May Contain Nuts

Would have saved us all a lot of arguing if he hadn't taken 16 months to remember how a successful midfield functions, but it's certainly a relief and a good sign for the future.

They've never been anything special, some people just convinced themselves otherwise off the back of two 20 minute spells where we got it wrong and let them have the freedom of the park and then sat back and let them pile the pressure on. (We nullified and exposed their defence in between those 2 spells)

errrrrm...

No issue with the lineup myself, and I'd rather Warne was brave enough to start with the 3 tbh, than only switching to it because we've been crap or when we feel we can get away with it. Can see it now though tbh, we win match against a team winless in 13 and it's all down the the formation, regardless of whether it made any real difference or not.

Perhaps but he's always talked about getting the right characters in and then needing to be able to handle pressure situations. Skipping out this game because their fans may have an issue wouldn't really speak.volumes for that side of his character.

We've paid around £300k to make sure he'd be allowed to play, so I don't really think it's a conspiracy when you consider our injury record this season anyway...

It wasn't all about his footballing ability (or lack thereof) though. He was a partyboy with a terrible attitude toward all the things you need in order to make it as a pro footballer.

Exactly this The fact that he's trusted to be the penalty taker surely counts in his favour, and somewhat diminishes the stat-pad argument. There are or have been plenty of teams where their main striker isn't the designated penalty taker, and I have in the past seen people use this as something to criticise the striker for, ie 'he's a good striker but only with instinctive finishes, useless when he has to use his brain or the situation requires composure' so some credit for taking them is warranted.

WTF is Padel?

Oh god, another argument on semantics incoming.

They will say that because it's correct though? I'm not sure it's particularly relevant what fans think of certain players, if they're contributing, they're contributing. If they're not, they're not. They may be on good wages but Hourihane, Collins, NML, Barkhuizen & Smith have all (to varying degrees) earned their keep despite having to adapt to how a new manager wanted them to play, and at times have covered the manager's blushes when he's made tactical errors, or when his own signings have failed to step up to the mark - it always seems a bit rich pointing toward them as a problem. Fornah, Ward, Bradley, Washington are yet to truly do so after 3-6 months of paying their wages. That may not be their fault, but it's a fact. Also on the matter of reactions to a player signing, while you get the odd new signing that the fanbase are broadly against on the whole the chances of a signing being met with support are stacked high. I think it's OK for fans to use hindsight when judging signings; we're just onlookers, not the ones who've scouted and researched these players to determine whether they're a good fit, discussed with them how we plan to use them etc. It is up to the management to do due duilligence on signings, not the fans. If a signing fails, it is a reflection on the whole buying process not just the manager, but he plays his part. It's just alarming that we've got better value out of signings we made fresh out of administration and under the tightest of restrictions than when we've had a little more leeway.

Ah, so you're looking forward to an extended honeymoon just as much as we are. Glad we're finally on the same page.

Yes yes, I'm sure that we're paying someone who was offered a new contract by a team who finished one goal above us last season less than they could offer him, and with no signing on fee, and that team are now able to outprice us by paying their players more than we could.

So in the sort term, not in the long term. I'm glad that put short terminism under Warne is showing us so much benefit.

Thanks for that Chat GPJourdan.

Are you seriously suggesting our business plan makes us less able to bring in players than Carlisle and Burton?

And more excuses in the summer. Have you seen how many players are out of contract? Total rebuild needed. How can anyone expect us look good until 7 months in?

The ever cheerful false and forced positivity is a bit too much tonight, tbh. Read the f****** room.

Because I'm making an overall assessment of his abilities. It doesn't mean I don't think he can get the job done, although surely you must be able to acknowledge what he isn't currently offering much which marks him out as the promotion expert he's labelled as? I'm not against bringing in managers to achieve a short term goal in the right circumstances, but most often it's the case that appointments like that are made in order to maintain your status when things are going badly, not to push a club onwards. I don't believe you have to be a particularly good manager to achieve promotion from League One, not even the Championship. Look at Phil Brown and Aidy Boothroyd for example - both poor managers but have achieved more than Paul Warne ever has or ever will, IMO.

Warne is a poor manager by any other measure than "can he get a team promoted form League one" and even that is in doubt right now

It doesn't have to be pretty but it's becoming clearer by the day that he has to at the very least produce a team which LOOKS like a team, and not just a collection of individuals who scrape by by the very fact that those individuals have more quality than the opposition. That's even more important when/if your finances don't match others. It's the sort of thing you make up for with a managerial appointment, or some other way of giving yourself an advantage over the opposition. We seem to be doing everything in our power to hand the advantage over to others.

Our constraints and restrictions rally aren't all that massive though, we're only competing with other League One clubs who similarly have to make sacrifices to get what they want.

The difference between this an the BD era is that, IMO, he harnessed the us against them attitude and we were a proper team, we believed in each other, we were better than them even if they didn't know it! Whereas Warne is more like... Oh well one day we may be able to be as good as them, but until then, go out and give it your all, gas out, prove we're as good as them. Cocuball required everyone to buy into the long term strategy but results and performances ultimately lead to the patience running out due to exactly that, boredom coupled with poor performances. I would never argue that when he left, it was due. I think we're essentially seeing the opposite of that under Warne. Buy into the short term and f*** the future.

Depends how much you think he's wasted on signings who don't improve us or whether you you believe he's been too picky in terms of which players we could sign based on factors beyond their footballing ability (or whether he's a rubbish judge if character and/or ability), I guess. Personally I don't think this is really on him, but bloody hell Paul shut your f****** trap until your sure you can deliver on the the things you talk about.

I'm just going to assume it all fell through which is why we don't have a new striker.