nzlatic

Do you think he’s finished as a manager?

We won 4 league games in a row under Mellon end of Dec/early Jan. Feels a long time ago now.

Chesterfield pretty much had that exact run last season which took them out of the automatic promotion race. Probably at a similar time of the season too. Cook also had a very average first 20 games in charge the season before when he took over a team at the top and clung onto 7th by the end. They kicked on this season though and didn’t have those sort of runs. That’s what we need to do next season.

I did mean that we should have let him go out on loan even if just for a percentage of his wages, rather than keep him and pay 100%! Saying that, I am a little puzzled as to why he's been totally frozen out. I can understand some of the other decisions... Reid - discipline, Nuttall and Willoughby - wanted different types of strikers. Shelton struggled but given midfield and rwb have been such massive problems I'm surprised he's not been considered at all.

xR (expected reducers) stat needed urgently.

Do you know this for sure BP? My query on stats at this level would be do they offer enough depth? With a million camera angles and data tracking options teams at the top must have, you could track anything. But other than player GPS and camera shots that spend most of the time waving around looking at the stand and the sky, I can't imagine the data recording is at the same level. It would be useful to have someone who knows the systems explain more about how they could be used by clubs at this level. Without that we're all guessing.

Cheers. Seems a strange one if that's the case. We're paying his wages in full if he stays so may as well get something back and let the lad play.

Shelts. Seriously though, does anyone know what has happened to him? I think he's the only player we've heard nothing from or about for months. It's like he's just vanished with no obvious reason why.

With the stats thing, it just boils down to how it's used. It doesn't mean it's wrong to have it. Royle introduced it which should in theory be a good thing, if it's not being used correctly then that's a human problem. Which is the recruitment team, whoever that is. If you filled the gym with all the best equipment then had a trainer telling people the wrong way to use it, it's not the equipment that's at fault.

No harm having it in the mix. It all depends how it's implemented.

You literally referred back to the previous regime and the situation they inherited in your post and inferred that protests hampered a promotion push. Why mention that unless you think the fans are letting this ownership off lightly by not doing similar? What this ownership and board have done off the pitch is very relevant when discussing their performance so far. Funnily enough I was browsing #oafc on twitter earlier. There was someone on there banging on about club communication, plans and statements as well. As for Corney, that was also a bad era for the club under his ownership and the senior club director Barry Owen.

Can you list the areas of the club that improved under the ownership of Abdallah Lemsagam, the sporting directorship of Mo Lemsagam and their senior advisor/club director Barry Owen? For example, what infrastructure, staffing or playing department areas of the business were left in a better state than what they inherited?

I don’t want to keep dragging this out, but I suppose to summarise my position I do agree that there have been issues with our recruitment of course. I just won’t point fingers when I don’t have facts. Eg stats bomb - we simply don’t know how extensively it’s been used or how influential it has been or how much at fault it is for the recruitment that hasn’t gone well. Plus as with most tech systems, it’s only as good as the people operating it! I will be a lot more concerned if we’re still seeing similar issues 2 months into next season.

I’m not going to pull your post apart because you’ve just done the same again, made assumptions to fit your position and tried to pass it off as evidence you’re right. I will pull you up on the bit I’ve highlighted though as it’s simply not true. I just hold off on making absolute judgements about failure/success unless I have the facts of a situation. Or unless I think sufficient time has passed to judge something properly. So far, the weight of evidence is that those running the club are doing really well (infrastructure, plans for future development, paying the fucking bills! etc) and have the right intentions. Based on that, I’m happy to give more time and benefit of the doubt when it comes to that filtering through to what’s happening on the pitch.

Us signing 2 players and them not working out is not criminal/pathetic. Especially when we don’t know the reasons they’ve not worked out nor do we know who else was available. It is frustrating though and obviously needs resolving. It also bridges 2 management/recruitment teams, the second of which hasn’t had a summer to deal with it.

If only Frank hadn’t wasted so much money on sorting a water supply, fixing the floodlights, renovating all the pitches, paying bills and salaries, sorting out a fans bar and a whole host of other infrastructure work then we’d easily be able to afford another Queensy Menig.

We’ve signed 2 they just haven’t worked out. Freeman - played at a much higher level. Looked decent at times. Then just disappeared. Fitness? Personal reasons? Sachdev - looks dodgy on occasion, looked good on occasion. Seemingly out of favour now. Not sure why. It’s a position that we can’t get wrong this summer.

There's quite a bit of speculation in here. Comments above. I'm not saying he's done a great job. But I'm not saying he's done a bad job. For starters I don't know for sure exactly what his remit is and on what criteria to judge him. But also, he's been in the role for less than 2 seasons. Recruitment should have been better, particularly last summer. But it might be that this summer is where a lot of it will be addressed. Again, too early and not enough info to judge that he "shouldn't be anywhere near important footballing decisions".

Other than Darren appointing Mellon and presumably Unsworth too, what footballing decisions have been made by Darren or Joe Royle under the Rothwells so far?

I'm going to the Wealdestone game. My first home game since Aldershot last season. I fully expect us to be out of it by then and limp to a disappointing defeat. Or, for us to need to win to get 7th and limp to a disappointing defeat.

Yeah it's one place up for grabs now. Aldershot, Halifax or us. Aldershot games: Hartlepool A Gateshead A Boreham Wood H Dagenham A They need 8 points to be out of reach, assuming we win all 4. Halifax games: Kidderminster A Oldham H Barnet H Ebbsfleet H Eastleigh A They need 10 points from the other 4 games to be out of reach, assuming we win all 4. Our games: Rochdale H Halifax A Oxford A Wealdstone H I think that 72 points might well be enough to sneak 7th. I just don't think we'll get them unfortunately.

Wingers as we know them (Holden/Adams) aren't really a thing anymore are they? It's more wide forwards who cut in etc. Ones that can play in a 442 or wide in a 433/451. Last summer's recruitment didn't feel like it was recruiting to a formation or formations. He referenced having to play 352 because of the squad but we didn't have a rwb and Kitching apparently needs someone in front of him. So that was the best we could work to. I presume he's already identified how he wants to play and will be recruiting appropriately over this summer.

That will explain why it's come down to 80/1!

I'd be very surprised given we were actually in the play offs that it's just been accepted by everyone that it's ok to not go up this season. However, if there's an acceptence at board level that the likelihood is we'll still be in this league next season given the players we have, then that'd be understandable.

The Rothwells are the basis for the bulk of my positivity! I think we're on the way, it just may not happen as quickly as we'd all like. But I feel fully confident we'll be back in the efl soon. So if we have an imbalanced squad now that's not delivering, I'd back them to get the right people in place eventually - coaching and players. Whereas under previous ownership, it felt that if things were to go wrong the whole future of the club was in jeopardy. Issues like we have now are likely to be a temporary setback, not terminal.