Rage Online

Give the job to the 12th Man. He's always right!

There are very few managers out there with any degree of experience who haven't "failed" in at least one job. What I do like about O'Driscoll is he's done well at clubs on tight budgets before, e.g. Bournemouth and Doncaster.

I am not bothered if a manager has 'failed' in a job before, so long as they have succeeded also.

Jim Smith first time round, Denis Smith, Ian Greaves, Maurice Evans had all failed in managerial jobs before we took them on and they did a pretty good job with us. It is unlikely that we are going to get somebody who has succeeded constantly and has a good League 2 record as well.

In addition, I am pleased that the interview/ proper recruitment process is ongoing. I however most certainly do not want Lewis/ Melville to stay in charge any longer than is necessary. We have a very good chance of promotion and nee to build on that as soon as possible.

Given the size of the squad, and the transfer window closing this week, there really isn't that much left to manage for this season. The team virtually picks itself. The players need to decide, as a group, if they really want it, regardless of who the manager is. For this season alone, the risk of bringing in a new manager probably exceeds the opportunity from doing so. (Atkins / Rix flash back)

Of course, building for next year is a different issue. That may well have to start soon, given the contract situation of a few whom we may wish to retain.

Give Denis Smith a call, ask him to get us over the line for this season then get someone in during the summer to lead us in League 1/div 3.

The OXman Cometh wrote:Give Denis Smith a call, ask him to get us over the line for this season then get someone in during the summer to lead us in League 1/div 3.

And do you think that would work as well as getting Jim Smith in to get four points from six games to keep us in the league?

neilw wrote:Given the size of the squad, and the transfer window closing this week, there really isn't that much left to manage for this season. The team virtually picks itself. The players need to decide, as a group, if they really want it, regardless of who the manager is. For this season alone, the risk of bring in a new manager probably exceeds the opportunity from doing so. (Atkins / Rix flash back ...

Of course, building for next year is a different issue. That may well have to start soon, given the contract situation of a few whom we may wish to retain.

Really? That is all that there is to management?

To me it is a critical appointment that could decide whether we go up or not. CW showed by using Patterson's players that he could turn an underperforming group of players (flirting with relegation to the conference) to a pay off team (without the points deduction). Ian Greaves (sorry a long time ago) totally transformed a similarly disjointed group of players without signing anybody.

If the right manager comes in then we have half a chance. I hope that I am wrong, but doing nothing (keeping in ML/AM) to me would send out a poor message and I think that we would blow the chance of promotion.

SmileyMan wrote:

The OXman Cometh wrote:Give Denis Smith a call, ask him to get us over the line for this season then get someone in during the summer to lead us in League 1/div 3.

And do you think that would work as well as getting Jim Smith in to get four points from six games to keep us in the league?

No, I think it would work better.

SmileyMan wrote:

The OXman Cometh wrote:Give Denis Smith a call, ask him to get us over the line for this season then get someone in during the summer to lead us in League 1/div 3.

And do you think that would work as well as getting Jim Smith in to get four points from six games to keep us in the league?

I take the point but are the facts right there?

I think Smith was in for 8 games that season and we achieved 7 points (http://www.rageonline.co.uk/mainpage/season/46/#stats) and would have needed another 3 points to stay up on goal difference.

Point being: We don't need a turn around. We need to do the same thing, a bit better and a bit more, which would see us through. Continuity might be the best bet for this season.

neilw wrote:Point being: We don't need a turn around. We need to do the same thing, a bit better and a bit more, which would see us through. Continuity might be the best bet for this season.

Fair comment but we don't want to blow a good position.

Despite differing views I believe that we succeeded because of CW. I did not rate ML last time he was caretaker manager. I would rather have a proven manager to try and see us through rather than have ML/AM in charge- I believe that we would do the same thing but a little worse under them.

Paul Cooper wrote:I did not rate ML last time he was caretaker manager.

Let's be fair, that was 15 years ago!

I don't know what you do for a living, Paul, but I'd guess you're probably better at it now than you were 15 years ago - you probably have different ideas too about what works and what doesn't. I'm not saying ML will be amazing - but he deserves his chance (which he's now getting) and we should judge him on how the team plays, how hard they work for him, and what results they get. What we shouldn't do is judge a 48 year-old (thanks Wikipedia! on what he was like as a 33 year-old.

I agree - people are saying ML was part of the problem, but we don't necessarily know that is the case. It'll be interesting to see how the players react tonight and Saturday, two wins with good performances and it'll seem much more sensible to leave ML in place and then reassess at the end of the season, depending on whether we go up or not. Anyone we bring in now risks being a short-term fix, for example, I'd have no problem appointing Martin Allen to get us out of the division, but far less confident in him taking us forward in League One.

We're 'lucky' that we have a seven point cushion in the play-offs (albeit Newport will have a game in hand), so if ML loses the next two with dreadful performances we can re-evaluate, but unless that happens I'd be fairly happy with him being in charge until the end of the season, and then a full-time appointment made based on where we find ourselves.

Kairdiff Exile wrote:

Paul Cooper wrote:I did not rate ML last time he was caretaker manager.

Let's be fair, that was 15 years ago!

I don't know what you do for a living, Paul, but I'd guess you're probably better at it now than you were 15 years ago - you probably have different ideas too about what works and what doesn't. I'm not saying ML will be amazing - but he deserves his chance (which he's now getting) and we should judge him on how the team plays, how hard they work for him, and what results they get. What we shouldn't do is judge a 48 year-old (thanks Wikipedia! on what he was like as a 33 year-old.

Fair point KE.

My point is that we should get the best possible manager that we can. I remember the time when Maxwell got Roy Barry in as caretaker post Greaves. He did a pretty good job if I remember and many supporters wanted him to get a chance of a permanent position.

To be fair to Maxwell he said no and got Jim Smith in.

So regardless of how ML does I think that IL should go through the recruitment process and get the best person.

I may be totally wrong but I see ML as a decent number 2- much like Patterson.

theox wrote:

SmileyMan wrote:

The OXman Cometh wrote:Give Denis Smith a call, ask him to get us over the line for this season then get someone in during the summer to lead us in League 1/div 3.

And do you think that would work as well as getting Jim Smith in to get four points from six games to keep us in the league?

I take the point but are the facts right there?

I think Smith was in for 8 games that season and we achieved 7 points (http://www.rageonline.co.uk/mainpage/season/46/#stats) and would have needed another 3 points to stay up on goal difference.

We were 18th when JS came in, not great but we had a settled side under Patterson and survival at least looked likely. He brought in a whole bunch of new players that no-one had ever head of (thanks to his 'connections') including comedy/tragedy goalkeeper Andrea Guatelli.

Here's the table from just after the Bury game before he took over: http://www.statto.com/football/stats/en ... 2006-03-22

Maybe you can claim it was unlucky that we had no six-pointers against teams below us (except Barnet, which we won) and Chester went on such an amazing surge, but equally, after the Barnet win (http://www.statto.com/football/stats/en ... 2006-04-15) we needed four points from four games (sorry I said six in the original post). Parking the bus wouldn't have been pretty, but we would still have been a league team.