Manager/Coach [Poll] When Should Robinson Go?

[Leysboy]

This is what, apparently, some find easy to ignore. This is year 5 of KR. How long does he need? How long are we prepared to wait?

Yep mentioned it several times. This is his 9th window. He has never built a balanced squad, and I’m not sure how people can justify themselves saying he needs more time.

9 windows is more than enough.

I want him gone! Sick of it.

 

[Joey]

You mention Robinson’s 1 promotion and then talk about Appleton who many would have replace Robinson.
Appleton has 1 promotion in his manager career…the one with us. He had a win percentage of 45%. Robinson’s win percentage with us is 41.9% and that is with us in league 1 where as Appleton had us in league 2.

The Appleton comparison was more to show a manager learning from his mistakes and having success. His win rate was lowered by picking up a load of crap (same as Robbo to an extent) and then having to turn it round. He also had a 43% win rate in League 1 with us with a team that had just been promoted, had lost our best player in Roofe and had a far smaller budget than we do now finishing 8th.

Robinson is by no means perfect and he has his faults but he is a good league 1 manager and is very highly regarded within the game for his coaching ability.

I'm sure he is and like I say I don't think he's a bad manager but his faults are enough to have serious concerns about whether he can take us to the next level and his history seems to back that up. I'm not ITK in football circles but I'm sure there are plenty of well regarded managers plus many just waiting for their chance.

Make no mistake though, if the directors aren’t happy they won’t be afraid to get rid of Robinson if they feel the club isn’t going in the right direction. Right now though it is.

Off the pitch it's all very positive but on the pitch it's hard to see any progress being made as things stand. We've gone from being in the playoffs to missing out by quite a distance last season and the team we've started this season with is weaker than ended last season. Still time left of the window to put some of the issues right and fingers crossed he'll do it but we're already behind. Yes we've signed some exciting players on paper but there are injury doubts over many of them and we're already having issues with this.

 

[Joey]

His record at our club is good. We are over achieving.

Some supporters have short memories.

Are we? On what basis? We seem to have a very healthy budget in place, he's been given funds to buy players and has had the benefit of several years in charge to shape things how he wants them. At best I would imagine it's about par. He took over a team in pretty poor shape and in four years has taken us from the bottom half of League 1 to the top half in four years. Yes we've generally played good football but I hope our ambitions are set a little higher.

 

[Carpy]

We are over achieving.

This is just flat out wrong.

Our budget over his reign means we’re probably just simply achieving, and last season, seeing as we didn’t actually make the playoffs, we underachieved (the number of points means nothing if you still finish lower down the table)

 

[Hackney Jack]

You know how we often talk of other clubs forums going into meltdown and how it makes them look a bit tinpot? Well we've just joined them!

f**k me.

Pot. kettle. Black.

 

[battman]

You know how we often talk of other clubs forums going into meltdown and how it makes them look a bit tinpot? Well we've just joined them!

Here comes Scotcher's contribution, and surprise surprise it's another snide comment that doesn't further the conversation, simply an attempt to gaslight fans with reasonable concerns that they're being histrionic.

We honestly need to stop this polarisation that wanting the manager to stay is the calm, sensible position and wanting the manager to be replaced is an unreasonable, over-emotional reaction. The nuance of the debate is lost and it doesn't enrich the discussion, it just ends up with fans taking lumps out of each other.

 

[Scotchegg]

Here comes Scotcher's contribution, and surprise surprise it's another snide comment that doesn't further the conversation.

The nuance of the debate is lost and it doesn't enrich the discussion, it just ends up with fans taking lumps out of each other.

Takes some doing to contradict yourself in the same post!

 

[battman]

Takes some doing to contradict yourself in the same post!

I simply described what you literally just did, how is that a contradiction of nuance in this debate?

 

[Joey]

Any chance of adding "half time today" to the options?

 

[MJB]

Few boos as KR walked near the East Stand today which I think signals the start of increased dissatisfaction among the general fanbase.

And rightly so - we’ve been poor in the majority of all our games this season and our form in the last third of last season was stuttering.

Personally I worry we might be in a bit of trouble this season. I really hope I’m wrong but I’d take a top-half finish right now.

 

[Common Villager]

It's starting to feel like the end of Wilder's time here. Season after season of disappointment and no obvious improvement ultimately results in large levels of apathy and/or dissenting voices.

I think Robinson is 'liked' by a large proportion of our fan base which has prevented any significant displays of dissatisfaction for a number of seasons (the last occasion I can recall is Luton at home several years ago). But the boos at halftime hint that this is starting to change.

I hope we can turn things round quickly but if we don't, I think the end of KR's time here might not be too far away.

 

[unification]

Few boos as KR walked near the East Stand today which I think signals the start of increased dissatisfaction among the general fanbase.

And rightly so - we’ve been poor in the majority of all our games this season and our form in the last third of last season was stuttering.

Personally I worry we might be in a bit of trouble this season. I really hope I’m wrong but I’d take a top-half finish right now.

Me too. My prediction is as top half but not near the playoffs. The issues already look deeper than that and I’m inclined to revise that prediction at this early juncture.

The defence has not improved (you could argue it’s worse since McNally left), the frontline is geriatric, the wingers are injury prone and we’ve got rid of a some reliable backups in Williams and Forde. Look at the squad and say it’s capable of promotion. It’s not. It’s the worst we’ve had since 2018-19.

There’s quality and proven ability there - McGuane is coming good, Brannagan is still there, Moore is easily good enough and Taylor will surely turn things around - but I’m not convinced by much else. I just hope that the quality we do have can turn us around.

 

[Leysboy]

When the fans start to turn on you, you’ve had it!

 

[Victor1986]

They won't sack him. He is well liked by the board and completely scorch proof when it comes to recruitment.
You press on KR we are all behind you.
Er... are we?

 

[MJB]

Me too. My prediction is as top half but not near the playoffs. The issues already look deeper than that and I’m inclined to revise that prediction for Ben at this early juncture.

The defence has not improved (you could argue it’s worse since McNally left), the frontline is geriatric, the wingers are injured prone and we’ve got rid of a some reliable backups in Williams and Forde. Look at the squad and say it’s capable of promotion. It’s not. It’s the worst we’ve had since 2018-19.

There’s quality and proven ability there - McGuane is coming good, Brannagan is still there, Moore is easily good enough and Taylor will surely turn things around - but I’m not convinced by much else. I just hope that the quality we do have can turn us around.

Yes I’d agree with most if not all of that.

The loss of McNally has shown how pedestrian our build-up play can look at its worst without a marauding CB (a role also previously performed by Atkinson, Dickie and, to an extent, Nelson).

Without it, we’re back to lots of slow movement of the ball across the back four and teams know they can either sit back and keep their shape (when they’re winning) or press as a unit and get us into trouble (as we saw with the second goal tonight). That’s not a criticism of Findlay, who looks a decent no-nonsense CB, but more of an indication of our overall squad being weaker.

I’ve not been McGuane’s biggest fan previously but he has been very good so far. Other than that, I think the rest of the squad is generally both weaker and performing poorer than in previous seasons.

And we’re on a trajectory of three seasons of declining finishes so the general momentum of the club on the pitch is moving backwards.

I’m generally one for continuity but sometimes a change is needed at any organisation if significant improvements are needed. Particularly if ambitions - and publicly stated ambitions - are for better than things currently are.

 

[Joey]

It's starting to feel like the end of Wilder's time here. Season after season of disappointment and no obvious improvement ultimately results in large levels of apathy and/or dissenting voices.

I think Robinson is 'liked' by a large proportion of our fan base which has prevented any significant displays of dissatisfaction for a number of seasons (the last occasion I can recall is Luton at home several years ago). But the boos at halftime hint that this is starting to change.

I hope we can turn things round quickly but if we don't, I think the end of KR's time here might not be too far away.

Agree with this massively. He seems a really good bloke and does look to do a lot in the community, plus the way he handled himself following the deaths of Joey and Mickey Lewis was absolute class and a credit to himself and the club. However this is a results business and I think the fact he does all this shields him from a lot of criticism, we often read on here about his passion for the club etc. I'd rather have a more reserved, slightly dour manager if they were capable of getting us playing decent football while also putting together a squad that has more than 5 defenders, very few injury prone wingers and a couple of different ways of playing to see us over the line and get us up. If you ignore the extra curricular bits he does then suddenly all doesn't look as good.

 

[TailsWeWin]

I’m sure the vast majority of lower league managers would give their right arms to have the budget KR has been given. He’s p****d most of the money up the wall with half-fit crocks while ignoring the obvious weaknesses. Let’s have someone else in who could use the money properly . One of the many who have out-thought and out-manoeuvred him with inferior players and better tactics over the last two seasons.

 

[Jaboysmith]

Transfermarkt has a good tool to look at unemployed managers, some that catch the eye if the board want to splash out on a manager a bit are lee bowyer, Johnathan woodgate and Gary monk

 

[yellowbow]

Sorry, I’ve changed my vote to option number one now and it’s going to need a drastic turn around from KR for me to change my opinion

 

[m]

Agree with this massively. He seems a really good bloke and does look to do a lot in the community, plus the way he handled himself following the deaths of Joey and Mickey Lewis was absolute class and a credit to himself and the club. However this is a results business and I think the fact he does all this shields him from a lot of criticism, we often read on here about his passion for the club etc. I'd rather have a more reserved, slightly dour manager if they were capable of getting us playing decent football while also putting together a squad that has more than 5 defenders, very few injury prone wingers and a couple of different ways of playing to see us over the line and get us up. If you ignore the extra curricular bits he does then suddenly all doesn't look as good.

*Chris Wilder waves*