Dickov's Job if we fluke it and stay up

[godlike1]

He would deserve an undisrupted season in my eyes with a setled club

[Donny Dub]

More than that, we should hope to keep him in League 1 if we are relegated.
Good luck.

[DRNaith]

I think with the way things have been any manager would have struggled. Definitely keep him as far as I'm concerned

[since-1969]

I think that vote should go to the Board .

[Donnywolf]

I would keep him either way and as a bonus I would buy him a TV Monitor for the Dugout so he does not have to wait on the Video evidence from the Gantry behind me

Oh and a Megaphone so he can take up his "grouse" directly with the Ref instead of having to bend the lugs off the 4th Official

[Dare to dream!]

I am shocked by how many of you would keep him

[MiKA]

So Dickov stays then, good.

[RTID75]

Definitely keep him.

[BigColSutherland]

I think that vote should go to the Board .

Both of them?

[Padge_DRFC]

If we stay up it won't be a fluke it will be because we got more points than at least 3 teams below over a 46 game season.

[nice one rovers]

So Dickov stays then, good.

Its not that simple , the loudest people will keep asking this question until we say get rid.

[Padge_DRFC]

Bring in Moyes

[Milepostuk]

I thought that Brian Horton was here to provide the advice and experience that the club admitted that Dickov was lacking. I have seen very little evidence of that and might be tempted to ask questions here first.

[besty]

Very good point, what does Mr.Horton bring to the table I wonder?

[bpoolrover]

Defo keep

[silent majority]

If we are relegated then the discussion between PD and the board is a different one to the discussion they would have if we survive. The parameters all change, and therefore so does the answers and the strategy.

That's the conversation I would like to hear.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I would like to think Gavin will have been observing and checking in with one or two senior trusted players on how things are behind the scenes to see if we're getting good value out of the management team.

[Dare to dream!]

I can't see the board sacking him even if we do get relegated Saturday.

[Surrey Rover]

If the perception this season was all about enjoying the ride and accepting come what may, what was the point of bringing Dickov to the helm in the first place? We may as well have allowed Flynn to enjoy the fruits of his success rather than moving him aside. How we can possibly allow Dickov to keep his position should relegation be confirmed this weekend after what happened to Flynn following promotion is beyond me.

[Cramby10]

I'm a long term reader of this forum, hardly ever posted. Too much childish bickering. But this subject really grinds my gears. Personally, I was horrified that the man was ever considered for the job never mind have it handed to him on a silver platter by friend and neighbour mr Ryan. After the long drawn out charade of an interview process. It was never realistically going to be given to anyone else IMO. Im really interested to know what the more rational pro Dickov posters see in him that convince you that he is the right man to take us forward? All I've seen on here so far is the old ''unlucky with injuries' nugget wheeled out.
I might add that while ever he is manager he and the team will get my support but if the club choose not to extend his contract I will be a happy man.

[steve@dcfd]

If we are relegated then the discussion between PD and the board is a different one to the discussion they would have if we survive. The parameters all change, and therefore so does the answers and the strategy.

That's the conversation I would like to hear.

Strategy is a good word Dickovs strategy is to play 442, even to the detriment of the team and players at his disposal.

[DonnyOsmond]

ROB JONES BARMY ARMY

[BillyStubbsTears]

I've seen more than enough to think that we would have survived comfortably with a less horrendous run of injuries. I see a the arguments about 442 being a limited approach but it would have worked if we had a core of 8-9 players fit for 35+ games. (NB. Worth noting that O'Driscoll had that bit of luck the years we had our highest placings under him. In 09/10, Sullivan, Coppinger, Chambers, Roberts, Hird, Wilson, Hayter, Shiels, all made 35+ appearances and Sharp made 33. In 08/09, Sullivan, Mills, Chambers, Hird, Wellens, Woods, Stock all played in 35+ games and Heffernan and Spicer were available to do so but that's another story.)

This year only Brown, Wellens, Coppinger, Quinn, Duffy and Cotterill will hit that mark. Only  Coppinger and Cotterill will hit 40 appearances. We have simply not had a consistently fit and available spine of a team. It's been mend, make do and enforced change the whole way. And we've still got a chance of surviving.

So, yes, I'd give Dickov another season either way.

[Cramby10]

BST, with respect, you say you have seen more than enough. But what? Style of play? Tactics? In game management? Signings? To me, we have no specific style of play or tactics, as suggested by copps in the press earlier in the season. Even under Saunders, as dire as it was to watch we had a method that everyone in the team knew and it worked. His management during the is also found wanting. As outlined by yourself in another post. But it's not just about substitutions, he never responds to others teams change of method/shape during the game. He just leaves it and hopes it gets better which it rarely does. I thought Horton may have come to fore here but clearly not. As for signings I'll give credit where credit due. He's signed some excellent players. But this is also his undoing as he's clearly not getting the best out of them. We had macheda and he couldn't get him ti hit a barn door. Now he's banged in a fair few at brum. Sharpy too is a proven striker in this division. It's clear for all to see that he maybe not quite right mentally or physically. But is that not his job to remedy this? We have international defenders yet ship goals for fun.
The injuries argument I would have bought a few years ago but having seen Saunders' fitness fella come in and sort out the many lame in our squad it made me think that maybe it's not all about bad luck but maybe bad management? Did the Oldham fan on here not touch upon the poor fitness of the team he managed there?

[ditch_drfc]

I can't see us building anything over the long term if we turn into one of these clubs that sack their manager every two minutes. Has Dickov really done that bad a job? For me he hasn't. He's cost us points with naivety, but he hasn't been that bad.

Last time we went down my hope was to just not get relegated again. I really thought we were gonna do a Scunny and plunge to League 2. Winning the league last time has really shown me what's possible. This time if we go down - still a big if - we've got to be aiming to bounce back first time of asking again. I'd be happy to think we can do that under Dickov. I think he'd be a different man chasing promotion. Just remember how Saunders, reputation in tatters, grew into a winning manager last time round. Dickov stays for me.

[Derby Viking]

We may as well have allowed Flynn to enjoy the fruits of his success rather than moving him aside. How we can possibly allow Dickov to keep his position should relegation be confirmed this weekend after what happened to Flynn following promotion is beyond me.

We went up despite Flynn - not because of him

[BillyStubbsTears]

Cramby

I respect your points, but I think you're over-egging the criticism. I saw us develop a style in the early part of the season that included crisp passing, fast attacking full backs and a bloody strong physical spine to the team. A style that saw us make a far better start to the season than I expected when I saw the fixture list (a first ten games that would have given us 54 points now if we'd continued in that vein). We looked like battlers with a bit of finesse and pace thrown in, which is all anyone could have asked for, given the shambles that we were the last time we were in this division.

It's hardly Dickov's fault that Jones wrapped himself round a post, Tamas wrapped himself round a fist, Wabara broke his foot, Khumalo knacked himself by slipping in a match 4000 miles away, Forrester turned his ankle before the season started, Husband dislocated his shoulder, Wellens got kicked on the foot against Leeds, Brown broke his foot earlier in the season etc. These aren't conditioning injuries. They are for the most part, impact injuries that you can't legislate for. Some seasons clubs are lucky with this sort of injury. Sometimes it cripples you (no pun).

You could argue that, of the longer term injuries, Keegan's hamstring, Forrester's thigh on return to reserve football and Turnbull's calf were possibly conditioning injuries. Or possibly not - those do happen. But it's the sheer welter of unfortunate ones (and often the very unfortunate timing of injuries) that has really hit us.

And yes, I have criticised Dickov. But that is a strategic mistake that I suspect is common among football clubs. He appears to have fallen for the 50-point myth. I'm not sure that is a manager's fault - he needed someone with a bit of statistical nous to whisper in his ear. I'd tell the club to buy Dutch Uncle out of retirement.

[Cramby10]

Ok BST, when you put it like that I may concede a little ground on the injury front. But your point on the start to the season I'm really unsure on. The signs were there on the first day when he went chasing the game when a point for a newly promoted side would've been just the job. It was only the managers naivety that cost us. The results on the whole we're good but to me it was clearly the momentum carried over from the previous championship winning season with the majority of the same players. The longer the season goes on the more of his own stamp is put on the team which was born out in the results. From an outsider looking in he clearly wanted to put his own stamp on the side, which any manager would, but in doing so seemed to undermine the fantastic team spirit which had carried us through the previous season. A team spirit that I had not seen the like of in our team. Not even in the Penney or sod years. And it is something that cannot be underestimated.

[donny dave]

http://www.leaguemanagers.com/managers/history-1655.html

[BillyStubbsTears]

Still think you're being unfair on him Cramby.

He inherited a squad that had done very well the season before, but which was clearly sub-championship standard in a number of positions (Keeper, central midfield, one centre half, goalscoring striker).

He kept the key players from 2012/13 and strengthened sensibly (given our budget) in the weak areas. Adding Wabara, Khumalo, Turnbull, Wellens and Robinson to the mix gave us a far healthier and balanced squad. Loom at the side that started against Blackburn back in August.

R Turnbull, B Khumalo, J Husband, R Jones, R Wabara, J Coppinger, D Cotterill, R Wellens, P Keegan, C Brown, T Robinson.

His problem has been that half of that side has missed more than a third of the season through injury. 9 of them have missed more than 15% of the season through injury. He hasn't put a stamp on the squad and undermined the momentum from last year though choice. He's had no option but to change on an almost weekly basis. If that side from August had mostly stayed fit and he'd been able to make additions from choice rather than necessity (e.g. adding a bit more in midfield, instead of constantly having to patch up the defence) I suspect that we'd have stayed up comfortably.