Thetownend.com

This is personaly my own opinion. Not another King out thread. Whether anyone agrees or not I really don't care. From where I'm standing the season is now over. With the current financial situation at the club next season surely must be make or break. With this in mind the Board Of Directors (BOD) need to get it right on and off the pitch next season. My views for what there worth:

King has to go. Now. No real progress has been made at all under him. Make no bones about it this is a piss poor league. Luton have pretty much the same team as last year and have pretty much shown everyone else how its done. No big spending was required. People can harp on about King's lack of transfer funds and having to rely on loans but so did the majority of teams in this league. A good scout maybe but a manager no. poor tactical awareness and serious lack of motivational skills are the only two things that have stopped OUR CLUB performing to its ability. Relieving King of his duties now means he can be replaced before the end of season giving the new manager time to settle and prepare for next season. If only our BOD had put Harford in charge before Rotherham moved in things might have been a little different. I'm willing to bet Rotherham will finish above Swindon if King remains in charge.

Ticket prices simply have to be lowered. No exceptions. I'm not interested in hearing how WE HAVE to charge those prices in order to survive. To me thats emotional blackmail. No-ones saying reduce tickets by 50%, just bring us inline with the rest of the division! No matter how much you support your club once you reach the point where you have to sacrafice something else in order to afford going to a match then you start to see things in a new light. I have gone from being a season ticket holder of 5 years to someone who attended MOST home games and now to a fan who turns up as and when I can afford too. Games like today are hardly likely to encourage me back again in a hurry. Reducing ticket prices may well reduce income on the turnstyles, but it will bring more into the stadium and money gets clawed back on beverages etc.

Get rid of some of the dead wood within our team. I will purposely not name any players here simply because I don't want to start a argument over individuals. Again it is my own personal opinion that at least 3 of our first team ARE NOT good enough to play at this level. I'm fed up reading on this forum how people think we have a decent team. Sorry we don't. We have our very own superstar in Sam Parkin but other than that i don't see any other clubs banging on Town's door for any other of our players. Our season is over and at youngsters should be given a run out. There we will witness more commitment, desire and determination than the free loaders present in our first team.

Thats my 2p's worth.

I await to be ripped to shedds now.

have to say i agree with most of that mate.

I think with the club gone back a step this season changes once again need to be made.

One problem:  Swindon have made steps forward every season under King - look at the league table.  It's an undeniable fact.

However, I agree with you - we ARE good enough for the playoffs, yet we're no better than mid-table.  We've underachieved and the manager has to be held accountable.

If we sack King we will go down. With littie money King is good. I can't think of a better manager who can do a better job without no money and a small sqaud.

Apart from this season.....which blows your fact out the window

I totally agree with what was said there Reaper, esp the bit about the kids showing more desire and commitment, thats what we've lacked I cant think of one player this season that has truely looked like he would be willing to give blood to the cause. No one is local, no one is playing for the boyhood club and its obvious.

I think only ONE player in our squad has any emotional attatchment to Swindon Town Football Club

Id give up everything I've got to pull on that red shirt every saturday and run out the tunnel out the pitch. I wouldnt expect to get paid for it, id do it purely because I want to. Sadly footballers are unloyal greedy bastards

Again agree with most of that there Grim.

Unfortunately the board just aren't going to sack King in the next six months.  

However what I can see happening is the situation mid-season when we have our annual shocking run of form the board will have little option to give him the boot.  We are approaching the last 12 months of his contract and with the likely departure of Sam Parkin whose goals have without doubt kept us out of the mire and the introduction of the transfer window meaning an end to loan cover there is no digging himself out of the mire this time.

Sadly if Parkin does go it looks like it will be doom and gloom.  If you deduct his goals not even taking to account his overall contribution then we would have long been screwed.  It’s not a real indicator I know and doesn’t take into account a replacements contribution but without the man this season our goal difference would have been just 41 which is relegation and by the far the worst in the league.  

As all accounts go from yesterday (including Kings) there is a serious lack of desire.  Off the pitch problems with wages are fair enough but the buck really does lie with him now.  This is his squad, his players and if he cannot get them to perform to a standard which we all know they are capable of then it’s his fault, end of.  Again the comparison is flawed, football doesn’t equate to the real world but if he was in charge of a company and his staff where performing on such a low par he would have been booted long ago.

It will be interesting to see what the board expect next season.  I don’t really recall any indication from them about what they wanted last summer and it was really only Devlin and SS who indicated a push for the PO’s the previous year.  Sadly all indicators point to a serious problem up above, I cannot believe the fuck up with the tax.  Without going into it all again what sort of idiot projects a tax return on previous years in an industry as volatile as football?  Then there is the accounts, which where supposed to have been released this month and are once again absent.

I don’t want to defend Danny Donegan here but a lot of what he said is ringing painfully true. For a board that arrived arguing the moral financial high ground you can make what you want of it when they haven’t managed to even publish one set of accounts to which they are answerable.  Then there is the issue over the cash they initially pledged for the squad.  Admin aside (true or not) I get the impression that this was nothing more than a smoke screen to cover the fact that there was one million that season reportedly on its way.  In fact continuing the trend Willie Carson (who?) publicly stated that they had numerous wealthy backers lined up to invest on take over.  Like Willie something that has not seen the light of day since!

Donegan stated on his departure that the current board did not have the financial clout to run the club in the short term.  They don’t it has been left to Sir Seaton to bail us out time and time again  nd harping back to the tax issue it’s almost comical.  He also stated that the real reason behind there interest was because of the property deal.  The more I hear the more cynical I get.  I’m not saying that things would have been better under the previous regime however what they where attempting to do is identical to what the current board are doing but possibly had the sense and money to see it through.  Before anyone mentions the accounts published under their era, yes they make for painful reading but just take into account what’s published is from the current board.  Also bear in mind that even the current club accountant wouldn't be stupid enough to put long term investment into a venture they are going to potentially lose on a technicality.

Rant over.

The only sensible replacement for King in my opinion would be Ray Lewington.

Not really as:
1).  The season hasn't finished, albeit a nigh on impossible task
2).  When King took over, we were a long way from the top half or the playoffs

Whatever you think of King, it is undeniable we have improved under his leadership.  Ben Wah Balls in particular has shaped my view more on King, and given a more realistic, albeit depressing opinion!  With the money we have, and the impending CVA payments which invariably limit our budgets, it seems that every year our staff, both playing and non-playing, diminishes.  We did do well last season to make the playoffs, but the season itself before Christmas was a relatively disappointing one following a miserable Autumn period.

Ultimately, from a personal perspective, watching Swindon under Andy King has been an ultimately disappoiting experience.  However, could we realistically get anyone better to do the job?  Reeves4England mentions Ray Lewington, but would he really be interested in coming here?  Obviously the likes of Strachan and Gregory are pipe dreams, but are there possible candidates out there who could do a better job?  They would have to be without a club as we simply couldn't afford any compensation payouts, and really they need to be proven at this level otherwise it would be a major gamble.  Next season could be very different with the loss of Parkin - we could be back down near the wrong end of the table, as I feared would ultimately happen after the playoff defeat.

The factors which would warrant his sacking are obvious, but contradicting this:
1).  Can we afford to sack King, or does his contract expire in the summer/on a rolling contract?
2).  Is there a decent replacement available - I would argue currently, no
3).  Would another candidate of any statue be willing to come here given our financial situation
4).  We have steadily improved under King, this is the first time King has failed overall (we have had poor periods, but we've always climbed up the table when it matters).
5).  If King goes, we will lose his scouting ability which has proven invaluable.



Ideally Gordon Strachan would come in, King would step down to assistant, or go upstairs and become director of football, Parkin would be sold for a six figure sum and King and Strachan could delve into the transfer market to build a team for next season.  Ideally I'd be dating Britney Spears and drive a Porsche Carrera....

Good post, I think those 5 points are pretty much spot on and any Swindon manager should be judged by similar criteria as we're not in a position where we can sack managers just for failing to meet targets they set themselves, like Chelsea with Ranieri. If Mourinho was waiting to take over then sure get him out.

So Walrus edges ahead of Dave for my vote in the who knows more about football poll.

How can you write such a logical, thought out, well constructed post like that yet still want King out? I think you probably contradicted everything you've ever said  :D

Still, I do agree with you.

Furthermore, I think it'd be daft to get rid of King now. I'd like to see what he does during the summer and beyond with the reshaping of the squad, if you look at how much he rebuilt in the pre-season of 2003/2004 then take into consideration what we achieved, I think it's worth a shot. Also, you only have to look at clubs like Oxford who have sacked managers who have taken them very close to promotion and have struggled ever since, not only results wise but they can't keep hold of a manager. The situation is similar as City, they narrowly miss out on promotion and sack Wilson, replace him with an inexperienced ex-pro and they struggle, now their promotion hopes are smaller than under Wilson - who looks to be saving Franchise from relegation, incidentally - and I wouldn't be surprised if they changed manager in the summer. It's a dangerous trap to fall into, you can end up perpetually changing managers and never settling into anything.

HOWEVER! I don't like King. I'm fed up of him, his post-match inane chatter, his strange tactics, bizarre substitutions and so on and so forth. Ideally I'd want him out of the club, but it simply isn't the right thing to do right now. Give him until the end of next season to see what we achieve, if we fall woefully short then get rid of him. If we're fighting relegation by Christmas, get rid of him. If we narrowly miss out on promotion/playoffs with a young squad, rebuilt from very little cash then give him another chance. There's one thing I have faith in King about - finding good players.

Chillax, it'll be okay.

That pretty much sums up my feelings as to why I want him out, in addition to the fact I feel he is responsible for driving down attendences, but only if we can get a suitable replacement, and realistically we can't.  The likes of Lewington, Strachan et al. will not be interested in coming to League One let alone Swindon Town, the club that never seems to have a future.  I am looking forward to the summer to see what we can bring in.  I anticipate a dodgy start next season due to the high number of new faces, but hopefully they will gel and we'll be in the top 10 by Christmas (that's how far my expectations have lowered).

We still are, like it or not, recovering from the hangover of administration, and so we should be grateful to be relatively stable at the moment.  Sacking King now would be probable suicide, as a new manager may struggle to build a squad even capable of staying in this division.  That is the key factor for me, and why I'd be apprehensive about a new manager coming in at this time.

Something has to give, and soon.

I hope for the clubs sake rather than king's that we get some decent players in over the summer on the cheap and we stay out of the bottom half of the table next season. If we get off to a bad start we may be looking at the begining of the end of STFC as we know it in my opinion.

I'm seriously thinking about not renewing my season ticket at the moment. Its not because we're crap, its because we should be better. I honestly believe we have a squad of players with enough footballing talent to be right up there in this piss poor league. The trouble is too many are in a comfort zone, and we dont seem to have a manager that can bring them out of their collective slumber.

I've known apathy, cynicsm and sceptisism in my 12/13 years as a serious STFC supporter but I'm pretty much at my lowest ebb right now. Will we ever get it right? how many more false dawns will there be? Why dont I support a club thats run properly, and has players that give a flying fuck?

This season has been painful.  No season has brought me so little pleasure since i started watching STFC in '92.  Even the dismal relegation years, McMoan, etc weren't as bad.  We were rubbish then, and it was kind of acceptable, and even when were were in relegation trouble, the players were battling and giving it their all.  The frustration and anger that this season has brought about, at the expense that it has cost me and the loyal few thousand others, has not been worth it.  This season we did have the players to mount another serious challenge, but their lethargic, lacklustre, lame-ass displays have beggared belief.  And now next season, without the players that i regarded highly after that night in Brighton, we have to try and start again.  A good few of our players i will not be sorry to see leave after the tripe they served up this season.

I don't know what to add about Kingy.  He finds decent players, and on rare occasions he says the right things and seems like a good chap.  Other times he is an idiot.  However, I can't help thinking that if some of the players cared even half as much as he does, we'd be in a much higher position.

The board are a joke. It makes me angry even to talk about them, so i don't think i'll bother.

I thought 1999/2000 was a far far far far worse season. Once we sold George Ndah then all hope went. Into administration, bottom of the league all year,releasing all our players, 18 games without a win, shite football. :cry: That was dire and when thre seemed to be a bit of light at the end of the the tunnel it turned out to be an oncoming train. About the only good thing was Michael Carrick. Then 2000/2001 was shit as well, since then things have improved.

Not a great year 99/00 but at least it appeared to have more positives to it than coming out of the current season.

I had lost all hope by then.

1999/2000 was the season all our problems seemed to reach boiling point, everything that could go wrong did, football has never depressed me so much. :cry: Most of the problems since have been a hangover from that season and the ones before when we were losing over £2million a season.