Jram

What a random set of teams. How is the competition organised?

My biggest concern with Warne has always been his obsession with “26-30 year olds”. Competing financially in League 1 is easy with gates like ours but we’re not gonna compete in the championship on gates/external investment because it’s full of similar sized clubs Our best chance of having success in the championship, in my opinion, is to bring through and retain academy talent into their prime In a few years Bird, Cashin, Sibley will be entering that age. Such a shame the likes of Whittaker and Knight (and the rest) had to leave

Actual legit thread on transfer forum actually

Where’s this rumour come from?

I can’t figure out what this means 😂 too much double negative

I’ll be disappointed if some of the academy lads don’t get a run out tonight

Blimey, surely you’re joking? You clearly weren’t at Preston away under N Clough with Dean Moxey playing number 9 For the record, I actually think this team play some really good football at times

On the subject of disagreement… 😂 Jokes aside, I genuinely think watching derby play Crewe today was like watching Man City play Luton in the Prem. Utter dominance in possession and some nice passing. Most difficult thing at this level is understandably putting it in the net because if you can do that even remotely effectively, you wouldn’t be playin in League 1

He’s entitled to his opinion, I suppose. No harm in a bit of disagreement

They thoroughly outclassed Crewe today. They’re not quite creating the number of clear cut chances required to win consistently but I think that will come. Up the Rams.

I really hope he plays some of the kids- Brown, Robinson if fit etc May want the financial reward though I gues

What makes you think 3 for Cash?

I don’t think Northampton defenders knew the rules for the first goal 😂 they work hard to keep Bird goal side and then appeal vociferously for offside as if his being behind the ball is irrelevant

Yeah there obviously are some examples where a club’s fortunes improved after appointing a manager. But if you looked at the fortunes of different clubs one year after every appointment in the 92, I bet 90% would be in a similar position in the same league. Im not saying the manager doesn’t make any difference- im saying there are dozens of other factors (many of which are definitely more impactful) that impact the club and most managerial sackings result in no material gain Often when a managerial appointment does seem to cause a change in fortunes, it conveniently coincides with other things happening at the club. Arteta at Arsenal is a good example. Maybe he’s a genius? Or maybe his appointment was at the same time as Arsenal finally payin off stadium debt and being able to spend 200 million each summer? Call me cynical but I think the money had a bigger impact

Maybe it’s just League 1? Maybe the Championship is just better football generally and you see less running, more passing and more skill I would say they’ve had moments under Warne where it has been lovely football. Gives me hope that we may see it more consistently

Meh maybe 🤷‍♂️

I think we’re agreeing here. Sack the manager, don’t sack the manager- it doesnt matter. Very few managers make a significant difference anyway and, regardless of what we did, we’d probably still be in the same situation we are now. A possible reason for that is that they don’t get sufficient time to build a squad but I believe that it’s more likely that most managers just don’t impact a team that much- it’s mostly who can buy the best players and a host of other factors (player culture, player circumstance, blind luck across 46 games) It possibly reflects the fact that football managers are nearly always drawn from a tiny pool- ex players- so the diversity, talent and innovation is actually minimal but that’s beside the point I’m trying to make

I think my point about managerial changes stands though. Other than McLaren, did any ultimately make any difference? I genuinely think as well that it’s unfair to judge Warne outside of this season. Last season we all agreed it was a small, ageing squad which withered late on- arguably understandably given the constraints on the club when building the squad. Warne admitted he should have added one or two more in January and he’s learned from that. I would also have liked him to say he could have trusted the 21s more but you can’t have it all I can honestly understand everyone’s frustrations at losing to Stevenage but I do think it’s fallacious to call for his head at the moment and am genuinely surprised there aren’t more people who agree (I know there are some)

That’s exactly what I’m saying though. If we had retained Cocu or Rosenior, the last two coaches we actually sacked from memory, I highly doubt we would have been doing worse than now. Therefore, the money spent on sacking (Cocu, not sure rosenior cost anything) was arguably wasted. I just think it’s silly to give someone a four year contract and say build the club back up but, if he’s not absolutely smashing the league after one year, to want him sacked 🤷‍♂️

I’m not even sure we’re debating the same thing anymore tbh Im not necessarily into Warne specifically. I’m into giving someone with a four year contract a bit more patience than sacking him when in 9th after 14 games (to say we’re heading for mid table at season end with 32 games remaining is very dramatic) I’ll go back to the point that we’ve sacked dozens of managers in recent years and we’ve still ended up in league 1. Is sacking managers really the answer 🤷‍♂️

Just watched it- basically said not good enough on Saturday but win a couple and you’re in the playoffs with a game in hand

What’s this about on his Wiki? Mile?

I don’t think that’s fair. I think some of it is that whatever he did, people would see things to criticise given they’ve decided he’s no good Also, I do think the reaction of some fans is a bit silly. They’re not exactly rock bottom. They’re well in touch of the top 6 and it’s still early He always accepts that they need to be better and he understands fan frustration Fwiw I also think the players are still playing for him

But we made a change to Warne and haven’t seen an immediate improvement and everyone is calling for his head? What makes you so convinced Warne can’t be the man for the long term? I dunno, it just seems a shame to me to change so quickly when I highly doubt a managerial change will make any difference (we may start to win games but i think we will under Warne anyway)

I was only kidding. In all honesty, I dont particularly love Warne- his obvious dislike for academy players is a particular gripe of mine I think he’s fine though and, given time, we’ll improve. Football isn’t that complicated and a new manager will probably do no better in the medium term (unless the players are completely rebelling) As I said, possibly on another thread, what managerial changes have actually improved us in the last twenty years? Maybe McLaren. In my opinion, shows the fallacy of changing the manager at all really