The problem is that, aside from Hurst who was a disaster, all of Evans' appointments have been short term appointments.
Keane had one job previously and stuck it out for a couple of years and spent eye watering sums to achieve very modest success. Jewell again was brought in to try and achieve promotion quickly having done it twice before. Mick came in to rescue us and then get us up. Lambert hasn't hung around anywhere since Villa, and that didn't go well, and Norwich is his last success as a manager and we've seen since he left that they have a a structure there that enables managers to come in and be successful.
Evans often talks about longer term strategies and plans, but other than words on paper there's no evidence of them existing. And he doesn't have the footballing nous to implement them. Ideally we'd bring in a genuine DoF to give us some more structure and to be a bit more progressive on the footballing side of things. Evans wouldn't know who to appoint though, so we're reliant on a new manager being able to successfully combine that role with coaching and managing the team or seeing the need to bring someone else into the club. It's not impossible, but it will take Evans appointing the right manager and his track record as far as that goes is abysmal. |
Things might improve vaguely under Evans than midtable under League One but long-term we stand zero chance of anything vaguely resembling success under Evans. He's had so long to show even the slightest amount of football sense, or to admit he doesn't and employ people who does.
Lambert is a complete chancer and Evans thought it suitable to offer him a 5 year contract and keep him in his job all of this season too. I dread to think if we got the next managerial decision wrong, what it would take for Evans to make the decision to sack him. | | | |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 09:13 - Feb 17 with 717 views | patrickswell |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:24 - Feb 17 by haynes_toe1 |
Things might improve vaguely under Evans than midtable under League One but long-term we stand zero chance of anything vaguely resembling success under Evans. He's had so long to show even the slightest amount of football sense, or to admit he doesn't and employ people who does.
Lambert is a complete chancer and Evans thought it suitable to offer him a 5 year contract and keep him in his job all of this season too. I dread to think if we got the next managerial decision wrong, what it would take for Evans to make the decision to sack him. |
If Evans gets the next managerial appointment wrong, we will be in League 2 within 2 years. It will serve as a fitting epitaph for the failure of his ownership. |  | | |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 10:32 - Feb 17 with 592 views | WeWereZombies |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:22 - Feb 17 by Herbivore |
I'm not quite as pessimistic as you on the possibility of things improving under Evans. I don't necessarily agree that he's doesn't care, as some think, I just think he's pretty clueless. If he didn't care we wouldn't have spent decent money on 4 high end loanees for this level. I thinknif we appointed the right manager, someone with a long term vision and strategy who directed Evans on where we need to invest, we could see changes. The problem is that, aside from Hurst who was a disaster, all of Evans' appointments have been short term appointments.
Keane had one job previously and stuck it out for a couple of years and spent eye watering sums to achieve very modest success. Jewell again was brought in to try and achieve promotion quickly having done it twice before. Mick came in to rescue us and then get us up. Lambert hasn't hung around anywhere since Villa, and that didn't go well, and Norwich is his last success as a manager and we've seen since he left that they have a a structure there that enables managers to come in and be successful.
Evans often talks about longer term strategies and plans, but other than words on paper there's no evidence of them existing. And he doesn't have the footballing nous to implement them. Ideally we'd bring in a genuine DoF to give us some more structure and to be a bit more progressive on the footballing side of things. Evans wouldn't know who to appoint though, so we're reliant on a new manager being able to successfully combine that role with coaching and managing the team or seeing the need to bring someone else into the club. It's not impossible, but it will take Evans appointing the right manager and his track record as far as that goes is abysmal. |
It should be obvious by now that the problem is Evans, might I even suggest that under a different owner Lambert would have been a success here?
Evans is not like the Cobbolds or Sheepshanks who had sharp end consumer or wholesale businesses. If their product did not sit right with the customer then sales dropped. What Evans does in hospitality and training courses delivers to a third party on behalf of a client who has a vague idea that something needs to be done and they wave a hand in MEGs direction to try something, anything.
So MEG predicate upon the needs of providers to sharp end consumers but not upon the consumers themselves. Football is a game where the results can be seen very easily and the Evans approach cannot deal with that. Instead of putting things right, or even seeing what everyone else sees in what needs to be put right, Marcus Evans goes comfort shopping and feels good because he has spunked some money. And so it will continue unless he gets an irresistible offer for the club or administrators are called in at the Marcus Evans Group. |  |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 10:37 - Feb 17 with 569 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 08:05 - Feb 17 by Herbivore |
25 is too many. In fact we're only allowed a squad of 22 senior pros anyway. The 50 players we have include all of the youths, I think the only over age player we're leaving out of our sqaud is Harry Wright. |
Ideally 2 senior pros for each position and then yoofs as backup seems sensible. Any more and you struggle to keep people happy. Any less and you run into problems with normal injury levels. Any long terms injuries than need replacements from the market, and loans would be ideal for those. |  |
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| Schooled at home to Northampton on 10:41 - Feb 17 with 561 views | Herbivore |
| Schooled at home to Northampton on 10:37 - Feb 17 by Swansea_Blue |
Ideally 2 senior pros for each position and then yoofs as backup seems sensible. Any more and you struggle to keep people happy. Any less and you run into problems with normal injury levels. Any long terms injuries than need replacements from the market, and loans would be ideal for those. |
I guess it depends on how senior pros are defined. I'd be counting the likes of Woolf, Downes, Dozzell, Bishop and Kenlock as senior pros now for squad building purposes. We definitely don't need two late 20s to mid 30s hairy arsed pros for each position. | |
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