Frankly Mr Shankly

We should be looking at Quigley from Chesterfield as a like-for-like replacement IMO. Out of contract there this summer.

I’m hopeful Conlon will play a part and produce more performances in line with his debut. Having McGahey as your chosen grafter in midfield most matches won’t have helped him, albeit I can see why MM played him there. I had suspicions that MM’s brand of football will be unpalatable grinds before he got the job, based on his Tranmere team. He’s experienced enough to know that when you’re under pressure, in a results-driven business, setting up not to lose is the go-to plan. I assume it’s one reason why 3-5-2 was ditched with 7-8 matches left for a more rigid 4-4-2. I think next season will see him focus once more in making us hard to beat first and foremost, but with specialist personnel in those glaringly obvious positions. It was draws that cost us towards the end, not defeats. We absolutely have to convert those into W’s and it’s critical our home form is turned round. Three or four quality additions in the right areas will see a big improvement in my opinion. Might not be anywhere near a finished article, but the difference between flopping out of the play-offs to entrenching ourselves amongst them.

I know on the face of it, this looks like a terrible misstep from Gateshead council. However, as we’ve seen how thin on cash councils are (remember, a couple had to declare themselves insolvent), they may have a lot of taxpayers questioning the wisdom in committing to offering a long term lease, which they need to fund, to a club which has a reasonable likelihood of going back into the NL before that ten year lease is up. Of course, if it was us in their position. I’d be the first on the town hall steps, dousing myself in petrol and flicking out the Zipper lighter.

it’s all about interpretation, isn’t it. A fine line to tread in his position. Put a too positive spin on it and you’re firmly in DU territory. But some ST holders hinging on that to renew will simply get disillusioned next season when things don’t go our way, which will be the case, but hopefully far less often as it happened this term. My interpretation is that I wanted the manager to confirm what my assumptions have been on why we struggle to perform consistently. I thought MM did that to an extent and his message, to the board was that colossal damage has already been done in recruitment, before he ever got there. We’ve seen he has an eye for a player with Stones. Others haven’t worked out (yet) but he has to be offered time to try and fix the glaring issues which we can all see. I can’t see another candidate who will be able to hit the ground running delivering a new philosophy in front of a crowd that release a massive audible groan as soon as a pass goes awry.

He’s lost the complete dunderheads in the main stand. But I’m hoping the club stop listening to dickheads as they had done in the past.

to sneak into the playoffs, perhaps. To be a team that wins the division outright above teams getting 80-90 points, we’re a long way off. its pointless to explain this to someone who has such a visceral anti-MM agenda though. We virtually need a whole new midfield, RB and another attacker to replace 6-7 players already in those positions but are contracted for at least another year. Sticking your head in the sand about that isn’t going to get you anywhere. We’ll have less square pegs in round holes next term, but we’ll sure as shit be starting a new campaign with incumbent players who don’t possess the qualities we need to be a best in class.

Nailed it pal. Your post should be printed out, framed and put up in every corner of the ground. Good luck in the EFL.

What could he have said under the circumstances? DU got rinsed, and rightly so, for rolling his turd in glitter by patronising and gaslighting supporters in his pressers. MM inherited a massively imbalanced squad, much worse than he understood when he took on the roll. It needs a lot of work doing to it. He’s going to have to be cute in the market and wheel and deal to get a team that resembles one that fans want to see. There isn’t no middle ground here. The positivity I see is that it will get better, once people accept the situation for what it is.

Problem is, none of us know how the dressing room actually is or who is the root cause within it. We pick up on elements from watching from afar on a Saturday, that's all. I just can't see any manager turning it around quickly with so many underperforming and disinterested players on the books until at least 2025.

I think you could be right. You look at the makeup of all the top seven and, whilst nearly all of them have experienced pros, it's generally capped at about 2-3 each squad. The rest is made up of high energy players.

He has to hold his hands up with certain decisions he's made, but the rot runs much, much deeper than him. This is the point I suppose I'm really getting at. As it turned out in the end, whichever formations, gameplans and team selections he tried, the players by and large were incapable of executing any one of them.

Body language from him at the end suggests he may fall on his sword here. Unmitigated disaster in terms of managing such an insepid bunch of poor performers. He deserves a summer window, but with so many of them with at least another season in contract, it's a huge job to replace them all with hungry fighters. I don't blame MM in any way, the damage has already been done before he stepped through the door. If only we could bottle whatever Mike Fondop has, put it into a serum and apply to the majority of the rest.

I've always said we need to sign a right 'orrible, hard bastard in midfield. Gregan-esque impact on the team. 90% of our on-field problems would evaoporate overnight.

02/03 06/07 07/08

I think the toxicity of our fanbase in the desperation for success is the reason why we've probably had the worst home record of any football league team over the past 30 years myself. Even when we had good teams.

Plenty to report on in the second half. Outfield player in goal for Gateshead.

Think I called it with 6 matches remaining we'd need to win four of them. We could've just won one! Really shows the poor level of quality underneath the top 4 or so, doesn't it? An overhaul in midfield and a right back and I can't see us being any less than 4th next season.

There isn't enough words in the internet to describe it.

I’m going. I want the chance to willy wave about it in 20 years when we’re hoovering up the Championship title.

I do too. I don’t necessarily think that’s the worst thing to happen. He’ll need to be cute with the finances, McGahey won’t be on a lot, or he offered an expensive contract and he can cover either centre half of defensive midfield. Might be used as a shore up option to defend a 1-0 lead. in an ideal world, he’d be out on his arse but books have to be balanced and some players will need paying off to get rid.

Gold tier answer!

I wouldn't rule it out though.

Once you stop seeing him joivially walking freely around the ground before each home match and on away days then it's start-to-worry time. Successful business people learn quickly from mistakes and never make the same ones twice. I'm sure it went on record (via DR's podcast interview maybe?) that they had a plan to achieve promotion to the FL within four years. The sooner the better would be a bonus. I don't think that's neccessarily off track, but we've had a bloodied nose in the first couple of rounds.

I get the impression it's easier to get Israel and Hamas to see eye to eye than @League one foreverand @nzlatic