nzlatic

That’s a bit different. It should go without saying that I don’t think every manager gets unlimited time to get it right. Unsworth had a long, poor run to start with. He then had a good 2nd half of the season but even then he didn’t pick up points at the rate that Mellon did over his first 20 games. He then had the full summer to recruit which he didn’t do as well as he should have done. And then had a shocking start to the season. He also had no track record outside of youth football. Mellon picked up points at nearly 2 per game. He’s got multiple promotions under his belt all after at least 1 full season. We’ve now had a run of 6 draws and 3 defeats and we should sack him? It’s a massively over the top reaction to something that happens in all clubs, even ones that get promoted.

That’s how I felt on the terrace today. It was horrible. Actively singing against your own player for missing a chance. The guy who is the only one who’s scored goals with any regularity this season. I just don’t see how we can truly move forward as a club if the fans are frothing at the mouth whenever the team or a player has a bad run of form. There’s lots to fix, of course there is, but is that a massive surprise given what has happened to the club over the last 10/15 years? But no one gets time. It has to be quick or you’re out.

I stood there and listened to some fucking awful stuff today. Absolutely irrational negative bollocks. If I was James Norwood I would 100% be looking for another club this summer off the back of today. I don’t think I put any irrational positive bollocks on here but if you’ve found some I’ll happily address it.

Sack him. Sack the players. Sack the board. Sack the statistics. Then if the new lot aren’t top of the table in 6 months, sack them all too. Give medals to the fans who were signing anti James Norwood songs loudly and repeatedly for the crime of… checks notes… missing a chance. They’re the real heroes. This toxicity is fucking performative and farcical. I can’t be arsed with it.

If we don’t score in the first 15 minutes it feels like the players and fans lose the pre match optimism and things get worse from there.

I have no idea what the process was with Freeman but they only gave him a 6 month deal so they obviously didn’t feel confident signing him up for longer. I’d be more interested in the process for those we give longer, permanent contracts to.

Really good point in last para. The whole journey back to L1 won’t be a straight line either. There’ll be lots of ups and downs and mistakes made. I’d guess mistakes will occur more frequently in the early years too. Just because mistakes happen, we have spells of bad form, appoint the wrong manager or sign the wrong players doesn’t mean we’re not on the right path.

Absolutely. And this is how they are being used I think. I’m sure it’s been said that the stats tools are used to identify possible players from a wider selection. They are then shortlisted and scouted in the more traditional sense. The way some are talking is as if DR is using statsbomb like top trumps, seeing a striker with 10/10 for shooting and signing him to a 3 year deal.

A medical room with all these new fangled machines and devices to help physios deal with injuries and rehabilitation better? What tosh. Nothing wrong with a bucket and a sponge.

We were 2 divisions higher then so better loanees were much easier to come by.

Probably explains why people say a manager needs a few windows to properly sort a squad. Trick this summer will be this to replace 6 that haven’t worked out with 6 as you have described there. 2 great, 2 ok, 2 not ok. Then we’re 4 players better off.

Who would have to pay to police 1800 away fans if it’s held at another ground?

Love the enthusiasm! Plenty will say there’s no chance but if that was the case why bother watching sport? Slim chance of it happening, but as you say there was a slim chance of us winning the last 3 in 1993. You never know…

Yeah seems massively unfair on us. We could have had a lot riding on that game (might still I guess!) but get left with just 38 hours between matches.

Will it be us specifically or just the pure numbers? Barnet and Ebbsfleet will be much lower numbers. With our game it’ll be an extra 1500 at least to police.

You forgot to mention they’ve had the same manager since October 2021

Yeah I saw that. Bit strange, would have thought he’s done more than enough to get the gig.

Gateshead is the one team in the top 10 that's changed manager mid season other than us. Given Williamson left and took players with him he's done a great job.

Solihull manager was appointed Jun 28th 2023.

He’s 52

And a couple of rugby games in between no doubt.

Would it have to be behind closed doors if moved to another venue at this late stage?

I’ve mentioned this a few times now so it’s probably getting boring!.. Chesterfield were right at the top end of the table in Feb 2022 when their manager left and Cook was appointed. They’d played 26 and had 54 points. Cook came in and got 23 points from 18 games, they clung on for 7th. Did he improve them? Clearly not. He hadn’t won anything for 5 years. Did they give him time? Yes. Next season they were flying high but had a bad 10 games and dropped down again. Again, they didn’t panic and they won the league by miles in his second full season. The 8 above us on the league all bar one (Gateshead) have managers who’ve been there at least 1 full season. The top 4 have managers that are in their 3rd seasons at least. We just have to give someone some proper time.

Mellon did that wouldn’t you say? 11 wins and 4 draws out of his first 20 league games. Then a bad run followed. But it seems for many that bad run of 8 games is enough to get rid.

Only 2 games to go off so too early to tell yet, but there are signs with Lundstram that Mellon was right and they’ve worked with him on those issues and we’re now seeing a better player. Hopefully that can be applied to others too. We may not need a massive overhaul to the squad if so. Mellon should have enough behind him to not be fazed by the job. Might just need…. time!