I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
That Brighton performance was woeful
Lost at home to Barnsley as well. Nothing against Riga, I warmed to him despite being absolutely livid about Powell's sacking. However, apart from in extreme circumstances (such as losing or winning virtually every match (see Les Reed)), 16 games isn't sufficient to make a valid judgement, good or bad. Peeters looked very impressive after his first 16 games - if he'd been got rid of at the end of October then the same people who laud Riga so much would no doubt have been hailing him as someone who should be brought back to save the day.
Whilst there appear to have been some additional issues with Peeters in terms of upsetting the players, the root of the problem for Powell and Peeters was the weak squads they had at their disposal, and this would have been the same for Riga (hence he struggled at Blackpool in comparable circumstances through no fault of his own). You cannot compete on a long term basis with a reasonable first 11 and no reserves, and I find it very difficult to believe that Riga would have managed any better in a situation where he had to continue to play an injured and tired Igor Vetokele and turn the likes of Fox and Pope into first team regulars when both clearly needed to spend a season on loan lower down the leagues learning their trade.
I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
Brighton away was awful and quite possibly the worst we played last season. In Riga's defence he did seem to prioritise games that he thought we could win and it worked.
I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
Brighton away was awful and quite possibly the worst we played last season. In Riga's defence he did seem to prioritise games that he thought we could win and it worked.
I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
That Brighton performance was woeful
Lost at home to Barnsley as well. Nothing against Riga, I warmed to him despite being absolutely livid about Powell's sacking. However, apart from in extreme circumstances (such as losing or winning virtually every match (see Les Reed)), 16 games isn't sufficient to make a valid judgement, good or bad. Peeters looked very impressive after his first 16 games - if he'd been got rid of at the end of October then the same people who laud Riga so much would no doubt have been hailing him as someone who should be brought back to save the day.
Whilst there appear to have been some additional issues with Peeters in terms of upsetting the players, the root of the problem for Powell and Peeters was the weak squads they had at their disposal, and this would have been the same for Riga (hence he struggled at Blackpool in comparable circumstances through no fault of his own). You cannot compete on a long term basis with a reasonable first 11 and no reserves, and I find it very difficult to believe that Riga would have managed any better in a situation where he had to continue to play an injured and tired Igor Vetokele and turn the likes of Fox and Pope into first team regulars when both clearly needed to spend a season on loan lower down the leagues learning their trade.
And the same will be true of Luzon. If we do not get players to fill the gaps I struggle to see how he can be an improvement. The odd thing about Peeters going is that the stated goal of the management this season was to avoid relegation. The management must have thought that Peeters was taking the club down for him to be seen as a failure. The problem with this is that it implies that they think the squad is ok and that Peeters was the problem, whereas it is blinding obvious that the squad is too weak for the championship..
I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
9 of CP's last 12 games were away from home - on the back of Duchatalet selling his best player and interfering with team selection. CP's last home league game was that excellent last gasp win over QPR.
I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
I wasn't at Brighton, but I remember Derby away, Blackburn home, Burnley home, all poor. Forest away was dreadful too, but we won that.
The good news is , if he's rubbish he'll be out the door in the Summer, Roland won't want to keep getting his fingers burnt, surely he will learn by his mistakes?
Spot on. I just hope we are still in this division
I remember a time when we had a promising young coach with a good reputation and strong prospects. Sadly, he and the team just weren't getting the results and in the face of fans' anger and disappointment, a 'network' manager, with not much credibility and a poor reputation in the Belgian press was appointed on short notice. He promptly saved the season and not inconceivably the club's future in the network as a whole, and many fans were disappointed when he didn't get a longer contract. This is not a prediction, this is last season, and we know how it ended - in success.
Riga turned a team in freefall into a team with passion and heart and effort enough to overcome the lack of quality.
I think history is being very kind to Riga. The way people talk about him you'd think we won all our remaining games once he took over, when to mind mind the performances seemed pretty much the same as they has been under Powell and we suffered some pretty dire defeats - Brighton in particular comes to mind.
That Brighton performance was woeful
I seem to remember plenty of dissent against a number of performances under Powell, if on here rather than at the ground. Had Solly's shot gone in, we'd have won 1-0 and everyone would have been quite happy, given how we don't have a goalkeeper and our striker has gone off boil.
I agree that the appointment of Luzon lies somewhere between a stitch up and a fuck up. However, he's here and we MUST make the best of it however bad is the taste in the mouth left behind by the whole sordid and deceitful appointment process.
Comments
Whilst there appear to have been some additional issues with Peeters in terms of upsetting the players, the root of the problem for Powell and Peeters was the weak squads they had at their disposal, and this would have been the same for Riga (hence he struggled at Blackpool in comparable circumstances through no fault of his own). You cannot compete on a long term basis with a reasonable first 11 and no reserves, and I find it very difficult to believe that Riga would have managed any better in a situation where he had to continue to play an injured and tired Igor Vetokele and turn the likes of Fox and Pope into first team regulars when both clearly needed to spend a season on loan lower down the leagues learning their trade.