Relegation

Paul Cannell

Well-known member
Joined
7 Dec 2017
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7,364
This club is set up to be relegated this season:

An owner who lost interest a year ago and has been trying to off-load his toy since
A marketing vacuum
A manager from the planet Catatonia who has the personality and charisma of a sponge
A group of journeymen prepared to wind quietly down in the twilight of their careers
Some lost kids


Change is necessary throughout the club. Now.
 
Think and hope we’ve got enough points already, so have a bit of a cushion before it becomes a worry, but agree with your sentiment, the rest of the Christmas and new year games will tell us more.
 
I’ve been saying for some time now that I’ll be relieved if and when we reach 50plus points. This team has a run of bad results in it, talk of play-offs is fantasy.

Will the appointment of a part time MD make a big difference that is needed. This is what I wrote on the old forum at the beginning of November about the lack of leadership and uncertainty at the club.

I believe that there is too much uncertainty at our club. This uncertainty stems from the fact that the club is for sale, it's been going on for almost a year now and has
finally seeped its way down to the coaches, manager and the players.


Appleton was spooked by the apparent lack of funds that had been promised last January. Key players such as the captain Lundstram, and Maguire publicly made it very clear at their concern that Appleton might not be at the club at the beginning of the new season.

The alarm bells were right to be ringing. The saga of the Sartori bid dragged on, Appleton wanted to complete his transfers/signings early, that didn't happen and he wasn't prepared to wait any longer. We lost our best manager in decades because of the uncertainty.

I feel a bit sorry for Clotet in that he had to do a lot of his business late in the day, but he is responsible for packing our squad full of overseas players with little English League experience, a gamble for sure and so far it's not paid off. Injuries have not helped

The club feels rudderless compared to the Appleton era.

So back to the uncertainty at the club, another takeover rumoured. Clotet is probably worried about his position at the club if new owners come in, Fazackerly and Allen probably worried too. Players are only human too, they will be concerned, it all seeps down from the boardroom to the pitch.

Eales needs to show some leadership, the short/medium term future of the club needs certainty and stability.

Read more: http://yellowsforum.proboards.com/thread/26587/uncertainty-club#ixzz52AySdQR5
 
The lack of marketing is really ticking me off. The club have got to a point where they just can't be bothered to tell anyone there's a game coming up.

The sooner we hit 50 points, then the club is sold to someone who cares, the better.
 
Not going to comment on the Wigan match, as I didn't see it, but I've seen highlights, read reports on here and elsewhere and followed the 'insights' of Pep in recent months. I don't know whether we're relegation fodder or not, but fans obviously have reasons for grave concern.

When you hear of loyal, loyal fans leaving at half-time or booing at the end the club needs to take note. Something ain't right. I've read excuses from some on here. We've had excessive numbers of injuries. We've played very well on occasion so we shouldn't give up hope of promotion, particularly as we're only five points from a play-off position. Mr Appleton was given time, so should Pep be. Mr Eales has devoted so much of his time and money to the club that he deserves respect. The players are learning and trying their hardest.

Really? I was at Rochdale and it was shocking. No ambition from the players, no desire, wasting time for the last fifteen minutes to achieve a point at f*****g Rochdale. Pep's post match interviews are vacuous and embarrassing. Mr Eales' absence and apparent lack of interest in the club shocking.

Where's the hope? Many fans are angry, and so they should be.

If some QUALITY isn’t added to the playing squad in January then yes we’re relegation fodder.

At least 50 fans left the North Stand when the 3rd goal went in after half an hour, never seen that before. I left at 0-6, first time I’ve left early because of the state of the match.

Mr Eales is starting to run out of credit with some of the fan base.

I suspect as others have said is that Pep is a decent coach but not a good manager.

The January window will tell us everything we need to know about the ambition of the club.
 
I've been saying for months that the manner and severity of our off days should have had red flashing lights and deafening sirens going off, but perhaps yesterday was finally the moment that people will see this isn't good enough and that we are in big trouble. We are eight points off the relegation zone - if you think that's too big of a gap to be in danger, or that we're too good to end up down there, you're as deluded as Pep seems to be after his absolutely incredible post-match comments. The worst team in the division spanked us 3-0 earlier this season, MK Dons reserves hit us for four in the tinpot when we actually put out a really strong side, we crashed out of the two major cups in the first round by blowing a 3-1 half time lead at home to Cheltenham and then going to Port Vale and not having a shot on target... this is serious and it's been going on in fits and bursts since the start of the season. Don't forget that the Cheltenham debacle was our second competitive game of the season - this started early. How can anybody, even one person, defend this man and say it's definitely going to be okay when we've just suffered our worst ever home defeat, and he's come out and said he can't criticise the players who gave everything they could and that there was nothing more we could have done? If that's truly what he thinks then he's a mad man, and if it isn't then he's playing a stupid game pretending otherwise.

If people are honest, we have been terrible since Plymouth. We went to Rochdale last weekend, a team who were in the relegation zone, and got battered, with Eastwood making multiple stunning saves and our defence clearing a couple off the line. All the while our only highlight pulled out by the cameras was Xemi scuffing a shot that trickled a couple of yards wide, and then Pep praised the performance! Before that we scored a 95th minute winner at home to Doncaster that came from Ruffels basically going "Oh, sod it" and hitting one that bobbled in somehow, when despite them clearly not being very good Doncaster dominated us at times and had the chances to win it comfortably. We have played poorly and unconvincingly more often than we have played well this season, it's simply that 4-1 against Peterborough and 3-0 against Portsmouth are the sorts of results that make people put the blinkers on. Well, here we are. The team that has been prone to collapses, shipping goals for fun and going entire games without having a meaningful shot on target turned up all in one handy package.

How did you like it? Personally, I loved it. I was baying for blood - I wanted us to ship more and more and more. I wanted ten goals. I wanted a result so utterly humiliating that it would go down in footballing folklore for years to come. Teams have lost 7-0 before, not very often at all but it does happen. I wanted more than that - I wanted a scoreline so shameful that we'd be the answer in quizzes, and the go to example of unacceptable incompetence, for decades to come. And I wanted it because I wanted that idiot of a man gone, and because it was only losing a game by something comical like 10-0 that might have been enough to trigger it. He's been overseeing inept and truly abysmal performances like this all season. Don't think that just because the results weren't 7-0 we haven't been nearly as bad as that multiple times this season. This has been coming - numerous people have been saying and thinking that. This was absolutely coming, and that is HIS fault.

These are his journeymen crocks, this is his mentality, these are his tactics, this is his culture - THIS IS HIM. This is the Pep Clotet who has only ever failed as a manager, and has never been manager of a team at any level in any country without being sacked while the team goes down. He's done it three times across Spain and Sweden; a proven failure with a track record for getting teams into tailspins from which they never recover. Well defend him now. f*****g defend him now, after that result, after what we've seen this season, and after what he had to say about it all. f*****g DEFEND HIM.

The football has been so bad for the last month or two, and I saw flashes of such dross even before that, that I have now stopped going to away matches. I used to go to every Saturday away game, and as many midweeks as I could manage, and now I've just stopped. Didn't go to Rochdale (and thank god by all accounts), won't be going to Gillingham or Bradford... I'm done. I'm not doing it again while that man is in charge. To be honest I can hardly bring myself to go to the home games anymore - we usually get battered and apart from our flukey Doncaster winner we've been taking it up the a**e left, right and centre at the wind tunnel for quite some time. The only reason I'm going is because I've paid my money and it feels like a giant waste to not, but I'm starting to wonder if actually, seeing as my ST money is already gone either way, I'm just throwing good after bad. I could be doing something else with my Saturday's, and not be spending £15-£20 on some food and a couple of pints before each match. I could take that money and pay somebody to kick me in the balls while repeatedly screaming the word "FOCKOOS" at me, and probably get as much enjoyment from it as I do watching the games now. The plus side being that it would save me hours of time in the process.

I said on the old forum that if we didn't go down this season (and we really, really might), that we definitely would go down next season if Pep stays in charge, and I was laughed at. Somebody actually offered me £50 on it. Whoever you were, if you're on here, step forward. I'll raise you to a full £100, if you still reckon you're quids in. I'll take you up for a hundred quid that Pep Clotet will get us relegated next season if he survives until then, and if he doesn't manage it at the first attempt.

Get the man out of this football club.

Part of me agrees with everything you say, part of me thinks it’s a bit on the harsh side.

Either way that’s a blood good rant. (y)
 
Can’t say I’m like some posters on here and have my finger on the pulse of every rumour, but spoke to someone today who plays a bit of 5-a-side with some of the strength and conditioning coaches at the club.

PC isn’t liked (probably not too much to worry about perhaps. CW wasn’t liked either). He’s viewed at arrogant, stubborn and doesn’t listen. The example I was given was that at the start of the season the scouts returned a report of 10 key young and readily available English targets that would be within reach for Oxford. PC simply ignored it and informed the staff that he would be signing who he wanted rather than chasing the targets.

Make of that what you will. MApp’s gameplan is out of the window. PC’s recipe for destruction is now underway.
 
Can’t say I’m like some posters on here and have my finger on the pulse of every rumour, but spoke to someone today who plays a bit of 5-a-side with some of the strength and conditioning coaches at the club.

PC isn’t liked (probably not too much to worry about perhaps. CW wasn’t liked either). He’s viewed at arrogant, stubborn and doesn’t listen. The example I was given was that at the start of the season the scouts returned a report of 10 key young and readily available English targets that would be within reach for Oxford. PC simply ignored it and informed the staff that he would be signing who he wanted rather than chasing the targets.

Make of that what you will. MApp’s gameplan is out of the window. PC’s recipe for destruction is now underway.
That's not very nice to say about @PC ?

Seriously, if true, that's not good at all and a massive worry
 
That's not very nice to say about @PC ?

Seriously, if true, that's not good at all and a massive worry

Our PC is a joy! I hope he has a lorry load of quince jelly coming his way for Christmas ☺️.

As mentioned, I’m no OxBible nor ever pretend to be ITK on this forum. It’s what I’ve heard from the club.
 
Just have to hope there is a very uncomfortable phone call/meeting with DE sooner than later...was he there yesterday??
 
Can’t say I’m like some posters on here and have my finger on the pulse of every rumour, but spoke to someone today who plays a bit of 5-a-side with some of the strength and conditioning coaches at the club.

PC isn’t liked (probably not too much to worry about perhaps. CW wasn’t liked either). He’s viewed at arrogant, stubborn and doesn’t listen. The example I was given was that at the start of the season the scouts returned a report of 10 key young and readily available English targets that would be within reach for Oxford. PC simply ignored it and informed the staff that he would be signing who he wanted rather than chasing the targets.

Make of that what you will. MApp’s gameplan is out of the window. PC’s recipe for destruction is now underway.
And if I recall the excuse given at the time was that these young English players were just too expensive, I said bullshit at the time and bullshit it is !
 
And if I recall the excuse given at the time was that these young English players were just too expensive, I said bullshit at the time and bullshit it is !

This.

I highly doubt it was any more than an excuse. After the scouting department made such finds as Roofe, Rothwell, Ledson, Johnson and to an extent Hemmings (I still find it difficult to write off his 15 goals all comps last season in a system that wasn't even suited to him), they were well aware what costs would have been attached to these players.

I'm all for giving Pep a few more games, but the players look completely disinterested the longer they're at the club with him. I bet Ledson is chomping at the bit to play.
 
I was willing to give PC some benefit of the doubt in case what he said was true about young English players being over-priced, but if these rumours of ignoring the scouting staff are true, then any remote bit of sympathy I had has disappeared.
 
The example I was given was that at the start of the season the scouts returned a report of 10 key young and readily available English targets that would be within reach for Oxford. PC simply ignored it and informed the staff that he would be signing who he wanted rather than chasing the targets.

The implications of this are really not good: the new manager is permitted to break the system that Ole Slippery had bought into with Apples & Ashton.

The new manager is the wrong manager and the owner doesn't give a toss.

I also (like so many on the here that's over there) dismissed the club's statements about why we abandoned a method that Apples & Eales (nice starter in there somewhere) had developed on the basis that investing more just means you stand to make more. The conveyor is off.
 
The implications of this are really not good: the new manager is permitted to break the system that Ole Slippery had bought into with Apples & Ashton.

The new manager is the wrong manager and the owner doesn't give a toss.

I also (like so many on the here that's over there) dismissed the club's statements about why we abandoned a method that Apples & Eales (nice starter in there somewhere) had developed on the basis that investing more just means you stand to make more. The conveyor is off.

Surely it can’t be true that the owner doesn’t give a toss? I would agree that all the signs point that way but DE is a money man and I would be expecting him to do everything to maximise the value of his investment. That does not mean leaving PC to is own devices and allowing so much of the good work that has been done over the last 3 years to be simply washed away in the space of 6 months? PC certainly comes across as an intelligent guy, confident and charismatic when he’s in front of you, less so on the radio. Does he think he knows better than those around him who know this League better than he does? Maybe.

So where is DE and what does he have to say about the whole thing? And the answers to those questions are nowhere and silence. Something really doesn’t add up here. Has he actually run out of cash? Has he sold the club already and is just going through the motions? Has he got personal issues that take him away from the football club? Whatever it is it’s having a seriously detrimental effect on our club and if we are to salvage anything of the Appleton era then we need to make changes now.
 
Relegation? Seriously?

OK so to put it all into perspective. 19 points from 23 games required to get 50 points.

So we have 31 points in 23 games with a manager who plays a boy who is mates with his father and yet we can't get 19 from 23 games. Sseriously?

If anybody is serious about betting on relegation PM me and lets have a bet on that... (I am not expecting many takers)
 
We wouldn’t be the first team to collapse and get relegated from a seemingly string position, we are certainly playing badly enough at the moment for that to happen.

We will probably squeak home, and a few new signings will help that, but we are not safe yet and until we hit 50 points it will be hard to relax with Clotet as manager and some of the players in this team.
 
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