The Descent

[Chris Black come back]

The big caveat to this is we have never had a proper Director of Football so perhaps we have been lucky amateurs for a while, but our collapse in the last say 4 years has been the result of poor managerial appointments and poor recruitment. Gavin seems to run the club well financially but who is actually advising Terry on footballing decisions?

We've been all over the place both at the strategic level (Director of Football / Coach model and then dumping that overnight, or recruitment based on ‘try before you buy’ and then dumping that overnight) and tactical level (Butler, McSheffrey, Schofield, 3 yr deal to Taylor, 2.5 yr deal to Anderson, Reo, Vilca, Gardner, Dodoo, Cukur, pick up phone to Lee Carsley as mentor).

We’ve failed because of the big structure, appointment and recruitment decisions. You can only blame Blunt so much - if you debit him for all the failures then you have to credit him for appointing McCann first time and then Moore taking us to top of League One.

We have made rank bad footballing decisions that have led to terrible results, terrible football and terrible financial implications. How have they got so bad?

[i_ateallthepies]

It’s been said before but warrants repeating - Terry must be sat with his head in his hands. All the hard work of the last 20 years and all the cash put into the club (probably most of which has come from him personally) yet we are pretty much back where we started almost. He built and ran a successful business. Must be shedding tears for how the club has eaten up his money and gone backwards at a prodigious rate. Every pound he is putting in over last couple of season is producing a negative return, we go backwards with no sign of this stopping.

I agree to an extent and will always be extremely grateful for Terry’s continued and generous contributions but it’s not as though he’s been a silent investor with minimal influence into how the club has been operating. He’s been on a board of just 3 people the whole time and has continued to back Blunt as the Chairman during the decline (how many times have we heard that if Blunt were to go, Terry would too?) He deserves a huge amount of credit for the amount of money that he’s put in over the years, and equally a huge amount for stepping up now, but he also has to shoulder some of the responsibility for where we find ourselves now.

I get where you come from on that Nick but on the flip side you don't appoint someone to Chairman and then not let him do the job.  What I would say is Terry might have acted to resolve the situation sooner.

[andyst79]

Weren’t McSheffrey and Schofield the outstanding candidates from all of the applications we had though?

You don’t throw away the opportunity when Moore left by giving the job to a first timer unless you don’t want promotion . Every other manager since left under a cloud WHY ? Imo the club was cutting back the amount money available and settling on playing L2 as wage bills and running costs can be managed prudently! Until Terry Bramhall stepping at the start of this season , ticket sales had nose dived and supporters were viewing with their feet . TB has pulled another stroke by bringing in a managers liked by the supporters but still put restraints on the wage bill . Imo we are not long for this league unless TB can find a buyer as even he has a limited on what he can put in .
Results are gained in this division by providing a positive outlook and the funds to back up the wishes of the club intent .
There are no guarantees of success but over time results grow as a consistency and momentum also grows with better results .?
But remove the positives and you end up 20th in L2 ..

We have a first team squad of more than 30 players. I'd guess that the wage bill is north of £40k/week.

Yet stop for a moment and ask yourself how many of those players would be regulars in any of the top three sides.

I'll start the bidding at "none".

It's not lack of funds that is the issue. It is three years of utterly dreadful recruitment. Culminating in that gutless abomination today.

Despite what people are saying Ben Close would walk into any of the top 3 sides. The players around him just aren't on his level.

Other than that nobody right now.

Ha ha we best brace ourselves, they'll all be banging door down in January to sign him!

[eastender]

Bizarre situation to be in when the manager is a class or two above the playing staff . Very odd . But if he left we would be right royally fecked . And 20th in the National League would beckon

…..and how long before a match against Rossington in August becomes a league game.

It's only a year a go since we were well beaten on our own turf by a National League North Team .