Worcester Owl

13 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

Jesus. Where did I say that?! And I’m the one supposedly going to extremes!

 

You aren’t involved in the business but yet you’re talking as if you’ve got full visibility of every facet of the business, it’s targets and it’s success/failures. Whereas in reality you’re looking solely at what is happening on the pitch. 
 

And yes the past almost certainly has an impact on footballing matters even after Frank came in. Our reputation for how we dealt with agents or other clubs for example, our reputation with players for not paying them. A new owner just doesn’t wipe all those things away immediately, it takes time to turn around. Our non existent scouting network. The facilities we could offer players. Our coaching infrastructure. All these things needed building from the ground up. You don’t get every decision on that journey right. 
 

The football side of things need improving. What has gone wrong has to be understood and put right. Processes need to be improved. Personnel may need to change. But to say that what happened in the past has no lasting impact is nonsense. The same can be applied to Mellon. He’s had 6 months and made a few signings so the failure to reach the play offs is on his shoulders alone and so he needs sacking? I don’t agree. 

Excellent, common sense post. I would double upvote it if I could.

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

Even during that spell he was booed at home matches for his 7 at the back tactics.

Instead of bigging him up you need to ask why he's lost total control of the team?

Fans pay good money to this club and I've no doubt they have been badly let down by the manager and players.

If you were served regular poor meals  in a restaurant would you still praise the chef and hope he improves with a new menu?

We need Gordon Ramsey at this club to tell the board it as it is.

 

 

 

Where on earth in @Gaz_Oafc’s post does he “big up” MM? Lost total control??? I’m sorry BP but you are talking absolute nonsense there.

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

He kept picking the same ones though and axing  some like Hobson who always put a shift in. Banishing 2 forwards like Tollitt and Willoughby when they could have been needed was ridiculous, same with Reid who should have been forgiven for his misdemeanour as he may well have fired us into the play offs.

 

 

Come off it. Reid wasn’t that good. If MM had let him off people would have said he was weak, too soft etc. Reid knew the rules and broke them anyway - he was either thick, or thoughtless, or both.

2 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

My observation is he's lost his love for the game and the players know it.

This comes across in his downbeat interviews. 

I feel he ought to retire and find some enjoyment outside the game.

We can't carry on with a manager who cannot motivate his staff.

 

You assume that the way he talks to the media, with their frequently asinine questions, is the way he talks to the players. Do you have any evidence to back up that assumption?

24 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Trace it all back to Boreham Wood where he publicly told everyone they thought they were shit.

A game we won, and followed up by winning at Maidenhead. You really are a genius, aren't you?

38 minutes ago, Wardie said:

Are you saying the Reid incident could be the catalyst or not having Reid playing? On the outside, it appears as if Mellon has lost the players, if so, nothing much is going to change.

Reid publicly chucked his toys out of the pram at having been asked to train on Christmas Day, the poor lamb. We then won 4 league games in a row starting on Boxing Day. Norwood played in every game and scored 4 goals. The downturn in form would appear to have sod all to do with Reid being (rightly) banished.

1 hour ago, oafc1955 said:

I’m talking about where we will be in November after Mellon’s recruitment in the summer!

But that wasn’t what you said.

3 hours ago, deyres42 said:

Another ready made excuse for him.

Isn’t your barrel scraped enough yet?

20 hours ago, oafc1955 said:

Let’s see if you think the same come November!!

Well seeing as @Guy Branston Pickle was rightly pointing out in his post that recruiting in January is a risk, and that it was poor recruitment last summer that meant we had to take that risk in January, then guess what - I will think exactly the same in November. Recruiting in January is always less optimal than in the summer, and last summer’s recruitment by Unsworth/the club was poor - neither of those points will be any less valid in November.

3 hours ago, Guy Branston Pickle said:

I don't know about that. Stones was excellent and we were unlucky he got injured. Garner got some important goals when he came in. Conlon has been disappointing but has had some good games. Dallas and Walker, fair enough. But again, that's the risk you take recruiting in January. It was poor recruitment last summer that put us in that position in the first place.

That's a great post and right on the nail but come on, there is little room for such a common sense observation on here.

2 hours ago, League one forever said:

 

I was talking about Southend- and how they done well in difficult circumstances, and how we have done poorly in good circumstances. You then said ‘you don’t think our board had it shit with the chuckle brothers’ if that isn’t comparing then what it is? If you’re not interested in Southend, and what can be achieved on a fraction of what we have- just ignore my post?

 

You say this. 

 

Then this. (Which I agree with) 
 

No manager can build anything if results don’t meet expectation. He has said himself his target was the playoffs. He hasn’t don’t it. So far he’s failed- he might yet come good. Let’s hope so. 
 

Eh? It was all we talked about. 
 

Unsworth -

 

Why no right back. 
Why no cover for Kitch.

Why no wide players other than green. 
Why do we keep signing strikers when we are short in midfield. 
Do we need 6 centre backs.

 

Mellon. 

Why no cover for Kitch. 
Why no wide players. 
Why sign a rwb for 3-5-2 then say he doesn’t have a right back. 
Why did we sign Garner

You may agree or disagree with the above but plenty were questioning the at times nonsensical recruitment decisions. 

 

I’m very fair in my expectations- 7th this season without promotion was solid progress. I don’t think that’s unreasonable or being impatient. 
 

12th to 10th is not solid progress, it’s treading water for a club with our budget. 

You're clearly not listening, so I'll make this my last word on the matter. As an aside, I've noticed that you sometimes forensically dissect posts in an attempt to trip people up, claiming that they are contradicting themselves, when often they are not. If that floats your boat, so be it, but life's too short.

You keep saying that we are "in good circumstances" or a variant thereof. Anyone would think we'd been transformed overnight from 30 years of being a mis-managed basket case to a model club, which should be doing much better on the pitch. We are at the very beginning of a long road to recovery under beneficent owners who are new to football and who will not get everything right but are hopefully learning as they go along. They were left with very little to work with by the previous regime and then made the well-intentioned mistake of sticking with a rookie manager for longer than they should. Now, Mellon has to pick up the pieces and after just 28 games people are moaning that he can't get us promotion and has to go. It's ridiculous. I repeat, patience is needed. That was the point I was making, in response to your facile "Southend terrible setup, Oldham model setup" comparison. You were happy to go along with MM as we rose up the table and got as high as 5th, and now, when it looks like the playoff push may be over, you seem to want to chuck your toys out of the pram and condemn him for "treading water" - fine, but I'll be more tolerant and wait to see what he achieves next season.

On player recruitment, most if not all of the players signed at the start of the season and in January were praised as good signings by many on here. If you in your infinite wisdom saw through this recruitment as haphazard and scattergun at the time, it's not a recollection I have. I am happy to give MM a full summer window, and hope he won't be too restricted by the deadweight he inherited. 

1 hour ago, Dave_Og said:

But can he hole a Dennis Wise under pressure?

Ha, well he can be a bit of a Douglas Bader on the greens!

1 minute ago, League one forever said:

Poor comparison.  Our owners moved us away from what Southend are still going through. . . 
 

The equivalent to Southend and Maher would be AL still being here and someone like Pete wild doing great job in horrible circumstances. 
 

Both our last two managers work for fabulous owners and a settled club. 
 

On your last paragraph - I wasn’t make a sack him point. Mellon is just a moving part in what has been a poor football operation for two seasons. 
 

Board decisions. 
Recruitmemt. 
Player performance. 
 

In my view things are disjointed on the football operation. With lots of contradictions. I hope in the summer there is a big meeting between the family, the board,  Mellon, and senior players to hold each other to account and have some honest conversations about where mistakes have been made. 
 

 

I wasn't making a comparison - I'm not interested in Southend's situation though I note, as pointed out elsewhere, that they have had the same manager since 2021. Maybe giving a guy a sensible amount of time to build something is an idea.

We are all disappointed in how the season is ending. Very few people questioned player recruitment at the start of the season (under Unsworth) or in January (under Mellon). This is a tough league to get out of, full stop, and patience is required. Moaning about the board/players/manager and talk of pub teams (what are we, then?) gets us nowhere. MM deserves the next season to show what he can do. Results will determine his fate and it's futile speculating about whether we have a poor or disjointed football operation - which of us knows the intricate details of how other clubs are organised? 

On 3/30/2024 at 1:36 AM, Sloshed Joe said:

Nuttall ‘does superbly’ (according to the Cheltenham Twitter admin) to assist the winning goal v Fleetwood as they fight for League One survival.

On 4/6/2024 at 5:48 PM, nzlatic said:

Nuttall scores. 

On 4/7/2024 at 3:19 AM, Sloshed Joe said:

Cheltenhams official report doesn’t describe it as one to remember…

 

’Late consolation as Nuttall fumbles it home from close range’ 

I refer you to my Cheltenham-supporting mate's assessment in the Playing Squad - Summer 23 thread!

2 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Yeah,  I was specifically talking about his point regarding Southend. 
 

We keep hearing that it takes time, mistakes will be made, we can’t expect to much. . despite the club being in a fantastic position for success. And yet they’re working in an absolute shit show. . but have recruited well on a shoe string, have a good manager, and got the most from their tiny squad. What they achieved this season given the circumstances is excellent. 
 

Meanwhile we are aimlessly throwing money at the wall to see what sticks, and in comparison to them our whole structure of recruitment/getting the best from the players/consistency of performance put us to shame. 
 

 

You don't think our board/owners have been working in a shit show, given what they inherited from the Chuckle Brothers?

They got the Unsworth appointment wrong, for which we can probably blame the Royles. They have now gone for an experienced manager, who has so far had just 28 league games - hardly more than half a season with no proper transfer window and a legacy squad that is clearly not one he would have wanted - to show what he can do. We were 22nd in the league when Unsworth left, and plenty on here said Thompson and Redfearn weren't the answer after three poor draws in a row. MM at least threatened to get us into the play-offs, and may still do.

But fine, sack him and let's start all over again next season. I sometimes wonder if as fans we get the performances we deserve.

7 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

Very true look at Gareshead who have about 14 players and a manager only in place since October, lost their Captain, keeper recalled sold their best players in January, they'll do well to stay up. Hold on....

They had a full bench when they played Rochdale the other day. 

17 hours ago, League one forever said:

There’s no denying, that is embarrassing. 

His post certainly is. Even by his standards, it's as nonsensical as it is doom-ridden.

I played golf this morning and one of my regular playing mates seemed a bit agitated, odd as he's normally a very chilled out kind of guy. Turns out he was at Cheltenham last night as they lost 0-1 to Carlisle (already down) in a crucial relegation match for them. He was apoplectic about Nuttall, who apparently missed a sitter early on. Honestly, I've never heard him swear so much . Among his more repeatable comments about Nuttall were "can't bloody jump", "fucking useless", "sodding donkey", and he said if we don't take Nuttall back at the end of the season if not before, he might just stick my 7 iron where the sun doesn't shine!! 

10 hours ago, Londonboy said:

I didn't like Unsworth one bit, and thought he was completely out of his depth and was really glad when he was sacked..

However in his first season his win rate was about 35%....shit I know.

Mellons so far as about 33%

 

Whatever anyone says both  Mellons win rate and the teams performances have been no better than Rhinos.

He's been a massive disappointment so far, and started 10 of Unsworths squad on Saturday. 

Progress eh.....

If we're going to quote win % the only one that matters is league wins.

DU in his first season was 35.14% as you say, 13 from 37. By the time he left it was 14 from 46, or 30.43%. 

MM has 11 wins from 28 or 39.29%. Until the current poor run of 8 without a win he was consistently > 50%, which is a high threshold.

He is demonstrably a better manager than DU. I hope he is still up for the challenge - if so, he should be given a summer transfer window and the whole of next season (barring catastrophe, obviously) to show what he can do.

1 hour ago, OneSizeFitz said:

It's quite simple really. A striker of Norwood's age will never score 30 goals a season at this level. But it's a reasonable expectation for Norwood to have scored 30 goals this season at this level. And he hasn't lived up to that reasonable expectation to score 30 goals this season, so he's underperformed and it's largely his fault we're 9th. And we know that this is what the club expected of him when they signed him because they never came out and said it.

 

Case closed.

That, sir, is a gem. Take a bow. Would double upvote it if I could!

6 hours ago, spanishfly said:

StatsBomb. Been doing a little research as I`d never heard of it. Someone mentioned on here that no top team winning anything is without it. Really? Well, if lots of clubs have it; they can't all be winning can they? Competitive advantage comes from having decent players in a decent line-up, managed well. We are in non-league for christ's sake. A manager, and indeed anyone who knows anything about football, can see a good player when he sees one. It's just more nonsense created by the nonsense generation. Oh and anyone calling the beautiful game, soccer (which I saw several times on their website) clearly knows nothing about football either. I really do despair if Latics are relying on such drivel as part of their recruitment policy. The saying;  lies, damned lies and statistics wasn't made up for any old reason. It's because it has a large element of truth in it. 

 

Let the manager do the recruiting, full stop. He then lives or dies by his own decisions not some stupid bloody database on meaningless stats.

I never understand why some people get so worked up about the word “soccer”. It’s used by the Yanks a lot, yes, but sensibly in their case to differentiate it from American Football. It’s been used over here since the game was codified, and is simply an abbreviation/corruption of Association Football.

Hope springs eternal

5 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

I've never been one to boo the player's off,

If they've done what's expected of them I'll clap till my hands are sore

I do tend to head for the exit as soon as when I've been unhappy with what I've seen and that should be enough 

That’s very fair of you. TBH I’m the same, I don’t think I’ve ever booed Latics off, just fled as soon as the whistle goes and got as far away as possible. It’s fine to say that fans pay their money so have the right to boo, I get it, but it’s not like complaining about a product or service in the real world. This is football, and it’s our club, that we love in spite of everything. I just walk away, always have, or, worse, don’t go to the game.

3 hours ago, O.A.F.C. said:

There is no reason why we can't win all 4.  The reaction in the 2nd half against Altrincham showed real character.

I agree with your second sentence, the team showed fight and passion albeit we didn’t create many clear cut chances. On your first sentence, again, of course we could win all 4 but how many times this season have we played well 2 games running, never mind 4?

28 minutes ago, simplythemostimportantkick said:

Sutton too. Know what you mean tho. Not enough. I imagine they aren’t good enough or they’d be chucked in. It’s ok them standing out against other kids but to cut it against blokes is another story. 

Yes Sutton too, bad of me to overlook him. Apart from the disaster for the goal, I thought he played ok against Altrincham.