Midson and Clist off?

[Dr Bob]

My concern - as others have noted - is left back. I thought Tonkin was OK on Saturday, but he has not been that reliable and, given the nature of his recent yellow cards, compensates for a lack of pace by blocking off faster players. I feel very sorry for Kinni - and not only is Clist very reliable in midfield, he is a good filler-in when needed at left back. Who would be cover now? Contrast that with Asa Hall. When he scored a goal recently, suddenly CW was raving on about that being the Hall he brought to the club. Swallows and summers. Don't get it, I really don't.

[Tabbernackle]

When will people wake up to that fact? He thinks that everything is broke bar him. He should go asap. as far as I'm concered.

[Brahma Bull]

When will people wake up to that fact? He thinks that everything is broke bar him. He should go asap. as far as I'm concered.

Wilder has done a very impressive job.

He came into the club and drove down the wage bill, getting value for money. He delivered success within the first six months and came within a whisker of playoffs, when relegation was on the cards at Christmas time.

He strenghtend his squad that Summer and once again delivered. Yes he made some mistakes and got rather excited using the 12th Man Fund but the aim was to get us into the FL. He did it, using a calibre of player which was specific to that purpose.

He again changed it last Summer and I don't criticise him for that, again Foster, Creighton, Francis Green, Kevin Sandwith, Murray, Rhys Day, Sam Deering all left in the last year and I don't think he got any of them wrong.

We've been so up and down this season, but still find ourselves 2 points adrift of a play-off position. Not bad considering.

Midson, Kinni, Purkiss, Deering are simply not good enough. I am glad he has acted in a ruthless manner. Players end up getting you sacked sometimes and he has had to change it. A few others can go in my opinion, Matt Green, Asa Hall and Potter to name but three.

Wilder hasn't done a bad job at all!

[Hog]

I think you're pretty much on the money there Brahma although I do tend to wish we still had Creighton in the squad. The two names you don't mention that stick out for me are Bulman and Clist, both of whom could still do a decent job for us - I can't understand Clist's rather speedy fall from grace.

[OUFanatic]

This is the thing for me

Im happy with where we are and im not calling for his head but what i would like is more consistency with the team selection.

Why? Because i think with a settled team we would be doing better. Settled teams build confidence and results. Look at any club who has a settled team and they are always more successful.

Proof of this is last season, for the first half we performed so well, after January we couldnt regain that form due to so many changes to the team and squad. I also believe that constant chopping and changing affects the players confidence,look at us from March last year if you want proof!

If we are all honest the play offs are a lottery.....and who knows....if we had lost against York at wembley Wilder may have gone.

Im not even sure Wilder knows his best team which is the biggest concern for me. Anyone hazard a guess?

[oxfordyankee]

Interesting stuff.

I agree that Clist finds himself unfortunate and I've always liked him. Certainly I would rather have him in the side than Hall. However Hall isn't in the side either and I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes far more peripheral next season than he has been during the current one.

Self belief is an important quality in management (in any profession) and in football I think it is probably of paramount importance. I would guess that the great managers in history, for example Shankly, Busby, Ferguson, Wenger, and Mourinhio, all have or had incredible self-belief and in many cases it would certainly border (if not cross) the line into unattractive arrogance. I am not making a direct comparison in terms of their success or standing in the game to Wilder's but Wilder certainly has to have that quality and I would be troubled if he was constantly questioning himself and admitting to countless mistakes. No one wants to see the leader of an organisation in a mode of constant self-doubt.

Every one of us will have had our own expectation level for this season. Mine was of a play-off spot at least. I don't think we'll do that this season and on reflection (particularly after having watched the first few games of the season) I realise that my expectation was probably slightly higher than it should have been (given the obvious, and consistent, rise in the quality of the opposition).

Next season is a different proposition. I suspect the expectation level will rise throughout the support and importantly at the club. If we do not achieve at least a play-off place then I for one will think Wilder has failed and I suspect the reaction to any such failure will be negative from all angles rather than the extreme reaction posted by YF Dan and Tabbernackle which I believe represent a fairly small proportion of the support.

[ty cobb]

The frustrating thing for me is that we don’t seem to give some players a chance. Kinni looked rusty on Tue against Stev, however, that was his first game for a while and I always think you need a run of first team games to really work out if you’re any good. When he got that in his first season with us he was very good. Beast was dropped before the season started, despite being a rock last season, and never really got a run of games after that. I think he can cope in this division, Wilder clearly didn’t, who was right – well who knows as he didn’t get a chance.

With Midson – how many times have we seen him play up front in a 4-4-2, the formation that suits him best. He would get into the team score, not score for the next game and get dropped. Bullman wasn’t given a chance in this division, players player of the season last season, a good start this year, Payne came in, Bullman was out of favour and got rid off and now Payne is out of favour and may well be moved on.

What do we expect from Purkiss? In and out of the team, a solid full back although doesn’t get forward as well as Batt but defends better. A solid start for what was a step up.

I agree with YF Dan, I think we could be doing better if we settled on a team and made minor adjustments rather than whole scale changes after a bad result. It nearly cost us promotion last year and I think we could be doing better this season – the division isn’t that much of a step up, both us and Stevenage are pushing for promotion. Yes some teams are a lot better but those in the bottom half are pretty poor, look at those that got relegated last season, not setting the division alight are they?

All that said, I have complete faith in Wilder, the Stev game showed something wasn’t working well and his record since joining us fully entitles him to make any changes as he sees fit. Won’t stop some people questioning it, or agreeing with it, but when I think back to Patto, Smith, Atkins, Wright, Talbot, I’m more than happy to say in Wilder we trust.

[BigCrompy]

I would guess that the great managers in history, for example Shankly, Busby, Ferguson, Wenger, and Mourinhio, all have or had incredible self-belief and in many cases it would certainly border (if not cross) the line into unattractive arrogance.

I may be slightly influenced having just re-watched one of my favourite films, &quotThe Damned United&quot...but I cannot help but think there's a glaring omission from that list!!

These are interesting times indeed...and whilst I am of the ilk that believes these last few seasons have clearly been progress, I don't think that 'Napoleon is always right' is an appropriate attitude to take, however blind my faith in Lord Chris generally is.

I for example believe the hype that we are and should be one of the larger clubs in this division, thus should be able to sustain one of the larger squads. That does not mean I would indulge makeweights, but I would at least like to see every position covered. To that end, I get intensely nervous that two full backs are being essentially offered to Crawley (for they are fast becoming our modern day Derby) and likewise one of the more alternative midfielders, who offers something different and has the unusual habit of occasionally contributing a goal or two from the left flank.

I think the jury is out pending their replacements and I hope for the best...but I also think it's folly to perenially prepare for the future when the present may suffer. Here's hoping that we can give a settled squad of 15 or so at least two years to prosper some time soon (with a healthy back-up contingency of a further six competent players).

[oxfordyankee]

I may be slightly influenced having just re-watched one of my favourite films, &quotThe Damned United&quot...but I cannot help but think there's a glaring omission from that list!!

I did say &quotfor example&quot

[Kernow Yellow]

He should go asap. as far as I'm concered.

Some people have such short memories.

Before Wilder, we had 12 different managers (twelve!) in ten years. We changed manager whenever things started going wrong, and this caused us to slide down the leagues, and out of the league, and finally languishing in the lower reaches of the Conference.

We've got the first period of managerial stablility we've had for ages, and the club is finally heading upwards again. And people want to change the manager! You really want your head examined, Tabbernackle.

[Kernow Yellow]

Self belief is an important quality in management (in any profession) and in football I think it is probably of paramount importance. I would guess that the great managers in history, for example Shankly, Busby, Ferguson, Wenger, and Mourinhio, all have or had incredible self-belief and in many cases it would certainly border (if not cross) the line into unattractive arrogance. I am not making a direct comparison in terms of their success or standing in the game to Wilder's but Wilder certainly has to have that quality and I would be troubled if he was constantly questioning himself and admitting to countless mistakes. No one wants to see the leader of an organisation in a mode of constant self-doubt.

Interesting point. Our last even moderately successful manager (Atkins) lost his head and self-belief, I thought, towards the end of his tenure and it caused the team to fall apart too. Judging by his record since then, he never got it back. But he had it at the start.

Wilder certainly doesn't seem to have lost his self-belief, and I agree that that's a good thing. It would certainly be more worrying if he didn't believe in his own abilities.

[Dr Bob]

He should go asap. as far as I'm concered.

Some people have such short memories.

Before Wilder, we had 12 different managers (twelve!) in ten years. We changed manager whenever things started going wrong, and this caused us to slide down the leagues, and out of the league, and finally languishing in the lower reaches of the Conference.

We've got the first period of managerial stablility we've had for ages, and the club is finally heading upwards again. And people want to change the manager! You really want your head examined, Tabbernackle.

To me, calling for CW to go is absurd. Reading this thread as it has developed, my feeling is that there are those whose expectation at the start of the season was promotion - and anything less is disappointing ('failure' for some, maybe?) For others, the play-offs were reasonable and achievable, whilst to others a solid first season back would, after the last four years, be an acceptable stepping stone. I am guessing here - but I suspect that SOME of the more negative postings about player turnover, changing starting line-ups etc is a result of people looking to see why we have underperformed relative to their expectations. It is after all only the very extreme small minority who think CW should go. 'Scuse me while I fetch a helmet.

[OUFanatic]

I certainly wasnt expecting promotion this year but i was expecting Top half finish if im honest.

We are where i had hoped but my gut feeling is that if we had been more consistent with our team then we would have been more consistent with our results

[slappy]

At the start of the season I had thought that a top 6 Conference side should be top half of League 2 (somewhere from 6th to 12th) without too much difficulty.

We soon found out the pace, fitness and awareness required in League Two is more than a step-up, hence Creighton being shipped out fairly early on. The other premise in our starting squad for the year was that a young squad (presumably on lower wages) would be good enough. It wasn't, and we tried getting in some more experienced and bigger players. The run of games after Chesterfield away saw us get to the brink of the play-offs, and I am disappointed that we saw three straight defeats throw away a golden opportunity to be right up in the auto-promotion places.

The post Stevenage clear-out is partly to allow unwanted players to be noticed before their contracts officially end in May. Also, the players going are mostly players with a couple of years of Conference experience, rather than the players who have dropped down from League clubs.

[Joey's Toe]

I certainly wasnt expecting promotion this year but i was expecting Top half finish if im honest.

We are where i had hoped but my gut feeling is that if we had been more consistent with our team then we would have been more consistent with our results

What he said.