I don’t think him selling is an option as frankly I don’t think there are any other options full stop.
But he does need a CEO and he does need help. There have been too many mistakes to just ignore.
The line of ‘we finally have an owner doing the right things’ is based on what? Being a nice guy? (Which he seems to be). Connecting with the fans on an emotive level? (which he seems to have done). Saving the club? (which he did - but then again by default so did Roland from the spivs and even Southall so less said the better there).
The above is all correct but the other facts to balance include:
- Overseeing a terrible window - The standard of arrival at its lowest point (Clare, Dobson etc) in years - A manager hire (his own man) who currently has a bloody long thread of people wanting him out. But who hired him? - His very own Roland impersonation by signing a vanity project in Ronnie.
So it all points to me that he needs to hire help / a CEO. Which is a perfectly reasonable question to ask when an owner of any business has put down the money but doesn’t have the knowledge to deliver on the business KPIs.
Or even an advisory board. I am on an advisory board for Brentford Football Club. It’s only 5 days a year but the 6 of us together seem to add value to how they run that allows the financial stakeholders to do their job but also take guidance on areas they do need help in.
Not convinced it was a terrible window … looks like it may now be starting to come together … next two games will be revealing as the ‘fitness’ excuse can no longer be raised
Where are all the young Premiership loans we got under Bowyer..Maatsen, Cullen , Gallagher etc
Why has our recruitment gone from outstanding with zero budget to piss poor with a decent budget?
Why did we re sign Watson but release Pratley ?
It just doesn't make any sense and while he has to go , something more structural is wrong at the club.
Adkins may just be the scapegoat for something more serious.
Why was Ronnie signed and what happened to him ?
No idea.
Where are all the young Premiership loans we got under Bowyer..Maatsen, Cullen , Gallagher etc
Ask the owner, the buck stops with him.
Why has our recruitment gone from outstanding with zero budget to piss poor with a decent budget?
Maybe our owner does not have the money to spend. Have you seen how much his net worth is down since his stock went from $28 to $12?
Why did we re sign Watson but release Pratley ?
Maybe we could not afford both?
It just doesn't make any sense and while he has to go , something more structural is wrong at the club.
Yes.
Adkins may just be the scapegoat for something more serious.
Yes, it's called the owner. I've been saying this for a year and most just say "he saved the club" blah, blah. But he bought the club for $1, owns no hard assets, just the brand. He does NOT have the money to make this work, has no idea how English football works and can't learn from Denver, Colorado. His new songs show he is out of touch. He is responsible for hiring Adkins! He needs to either hire a CEO or sell. Except no one wants to put money in a club post-Covid that is heading in a downward trajectory. There is a word for all of this... rot. And fish rot from the head. Over time more and more people are gonna come around to my point of view on this. We are not getting relegated but it seems like we are worse for the third season running. TS seems like a great guy. He is just not up for this job and honestly never was.
I've read some shit on here over the years but this takes the biscuit. Absolute bollocks.
You want him to "sell"? Sell to who? Matt Southall? The bloke from the UAE that had three or four different names? An accountant for dentists?
I really despair with our fans sometimes. After years and years of truly terrible owners where we either showed zero ambition or were in danger of going out of existence we finally have an owner who looks like he's trying to do the right things and bring some stability to the club. Yes, he's got over-excited and raised expectations, but he still gets my vote over any of the shit owners/hangers-on, villains and conmen we've had running the club into the ground for the past 10 years.
Maybe our fanbase is collectively traumatised and scarred, which may explain some of the irrational thinking and going off the handle. But the demands to sack everyone at the first sign of things going wrong just smacks of the self-entitled bollocks we'd normally get from Spurs or Arsenal fans.
We used to be better than that. Now I'm not so sure.
To be fair, I don’t think Napas view of reflective of the fan base, poor bloke probably thinks we play Baseball and couldn’t find the Valley on a map for a millions dollars. Typical septic, rant first, think later, or never.
It's the manager and the players jobs to get results on the pitch. I don't like how it's all eyes on the owner when results aren't going our way.
Agree, he just has to manage and control the resources he has, and ensure they are the right people, he can't manage the teams performance on the pitch and ultimately results, that is the Managers role as we all know, i trust in Thomas to get any wronguns out if ness, he must be happy with yesterday, but this has to extend into another 5 or 6 wins, or that axe will need sharpening..
But surely there has to be a shared responsibility? I ask the questions again:
1) This is his club with his hire at the helm. If I hired someone at work for a key role who then appeared not to be right then that falls on me as my decision.
2) On the above - if he recruited the likes of Adkins and Roddy (I’m not saying they are the wrong uns but for arguments sake as an example - let’s say they were), it makes no logical sense to trust someone to get them out if he got them on board in the first place.
I am not solely anti Nigel or anti TS. But the errors taking place over the last year have to be shared from the ownership at the top to the players on the pitch.
In response to your points...
1) I keep reading this but it's not exactly true, is it? You hire someone based on their qualifications, their interview and references but if they turn out to be an arse, that's not on you. You can only work with the information you have. Adkins was promoted from this division three times and has managed at premier league level, he came with a spotless recommendation from every club he's ever managed at, fans singing his praises, and players saying he was the best manager they ever played under.
So if Thomas hires him and it doesn't work out, it's Thomas' fault?
For me, that's just... Life. Sometimes things don't work out.
I've hired my fair share of wonderkids and my fair share of duds and a few total 'see you next tuesdays'. You just do your best with the info that you have.
2) You can't trust someone who hired someone to fire someone? They can't ever see that the hire didn't work out? I'm not sure what you mean here. That doesn't sound like what you're trying to say because that's obviously not true so maybe I have misunderstood.
I'd ask - what are your expectations? They seem hard to meet. Is it really that Thomas gets every hire 100% correct, runs a perfect transfer window, and smashes everything out of the park in his first year? A long time ago all I wanted was a football team to support with an owner who cared. It's been a crap start to the season but I'm not sure what else TS could have done, other than compete with some blank chequebook teams to get signings in earlier, and then he would've been gambling with the club's future. I'm gutted about our start but I'm happy he hasn't done that, and we do have a good squad when they're fit.
I posted this on Fleetwood Roll Call but it maybe more apt to repost here. Sorry if this is not allowed.
"I just thought I'd add that Nigel Adkins takes a whole load of shit from a lot of our fanbase and some may say rightly so. However, on the train back yesterday he sat and engaged with a group of our fans for over 20 minutes. Chatted very casually and came across as an absolute diamond. It probably helped that the fans he engaged with had half a brain. I will also state he genuinely enjoyed the conversation with these guys a few times he got up to leave and sat back down and began chatting again. Final point the fans he was chatting with are Home / Away supporters and one of them I recognise from the 90s who back then was regular home/away too. They're not the keyboard warriors on this site watching a live stream from Welling giving it the Charlie Large Spuds."
Imagine if he’d had a chat with people who had a whole brain…
I posted this on Fleetwood Roll Call but it maybe more apt to repost here. Sorry if this is not allowed.
"I just thought I'd add that Nigel Adkins takes a whole load of shit from a lot of our fanbase and some may say rightly so. However, on the train back yesterday he sat and engaged with a group of our fans for over 20 minutes. Chatted very casually and came across as an absolute diamond. It probably helped that the fans he engaged with had half a brain. I will also state he genuinely enjoyed the conversation with these guys a few times he got up to leave and sat back down and began chatting again. Final point the fans he was chatting with are Home / Away supporters and one of them I recognise from the 90s who back then was regular home/away too. They're not the keyboard warriors on this site watching a live stream from Welling giving it the Charlie Large Spuds."
good post .. no-one really thinks that Adkins is anything other than a nice bloke, it's his managerial talent that is in question. It would be interesting to read about the content of the discussions on the train, what he was asked and how he responded. I suspect he was no more enlightening about team matters than he is in his pre and post match comments. Anyway, long may he stay positive, keep playing 4 4 2, show consistency in team selection and manage the team to a lot more victories, then he will make all us critics eat our words and keep his job
I posted this on Fleetwood Roll Call but it maybe more apt to repost here. Sorry if this is not allowed.
"I just thought I'd add that Nigel Adkins takes a whole load of shit from a lot of our fanbase and some may say rightly so. However, on the train back yesterday he sat and engaged with a group of our fans for over 20 minutes. Chatted very casually and came across as an absolute diamond. It probably helped that the fans he engaged with had half a brain. I will also state he genuinely enjoyed the conversation with these guys a few times he got up to leave and sat back down and began chatting again. Final point the fans he was chatting with are Home / Away supporters and one of them I recognise from the 90s who back then was regular home/away too. They're not the keyboard warriors on this site watching a live stream from Welling giving it the Charlie Large Spuds."
Charlton Athletic won a game in a spirited, battling display in testing, Northern conditions.
For tonight, the world is a beautiful place.
Park the anti-manager stuff for a while, he’s not going to get replaced in the next couple of weeks. Just enjoy the victory and hope this is the springboard we needed.
Sadly mate I think some people's opinions have gone too far. Half of Charlton twitter seemed to be hoping for a loss, and then disappointed that we'd won. There's even fans on there suggesting he didn't celebrate enough at the final whistle, so has to go.
The crowd turned so quickly on Tuesday, and was so toxic. It was nice to be in an away end today with nothing but support, yet there still wasn't a single chant for Adkins.
I said at Wycombe that there's no coming back from calling for your own manager to be sacked, and I think some fans would refuse to back him even if we went 10 unbeaten.
Adkins' Charlton will come good, but I fear that some will never be happy.
It’s the same people on Twitter just spending their life’s non stop tweeting about Adkins to the point where it is just weird. Ignore them. Like I say it’s the same 8/9 people just taking up the cafc hashtag.
Charlton Athletic won a game in a spirited, battling display in testing, Northern conditions.
For tonight, the world is a beautiful place.
Park the anti-manager stuff for a while, he’s not going to get replaced in the next couple of weeks. Just enjoy the victory and hope this is the springboard we needed.
Sadly mate I think some people's opinions have gone too far. Half of Charlton twitter seemed to be hoping for a loss, and then disappointed that we'd won. There's even fans on there suggesting he didn't celebrate enough at the final whistle, so has to go.
The crowd turned so quickly on Tuesday, and was so toxic. It was nice to be in an away end today with nothing but support, yet there still wasn't a single chant for Adkins.
I said at Wycombe that there's no coming back from calling for your own manager to be sacked, and I think some fans would refuse to back him even if we went 10 unbeaten.
Adkins' Charlton will come good, but I fear that some will never be happy.
We've just won our 2nd game in 10 of course not everyone is suddenly going to be jumping up and down delighted thinking all our problems are suddenly solved now. I don't think that's true at all in terms of no chance he would get support if he did well, can look at managers like Jose Riga for that who people weren't sold on, but then got fully behind.
Ultimately yesterday was the exception to everything we've seen so far this season so I'm not going to ignore everything else until that becomes a bit more common, and certainly not going to go out on a limb and say Adkins' Charlton will definitely come good yet.
I don’t think him selling is an option as frankly I don’t think there are any other options full stop.
But he does need a CEO and he does need help. There have been too many mistakes to just ignore.
The line of ‘we finally have an owner doing the right things’ is based on what? Being a nice guy? (Which he seems to be). Connecting with the fans on an emotive level? (which he seems to have done). Saving the club? (which he did - but then again by default so did Roland from the spivs and even Southall so less said the better there).
The above is all correct but the other facts to balance include:
- Overseeing a terrible window - The standard of arrival at its lowest point (Clare, Dobson etc) in years - A manager hire (his own man) who currently has a bloody long thread of people wanting him out. But who hired him? - His very own Roland impersonation by signing a vanity project in Ronnie.
So it all points to me that he needs to hire help / a CEO. Which is a perfectly reasonable question to ask when an owner of any business has put down the money but doesn’t have the knowledge to deliver on the business KPIs.
Or even an advisory board. I am on an advisory board for Brentford Football Club. It’s only 5 days a year but the 6 of us together seem to add value to how they run that allows the financial stakeholders to do their job but also take guidance on areas they do need help in.
What I actually said was "we finally have an owner who looks like hes trying to do the right things and bring some stability to the club". "Trying" is the key word in that sentence; he looks like hes trying to do the right things.
Hes not going to get everything right and hes clearly got some things wrong, but I'm not going to demand he sells the club because of it.
I don’t think him selling is an option as frankly I don’t think there are any other options full stop.
But he does need a CEO and he does need help. There have been too many mistakes to just ignore.
The line of ‘we finally have an owner doing the right things’ is based on what? Being a nice guy? (Which he seems to be). Connecting with the fans on an emotive level? (which he seems to have done). Saving the club? (which he did - but then again by default so did Roland from the spivs and even Southall so less said the better there).
The above is all correct but the other facts to balance include:
- Overseeing a terrible window - The standard of arrival at its lowest point (Clare, Dobson etc) in years - A manager hire (his own man) who currently has a bloody long thread of people wanting him out. But who hired him? - His very own Roland impersonation by signing a vanity project in Ronnie.
So it all points to me that he needs to hire help / a CEO. Which is a perfectly reasonable question to ask when an owner of any business has put down the money but doesn’t have the knowledge to deliver on the business KPIs.
Or even an advisory board. I am on an advisory board for Brentford Football Club. It’s only 5 days a year but the 6 of us together seem to add value to how they run that allows the financial stakeholders to do their job but also take guidance on areas they do need help in.
Not convinced it was a terrible window … looks like it may now be starting to come together … next two games will be revealing as the ‘fitness’ excuse can no longer be raised
I don’t think him selling is an option as frankly I don’t think there are any other options full stop.
But he does need a CEO and he does need help. There have been too many mistakes to just ignore.
The line of ‘we finally have an owner doing the right things’ is based on what? Being a nice guy? (Which he seems to be). Connecting with the fans on an emotive level? (which he seems to have done). Saving the club? (which he did - but then again by default so did Roland from the spivs and even Southall so less said the better there).
The above is all correct but the other facts to balance include:
- Overseeing a terrible window - The standard of arrival at its lowest point (Clare, Dobson etc) in years - A manager hire (his own man) who currently has a bloody long thread of people wanting him out. But who hired him? - His very own Roland impersonation by signing a vanity project in Ronnie.
So it all points to me that he needs to hire help / a CEO. Which is a perfectly reasonable question to ask when an owner of any business has put down the money but doesn’t have the knowledge to deliver on the business KPIs.
Or even an advisory board. I am on an advisory board for Brentford Football Club. It’s only 5 days a year but the 6 of us together seem to add value to how they run that allows the financial stakeholders to do their job but also take guidance on areas they do need help in.
Not convinced it was a terrible window … looks like it may now be starting to come together … next two games will be revealing as the ‘fitness’ excuse can no longer be raised
Can we say it’s coming together after one match ?
‘starting’ to come together … no different to the viewpoint from all the commentators yesterday
Just to put a bit of perspective on the Adkins Outers like myself.
If there is charlton fans who want us to lose so he’s gone even after that win, they’re prats, you’re just gonna have to deal my opinion there. And I’m an Adkins outer (although slightly less now).
We want Charlton and Adkins to do the business, so your “told you so’s” are fine with me, I want to be wrong about Adkins, I want egg on my face and him to win the next 5 games etc. It’s not brexit it’s doesn’t have to be a divisive subject, we all want the same thing at the end of the day, Charlton wins. It’s just we (Adkins outers) cannot see it getting better, but yesterday gives him some hope and he has my blessing the guy.
I don’t think him selling is an option as frankly I don’t think there are any other options full stop.
But he does need a CEO and he does need help. There have been too many mistakes to just ignore.
The line of ‘we finally have an owner doing the right things’ is based on what? Being a nice guy? (Which he seems to be). Connecting with the fans on an emotive level? (which he seems to have done). Saving the club? (which he did - but then again by default so did Roland from the spivs and even Southall so less said the better there).
The above is all correct but the other facts to balance include:
- Overseeing a terrible window - The standard of arrival at its lowest point (Clare, Dobson etc) in years - A manager hire (his own man) who currently has a bloody long thread of people wanting him out. But who hired him? - His very own Roland impersonation by signing a vanity project in Ronnie.
So it all points to me that he needs to hire help / a CEO. Which is a perfectly reasonable question to ask when an owner of any business has put down the money but doesn’t have the knowledge to deliver on the business KPIs.
Or even an advisory board. I am on an advisory board for Brentford Football Club. It’s only 5 days a year but the 6 of us together seem to add value to how they run that allows the financial stakeholders to do their job but also take guidance on areas they do need help in.
What I actually said was "we finally have an owner who looks like hes trying to do the right things and bring some stability to the club". "Trying" is the key word in that sentence; he looks like hes trying to do the right things.
Hes not going to get everything right and hes clearly got some things wrong, but I'm not going to demand he sells the club because of it.
If people are demanding he sells then that’s mental and I would certainly not say that.
My issue is that he is the holder of the purse strings but I don’t believe he will get the best out of his investment by being CEO as well. I think he needs help - and part of me worries that his ego and belief in himself (which could well partly be fed by extreme fan adulation whatever happens on the pitch) will prevent that help being sought.
I was very "Bowyer out" but I 100% never wanted us to lose a match so he would go.
The reason I don't think Thomas has sacked Nigel yet is quite simple. He knows that the squad we had wasn't good enough for the first 4 games, you can even include the Crewe game, so make that 5. If we had stuck with it and added a bit of depth, like Thomas said was the plan, we would have finished lower midtable at best.
We then had over half a team signed, or come back from injury. None of which were "match fit" including Lavelle who had actually been playing! The next 5 games had to be like a mini preseason, for both fitness and finding out what worked with who. I don't think Nigel hand picked any of the players. Had had probably never even seen half of them in the flesh until they rocked up at sparrows lane.
There was improvement in parts of the Gillingham, Pompey and even Bolton games, fitness, confidence and familiarity were the 3 biggest issues IMO. That reason/excuse has gone now. If you look at Fleetwood as the 1st of the 3rd block of 5, 4 of them are very winnable.
TLDR: I think Thomas will decide to sack or back 100% at the end of October.
He’s gotta win the next three for me but as one is Sunderland away, I’ll take 7 points for me go back to neutral in regards to his position.
Pretty much agree with this. No point sacking him after a win.
we need to play a strong team on Tuesday to get games in legs and start building relationships and partnerships
Toddy, you are repeating my mantra as a fan and as an ex youth coach and manager.
How good was the partnership between Inniss, Famewo and Amos early last season in the seven clean sheet matches, and how dodgy were we when injuries hit big Ryan and Akin.
Gilbey and JFC had a good spell together when Alex was fit.
Relationships and Partnerships are paramount in a successful team. Just like tinder but without the sex.
I posted this on Fleetwood Roll Call but it maybe more apt to repost here. Sorry if this is not allowed.
"I just thought I'd add that Nigel Adkins takes a whole load of shit from a lot of our fanbase and some may say rightly so. However, on the train back yesterday he sat and engaged with a group of our fans for over 20 minutes. Chatted very casually and came across as an absolute diamond. It probably helped that the fans he engaged with had half a brain. I will also state he genuinely enjoyed the conversation with these guys a few times he got up to leave and sat back down and began chatting again. Final point the fans he was chatting with are Home / Away supporters and one of them I recognise from the 90s who back then was regular home/away too. They're not the keyboard warriors on this site watching a live stream from Welling giving it the Charlie Large Spuds."
Only people that want Adkins gone are key board warriors? He might have won yesterday but still isn’t the right man long term.
I said that when he was appointed and still think the same. He is the manager of the team we all support and I want him to lead us to promotion and then top half championship. I just can’t see it happening with him in charge.
That means I have an opinion, it doesn’t mean I’m a key board warrior
Where are all the young Premiership loans we got under Bowyer..Maatsen, Cullen , Gallagher etc
Why has our recruitment gone from outstanding with zero budget to piss poor with a decent budget?
Why did we re sign Watson but release Pratley ?
It just doesn't make any sense and while he has to go , something more structural is wrong at the club.
Adkins may just be the scapegoat for something more serious.
Why was Ronnie signed and what happened to him ?
No idea.
Where are all the young Premiership loans we got under Bowyer..Maatsen, Cullen , Gallagher etc
Ask the owner, the buck stops with him.
Why has our recruitment gone from outstanding with zero budget to piss poor with a decent budget?
Maybe our owner does not have the money to spend. Have you seen how much his net worth is down since his stock went from $28 to $12?
Why did we re sign Watson but release Pratley ?
Maybe we could not afford both?
It just doesn't make any sense and while he has to go , something more structural is wrong at the club.
Yes.
Adkins may just be the scapegoat for something more serious.
Yes, it's called the owner. I've been saying this for a year and most just say "he saved the club" blah, blah. But he bought the club for $1, owns no hard assets, just the brand. He does NOT have the money to make this work, has no idea how English football works and can't learn from Denver, Colorado. His new songs show he is out of touch. He is responsible for hiring Adkins! He needs to either hire a CEO or sell. Except no one wants to put money in a club post-Covid that is heading in a downward trajectory. There is a word for all of this... rot. And fish rot from the head. Over time more and more people are gonna come around to my point of view on this. We are not getting relegated but it seems like we are worse for the third season running. TS seems like a great guy. He is just not up for this job and honestly never was.
Charlton Athletic won a game in a spirited, battling display in testing, Northern conditions.
For tonight, the world is a beautiful place.
Park the anti-manager stuff for a while, he’s not going to get replaced in the next couple of weeks. Just enjoy the victory and hope this is the springboard we needed.
Sadly mate I think some people's opinions have gone too far. Half of Charlton twitter seemed to be hoping for a loss, and then disappointed that we'd won. There's even fans on there suggesting he didn't celebrate enough at the final whistle, so has to go.
The crowd turned so quickly on Tuesday, and was so toxic. It was nice to be in an away end today with nothing but support, yet there still wasn't a single chant for Adkins.
I said at Wycombe that there's no coming back from calling for your own manager to be sacked, and I think some fans would refuse to back him even if we went 10 unbeaten.
Adkins' Charlton will come good, but I fear that some will never be happy.
We've just won our 2nd game in 10 of course not everyone is suddenly going to be jumping up and down delighted thinking all our problems are suddenly solved now. I don't think that's true at all in terms of no chance he would get support if he did well, can look at managers like Jose Riga for that who people weren't sold on, but then got fully behind.
Ultimately yesterday was the exception to everything we've seen so far this season so I'm not going to ignore everything else until that becomes a bit more common, and certainly not going to go out on a limb and say Adkins' Charlton will definitely come good yet.
If it does though, of course we all want that.
Not saying people should be jumping up and down, just find it weird that the top replies to the official twitter's full time result tweet is just a load of Adkins out posts. It's pathetic.
I said before yesterday's game, that I wanted a decisive performance. Either a carcrash which would have sealed his fate, or a convincing performance that showed we were finally on the right tracking.
And on balance we got the latter. A proper team performance, and a sign that the team are behind Adkins. He's nowhere near secure though, a bad performance at Lincoln and the pressure will ramp up again
We have been getting better and better each week and i think we will continue to do so - its been a very strange start to the season but i genuinely think we are starting to come good - if we resume action after the international break and have reverted to the dross of a month ago, then its goodnight nurse for adkins but i think we will continue to improve now and we will start to climb the table - i wouldn't rule anything out at this point and think we have some real quality in this squad.
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Which is why, although I would admit to saying it in the heat of the moment, "if we don't win on Saturday" or "if we don't get 4 points from x and y" are bad performance metrix. I would be incredibly worried if a owner used them.
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Which is why, although I would admit to saying it in the heat of the moment, "if we don't win on Saturday" or "if we don't get 4 points from x and y" are bad performance metrix. I would be incredibly worried if a owner used them.
I think that’s fair, but there are limits. Two wins, three draws and six defeats from the opening 11 games with the benefit of significant signings is a very, very poor return for us in this division. I’d be very worried if the owner didn’t respond to that trend continuing, even in the short term.
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Our esteemed VOTV editor is spot on again, Adkins has given himself an absolute mountain to climb just to keep his job with the shocking start to the season.
I did not think he was the right bloke for the job but I am desperate for him to succeed and prove me wrong.
Over the next two weeks he needs to be working intensively with his BEST ELEVEN and getting them used to each other on the field.
It’s time to make a call on who our best team is and for the players not in that team, they need to work their balls off to get into the first team.
Right now there is no incentive for the players to perform, all they need to do is wait and the selection carousel will spin around again!
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Agree it could have finished in a draw at the end, although if we'd taken our chances we could've been clear away by then.
It does raise the larger point that we still look way too open at the back and we'll continue to by shaky with results until that's sorted.
Most football results turn on a few key moments. Yesterday could easily have been a draw because of close shaves against, but it could easily have been 5-0 too if Kirk doesn’t miss a sitter, Lee scores when clean through, and Davison either doesn’t hit the post or is a fraction further forward as that cross flashes just beyond his out stretched boot.
We played well, created more clear openings than them, and deserved to win on that balance of play. Spurious to start holding possible alternative outcomes against Adkins as they are not factual.
His one execuse for the poor form, i.e. signing players late meaning they were mostly unfit when they arrived, which does carry a validity btw as could be seen by the way we would fade late in halves/games, is mostly gone now and should be entirely gone after the international break. He needs a good run of form now but, as long as we move up the table from now on, I don’t think for a second that TS will sack him. Even if we ultimately fall short of the playoffs - TS will care more that we are moving steadily and consistently in the right direction.
Another run of defeats may not be tolerated though.
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Agree it could have finished in a draw at the end, although if we'd taken our chances we could've been clear away by then.
It does raise the larger point that we still look way too open at the back and we'll continue to by shaky with results until that's sorted.
I agree with your first sentence Mr Charlie large Spuds from Welling, we should have been out of sight.
I personally don't want to go back to the no chances created or just the one chance over 90+ minutes as to get the punters back to the Valley we need to be having 7 or 8 shots on target in the 3rd tier. The fitter teams can attack in numbers but still have a decent defensive shape unless a killer ball is played in transition. The Cheltenham 1st half will haunt me for years, but my therapist said I must learn to move on and not dwell on past bad experiences.
The diagonal ball down our flanks has cost us dear at the valley for the last two seasons in a counter attack; Is it because Matthews, Gunter and Purrington are slow, and Maatsen just wasn't a good defender at his young age ( when he was here). Yes that was part of the problem but basic mistakes have gifted teams goals on our big pitch and 10 wins in 32 games at home since the last few games in the mini League in the Championship is a terrible return for a club that still has ambitions.
I don't believe our players are shite but stamina does appear to be an issue. Gilbey and Davison are naturally fit guys but we have many players who can only perform for limited amount of time. As Curbs said no excuses after the next two weeks.
The win at Fleetwood has to be a springboard or else after 15 games big decisions will have to be made.
Yesterday’s game could easily have ended in a draw, in which case I suspect the narrative would be very different here and elsewhere. There were several close shaves. That fine margin is itself reason to be wary of drawing conclusions.
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
Agree it could have finished in a draw at the end, although if we'd taken our chances we could've been clear away by then.
It does raise the larger point that we still look way too open at the back and we'll continue to by shaky with results until that's sorted.
I agree with your first sentence Mr Charlie large Spuds from Welling, we should have been out of site.
Comments
1) I keep reading this but it's not exactly true, is it? You hire someone based on their qualifications, their interview and references but if they turn out to be an arse, that's not on you. You can only work with the information you have. Adkins was promoted from this division three times and has managed at premier league level, he came with a spotless recommendation from every club he's ever managed at, fans singing his praises, and players saying he was the best manager they ever played under.
So if Thomas hires him and it doesn't work out, it's Thomas' fault?
For me, that's just... Life. Sometimes things don't work out.
I've hired my fair share of wonderkids and my fair share of duds and a few total 'see you next tuesdays'. You just do your best with the info that you have.
2) You can't trust someone who hired someone to fire someone? They can't ever see that the hire didn't work out? I'm not sure what you mean here. That doesn't sound like what you're trying to say because that's obviously not true so maybe I have misunderstood.
I'd ask - what are your expectations? They seem hard to meet. Is it really that Thomas gets every hire 100% correct, runs a perfect transfer window, and smashes everything out of the park in his first year? A long time ago all I wanted was a football team to support with an owner who cared. It's been a crap start to the season but I'm not sure what else TS could have done, other than compete with some blank chequebook teams to get signings in earlier, and then he would've been gambling with the club's future. I'm gutted about our start but I'm happy he hasn't done that, and we do have a good squad when they're fit.
Anyway, long may he stay positive, keep playing 4 4 2, show consistency in team selection and manage the team to a lot more victories, then he will make all us critics eat our words and keep his job
We've just won our 2nd game in 10 of course not everyone is suddenly going to be jumping up and down delighted thinking all our problems are suddenly solved now. I don't think that's true at all in terms of no chance he would get support if he did well, can look at managers like Jose Riga for that who people weren't sold on, but then got fully behind.
Ultimately yesterday was the exception to everything we've seen so far this season so I'm not going to ignore everything else until that becomes a bit more common, and certainly not going to go out on a limb and say Adkins' Charlton will definitely come good yet.
If it does though, of course we all want that.
Hes not going to get everything right and hes clearly got some things wrong, but I'm not going to demand he sells the club because of it.
If there is charlton fans who want us to lose so he’s gone even after that win, they’re prats, you’re just gonna have to deal my opinion there. And I’m an Adkins outer (although slightly less now).
We want Charlton and Adkins to do the business, so your “told you so’s” are fine with me, I want to be wrong about Adkins, I want egg on my face and him to win the next 5 games etc. It’s not brexit it’s doesn’t have to be a divisive subject, we all want the same thing at the end of the day, Charlton wins. It’s just we (Adkins outers) cannot see it getting better, but yesterday gives him some hope and he has my blessing the guy.
My issue is that he is the holder of the purse strings but I don’t believe he will get the best out of his investment by being CEO as well. I think he needs help - and part of me worries that his ego and belief in himself (which could well partly be fed by extreme fan adulation whatever happens on the pitch) will prevent that help being sought.
The reason I don't think Thomas has sacked Nigel yet is quite simple. He knows that the squad we had wasn't good enough for the first 4 games, you can even include the Crewe game, so make that 5. If we had stuck with it and added a bit of depth, like Thomas said was the plan, we would have finished lower midtable at best.
We then had over half a team signed, or come back from injury. None of which were "match fit" including Lavelle who had actually been playing! The next 5 games had to be like a mini preseason, for both fitness and finding out what worked with who. I don't think Nigel hand picked any of the players. Had had probably never even seen half of them in the flesh until they rocked up at sparrows lane.
There was improvement in parts of the Gillingham, Pompey and even Bolton games, fitness, confidence and familiarity were the 3 biggest issues IMO. That reason/excuse has gone now. If you look at Fleetwood as the 1st of the 3rd block of 5, 4 of them are very winnable.
TLDR: I think Thomas will decide to sack or back 100% at the end of October.
Toddy, you are repeating my mantra as a fan and as an ex youth coach and manager.
How good was the partnership between Inniss, Famewo and Amos early last season in the seven clean sheet matches, and how dodgy were we when injuries hit big Ryan and Akin.
Gilbey and JFC had a good spell together when Alex was fit.
Relationships and Partnerships are paramount in a successful team. Just like tinder but without the sex.
I said that when he was appointed and still think the same. He is the manager of the team we all support and I want him to lead us to promotion and then top half championship. I just can’t see it happening with him in charge.
And on balance we got the latter. A proper team performance, and a sign that the team are behind Adkins. He's nowhere near secure though, a bad performance at Lincoln and the pressure will ramp up again
I watched Adkins quite closely yesterday both at the game and at the station. Understandably, I don’t think he is in a great place. He has a huge task to turn the ship in time to save his job. Everyone should hope he can do it because that means the club will move forward, but the odds are still stacked against him.
I did not think he was the right bloke for the job but I am desperate for him to succeed and prove me wrong.
Over the next two weeks he needs to be working intensively with his BEST ELEVEN and getting them used to each other on the field.
It’s time to make a call on who our best team is and for the players not in that team, they need to work their balls off to get into the first team.
Right now there is no incentive for the players to perform, all they need to do is wait and the selection carousel will spin around again!
It does raise the larger point that we still look way too open at the back and we'll continue to by shaky with results until that's sorted.
His one execuse for the poor form, i.e. signing players late meaning they were mostly unfit when they arrived, which does carry a validity btw as could be seen by the way we would fade late in halves/games, is mostly gone now and should be entirely gone after the international break. He needs a good run of form now but, as long as we move up the table from now on, I don’t think for a second that TS will sack him. Even if we ultimately fall short of the playoffs - TS will care more that we are moving steadily and consistently in the right direction.
Another run of defeats may not be tolerated though.
I agree with your first sentence Mr Charlie large Spuds from Welling, we should have been out of sight.
I personally don't want to go back to the no chances created or just the one chance over 90+ minutes as to get the punters back to the Valley we need to be having 7 or 8 shots on target in the 3rd tier. The fitter teams can attack in numbers but still have a decent defensive shape unless a killer ball is played in transition. The Cheltenham 1st half will haunt me for years, but my therapist said I must learn to move on and not dwell on past bad experiences.
The diagonal ball down our flanks has cost us dear at the valley for the last two seasons in a counter attack; Is it because Matthews, Gunter and Purrington are slow, and Maatsen just wasn't a good defender at his young age ( when he was here). Yes that was part of the problem but basic mistakes have gifted teams goals on our big pitch and 10 wins in 32 games at home since the last few games in the mini League in the Championship is a terrible return for a club that still has ambitions.
I don't believe our players are shite but stamina does appear to be an issue. Gilbey and Davison are naturally fit guys but we have many players who can only perform for limited amount of time. As Curbs said no excuses after the next two weeks.
The win at Fleetwood has to be a springboard or else after 15 games big decisions will have to be made.