bozman

I was in Kristian Dennis's Dad's taxi last week. He said a deal is complicated by the loan as it doesn't have a break clause, but it's likely he'll be sold in January with Stockport sharing the fee with Macclesfield. He said there is plenty of interest from several league 1 and 2 clubs but we are not one of them.

For me this isn't even a football decision. If the football continues to provide the level of entertainment we've seen so far this year I'd be picking and choosing which games I went to, whether I had a season ticket or not. I'm torn between not renewing as a protest vote against the club hierarchy, who have mismanaged the club so badly over the past year and treated the fans with utter contempt, and renewing to support my football club and the many good people there who work so hard behind the scenes. On balance, I think I would renew to support those who deserve it. But I can empathise fully with those who think enough is enough. I just hope they come back when the current custodians of the club have ridden off in to the sunset.

The Peter Crouch rumour was true, except for the fact that the England international still playing was David Dunn and not Peter Crouch. And because he didn't do very well in his first interview he had to wait for Kelly to screw it up before he go the job.

May be the film crew were filming the sequel to the promotional sales video featuring Ferguson and Rodgers? This time starring Barry and narrated by the Chuckle Brothers

Isn't this one of Postman Matt's alter egos ?

This may have been what Dunn was refering to in the Chron last Friday, when he mentioned that there were off the field issues that he couldn't really talk about.

As NewBlue has pointed out, the fans were not relentlessly negative yesterday. There was plenty of encouragement right up to that injury time corner we wasted. I was angry at the end and joined in with the "what the f***ing hell was that? " chant. When I got home and calmed down I asked myself why I was getting so angry after 3 defeats on the run when that has been such a familiar experience in recent years and has never upset me so much before. I concluded 2 things: 1. In these last 3 games I feel a lack of ability has been less influential than a lack of effort. Effort is the one thing a professional team should always give, regardless of ability. 2. Part of my anger is nothing to do with what I'm seeing on the pitch. It's about the shambolic way the club has been run since the opening of the new stand was announced in April. That got me thinking about work places in general. You don't see many companies where a shambolic senior management team is bailed out by a highly professional diligent workforce. The example set by those at the top of the organisation nearly always filters down through the entire company. My conclusion is that change needs to start at the top. I think that means either new ownership or Corney appointing an experienced, high quality chief executive.

That was the worst performance I can remember. We are used to watching them go 1-0 down and then struggle to get back in to the game, but there wasn't even an attempt to struggle today. Not a single chance created after they scored. It's clear Dunn has lost them. What his interview said to me was that he knows that too. I know he's a confident, some say arrogant, guy but I think he might decide he just doesn't need this and resign. He's on a hiding to nothing.

It seems crystal clear to me that these players are just not playing for him. Liam Kelly stands out like a sore thumb because he's the only one putting 100% effort in.

If they had come over it could have got a bit ugly. There were some very upset people in that stand.

Indeed. The value may be decreasing but the asking price isn't. If the asking price was realistic the club would have been sold within a few months of the owners deciding they wanted to sell.

I think Corney is achieving his goals at the moment - for the club to break even/make small profits each year and to stay in this division until he sells. Obviously current form threatens the latter goal but I'd expect him to throw a bit of money at staying in the division if we're still in this predicament in late January, as he did in 2013. The problem, as I see it, is that his sale price includes a premium over and above fair value, that would allow him to recoup a good proportion of the money TTA sunk in to the club in their early, enthusiastic days. This is putting most potential buyers off. So a sale seems unlikely until he feels he's made enough money back from developing/selling the peripheral areas of the site (houses, the forthcoming hotel etc) to offer the club itself for sale at a realistic price.

They're just not putting the effort in that's required, whether that's because they don't want to play fo the manager,which I'm starting to believe, or for some other reason. It was abundantly clear in the last 2 home games that the passion and desire to win the game was not there. Second to every ball, not pressing and closing down the opposition like they did to us. They just didnt want to win as much as the opposition. I was speaking to a Burton player who lives near me recently. They have a small budget and he's not on a big wage by any stretch of the imagination. I asked him what he though the difference was between us and them. He said fitness and desire. Hasselbaink works them so hard in training that they were going home completely broken in pre-season, but they're really feeling the benefit now. And they absolutely love him. They would all run through brick walls for him and their biggest fear is letting him down with a poor performance. So I think the solution is that we need to somehow instill that mindset in to the players we have. I think that's more important than shipping some out and bringing more in.

Double post

To some extent Dunn is a victim of what has gone before him. A succession of recent managers have played this dull, insipid, one up front, defensive style of play that has proven so ineffective at home for several seasons. A new manager coming in playing exactly the same way was never going to be given much of a honeymoon period without decent results. The fans that are left are just sick of it. Most worrying for me is the lack of desire shown by the players in the last 2 games. Second to every 50/50 ball, they look disinterested at best.

Agree with this. I was watching some footage of a training session at a Championship club (can't remember where it was) on TV last week. The coach was drilling in to them that retaining posession was everything and that if they didn't see a definite opportunity in front of them they should go backwards, all the way to the goal keeper if necessary, in order to retain the ball. I can imagine that something similar happens at our training ground. I've no doubt this is the best way for Barcelona to play but I'm not so sure about us. The problem seems to be that we aren't skillful or patient enough to retain the ball long enough, through several phases of play, until a chance arrives, to be effective playing this way.Teams are happy enough to allow us to keep the ball in areas that don't hurt them. I don't think footballers at this level are able to play this way successfully, with the odd exception. It seems to me that most of the teams at the top end of the table, once they win posession, look to move the ball quickly to fast powerful players breaking forward in numbers.They are willing to risk giving the ball away trying to play a ball in to a channel for a forward runner to chase, to take advantage of the oppostion being temporarily out of position. They don't value retaining possesion more highly than the possibility of a goalscoring opportunity. I don't think you would ever look at teams like Burton and Gilligham and think they are technically better footballers than our lot, but there can be little doubt they are more effective team at the moment.

For me, it's not so much about formations but what happens when we win possession of the ball and move towards the final third of the pitch. I thought the difference between the 2 teams today is that, on the relatively few occasions Burton won possession inside our half, they moved the ball forward quickly to forwards running in the channels and caused us problems whilst some of our defenders were still out of position. On the more numerous occasions we won the ball in a similar situation we slowed play down allowing them time to reorganise and get 2 banks of 4 in place before we even attempted to hurt them. It's not just Burton, this seems to have been the pattern for large parts of most home games under both managers.

I saw him at the Sheff Utd game and overheard him telling someone he was injured. Didn't hear what he injury was though.

This thing with collecting right backs is really puzzling. When asked about why Conor Brown keeps getting picked while others sit on the bench, he said something along the lines of " sometimes things go on behind the scenes at football clubs, that you can't talk about in public and Conor Brown is a really good character in the changing room". It seems clear that, for whatever reason, he doesn't want to play Wilson, but the one I don't understand is Eckersley - on the bench every week but not brought on and and then another right back comes in on loan as well.

posted in wrong thread

Just watched the Latics Player interview. No mention of the contract length at all - the question wasn't asked. I love a good conspiracy theory but I suspect the timing of the announcement was determined by the fact that Corney is over here this week.

Yeah, I thought that too. You could see Dunn getting slightly frustrated everytime he was asked a question and Warnock interrupted him to answer for him.

The way he has spoken in press conferences recently makes me think that he believes he has the job permanantly - for example, saying it would be a few months until he could get the squad exactly how he wants it because it won't be able to offload some players for a while.

You have to hand it to the guy - he must do a great interview!! Apparently they interviewed over 20 candidates, including some with very good track records in the conference. And, with the benefit of hindsight, given that sacking Harvey was patently not his decision, he handled it very professionally in the media.

Higdon shoild have buried the rebound fromm Poleon's shot at the end of the first half. If that had gone in, it might have been a comfortable win. I thought we actually looked quite threatening when we did attack. It's just a shame we didn't really show much desire to get forward in the second half.