McClaren out?

[SillyBilly]

​what makes you so sure changing the manager will make the club better?

You do realise we have been top 5 for 70% of the season? You think that is mediocre? Are you ******* smoking crack? Look at Derby over the last 15 years and tell what is good, mediocre and bad in your deluded eyes!

I didnt realise we were flying and were looking certs for promotion for 70% of the season then collapsed spectacularly. Thanks for reminding me how the manager f**ked it up.

[ketteringram]

Duck me I think I've slipped back into 2012....

 

 

anyways, Will Clough go if he don't get the blunts promoted?

 

biggest budget..... Attracted players from championship.... Decent crowds. 

 

And yet 20 points off Brizzle City.

 

at least he got to the play offs mind eh?

 

still not a patch on Mac....

There will be plenty of teams in the championship 20 points behind Bristol city next season. 

[Posh Ram]

I haven't voted. Genuinely don't know the answer, but hopefully Sam Rush does.  

I do think Mac has moved the club forward over the last 20 months, but he has seriously under performed in the last 4 months. What I do know is that this in part was down to woeful bad luck with injuries to key players, and in further part to the erratic form of many of those who stayed fit - Keogh, Christie, Grant, Shotton and Hendrick specifically.  I also believe that Mac has made some almost amateurish tactical decisions in respect of not having anything else other than a Plan A, and then trying to hammer square pegs in to round holes.

Overall I think I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, and allow him the time to analyse what went so wrong, who under-performed, who he wants to keep, and then make what I think need to be some wholesale changes to the squad.  

However, I come to that conclusion on the assumption that no deals "were agreed or implied" with Newcastle back in January, and that he did not communicate his position with any players.  If a deal with Newcastle for season end was agreed, or he did anything that undermined his authority in the dressing room, then he simply has to go. No way back, even if Newcastle might not want him now, or vice versa.  If Rush is aware of the latter he should bring Mac and Ashley together early this week and do the deal, waiving some of the compensation if necessary to make it happen. If the deal can't be done, then Mac should be sacked - he should not be allowed back other than to say some goodbyes and unplug his white phone - and Rush should drive Mac, together with his phone and brolly, up to the North East.

Note: Even if Mac did communicate his decision to players that does not provide them with any excuse for their poor performances, individually and collectively - they are professionals and very well rewarded.

p.s. On the basis I haven't voted I would welcome someone lets me know the poll figures in due course.

​78 yes, 103 no.

I don't think there's a clear answer to this one. But a decision needs to be made quickly. 

[BOB BIGGS]

There will be plenty of teams in the championship 20 points behind Bristol city next season. 

​Look good, don't they.

[jimbobram]

I think there are some massive over reactions on here. If he had lost the players then they wouldn't manage to come back from being 3-1 down however many times its happened this season. Its been an awful two months, but the months before were brilliant. The injuries to key players was a big problem.

Also, people moaning about the signings, not every signing is going to hit it off and be a success, I think he tried to cover the positions which needed strengthening (Bent, Warnock, Albantosa) but unfortunately two of those became injured too.  

The only criticism I have of mac is the fact he didn't stick to the same back four. It made it impossible to build some consistency. 

[i-Ram]

​79 (43.4%) Yes

103 (56.6%) No

Thank you Ronnie. Glad you are posting more regularly again. Not really sure what the problem was before, nor do I need to know, but my view for what worth is that you should never back down from sticking by people and principles in which you believe (obviously up until such time as anyone can categorically evidence that your belief is invalid).

[Rev]

Lots of people bringing up our so called tough pre season routine as a reason we've been so poor recently.

Please link to posts you made in July-Sept regarding this, otherwise l'll suspect your using hindsight to be wise after the event, even though we have a team of well qualified sports scientists who know nothing.

[ronnieronalde]

Thank you Ronnie. Glad you are posting more regularly again. Not really sure what the problem was before, nor do I need to know, but my view for what worth is that you should never back down from sticking by people and principles in which you believe (obviously up until such time as anyone can categorically evidence that your belief is invalid).

​It was more personal than anything else iRam. 2014/15 has been a year I want to forget but won't be able to. Football took 2nd place to that.

But i never left the board, I was always here reading, just couldn't be arsed with the stick I'd take even for a standard normal discussion. The fact that I was possibly right in what I was saying got swept under the carpet due to those ****** who kept accusing me of having an agenda. The same ****** who bring Clough into every thread where there's even the slightest question raised.

All I know is that 100% I was behind the Rams going up this year and to have to watch the collapse has been a horrible experience. I sat there yesterday unable to believe that the season was finishing the way it did. FFS get a point at home and move on. Even if you play 11 at the back and park two buses.

Be professional, get through the game and take stock.

[RamNut]

Lots of people bringing up our so called tough pre season routine as a reason we've been so poor recently.

Please link to posts you made in July-Sept regarding this, otherwise l'll suspect your using hindsight to be wise after the event, even though we have a team of well qualified sports scientists who know nothing.

I'm not sure the recent form is blamed on the pre-season form.

but the injuries to key players were blamed on the boot camp.

and that was posted at the time.

[-JW-]

Where has John Vicars disappeared to?

'We will get promoted next year' was his exact phrase used in the forum the week after Wembley last year.

[Brammie Steve]

He'll go when he's good and ready.

All that Newcastle speculation unsettled the team.

That, along with playing loanees ahead of members of a previously cohesive team cost us more dearly than the injuries.

A defence that was at best non-existent and at worst a dangerous liability.

None of these caused the unbelievable slump on the crest of which we rode for the last three months but combined they were a heady mix.

It surely can't happen another season....can it?

[Pearson]

Clough's problem was the jobs for his mates mentality. They were never good enough. Plus he had an arrogance that wasn't matched by his ability. 

My understanding was that he tried to suggest to Rush that he didn't know what he was talking about. Rush tore a strip off him and showed him in no uncertain terms who was boss. 

I suspect I am one of the few on here who had no time for Clough, admittedly based on nothing more than personal dislike of his nature. 

​On football matters he doesn't. Rush should be dealing with financial and administration matters, not meddling in the team affairs of any manager.

[Pearson]

​huh? Team signings (as in a team of people get together and decide who to sign), nothing to do with selecting the starting eleven ffs!

​It's essentially the same thing, how can a Manager of worth let other people dictate who he should sign.

It's the mangers vision, formation, tactics which formulate, hopefully, a winning side. Having another party sign a player on your behalf would be unprofessional and unworkable.

In my eyes if you are dependant on other people telling who to sign, well you'll never make a manager. But then agian, in this case, he is a Coach, not a manager, so that perhaps says it all. 

He had  the nucleus of a good side which he had advanced due to his excellent coaching, but then after those "team" selections that he felt compelled to play, we sprinted backwards and alienated half the squad in the process.

The more I think about it the more I will be happier when he has departed.

[Curtains]

​It's essentially the same thing, how can a Manager of worth let other people dictate who he should sign.

It's the mangers vision, formation, tactics which formulate, hopefully, a winning side. Having another party sign a player on your behalf would be unprofessional and unworkable.

In my eyes if you are dependant on other people telling who to sign, well you'll never make a manager. But then agian, in this case, he is a Coach, not a manager, so that perhaps says it all. 

He had  the nucleus of a good side which he had advanced due to his excellent coaching, but then after those "team" selections that he felt compelled to play, we sprinted backwards and alienated half the squad in the process.

The more I think about it the more I will be happier when he has departed.

Don't think then 

[jagerbob]

Im glad hes staying. What is annoying is the amount of people who want him out. Or rather the amount of fans who believe tabloid newspaper reports who always get it wrong, over what our club was saying. Its those sort of scare mongering fans we dont need at this club. Mcclaren deserves a chance to make right the mistakes he made this season from January onwards.  fans might not like Mcclarens policy, on how he handles the speculation question. As much as i respect it. It might have an effort on some players, although im sure they had more more reliable information from the man himelf behind closed dooors, than the guesswork we have to work with from the newspaper and radio reports. The bottom line of me is..... if Rush and the board see him as the right man, then so do I.

He does however need the right players coming in, and its essential he doesnt leave the squad short in any area. Although there is a big argument to say any club in the league would have been screwed had they had the injuries to the key positions we did. Lets rememeber Burnley are only in the premier because they had virtually 0 injuries when they got promoted and had a squad half as big as derbys was this season.

[ck-]

​On football matters he doesn't. Rush should be dealing with financial and administration matters, not meddling in the team affairs of any manager.

My point, perhaps badly made, was that Rush took an administration decision based on the manager's reluctance to acknowledge there was room for improvement. 

[Ramos]

I say fire him, then re hire him, then put him on garden leave, then force him to resign, then pay him to come back, then frame him for murder, let him rot for the summer in jail before finding some new evidence to prove his innocence, then put him on a chinese boat jack bauer style where he will be interrogated for 18months before flying him back over to finally take control of us in the 2017/18 season.

I can't see how it could possibly go any other way.

[inter politics]

The dust has settled slightly and I have kinds of mixed emotions about McClaren and us not going up/getting in the play-offs.

On the whole, I always prefer stability but I've not been impressed with how McClaren handled the speculation and it clearly affected the players, whatever he said. I don't really like the feeling that if a decent job comes up, he'll go running. I also think tactically, on and off the pitch, he made a few costly errors. I worry he may of lost some of the dressing room - hopefully I am wrong or he can regain it.

I will back him and the team all the way but I worry for next season if we start badly or have a hiccup, the fans will not be so supporting - the patience will run thinner than before.

To be honest, part of me is relieved the season is over, as the last couple of months were like a slow death.

I want to be in the Prem like anyone but let's be honest, being in the Championship (if successful enough) is possibly more exciting. It's the chase and whilst I don't really like Forest games, they are amazing when we win so it's kind of nice to still have that. Plus, would doing it the QPR way (squirming through the play-offs) really of been as rewarding as becoming champions, hopefully we regroup and do it that way finally.