Manager/Coach KREXIT: The 'Robbo Out' thread.

[Mellowyellow]

Fred. Are you in fact Mrs Robinson?

I do believe it is in fact KR himself.

 

[Fred]

No he's achieved nothing, and brought in some terrible players, whilst either blaming everyone else when it suits him, or shouting his mouth off about transfers that don't come to fruition.

Since he has been in charge I have been more entertained at home matches than any time in the last 20 years.

 

[Carpy]

Since he has been in charge I have been more entertained at home matches than any time in the last 20 years.

Were you asleep throughout the 2015/16 season?

 

[Fred]

Were you asleep throughout the 2015/16 season?

Was that the promotion season?

 

[Carpy]

Was that the promotion season?

Yes

 

[Fred]

Yes

Perhaps I exaggerated a bit, for one season obviously you could not beat it. But as someone who can only go to home matches, the quality of football played at home has been a tad better than the Appleton era.

 

[battman]

So if you don't get promoted to the championship you judge that as not successful?

Depends what you judge as a metric of success I suppose. I think you can point to reaching a play-off final as progress, but only progress from a worse position that Karl helped put us in.

When he took over, our side the previous season under Appleton finished 8th. When Pep was sacked we were 10th in the table (albeit you could claim it was a false position) and Karl took over when we were 15th. It was a slow start for him in the job, and a handful of wins in the last few games saw us safe.

We then spend most of the next season flirting with relegation, only to pull away with a few games to go. Momentum, it seemed, was finally with the side. Then, last season, 9 games in we were 17th. And 30 games in we were 11th, only to have a 5 game winning streak that saw us finish in the play-off places.

So yes, we've been to a play-off final, and had we won it then we wouldn't be having this debate about whether he's the right man for the job. But for me, when you look at success, I don't look at just the highlights, I look at everything. And there's been more bad than good.

Have we been winning more than not? No. Have we made measurable progress year on year? No. Does Karl's team play in an effective manner that blends attacking football with wiliness to grind out results? No. Are we a better team than we were under MApp? Again, no.

I don't want to watch my side slum it out for 75% of the season with the hope that they might come good at the end, and it's not like we've not given Karl time to create something here. It's like having an awful meal followed by an amazing dessert. You may only remember enjoying the dessert, but you still paid for all of the meal.

 

[battman]

January is a big transfer for Robinson and he has to get it right.

It would be hard to do but I’d move Eastwood, Henry and Agyie on. Send Shodipo back to QPR and bring in some fresh blood. We have to have an eye on next season’s aims in January rather than bringing in some short term fixes to try and get us some success this season.

Sacking Robinson now would be a stupid idea. People make mistakes and he is no different but I honestly believe that he is the right man for the job to bring success to this club. After all, he got us our highest finished in 21 years last season and we were all agreed, without Covid then we would of probably gone up automatically. He has earnt himself a bit of a blip IMO.

Bit confused by this line that I've seen repeated by a few. Sure, he did, but he only managed that because Wilder and Appleton got us into a position to make that possible. It's not like he's taken us to our highest position ever, he's taken us from 15th in the table when he took over to 3rd (4th on PPG). It's an achievement (if you ignore that we've completely gone backwards since and we'll be mid table at best this year), but it's nowhere near as impressive at Wilder taking us from being Conference failures to being competitive in League Two, and Appleton who got us promoted to League One and finished 8th the next season.

 

[Bacon]

Depends what you judge as a metric of success I suppose. I think you can point to reaching a play-off final as progress, but only progress from a worse position that Karl helped put us in.

When he took over, our side the previous season under Appleton finished 8th. When Pep was sacked we were 10th in the table (albeit you could claim it was a false position) and Karl took over when we were 15th. It was a slow start for him in the job, and a handful of wins in the last few games saw us safe.

We then spend most of the next season flirting with relegation, only to pull away with a few games to go. Momentum, it seemed, was finally with the side. Then, last season, 9 games in we were 17th. And 30 games in we were 11th, only to have a 5 game winning streak that saw us finish in the play-off places.

So yes, we've been to a play-off final, and had we won it then we wouldn't be having this debate about whether he's the right man for the job. But for me, when you look at success, I don't look at just the highlights, I look at everything. And there's been more bad than good.

Have we been winning more than not? No. Have we made measurable progress year on year? No. Does Karl's team play in an effective manner that blends attacking football with wiliness to grind out results? No. Are we a better team than we were under MApp? Again, no.

I don't want to watch my side slum it out for 75% of the season with the hope that they might come good at the end, and it's not like we've not given Karl time to create something here. It's like having an awful meal followed by an amazing dessert. You may only remember enjoying the dessert, but you still paid for all of the meal.

Wow, couldn’t have put it any better. Totally agree with this

 

[m]

I'm sorry that's nonsense, or does it apply to Wycombe as well, who arguably had a lesser squad than we did?

Well of course it does!

Would anybody seriously deny that Wycombe did well to get promoted?

 

[Junior_1]

Since he has been in charge I have been more entertained at home matches than any time in the last 20 years.

Some statement that.

So answer this.

His best 11 v Appleton’s best.

Who wins?

Who plays the better football?

I’ll tell you something else. No way would we have come up with that performance Saturday against them under Appleton.

 

[Junior_1]

Perhaps I exaggerated a bit, for one season obviously you could not beat it. But as someone who can only go to home matches, the quality of football played at home has been a tad better than the Appleton era.

Why only home games?

 

[Essexyellows]

Well of course it does!

Would anybody seriously deny that Wycombe did well to get promoted?

They got lucky, very lucky.
Is being lucky "doing well" ?

We get lucky Henry shoots in the PO Final or Taylor`s second goes in Saturday and this conversation never starts.........

You can`t buy luck.

 

[m]

They got lucky, very lucky.
Is being lucky "doing well" ?

We get lucky Henry shoots in the PO Final or Taylor`s second goes in Saturday and this conversation never starts.........

You can`t buy luck.

I'm surprised a pragmatist such as yourself puts faith in luck.

Yes, they had some luck, but you can't deny their achievement in getting promoted, and you can't seriously believe it's all down to luck.

 

[OxfordYankee]

Why only home games?

Why is that relevant?

 

[Junior_1]

Why is that relevant?

Curious.

 

[Fred]

Why only home games?

As I can only go to home games I can only judge quality of football at home.

 

[unification]

No he's achieved nothing, and brought in some terrible players, whilst either blaming everyone else when it suits him, or shouting his mouth off about transfers that don't come to fruition.

I would argue that achieving a playoff place with a budget outside of the top seven in this division is something. A run to the League Cup QF last season was our finest achievement in that competition since 1987-88 too.

We can argue the merits of KR all day long but you’ve got to be sensible about it. KR mixes good and bad in fairly equal measure which is reflected in his overall record here – P140 W55 D39 L46. Yes, we lose matches under him, but what did you expect? Promotion in 2018-19, promotion again last year and now a run at the PL title in his third full season? Some realism is needed. He has us tearing our hair out, he has us applauding his management of youth and his fixation on the local aspects of the club. He’s a League 1 manager, not Sir Alex Ferguson and that reflects where we are. He has to improve if Oxford want to improve.

If you think that’s somehow KR is the worst we can muster, I would have hate to have had a season ticket next to you when Rix, Talbot, Patterson and Smith Mrk 2/Kemp were in charge.

 

[Horse]

Just wondering myself if we should be querying the decision to bring in Craig Short. He’s not very experienced and I doubt he’s going to be able to temper some of the managers decisions.
When Derry was brought in we had a poor season and we were better last year with Faz backing him.
I had hoped that Short would sort out our defence as he’s a centre back himself but it doesn’t look like that happened.

 

[Fred]

Boring as it is anything above mid table is success. Don't pretend that Nigel Appleton would have definitely continued our progress up the football pyramid.