Thetownend.com

bollocks. I wanted to keep him.
http://www.swindontownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10341~640249,00.html

I think this is part of  what King means when he talks about major changes for next season.....I'd imagine more or less anyone who can find a new club will be encouraged to, those out of contract will be offered less and the squad will be much reduced with a number of kids being used in the first team.

 There may be trouble ahead.....of the kids you saw today Blink, are there any beyond Caton who look remotely up to League !

I guess we can view this in two ways.  With this squad, and King in charge, I doubt we'll go up next season either, with playoff chances seemingly growing smaller by the matchday.  It will be exciting to see King ringing the changes, and he did do this prior to last season which was on the whole, largely successful.

Nicholas was a highlight of last season, and I can only assume King feels his injury has seriously affected him as Duke as not performed to a level whereby he would keep an aspiring youngster out the team for less crucial games.

Pook, Caton and Garrard are the only youngsters which spring to mind who may be remotely ready for the first team, although Holgate and Lewis seemingly have bright futures ahead of them.  Brian Howard is quite young too....   :D

Not sure what to make of all this!!  Just seems same old swindon, we have made good progress over the past couple of years in general and now it looks like we may be going back to square one again!

I suppose only time will tell but it is a touch depressing although as Walrus says it could be exciting at the same time!!!! :?

If you read the article concerned it seems that Nicho is not training well and is playing crap for the resereves.I cant comment as I dont watch training sessions or reserve matches but perhaps if he felt he had half a chance of getting in the first team he may try harder.Its a bit of a chicken and egg situation really.

Shame to see him go but to be honest last season I would have said more than anything his performances where encouraging rather than outstanding.

That's not to say he didn't have his share of blinders because he did but he was a way off the finished article.

Not really been given much of a chance this season to show what he can do in the first team.   A lot of that I would put down to Calamity constantly faffing about with formations, most of which didn’t require fullbacks.

Given a few seasons under the right guidance and playing regularly I think he could develop into a good pro at this level.  If I where him though Chester would the last place on earth I would consider at the moving to at the moment.  Said it before Ian Rush, with or without the tache is not management material.

Shame to lose him but his attitude and confidence were long gone.

Hope we pick up a fee of sorts for him.

You really are a knobber.  
What do you really know DMR
'attitude gone' - what do you mean?
'confidence gone' - comes from playing.

King for some perverse reason prefers to jettison 'last years young player of the year', 'under 21 material' for no reason thats apparent to anyone.  Bigstan said last week that no-one at the club understands - so your nonsensical rumours (fighting (literally) with King) are ridiculous.

Just understand that some of the comments attributed to King on the official site were news to Andy.

King - management.  Contradiction in terms.  The man is a plank!

So you mention a fee - delusion.  Last year maybe - now - you are having a laugh!

the fee we get is the one from not paying his wages (if that makes sense)

erm no!

Last year you would have said that he and a few others would be the golden eggs for the club - cost nothing and proving their worth and could be sold for real return.

Now......

hes not playing for the first team so hes costing us money without any benifit. if he leaves he one less person off the wage bill, thats what i meant. not saying its alot but every bit counts

'Should have gone to specsavers'

King-like myopia raises its head again.

i think we are making two different points. these days teams in the lower leagues very rarely get a fee for there players.

i was making the point about the player now being off our wage bill therefore saving the club money in the future.

Jim hates Dave post number 327475  8)

jim, are you capable of making a post to put a point across without being ridiculously condescending to everybody who dares disagree with you?

Nobody knows why Nicho isn't in the team, not you, not Dave, probably not even King. Chill.

Isn't DMR making insubstantiated (and, yes condescending) remarks about Nicho?

It's not suprising to see that people are starting to get hacked off with him.

hello lloyd.

I think DMR talks shit from time to time as much as the next TEF poster Jim, however from your post it seems you know Andy Nicholas therefore your opinion is totally biased.

DMR abuses our players - bad
You abuse our manager - ok  :?

nice one

and he abused me  :oops:

It's a forum though - this is what pissed me off about thisisstfc.co.uk - we weren't allowed to discuss the blatant affair between Hewlett's wife and Andy Gurney.....

I am worried though, that with all DMR's player bashing, he's leaving off King a little too much for my liking.

You see thats even more evidence of your feeling of inadequacy - I make a point, you feel condescended to.  Value yourself young man.

Sorry!

No I don't know him personally - but we all have contacts.  

Biased -- no.

Despairing - yes!

Nicho should be a first team regular. easily.

Nicho had a bad injury, and hasn't been given the opportunity to re-establish himself. Has had bit of a bad yr to be honest what with the driving ban etc...Hopefully he'll go 'home' and just prove to himself and others that he is capable, then come back all guns blazing.

IMO he is definately better than Duke, but just needs a break...

Nicho is the best left-back at the club. It really is that simple.

getting rid of nico is ridiculous! im not sure whether king knows what he is doing this time round! im not sure if he will even be in charge come next season. his contract is up and harford may be in line to take over . just a thought

king will stay, Harford's leaving end of season for a better job. Just a thought

King had better have some good players lined up for next season then! parkins off in the summer and we need a decent striker! we also need a decent midfielder otherwise we are going to really struggle!

I believe Si-Pi has hit la nail on le tete here.

i think this is a bad move by King.

Last year he was quoted at saying Nicho is the best left back in our league and should be given an U21 call up. and that was whilst playing with an injury.

He tried to get that injury fixed, was rushed back and it fucked him up for a bit. of course his fitness and playing will be affected cos he has been out for so long with injury.

Given his chance again he is far better than Duke and should be given a starting chance. GS was given his and now he deserves to stay in our first 11.
Duke makes mistake after mistake yet stays in the squad. Ifil has 2 bad games and gets dropped. Migs has a bad game and gets dropped. Duke and Hoolet are shit yet they stay????
Where's the logic?!!!

it's a bad choice to let him go. The lad is young so should be allowed his chance for next season. A good strong pre season and he will be back fitter and better than last season.

i agree with you there. duke and hewlett are the shittest players we have yet they make the first team without even lifting a finger! where is the sence in that?

I agree that it's disappointing to see Andy go, if he does go that is.  Can't quite believe that Nicho of last season was no where to be seen this season.

Incidentally King's contract is not up at the end of the season.

when is it then? plase tell me its tomorrow

I was wondering this.  I have heard all sorts of stories about Kings contract so a definitive answer from someone would be nice?

what have you heard about kings contract?

All sorts of things!  Some saying it ends this summer (not sure about that though!), some saying next summer and some saying it a rolling contract!  I got to the point where i heard all these different things i did not care anymore!  :evil:

It is a one year rolling contract. So there is one year left on it from today there'll also be one year on it next month etc.

that sucks!

So this rolling bollocks....what does it mean exactly if we want to get rid? (I am not saying i want to get rid incidentely)

i think it just means that he always has a year to go e.g in 6 months he will still have a year left on his contract.  if you see what i mean?

I believe it would cost us a years wages as compensation, around 100k, which is one of the lowest managers wages in the league apparently. Of course it will cost us far more in revenue lost due to attendances falling due to slipping down the league and not signing any more Parkin's.

Keeping king is the way forward. :king

Yeah thats what i thought!  So if we did want to get rid we would have to pay up a year i assume!  Does seem a slightly odd way of doing things but wasn't it done this was cause of when he left the last time?!

the bastard has told the directors that so they cant get rid of him! oh fuckin great so its for ever then unless a takeover comes in and they pay off the rest of his contract!

Sacking a manager is always expensive. Even if it was free it wouldn't be worth it anyway, it's not like he's done a bad job.

hahaha! so with one of the best sides in the league not making the play offs is a good job?

Well you make it sound like he's been given a great side and has fucked it up but did we have one of the best sides in the league when King arrived? Hardly, we had a shite side, one of the worst in the league. Was he given any money to spend? Barely any.

The only reason we have now got a good side is 'cos King has built it.

So basically you're saying he should go as he's built one of the best sides in the league at little cost and on one of the lowest wage budgets in the league but they haven't quite reached their potential.

I think that's a ridiculous reason to sack a manager, surely you should sack a manager if they build a shit team that does shit or spend loads of money and still achieve nothing, not for building one of the best sides in the league.

 :roll:

Thank you for your support Sir.  The King is here to stay.

yes your right he did a good job to build a good team but he cant manage it! if he cant get this team to win matches then something is terribly wrong!

But building the team is a huge part of managing it.

yeah but the motivation isnt there! what use is that? you have two key stages in doing well as a manager
1. Build a decent team - king has passed that with flying colours
2. Make success happen on the pitch - that just hasnt happened this season

what use is it building a team and then not movitating them to play well?
players end up not caring and not putting in the effort (howard being an example) and that means poor results im afraid

I don't like King, he's a cock as far as I'm concerned but without lining up a decent replacement I don't think it's worth the gamble of sacking the bloke.

thats true jan. the replacement will have to be a good one!

Which we probably couldn't afford, which is why I think it's better the devil you know.  What's the point of getting rid of King and ending up with a Russell Osman, Alan Reeves or some other bloke who would be worse than AK.  We need a proven good manager, and that isn't gonna happen.

makes me despair for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I really cannot believe how people with absolutely no knowledge of the situation are only too willing to fabricate libellous, scandalous and generally distasteful nonsense about a player who has done absolutely nothing to warrant any aggravation (Other than inadvertantly crossing King).

Secondly, you have to remember that King actually first bombed Nicho last season before the playoff games. After a sustained spell in the starting lineup in the second half of the season Nicho had demonstrated that he was a more than competent Second Division left back. For the playoffs King, without telling Nicho why, brought Grant Smith in and played him out of position at left back.

Just as perversely King then decided during the summmer that he didn't like Smith after all.

So even though Nicho had only just had his knee op (so missing a fair chunk of pre-season) he was back in favour.

4 or 5 games in 8 days then buggered Nicho's knee again and King turns his back on him again.

From the tail end of last season to now King has not given one word of coherent explanation to Nicho as to why he is no longer part of King's band of preferred players.

Irrespective of whether Nicho is brilliant or rubbish it really isn't good enough that he's been dumped without explanation. I don't mean to us, but to the player himself.

On a personal note I do believe that his talents would be wasted in League 2, but if if a move to Chester is what it takes to get him back into full competitive games then he's better off there than here.

for the first time in weeks I agree with Jan :D

Also bear in mind that if we did sack king the new manager would have to be one that is currently unemployed. We aint got the money to be playing compo to other clubs

Bigstan if what you say is true why has Nicho never gone to the manager to find out where he stands?Why hasnt he tried to sort himself another club,didnt he refuse to go on loan somewhere earlier in the season?

This whole affair is just odd.

As Big Les would often say I'm not one for gossip but a chap who seems straight up enough claims to have spoken to Nicho's old man at one of the games over Christmas.

Said he liked the club a lot but again couldn't quite understand just why he was being overlooked all of the time and was getting  bit fed up with it all.  

As I said earlier a big part of the problem this season for Nicholas has been Calamity constantly faffing around with formations.  A lot of the time he has tried playing with wingbacks, not that we have any regardless but it has certainly limited the chances for a fullback.  Then there was the Duke situation where King decided regardless of performances because of the stick he was getting at the time he would play Duke to the bitter end.

Big Stan are you the same Big Stan that Nicho said hello to in the Players Q&A section in the Huddersfield Town programme?

sounds like it. big stan's said something along these lines before as well

Do you honestly believe that Nicho hasn't asked for an explanation ?

Asking King for a reasoned explanation and getting one, however, are two completely different things.

I think we can safely assume that Nicho probably would have been better off accepting the offer of a loan 2 months ago.

I'd forgotten about that.

Yep, that was me.

What it is to be famous, eh ?

I completely believe what your saying Stan but couldnt Nicho have asked for help from some of the other players  to at least  get a explanation as to why he has been frozen out?

By that I mean if one of my colleagues was being treated badly Id do my best to stick my nose and help him out (if I liked him that is)

Why are the other players just accepting this terrible treatment of one of thier mates?

YR - you clearly believe that King has a rational explanation.

Stan is saying/has said that no-one at the club knows why.

No Im sorry but there must be a reason however stupid or obscure there simply must be a reason.

Also if King has hated him for so long why hasnt he transfer listed him?

agree with yeovil. after signing him, moulding him into a good player and hyping him up unbelievably king wouldnt do all this for no reason.

by "all this" i mean freezing him out etc

out of interest can anyone name a manager out of work who would want to come to a club which is surviving week to week

Thats a bit off topic mate :P

seriously not many out their i would love northampton not to go up and maybe get calderwood back the bloke is a legend and think he would help attendences

dont think nicho will be the only one to leave us in the summer

Declan - don't assume logic here!

++

It will be Bye bye Parkin, Evans, Nicho and Howard this summer.

Is O'hanlon out of contract? We signed him Apr 04? If it was an 18 month contract we could lose him as well.

What you have to remember is that King is not a logical / rational thinker.

I only have to refer you to his post match ramblings to support that point.

This is the man that during Malcolm Crosby's time at the club used to take great perverse pleasure in humiliating him in front of the players by disagreeing with everything Crosby said. If Crosby said they needed to work on one thing in training King would deliberately work on something else. King would shout him down to such an extent that Crosby lost interest.

Now it's widely accepted within the game that Crosby is an excellent coach so why would King go out of his way to ignore / exclude /demean him ? It simply was NOT in the best interests of the club to do so. King couldn't help himself. He did it anyway.

The players knew Crosby was good. But that counted for nothing. King ignored the concensus and Crosby was gone.

If one of the players went up to King and asked why he was blanking Nicho I'm pretty confident that King's reply would run something like "What the fucks it got to do with you ? If you don't fucking like it you can fucking join him."

I make no apologies for the language because that's how Mr King speaks when he's away from a microphone.

All very true, but I don't think football management  is a logical rational trade, I'm sure being bonkers helps.

It's the old adage "You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps".

The problem, Reg, is that being bonkers is only helpful to the person who is bonkers.

Everybody else has to suffer the consequences of the lunacy.

Well Im pretty sure if Parkin did it King would have to think a bit before pissing him off.Im not sure I like the man that your painting a picture of and I'm a staunch pro king man.

He's not on the squad list on the official site and he played for Chester at the weekend, did I miss something? I thought he was just there to train for a few days.

Agreed a months loan now.

ah I must have missed that, cheers.