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Would just like to thank the board on the appointment of
Kevin macdonald, if it was your intention to blow your chances of
A place in the championship, to have the team play like a bunch of c###
To see attendance drop back down 5000 again, then you have made the right appointment.

You couldn't possibly do it elsewhere by any chance?

you suck at haikus

Not that we're overreacting in the slightest.

KMac first 7 league games, joining midseason with 5 mins of loan window and getting team playing his way on the fly - 9 points

PdC first 7 league games, with a preseason to shape squad and train the team - 9 points

The trolls are out to
Mock all our playoff failings-
Easter holidays

Too many syllables in the first line - tut tut.

Just adding a bit of extra perspective, and certainly not calling for anyone's head.

Schoolboy error!

Kevin Macdonald
Aint Paolo Di Canio
Always doomed to fail

We don't think that the League One player of the year leaving at pretty much exactly the same time had anything to do with our collapse, do we?

I don't think anyone can defend MacDonald's poor record with any reasonable argument, aside from the disruption of the new year.

That said, I do love the conspiracy that the new owners do not want us to go up.

The question is, out of the pool of available candidates, who do people think the board should have appointed instead who would have been better?

Hard to answer without knowing who applied and whether we could afford to approach another clubs manager.

As unimpressive as his reign has been so far - what will really cost us this season is the embargo and the boards failure to lift until so late that our only options were Spurs kids.

Who knows, if it had been lifted a week or two before the loan deadline, the calibre of the signings may have been much better and would also give us an idea of the boards financial muscle. Say the Andy Johnson deal as was as close as believed, had we got him then I would be very confident that we would invest in the summer.

As it stands, I'm not sure if we should expect a fire sale and shoe string budget or a decent bit of investment.

Whether MacDonald was the right appointment at the time is another argument but he will rightly be given the summer to build and then if things start in a similar fashion next season then there will rightly be calls for his head.

There won't be a fire sale as such, as a lot are out of contract, and won't be re-signing, also we've little in the way of saleable assets outside of Foderingham.

It's my impression that MacDonald was always brought in with next season in mind....the nearly success of this season, had become unsustainable, hence the changes. Jed can say next seasons budget will match this seasons, but nothing makes me believe it...if that was to be the case, the surely they'd have made more effort to keep PdC and his team.

MacDonald's experience is in working with young players....expect to see us pick up some Prem rejects in the summer and some loans to add to what we have left.   Very much an 05/06 effort....if any of the Board are wheeled out to pad out te team photo like Sandy Grey was that season, you know we're in trouble.

Quite. It hadn't dawned on me how small the permanent/senior squad was at the start of that campaign.

[url width=550 height=286]http://swindon-town-fc.co.uk/images/Squad/Squad2005-2006.jpg[/url]

It's good to know some of our fans have their priorities right...

Jamie Hearne ‏@jamiehearne89 21h
Cheers for ruining our season with your joke of an appointment @JedMcCoy - please leave and go back to Banbury. I'd rather administration.
https://twitter.com/jamiehearne89/status/321721889200435201

Weapons spring to mind

Wasnt that woman giving Kingy one?

Expulsion is waaaaaay better than MacDonald.

We could finally get that rivalry with Chippenham Town started.

 ::)

Jed's defence of K-mac on Twitter stinks of desperation, doesn't it?

Got to say i am dissapointed at the way things have gone under K Mac so far......but come on lets give him a decent amount of time.

Even Paolo took 6 odd matches to get a win.....K Mac has won at Coventry and Yeovil...good away wins.
If he gets us promotion and it is a big if then a few people are going to have the proverbial egg wiping session.

At the seasons end is a good time to judge,not now i reckon.

STFC V Swindon Supermarine would get the cameras down to SN1 and Hunts Copse for the return.

It's what the people want.

It started back in 1902/03, when we put 5 on them in the FA Cup.

Fucking right they do. Worlds press scrabbling for parking places all over lower Asia, sorry, Manchester Road, County Road and Gorse'ill. Premier matches being up staged by that Goliath V Godzilla clash down in rual Wiltshire. Me selling my season ticket seat for the match to pay for a possible Wembley seat :girlgiggle:

That's what happens when you field a tiny goalkeeper.

We put 9 on Whiteheads Torpedo in the 5th qualifying round...I'm not sure they ever recovered.

Wilsons resigned, not sacked

Thats us fucked on Saturday then.

They could be on in the same though, walk with £x in your pocket or stay and be sacked with £y termination.

Anyway, surprising if true. Hope this is football related rather than health or other personal issues.

@BBCSport: BREAKING: @BBCSheffield sports editor @Walkerpw reports Danny Wilson has resigned as Sheffield United manager. #sufc #bbcfootball

Warnock In?

What else is he going to say?

"oooooops sorry lads my m8 told me e woz gd, gnna sack him 2moro ROAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR"

Didn't have any sense of desperation.

McCrory's problem is that he's embraced Twitter and now some essentially expect/demand a daily Q&A. Otherwise, he's 'in hiding' and the fans who 'demand answers' to everything.

Surely he should just tweet that he's going to tell him to play 4-4-2 in the next 4 games :)

ironically those who demand answers have absolutely no interest in his answers. vicious cycle

Suddenly looking forward to Saturday  :),

In general I don't disagree, but Paolo won his first game 3-0. We did wait a while for the next league win mind...

We didn't deserve to win that either though. We were woeful that day, not many teams can say that when winning 3-0 though.

Warnock will be in charge by Friday, response from the team.  That will get them over the line.

It's alright people moaning about the Jed twitter thing, but when the board or management are not talking about what is going on then people are bound to jump on any word, whether it be twitter, rumour or whatever.

Love them or hate them, the communication is piss poor with the new lot, board and management.  They are not making it easy to support their efforts at the moment.  Form has totally flipped since they took charge and they are not saying a word about it.

It hardly fills you with confidence does it, and they wonder why dickheads are tweeting shit like that earlier in the thread.  Even in the bad times with the old lot, you at least were being informed about what was going on.

We were relegated with the old board, but there was far less discontent because we were all in the picture, even though we were bottom of the league.  Here we are sat 6th in the league, seemingly free falling, but still in a great position but because there is no communication people are quicker to attack.

A lot of problems can be alleviated by good communication, or at least adverse reaction to those problems anyway.

Agree with most of that Berni, not sure there was less discontent when Hart was here mind.

Kevin McDonald was not (in my opinion) the best choice of manager especially at this stage of the season. Parallels have and will continue to be drawn between him and Maurice Malpas. It wasn't that long ago after all.

I've got nothing against Kmac and really hope he starts getting some wins but it's obvious to me he was brought in as a safe and cheap option that would not challenge the board. The thing that annoys me is we've been down this route before with a coach getting his first managerial position (Malpas) and it turned out to be an utter failure.

Why did the board appoint someone who at 52 had never managed a football club before? (other than a caretaker role) Was he really the best man for the job at this stage of the season? His assistant Mark Cooper's recent stats in terms of management are terrifying - he managed non-league AFC Telford United this year (in charge for 5 games, lost 4 and drew 1).

We tend to do better with mavericks like Macari, Hoddle, Di Canio etc at early stages of their managerial careers. There's always going to be risk with those type of appointments but I'd prefer we took a gamble on a big name former player than Maurice Malpas (Mark 2).

There was discontent at Hart, but not much towards the club or board, even though we were going down with a wimper.

It wasn't Malpas' first managerial job in charge, he was Motherwell boss previously.

Not very successfully mind you

That's a perfectly valid opinion, but you have to qualify it by saying who you think WAS the best choice of manager from the pool of candidates at the time.

The only other candidate we know of was Ian Wright, things could have been worse

Wilsons free now, go get him jed, just to finish off this complete cluster fuck of a season  :)

Looking back, we were fairly placid as supporters in that god awful season.  We were continually waiting for the turning point that never came.  I do remember a few players getting singled out for a bit of abuse towards the end, but Paul Hart took the brunt of it.  He was a poor choice, but you're right nobody attached any blame to the Board.  I daresay there would have been a bit more directed that way if they'd give him the job on a permanent basis.  Thankfully they saw sense.

You're right he did manage Motherwell but as you've mentioned he wasn't very successful (played 44, won 14 draw 8 lost 22). This was his record as of June 2007 and he was appointed STFC manager in January 2008.

Think this sums up my thoughts as well. I was on Twitter earlier and a few were saying what a great job Jed and Co had done and how much hard work they had put in. That's great but in general the fan base aren't aware of that. A lot of questions still remained unanswered about the embargo and I think a lot of people are still skeptical because of that, myself included to an extent.

I think a lot of people had a lot of respect for Fitton and the board at the time. I certainly did. Also although we sold a few key players and lost a few over the summer that squad was easily good enough to stay up hence why we all expected a turnaround.

I remember a few did criticise the board for not sacking Wilson quick enough. It should have been done in December not March. Personally I think Fitton even felt he fucked up that season hence why he stepped down.

I know they've not communicated as perhaps they could have done in the past but what are they supposed to be saying now? A statement? To say what?

That's true as well but then we wouldn't have wanted to piss off our rich owner/s in case they quit. Just look at Chelsea fans to see how fickle people are. Should they really be venting at Rafa when it's Abomavich who's calling all the shots and making the decisions most of them disagree with?!

We've lost Paolo and i think its a case of wanting someone to blame. At the moment most of our fans seem to have chosen the formation, closely followed by the manager and finally the new board. I think most would lay off the board if we knew they had money like we did Black.

It's not a happy ship for sure, i'm not sure we're in that bad a position though. We're 6th in league one and seem secure financially - at least for the time being.

This isn't a dig, but why do you think that?

It's fine Batch. I don't really think that - was just providing a counter argument before people started trotting out the "but we don't know if they have any money" argument etc etc...

If you are a new incoming board I would have thought that keeping the fans on board was one of the most important things to achieve.

The fact there has been virtual silence on what their plan for the club is, is what is causing mild panic.

Being cynical maybe saying nothing and making sure a healthy number of STs are renewed before it becomes apparent the direction the club is going is part of the plan.

Nobody has any actual evidence of what is going to happen, but I, like many others, have just got  a nagging feeling that all is far from well with our club and there may yet be more fall-out to come.

I honestly don't know what the fans want Jed to come out and say?

Genuine question.

Neither do I.

Do you not find it strange, though, that Jed & Co have said nothing about their plans (apart from becoming the new Woodstock)?

Maybe they are just interim stand-ins that kept the club from Admin, keeping the boardroom seats warm for some other benefactor.

It is these farcical explanations that are doing the rounds in the absence of anything else

1. Lay out what their plans are for next season and beyond.
2. Explain who the backers are (or what they are business wise if he can't give us names) and what they want in return for investing in the club.
3. Give us the promised post-event full explanation of what happened for us to stay so long under embargo, what requirement it was we met a few minutes before the close of the loan window for it to be lifted just in time and what the reasons were for them not being able to meet this requirement earlier.
4. To communicate this through a proofread statement given to the media not mashed into a smartphone in 140 characters on twitter.

Bit off topic but I can see Uwe Rosler being a highly sought after proposition in the Summer. Working wonders at Brentford.

It really is quite simple...

I'm not on about the long term plan which they have to quite clearly state.

I'm referring to the line in Berni's post.

"Form has totally flipped since they took charge and they are not saying a word about it"

I can't remember anyone at the club, other than the manager, coming out and commenting on the players, performance and results unless it was to sack the manager.

It's no difference with these guys.

Which is exactly what I was wondering. Just what are the board supposed to say about the loss of form?

There's nothing wrong with the Board not making too many comments about form, that's not their role.

However, it is their role to lay out a vision of where they intend taking the club. We've had a bit...namely concerts, bringing the women's football more in line with the club, and as far as I can see that's it.

They've had a fair bit on their plate between finding a new manager, embargoes, fighting potential legal action and the conclusion to the season.

One would imagine the summer will be an opportunity for them to lay out their vision for the next few years in greater detail.

Well yeah.

But that's going off on a tangent a tad. It's not what verve and I were getting at.

That's only a throwaway line from a poster on here though. I don't think that's representative of what the majority of fans want/ expect communication from them on.

Our frustrations at where we're heading on the pitch (which I don't doubt from some quarters of our fan base will spill over into foul-mouthed and ill-thought-out rants against Jed on twitter) is doubly exacerbated by the lack of communication regarding the ongoing concerns off it.

If they went some way to resolving this I doubt Jed would receive half the abuse he is getting.

The problem is there's no sense of direction or togetherness anymore. This is as much a result of lack of information about what direction we're heading in off the pitch as it is from poor performances and bad results on it.

While no reasonable fan would hold them responsible for the latter, they ARE responsible for the former but still seemingly unwilling to do anything about it.

If you read my post I said board and management.  I want to hear about what Bruce said with regards to the board, I want to hear what the manager is doing to try to turn our slump around.  I also want to hear that the board and management are talking to each other and that both parties are doing whatever they can to move us forward.

When Paolo was in charge I used to look forward to reading what was being said in the Adver and what had transpired in the previous 24 hours.  Now that the new team is in charge I either see lack of any story, or rolling out the usual lines "I expect a reaction from the players".  What did we all think of that reaction guys?

I don't want to hear "that's football" in a post match interview, I want to know that he realises that a formation doesn't work, or a player is better in a certain position, or that they are working on defending set pieces, whatever.  I just want to know that things are being looked at, new things are being tried, a plan is in place to try to turn this around.  At the moment I am hearing next to nothing.

It's alright saying "of course it is, he's the manger, that's his job" but it's also his job (and the boards) to include the fans, not in everything but just enough to let us know that they are thinking about all these things and doing things to try and improve.

I wouldn't criticise Kmac for trying different formations, players, tactics or anything if it will improve us.  What I would criticise him for is for trying something, it not working and then carrying on with it again and again regardless.

If this is the level of communication that we can expect from board and management next season then it is going to be even more painfull than I anticipated.

If only we'd have plumped for him instead of Di Canio, STFC could have had preseason in my neck of the woods.

Again, I think every fan agrees that they need to come out and clear all those things up.

It'll happen at the end of the season when we know which division we're in I expect.

 :hmmm:

We are now experiencing a totally different management style and consequently find it very difficult to adjust to. I am sure the new owners (however inexperienced) must have realised this would  be the inevitable outcome upon selecting Kmac.

PDC wore his heart on his sleeve and we are still looking for Kmac’s.

I am concerned about a number of things that could be lacking

Player fitness and comittment
Firing up players for training and matches (before and during)
All round training regime (balance of fitness/skills/set pieces etc.)
Effective treatment of injuries 
Adequate pre-match study of opponents

I will not get drawn into tactics, formations and square pegs in round holes – this is normal football manager stuff and if Kmac can’t handle these things he shouldn’t be a soccer manager. Remember he was only assistant at Villa.

I personally wish him well but I don’t get any good vibes from his communications and I just wonder
therefore what the players get from him.

Does anyone how long a contract KMAC is on? Did it ever actually say when he was appointed?

2 and a half years.

 ::)

2.5 years - gosh that is generous for a first time mgr -ummhh - hope we don't live to regret that
owner's long term strategy ?? umhhh

If we had someone who could put the ball in the net, all this would go away. KMac would be a hero, the Board would be great, we'd all look forward to the next game.
As it is, we've got forwards who can;t score, the Board appear to have no substance and I can't wait for the season to end.

Oh.

But we've hardly created anything in the last 2 games. At Donny we didn't have a single shot on target. Whilst some of the games this has clearly been the problem in others it hasn't so I don't buy this argument really. Walsall at home for example. We scored 2 goals but conceded 2 poor goals and that cost us the win.

Forwards who were bought my the previous regime sho struggled to get them to score as well, not sure how KMac can be blamed for that, we all know that we needed a striker in the loan window, but I don't know whether he tried to get one or not and on that basis I cannot really comment.

I'm not blaming KMac.

Didn't think you were, it was more of a general comment.

Reading through his dialogue with the press, I can see that if all goes tits up he's going to blame all the injuries. Although they haven't helped I think they're not the only reason why we've taken 1 point from the last 9!

I don't know what the pool of candidates were exactly at the time but I'd like to think as a League One club in 1st place in the table mid-season we'd be able to appoint a manager who'd actually managed a football club full time before.

He will resign if it goes tits up. However, what constitues tits up is subjective.

Personally I'd say tits up is missing out on the playoffs.

But at the same time would say this would not be a fair crack of the whip for him.

I think the board showed their niaviety by dishing out a 2.5 year contract to a completely unexperienced manager at the stage of the season we were at.  They should have got an experienced manager in as a short term measure to get us over the line and then review whether they were a suitable long term option at the end of the season. 

Good point. Worked well with Paul Hart.

True, but at least we didn't end up forking out any compensation when he went?  If we do fail to go up and start badly next season, I can't see KMac being around long.

Who then? I mean there are loads of experienced out of work managers out there, but there's a very good reason why they're unemployed.

My point is, not many experienced managers would've jumped at the chance of temporary employment at a club where they  could only deliver perceived failure.

Paul Bodin
Phil Brown
Paul Dickov
Iain Dowie
Gary Megson
Kevin Blackwell
Terry Butcher
Nick Barmby
Steve Cotteril
Peter Taylor
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Paul Jewell
Steve Kean
Ritchie Barker
Paul Tisdale
Paul Buckle
Mike Newell
Andy Morrell

I'm sure some would have jumped at the chance for a promotion on their CV though.

A full pre season under KMac, hopefully woth him being able to build his own squad, is what he should be judged on. Not this clusterfuck of a few months at the end of a season which promised so much but will remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Anything positive that happens this season I'll view as a bonus. Let's see what happens after 10 or 12 games next season. Or we could hang the fucker out to dry now......

That list excites me as much as Antiques Roadshow.

That pretty much sums up my view.

Yep, the only valid criticism of MacDonald is tinkering as much as he has with this team.
Changing the formation & playing players out if position (like Ferry on the wing).

His preferred formation can work well, but you need the right players for it & I don't think we have them currently.

Spot on.

To pull off this formation the players need to have footballing intelligence and have a good lone striker and wingers that can defend and also spring into attack. We do not have those at this moment as they were so well drilled at 4-4-2 under Di Canio that they are finding the transition a little difficult.

That said....if we had strikers with a better shots on target ratio then we would be promoted already with or without Di Canio as in the main we are creating chances but just not scoring.

The players are the same players and would quite possibly still be missfiring with whoever is in charge or whatever tactics we play.

I've said all along that MacDonald should be judged on next season, and his ability to build a squad to avoid our Div 3/4 yoyoing of recent years. Not going to happen though is it...everything has to be "now, now" in the present climate, and a lot have made their minds up already...it will be very, very difficult for him to turn this around.

Quite a few on here wanted Tisdale as manager, and not just fB, but Exeter's end of season implosion has been even more spectacular than ours. 

With Jed stating on Twitter that their transfer policy will be far different from the previous lot, and Morsehead suggesting that very little funds will be available, I wonder how long it will take for those who slated Wray's 'shit or bust' approach to start saying we are showing no ambition and doing things on the cheap.

I am glad that the majority of Swindon fans have moved away from the 'oh well at least we still have a club' mentality from recent years.

Has that been announced? I've not read much recently, but last I heard they were aiming to keep the budget roughly the same?

No, it hasn't. There's been no suggestion from anywhere that their are very little funds available, asides from unfounded rumour.

And people who call themselves fans who make up negative Facebook and Twitter posts to put a negative spin on it all to suit their own insecurities without actually stating any fact whatsoever that does the circuit that then suddendly become reality with no foundation.

Jed has said on Twitter that the approach won't be the same as the previous board and they won't throw money at it like they did - doesn't sound like the same budget to me.

We will soon see anyway.

Are you deliberately ignoring that Jed also said the budget will remain the same?


http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/10250965.Robins__new_chairman_says_kitty_will_be_handled_with_caution/

*While that mentions the funds available and not the actual budget, Jed has said elsewhere that the budget will remain the same.

Nowhere in that article does it say that the budget is to remain the same. Nowhere.

I just amended my post on that point. Jed has said elsewhere the budget will remain the same.

Either way, to claim it's been said little money is available when the opposite is true is just plain wrong. While we await to see what the reality is, we can at least go by what we are actually being told. Stop making shit up.

Leave Dr Pierre/Chris alone. His predictions have all been spot on so far.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: what makes you think they are the same person? I love a good conspiracy theory.

This thread - http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=51141.75

It was Chris_STFC that called me a mong. Must have changed his username.

I agree that he should be given more time, but today, it is just so important for us to come back with the points. Its sounds like we're really making an effort to get there and support the club today when it's most needed.

He does appear to have a head like a turnip though, which is never a good sign for a manager

I believe he also see's dead people.. then suggests that they are about to sign for us....

The budget might be exactly the same as before, but Di Canio didn't exactly keep to the budget did he? Maybe it's the same budget minus paying out for all of Paolo's fuck ups.