the_mighty_bosh

Agree BB80 except Brighton came down in 05/06. Luton were the other team relegated last year and, for obvious reasons, aren't doing as well as the other relegated teams.

Next season I think that we need to start with Taylor on the right ahead of Smalley and Lids. I don't rate Smalley as highly as Taylor and I think Smalley's development will be improved if he isn't used as frequently as he has been this year. I believe that Liddell's physical attributes (pace, agility and stamina especially) have dropped below the required level for L1 and although he is a very good crosser and penalty taker I think that Taylor's ability to beat his man along with his OK crossing ability is better to have. Liddell has definitely helped Eardley develop in the last couple of years but I now think Taylor and Eardley should be able to link up well down the flanks in their 3rd full year. But... I still think Liddell should be kept at the club either in a coaching or player/coach role on reduced wages. He seems to command a lot of respect from the rest of the squad going off the interviews I've heard and he could certainly help the younger players by sharing his wisdom. Also there is a chance that he could be utilised as a playmaker if he has enough support from other midfielders, just like the role Jarrett's been played in. I await Derek's Taylor bashing!

Yes, we do. I'd rather waste another opportunity to succeed under Shez than any other affordable manager, because I'm certain that Shez would do better in his 3rd year with this team than any other manager would in their 1st year with this team. If promotion is the aim for next year, a new manager won't achieve it. EDIT: In response to the D.O.F question, I believe the chances are that the D.O.F would cause too much interference and indecision, thus being counter-productive.

Yeah good point actually, I should've made it more clear that results were the main reason for the sacking rather than the fans driving him out. But the point was that if the TTA have to make another managerial choice they'll look back at the Talbot situation and think that someone with lower league success isn't necessarily going to be successful at our level.

I don't want Shez out and the only way I could see him leaving in the near future (i.e. next 3 months or so) would be if Laws got the sack at Wednesday. But if he did I only see there being one realistic replacement. Ritchie. If you look at the types of managers that the TTA could hire you'll see why; We could go for an experienced manager who has proven to be a success at a higher level in the past? (e.g. Allardyce) Well, realistically, no we couldn't. There's no way we could afford someone like that. We could go for a proven/journeyman manager at this level? What happened to Ronnie Moore then? Most proven managers at this level play similar football to Moore's teams and us fans loved that didn't we? TTA won't want to hire another Moore. We could go for a successful lower league manager? Affordable, but didn't TTA try that with Talbot? Again, the fans didn't like him and a year later he was out the door. We could go for a crowd pleaser? The owners tried this with Sheridan and in his two years in charge he has done better than his two predecessors and the majority of fans are satisfied with him still managing us. Best of their three choices without a doubt. Tbh the only way that any manager is going to get the patience needed to do his job from our fans is if he's a fans favourite from the past (as proven in the past four years). The main two choices are Ritchie and Royle (Dux is another possibility but Ritchie is similar and has more experience) and I don't think it would be right to bring back Joe because if it went wrong it would damage his good reputation here and I'm not convinced that he would be motivated enough to emulate the fantastic yet difficult job that he did before. So onto Ritchie, a known quantity, he's won promotion from this division before, obviously a crowd favourite, plays a similar style of football to Shez and affordable. On the other hand he's just been sacked by a similar club to ours recently and he didn't set the world alight last time he managed here (regardless of the circumstances). Finally, I must point out that I think hiring Ritchie would be a step backwards from Shez. Therefore proving that Shez is the best man for the job at the current time.

See that's the type of comments that makes me lose respect for the people who want Shez out. Incredibly defensive. 'Critics get hammered' no they don't, generally they get disagreed with but they have reasons to back up their opinions, just like when most Shez outers disagree with Shez inners. Also, you're gay not me!

Same here. A huge turnover of players, even if they're better than what we've got, will have a negative impact on the team. We will get all the 'need time to gel' excuses which we really don't need and the season will start slowly again. Whether we do this or not will be the first indicator as to whether Shez is good enough to take us up next season.

I see us as an improving middle-of-the-league club with the size that we are at the moment, so I believe that last season was a major over-achievement getting to the playoffs and although I was hopeful of a similar season this time around I can't say that I expected it. If we were in the bottom half or being threatened with relegation then yes I agree that Shez should go but for a first time manager I would say that these first two seasons of likely top half finishes have been a success and he certainly warrants a 3rd year and he definitely doesn't 'need' to go. I believe that every time a club sacks a manager within 2 or 3 seasons without the club moving up or down a division it takes the club back to where they were when the manager got the job. This is what the problem would be if we sacked Shez now, a new manager would come in and would most likely need a year or so to make it his team so promotion would be out of the question next season. Very few managers gain promotion in their 1st season at a club and the chances of us finding a manager like that are unlikely. I agree with what you and other people say about some of Shez's wrong decisions, but he has made enough right ones to continue as manager, the biggest being giving our young players chances to shine in the 1st team (remember this is what everyone was crying out for when Moore was in charge). Don't get me wrong I'm not blindly worshipping Shez because I believe this next season coming up is a fantastic chance for promotion (although the rest of the league will probably only see us as dark horses for the title) so the pressure on him to do well will be very big, and if proves that he hasn't learnt from his mistakes and doesn't get us anywhere near promotion then I will probably be one of the 1st to call for his head.

Who wouldn't want a double-headed shirt though?

Swindon three Oldham nil

Yeah Butter you're right, we'll never win the Champions League with that squad. I think you underestimate the standard of this league and the budget we're likely to have.

We should do everything to keep Eardley and maybe Jarrett also. Thompson & Kalala can go if we can get better backup players in. The rest of it I agree with.

I'd agree with most of that. First half was very even, both sides created a couple of chances, neither side was brilliant but neither were terrible. 2nd half I thought we missed Jarrett when he went off and strangely I think we started with Liddell playing off Constantine for the 1st couple of minutes of the 2nd half and for some reason we switched Liddell and Smalley and it started going wrong! A big gap between the centre midfielders and forwards opened up and we were forced into going long, which didn't work at all. Swindon took their goals well and always had an outlet in McNamee on the left who eventually got the better of Eardley in the second half. Cox took his goals well after an awful miss in the 1st half but our defending slackened in the 2nd half. Crossley was ok, made a good save in the 1st and couldn't do much about the goals. From the matches I've seen he's my player of the season. Eardley had a tough job against McNamee but did fairly well defensively, when people he had the short option his passing was good but it didn't happen often and his punts forward were never going to stick up top. Lomax didn't have much to do but he was tidy. Hazell, apart from maybe doing better for their 1st goal, was his usual self but Stam didn't impress me today, he plays well on decent pitches but if he's going to play in league one he's got to adapt better to the crap ones, often today he dithered on the ball and panicked when under pressure. He's got worse since last year but I still wouldn't mind keeping him on for another year as a squad player as long as he's behind Gregan and Rubes in the pecking order. Smalley was ok in the 1st half but when he was put up front in the 2nd he was blunt and weak, not entirely his fault as he's been thrown in at the deep end this year. I'm not entirely convinced yet but I think he'll do well next year. Taylor didn't have one of his best games today and got a stupid booking after being wound up by their fans, he had two excellent chances at the back post in either half which he should've taken after great crosses from Eardley then Liddell. Allott was, as usual, dogged and quick to close down the man on the ball but he did look slightly uncomfortable when further up the pitch. Gregan did well in his first match for ages and out of position and as soon as we get more personnel on board in midfield he'll be taking Stam's place at the back, loved his first touch back when the ball was in the air with a couple of players battling for it as hung in the air he stormed in and powered the ball forward as if to say "The Gregan has returned!!". Jarrett wasn't very effective when he played alongside Constantine but as the half went on he dropped deeper and burst forward from midfield making himself more of a threat, if he wasn't injured when he had his chance at the end of the half we would've gone in 1-0 up, I think he would help the squad if we signed him next season. On todays evidence there's no way I would try to bring in Constantine for next season. In his defence the service he got was to his head or over the top which was pointless and the pitch was rubbish so holding up play on the ground was difficult but he doesn't put anywhere near enough effort into closing down defenders and moving back with play when the ball is cleared. But the worst thing for me today was when he got his chance at the end he tamely put it into the 'keeper's hands in a lazy fashion, if he's not going to do the dirty work up front he has to make up for it with his finishing and that convinced me that what we have is better than him. Although he may be better player if he played alongside Hughes I'd still rather gamble with (a much cheaper) Wolfy as 4th choice striker for next season because that's all I see Constantine being. Obviously losing him now for this season would be bad because we have absolutely no-one else but that would be as far as it would go for me. Liddell did well when he got the ball and he seemed fitter than I expected him to be considering it was his 1st game back, although as Bigfin said he would have been more effective through the middle. I also think Shez was right not to put on either of the two apprentices as it would definitely be too early but not playing Kelly surely means that Shez doesn't rate him. Negatives today and injuries have definitely taken their toll on our squad but my expectations for next season are huge. Barring a couple of players going I'm convinced that adding 3/4 more players to our existing squad will get us into the top 6 at the very least. The majority of the youngsters that have been blooded this year look very useful and they now know that they have nothing to fear from this league next year especially as the more experienced players will be used more frequently so they will get more rest time. The summer transfer window is massive for Shez and if he orchestrates a clearout then he will start to lose my backing. I don't believe that we will have a better chance to get into the Championship than 08/09 and since I've started supporting Latics the future has never looked brighter! Onwards and Upwards KtF P.S. Good to see BristolLatic and co. outside the chippy today!

Because of all the memories of that Swindon 2004 game being reminised I have decided to change my avatar back to JJ celebrating the 2nd! Possibly the best Latics match that I have been to so far!

Btw, what's happened to Kalala?

Well if we can't renew Constantine's deal for Saturday we really are screwed! Very disappointing that he doesn't want to stay as from what I've seen and with his versatility he could've been very important to us next year. But as said further up, if he'd rather not play than play for us then good riddance to him.

O/S says that we have been allocated the covered seats behind the goal rather than the Arkells Stand where we've been in the last few years. Last time I remembered the away end behind the goal wasn't covered and they usually only open it for local derbies and big games. Anyone know exactly what's going on?

Wikipedia says that Mansfield fans are considered the most pessimistic in the league! No wonder!! See, it could be worse than the doom and gloomers we have!

Agree with some bits of that Derek, but disagree with a lot of it. The big thing with Eardley is that, although I don't rate him as being £1m+ and I would want to keep him, his Welsh understudy Gunter was sold to Spurs for £1.5m + add on's and there was talk of Crewe's right back Danny Woodards going to them Prem for £1m+. Therefore we should look to get at least £1.5m for Eardley if we are going to sell him in the current climate.

How about this for a conspiracy, we can say that Eardley regularly captained our side at the tender age of 19, which would surely add extra £ to the deal we get for him in the summer.

Maybe we're going for the 'workplace with highest number of staff injured at one time' world record.

First goal on 9 minutes, score 2-1 to Latics, Constantine and Wolfy to score.

I wonder if my FM2007 game will become reality. After three seasons of trying I took Latics up to the Championship (1st season 6th lost in playoff semi's, 2nd season 11th, third season 2nd). Scholesy's £100,000 a week contract at United had just run out so I beat off bigger clubs and made him my highest earner despite him having to take a £94,500 a week pay cut to play for Latics (no cheats I might add)! He controlled the midfield for two years with us before retiring and helped us stay in a comfortable mid-table position, but the scary realism of the story is that by the time Scholes left the club, our gates were down to 3,500! Video games are becoming way too realistic!

Blimey, that's what I was gonna say! Thanks for the time-saver I_C!

Top half, but too inconsistent to make a proper challenge for the top six.