Gary1906

I really liked Steve Taylor, a Royton lad. He was rapid and knew where the goals were. Just wasn’t here long enough.

You don’t think he would improve the midfield as it currently stands??

True, the midfield is very very weak. Desperate for a ‘McCann’ type figure in there. I still think that Wheater would improve the defence though.

We are too nice and too fair at times. Piergianni calling the ref over because their player was ‘injured’! Clarkey would have been in his face telling him that he got what he deserved because his intention was to injure or at least intimidate our keeper. When do you ever see us timewasting? even on the rare occasions when we are winning near the end of a game? Other teams do it all the time at BP. We need to be nastier and more cynical. We are probably seen as a soft touch.

You’re right we wouldn’t!

Absolutely. I’ve said exactly the same in the past, particularly on the playing side. Fill your team with sub-standard players and you end up with a sub-standard team. I don’t really blame the players. They are playing to their standard, it’s why most of them are in the bottom division. Wheater would help, McCann would have helped. Clarkey would still have helped but they binned him off just because of his age. This current team is crying out for an old head (or two), some experience where they’ve seen it all before and bring some steadiness onto the pi

The first part of what you say would apply to any manager at Latics though. It doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. They are being dealt a bad hand. That’s probably why we don’t tend to attract experienced managers/coaches. We usually go for novices who just want to take their first step on the ladder. eg Wellens, Bunn, Wild. They’ll be the cheapest options too. Anyone with experience has probably been promised no interference but of course it happens and then there’s friction. In the past someone like Shez would have come running to our rescue, but now i doubt he’d touch us with a barge

The simple fact is though that if you fill your team with too many sub-standard players, you will end up with a sub-standard team. That’s exactly what they’ve done and that’s what we are looking at. Rock bottom of the old fourth division!

Ha Ha

Any chance of Shez coming back???

How is Fage still on???

Yep! I don’t remember him putting in too many crunching tackles but he can definitely pick a pass. I’d have him back for sure. Mind you I’d have made sure that he’d stayed at the end of last season!!

I agree, we are definitely lacking an experienced midfielder. Someone who can lead by example, putting his foot into a tackle, and being able to pick out a pass. Surely there’s somebody out there somewhere!!

Whether Kewell is the right man or not i don’t know, but if Mo is recruiting - rather than Kewell - and the players are either not good enough, not tough enough, ‘bottle jobs’ - or a combination of all of those, I do wonder how much the manager can be blamed? I notice that we had 14 shots compared to 6 for Crawley. I know that doesn’t tell the whole story but we had enough chances to win that game, or certainly draw it. Kewell can’t put the ball in the net for them.

I’d never heard of Denis Irwin, or Earl Barrett, or Paul Warhurst, or Jack Byrne either. They all turned out to be pretty good. Give the lad a chance. Bielsa obviously rates him - hence the contract extension - I’m pretty sure he will have seen him.