I’ll be honest I’m not close enough to the situation to give any kind of diagnosis. I rely heavily on information here and that is skewed by those who really know something and those who try, but don’t. It’s also skewed by who is brave enough to post what they know and those who prefer to keep back what they know and/or protect sources etc etc.
But here’s my opinion… My take on it is that we need a fresh start. I didn’t feel this way 6 months ago as I still felt KR had the right idea and the dressing room behind him and with some money behind him I thought maybe he would puff up the back room team and fill up the squad properly. I can’t confirm beyond doubt he’s lost the dressing room but I look at the players on match day and I see a team bereft of confidence in what they’re doing bar McGuane and Brannagan who are far too good for this level and they know it.
The players look like they need someone to remind them how capable they are rather than be endlessly dismissed as sub-par to the media and that they only need to keep at it until the better players come back from injury and take their place(!!!). Not to mention taking no accountability himself for the situation as he can only do so much with what he has… Or should we remind him every one of these players he chose. So is he openly admitting he brought in players not good enough to compete? This is skin-crawling management.
Lastly, the transfer policy needs a fresh approach. Why haven’t we signed more ‘normal’ players? Why does it need to be an ex player who knows Karl’s isms already or someone so far flung that they have no idea who he is? Seems anything in between is unobtainable for us. Example, why have we struggled so badly to get a deal done for Nicky Cadden over 2 seasons + only for him to end up at a pretty comparable L1 club? I could have a decent guess. Why give multi-year contracts to ageing players whose contributions we could very easily replace? I’d argue it’s because he’s struggling to persuade anyone new to join and he’s latching on to what he has in order to dilute the problem and leave himself less exposed. Where have you ever heard a manager with a top-end budget struggle to even fill the squad quota?
This is all theory. No inside knowledge to back it up. But yes, I think we need a fresh start because above all this is the first time I’ve looked at us on match day under KR and felt we look beaten before we kick off.
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