Worcester Owl

10 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

 

Every time since the internet was invented if I've been interested in a new job I've gone onto the potential employer's website to get a flavour of what to expect. I wouldn't have expected that!  For years the club has had a justifiably toxic reputation and now, just when we have hope, our manager is reinforcing it.  I honestly thought it was a disgraceful and disrespectful rant, made worse by the subsequent apparent revelations about what might have gone on. Reid was banished and fair enough as Mellon appeared to be setting standards. That's no good if he doesn't stick to them himself.

Unfortunately, you are confusing the real world employment market with the football equivalent. There is not much that is logical about the latter.

19 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

Any player he tries to sign will watch that. It's not a great advert for the club or him.

17 hours ago, League one forever said:

Spot on. 
 

Time will tell, but I just think he’s made his job harder than it already is. 

Completely disagree. If a prospective target watches it and is put off, he's not the mentally tough character we need for next season - see the excellent post by a Wealdstone fan on another thread.

11 hours ago, nzlatic said:

I dunno, I think it’s pretty unlikely that prospective signings will base their decisions on a post match interview. Or even think to go back and watch them at all. As Lags points out it’s much more likely getting booed on and chants about what a waste of money you are will put someone off. 
 

But is that such a bad thing? We need players who can meet the standards expected by the manager and the crowd, if they’re put off by those things then they probably weren’t the right signing in the first place. 

100% agree with this.

2 hours ago, LaticMark said:

 

 . . . and in case you haven't seen it:

Friends at other clubs??

Well, professional football has always attracted more than its share of unsavoury characters, so I'm sure the Great Red Fleece possibly does have friends at other clubs.

On 4/10/2024 at 4:34 PM, Worcester Owl said:

I played golf this morning and one of my regular playing mates seemed a bit agitated, odd as he's normally a very chilled out kind of guy. Turns out he was at Cheltenham last night as they lost 0-1 to Carlisle (already down) in a crucial relegation match for them. He was apoplectic about Nuttall, who apparently missed a sitter early on. Honestly, I've never heard him swear so much . Among his more repeatable comments about Nuttall were "can't bloody jump", "fucking useless", "sodding donkey", and he said if we don't take Nuttall back at the end of the season if not before, he might just stick my 7 iron where the sun doesn't shine!! 

As an update, aforementioned golf mate apologised to me yesterday - Nuttall was MOTM in Cheltenham's win over Peterborough and, quote, "terrorised the goalkeeper", "jumped like a salmon" and generally was unplayable!

6 hours ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Fucking let them if they’re that mardy. Sone can see the bigger picture.

Great post. And what's more, those who flounce out will no doubt be back when results improve.

35 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

I was going to say exactly the same. When we equalised against Everton at home if you’d have offered me a choice of a replay or extra time and penalties then I’d have taken the replay. It isn’t just about the best chance of progressing it’s watching our club play at a ground like that. The “magic” of the cup and all that. 

I made my one and only trip to Goodison Park for that replay, so I completely agree. Glad I saw the old ground before it disappears.

15 minutes ago, PeteG said:

Is it? Tell me yours then, because he certainly inherited an absolute mess of a football club. He provided decent budgets in the early days and i'd still argue that the squad that got relegated from League 1 was far superior to some of the ones in the previous few years that had stayed up. If we had stayed up, it may have worked out differently but i suspect not. He never really endeared himself to the fanbase for whatever reason, the crowds never went up when he took over which i still find strange given how many have turned out and supported Frank 2 divisions lower down.

Behold the re-writing of history.

Perhaps there might be A Statement about whether there will be A Statement.

Don’t want to dampen the excitement about A Statement, but we could just wait and see how the squad re-shaping pans out over the next few weeks. Just a thought, like.

3 hours ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

Goalkeeper's have always been overly protected and now it's the turn of the defender's 

What there's such stupidly fine margins, the attacking player should get the benefit of the doubt or it's time to pack it all in.

 

Had it been the other way around, I'd put my house on it not even being checked

Big club rules!

Utter nonsense.

3 hours ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

 

 

VAR is only used in the Premier league and shouldn't apply to anything outside of it, that's unless they want to roll it out universally to every game being played and I'm sorry that I'd never accept that yesterday as being offside because it's just wrong.

VAR did ruin the game and all Coventry will be left feeling is cheated for the rest of their day's 

I just hope City absolutely smash that bunch of cowardly united misfits to pieces in the final

Yep, let’s support one foreign-owned, ridiculously wealthy, overpaid bunch of players over another. 
In reality, who gives a toss?

21 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

I think 2003 (Farnborough v Arsenal) was the last time it was allowed

The FA needs to pull its finger out here (fat chance perhaps). Having rightly cracked down in general on venue switches some years ago, it should be telling the EFL (and PL I suspect also) where to go. I won’t hold my breath.

It was the correct decision even though I loath VAR. Wish we could go back to on field officials making such decisions, and accept they are human and can make mistakes.

And not even VAR could ruin what was an outstanding match. Coventry’s comeback has to be the greatest ever seen at Wembley, and will always be talked about.

13 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

Jesus. Where did I say that?! And I’m the one supposedly going to extremes!

 

You aren’t involved in the business but yet you’re talking as if you’ve got full visibility of every facet of the business, it’s targets and it’s success/failures. Whereas in reality you’re looking solely at what is happening on the pitch. 
 

And yes the past almost certainly has an impact on footballing matters even after Frank came in. Our reputation for how we dealt with agents or other clubs for example, our reputation with players for not paying them. A new owner just doesn’t wipe all those things away immediately, it takes time to turn around. Our non existent scouting network. The facilities we could offer players. Our coaching infrastructure. All these things needed building from the ground up. You don’t get every decision on that journey right. 
 

The football side of things need improving. What has gone wrong has to be understood and put right. Processes need to be improved. Personnel may need to change. But to say that what happened in the past has no lasting impact is nonsense. The same can be applied to Mellon. He’s had 6 months and made a few signings so the failure to reach the play offs is on his shoulders alone and so he needs sacking? I don’t agree. 

Excellent, common sense post. I would double upvote it if I could.

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

Even during that spell he was booed at home matches for his 7 at the back tactics.

Instead of bigging him up you need to ask why he's lost total control of the team?

Fans pay good money to this club and I've no doubt they have been badly let down by the manager and players.

If you were served regular poor meals  in a restaurant would you still praise the chef and hope he improves with a new menu?

We need Gordon Ramsey at this club to tell the board it as it is.

 

 

 

Where on earth in @Gaz_Oafc’s post does he “big up” MM? Lost total control??? I’m sorry BP but you are talking absolute nonsense there.

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

He kept picking the same ones though and axing  some like Hobson who always put a shift in. Banishing 2 forwards like Tollitt and Willoughby when they could have been needed was ridiculous, same with Reid who should have been forgiven for his misdemeanour as he may well have fired us into the play offs.

 

 

Come off it. Reid wasn’t that good. If MM had let him off people would have said he was weak, too soft etc. Reid knew the rules and broke them anyway - he was either thick, or thoughtless, or both.

2 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

My observation is he's lost his love for the game and the players know it.

This comes across in his downbeat interviews. 

I feel he ought to retire and find some enjoyment outside the game.

We can't carry on with a manager who cannot motivate his staff.

 

You assume that the way he talks to the media, with their frequently asinine questions, is the way he talks to the players. Do you have any evidence to back up that assumption?

24 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Trace it all back to Boreham Wood where he publicly told everyone they thought they were shit.

A game we won, and followed up by winning at Maidenhead. You really are a genius, aren't you?

38 minutes ago, Wardie said:

Are you saying the Reid incident could be the catalyst or not having Reid playing? On the outside, it appears as if Mellon has lost the players, if so, nothing much is going to change.

Reid publicly chucked his toys out of the pram at having been asked to train on Christmas Day, the poor lamb. We then won 4 league games in a row starting on Boxing Day. Norwood played in every game and scored 4 goals. The downturn in form would appear to have sod all to do with Reid being (rightly) banished.

1 hour ago, oafc1955 said:

I’m talking about where we will be in November after Mellon’s recruitment in the summer!

But that wasn’t what you said.

3 hours ago, deyres42 said:

Another ready made excuse for him.

Isn’t your barrel scraped enough yet?

20 hours ago, oafc1955 said:

Let’s see if you think the same come November!!

Well seeing as @Guy Branston Pickle was rightly pointing out in his post that recruiting in January is a risk, and that it was poor recruitment last summer that meant we had to take that risk in January, then guess what - I will think exactly the same in November. Recruiting in January is always less optimal than in the summer, and last summer’s recruitment by Unsworth/the club was poor - neither of those points will be any less valid in November.

3 hours ago, Guy Branston Pickle said:

I don't know about that. Stones was excellent and we were unlucky he got injured. Garner got some important goals when he came in. Conlon has been disappointing but has had some good games. Dallas and Walker, fair enough. But again, that's the risk you take recruiting in January. It was poor recruitment last summer that put us in that position in the first place.

That's a great post and right on the nail but come on, there is little room for such a common sense observation on here.

2 hours ago, League one forever said:

 

I was talking about Southend- and how they done well in difficult circumstances, and how we have done poorly in good circumstances. You then said ‘you don’t think our board had it shit with the chuckle brothers’ if that isn’t comparing then what it is? If you’re not interested in Southend, and what can be achieved on a fraction of what we have- just ignore my post?

 

You say this. 

 

Then this. (Which I agree with) 
 

No manager can build anything if results don’t meet expectation. He has said himself his target was the playoffs. He hasn’t don’t it. So far he’s failed- he might yet come good. Let’s hope so. 
 

Eh? It was all we talked about. 
 

Unsworth -

 

Why no right back. 
Why no cover for Kitch.

Why no wide players other than green. 
Why do we keep signing strikers when we are short in midfield. 
Do we need 6 centre backs.

 

Mellon. 

Why no cover for Kitch. 
Why no wide players. 
Why sign a rwb for 3-5-2 then say he doesn’t have a right back. 
Why did we sign Garner

You may agree or disagree with the above but plenty were questioning the at times nonsensical recruitment decisions. 

 

I’m very fair in my expectations- 7th this season without promotion was solid progress. I don’t think that’s unreasonable or being impatient. 
 

12th to 10th is not solid progress, it’s treading water for a club with our budget. 

You're clearly not listening, so I'll make this my last word on the matter. As an aside, I've noticed that you sometimes forensically dissect posts in an attempt to trip people up, claiming that they are contradicting themselves, when often they are not. If that floats your boat, so be it, but life's too short.

You keep saying that we are "in good circumstances" or a variant thereof. Anyone would think we'd been transformed overnight from 30 years of being a mis-managed basket case to a model club, which should be doing much better on the pitch. We are at the very beginning of a long road to recovery under beneficent owners who are new to football and who will not get everything right but are hopefully learning as they go along. They were left with very little to work with by the previous regime and then made the well-intentioned mistake of sticking with a rookie manager for longer than they should. Now, Mellon has to pick up the pieces and after just 28 games people are moaning that he can't get us promotion and has to go. It's ridiculous. I repeat, patience is needed. That was the point I was making, in response to your facile "Southend terrible setup, Oldham model setup" comparison. You were happy to go along with MM as we rose up the table and got as high as 5th, and now, when it looks like the playoff push may be over, you seem to want to chuck your toys out of the pram and condemn him for "treading water" - fine, but I'll be more tolerant and wait to see what he achieves next season.

On player recruitment, most if not all of the players signed at the start of the season and in January were praised as good signings by many on here. If you in your infinite wisdom saw through this recruitment as haphazard and scattergun at the time, it's not a recollection I have. I am happy to give MM a full summer window, and hope he won't be too restricted by the deadweight he inherited. 

1 hour ago, Dave_Og said:

But can he hole a Dennis Wise under pressure?

Ha, well he can be a bit of a Douglas Bader on the greens!

1 minute ago, League one forever said:

Poor comparison.  Our owners moved us away from what Southend are still going through. . . 
 

The equivalent to Southend and Maher would be AL still being here and someone like Pete wild doing great job in horrible circumstances. 
 

Both our last two managers work for fabulous owners and a settled club. 
 

On your last paragraph - I wasn’t make a sack him point. Mellon is just a moving part in what has been a poor football operation for two seasons. 
 

Board decisions. 
Recruitmemt. 
Player performance. 
 

In my view things are disjointed on the football operation. With lots of contradictions. I hope in the summer there is a big meeting between the family, the board,  Mellon, and senior players to hold each other to account and have some honest conversations about where mistakes have been made. 
 

 

I wasn't making a comparison - I'm not interested in Southend's situation though I note, as pointed out elsewhere, that they have had the same manager since 2021. Maybe giving a guy a sensible amount of time to build something is an idea.

We are all disappointed in how the season is ending. Very few people questioned player recruitment at the start of the season (under Unsworth) or in January (under Mellon). This is a tough league to get out of, full stop, and patience is required. Moaning about the board/players/manager and talk of pub teams (what are we, then?) gets us nowhere. MM deserves the next season to show what he can do. Results will determine his fate and it's futile speculating about whether we have a poor or disjointed football operation - which of us knows the intricate details of how other clubs are organised?