Thetownend.com

When though joineth a club thou shalt first get rid of the crap.  When the crap have goneth, thou shalt build a team with a spine.  The goalie shall be liketh a Shilton, but not in a Jaguar.  Thou shalt have a center half, center midfielder and center forward of the upmost presence.  Thou shalt play 4:4:2, and keepeth the ball away from your penalty area.  Thou shalt never complain to the referee as retribution may come upon you.   Thou shall ensure that players have no worries and travel together on the same coach.  Thou shall train hard and only get rat-arsed after season's end.

I say unto you the man Sturrock has come out of the wilderness and has sought redemption for Swindon Town.  He will banish all of the crap, and build a team with a spine.  Promotion will be upon us, if we hath faith.

You maketh your own luck.  Thou shall not worry about the tactics of the other team.

Here endeth the lesson.

Thanks Crozzer. Really insightful. 4-4-2 all the way!

Eh? :?

whilst I understand the point...

Clough managed in a time when you could buy and sell players whenever you wanted. Yes Sturrock has rid of some crap (well, what he thinks is crap anyway) but due to the highly ghey transfer window he cant bring anyone in.

Also Clough had money to spend where as Sturrock does, so if he wants someone in he needs someone out first and the only time that can be done is when the contracts run out which is at the end of the season.

Sadly, your lesson is out of date.

The lesson should read, if you come in mid-season and what you've got is doing alright stick with it till the end of the season....then start to mould your team.

He came in way before mid season DV and he cocked up in Jan.

  Forsooth that Gareth was goneth

ok, re-phrase when you come in during the season....!

Also, I bet the book of Clough doesnt mention 'bring on your son and move your best striker into midfield despite the fact he cant play there and keep the laziest bastard on the planet upfront because he can run fast when he wants to....'

Agree with that one DV

I thought Ben always went to the pub?

ha ha ha that made me chuckle

Roberts makes Ben look like a workhorse...

Plus, it takes effort to get to the pub....

Yes some of it is out of date, especially with Bosman.  However, Sturrock appears to be a little like Clough in his approach.  I totally agree that moulding a team was very risky approach while trying to achieve automatic promotion.  The team Wisey built did have a spine, Brez, Ady, Evo and Peacock.  I believe that Sturrock would have been a lot more successful without key injuries.  We survived the loss of Brez through Smith (Wise apparently didn't rate him highly enough), we seemed to survive the loss of Evo (under Sturrock) even though he was key under Wise, but losing Ady while Evo is out, seemed to take all the confidence out of the team.  

With players being made to leave, I don't understand why it took so long to decide to presumably replace Brown, Shakes and Roberts.  Possibly, next season Peacock's career will be extended by converting him into a defender, or  midfielder.

What isn't out of date is that you obviously win the game in the opponents half, and by keeping the ball out of your penalty area.   Also, you "make" players.  People thought Clough was insane at various times for signing Dave McKay, Larry Lloyd and then Kenny Burns.  Nobody paid a fortune for a goalie, until Clough bought Shilton.  All of a sudden, fans realised goalie's won points just as surely as strikers.  Sturrock like Clough is "my way or the highway".

Clough always had players that could cross a ball.   Whipping in a cross seems to be beyond our lot.  If you are a wide midfielder, you can't run past a defender, and you can't cross a ball, or take a corner without putting it in row "F" find a new job.  Sturrock appears to think that most of the players beyond the defense and central midfield can't play his way (e.g., Roberts) his way, or won't play his way (e.g., Weston).  Obviously, if we are going to have a tilt at the play-offs (I think, probably like many, that automatic promotion is beyond us now), all of the current forward line has to go.  I include Peacock, only because he is apparently not 100% fit.

If we are to believe Sturrock, putting together a decent team is more important than promotion.  I don't think many buy that in this primitive league.  However, seeing the nucleus of last year's team that got the club relegated, being disbanded is probably okay, as they obviously couldn't perform well enough in League One.  I will give Wise credit, he got the best out of them, but Sturrock's issue appears to be that he didn't have sufficient respect for them to get the best out of them.  I suspect, the injuries to Ady and Evo have been more destructive than trying to remould the team on the fly.

I think many seem to forget that there were lots of rumours about Sturrock joining prior to his announcement as manager. I think that he used that time to assess the situation and decided what he wanted and what he needed. I agree with the sentiments of the thread that he is like Clough - Dogged, determined and arrogant. It his way or no way !

I think that he is currently chasing the promotion dream with a team that he doesn't want. He has used the confidence thing to carry forward results, while at the same time releasing players he didn't want and trying to instill his methodology on the rest. It is obvious that there are some players that he doesnt want but knows that he has to play. I believe the fellow when he says that he has been trying to get people in for the long term. I just dont think that decent players want to come to Div 2 for next to nothing unless their careers are washed up. Oh, sod it. Am too pissed to carry this one....

NMH