Thetownend.com

If Power does grow some balls to get rid of Williams who do people think we will actually attract for the job? I can only think of a couple who may actually be interested. Is League 2 the time to try out an unproven new manager (aka player manager)

Hasslebaink - did a great job at Burton but not so well at QPR. I'd like to think he would see this as a chance to get back into management.

Cotteril - ideal location wise for him. Without the big money to spend has never achieved anything

Another unknown coach

My guess it would be Alan McLoughlin until the end of the season.

Doesn't matter who it is when you've got the chuckle brothers above them

Anyone at the moment. In the summer it can be re-assessed. There isn't a manager out there that can do any worse than Williams. Alan Mac on a temp basis would even be better. At least he gives a shit.

I would take anyone with experience but I feel we are stuck with Luke and Ross until at least the end of the season if not longer.

They won't walk (understandably) and Power can't afford to sack him.

What I do hope for is that he will maybe be transferred to Waterford switching his contract to the Irish club freeing Power to get in somebody else with no experience and we are back to square one again.

I don't think Power will ever employ an experienced manager because he doesn't want anyone questioning his methods which somebody with experience will undoubtably do and want his own input in team selection and future signings.

The best person we can truly hope for would be somebody like Chris Ramsey I feel.

Gary Rowett

Paolo Di Canio
Danny Cowley
Alex Neil
Ryan Giggs

Blimey DV.... this must be the first time you haven't suggested Ian bloody Culverhouse for the job.

I would welcome the appointment of Martin 'Mad dog' Allen until the end of the season. If Williams goes in the summer, I expect we would be looking at Embleton or at best, someone like Hockaday.

Only because he's now in a management job. If he does well then I'd take him here.

Said time and time before. Good track record with Lambert as an assistant, favour with the crowd as a ex-player (decent one at that)

Fucking hell, can you imagine the culture shock on the "little darlings" and No Power.
I'd come back just to watch the fall out.

Keith Hill.

Would love him but no chance of him ever applying for the role

Someone who can actually manage a football team would do

Agree under normal conditions but it really doesn't give a fuck when you've got Tweedledee and Tweedledum dictating things. Hill would be excellent. Got a team playing decent football on a shit budget. Tactically astute, organised and his team know when to kick the ball and kick the man.

Good manager, his teams play good football but he is very settled in the North West and it would take a large contract and a large buy out fee from us to even tempt him here.

Hes under contract until July 2018 and Rochdale would not welcome an approach I am sure.

Would be pretty perfect though if we were that ambitious.

There is a candidate out there, who would appear a good fit.  Kenny Jackett. Apparently got Kane to Millwall from Spurs because he was a good buddy of Sherwood.  A proper boss, but out of work and maybe not the sort to get something higher up the food chain these days.

Its completely irrelevant whos in charge at the moment.

This season is finished.

The biggest appointment I the club's history has failed. 😂

Waste of time getting rid at this stage.....Damage is done.

He has to go or be demoted for next season.

This style of football (pass, pass and pass again) doesn't work in L1 (unless you spend money)...Check the table.
If we start this shit in L2 we will be truly fucked!

See this car crash out and replace during close season.

I can't see us being choosy:

75% players are shit. Total overhaul on no money....Gates will drop.
Loanees will all fuck asap.
Vigs will be sold.
Not many managers worth their salt want to be a puppet.

So.....It's on the cheap again, I just hope we appointment someone quickly.....Powers record of doing anything quickly is poor...

Plumbing new depths I suspect.

I fear it may be an on the cheap young head coach option, but Power's appointment of Lingy last season gives me a glimmer of hope that he might go for something a bit more 'traditional'.

Sheena Easton obviously.

Too expensive!

No good for midweek games, she only does 9 to 5

Lomas, obvs

that was Dolly parton :hmmm:

AND Sheena Easton.

Me.

I get spat on and abused in my job no matter what, might as well.

In all seriousness, I would like to see Paul Tisdale here.
He works under similar circumstances at Exeter and seems to do pretty well.

It's not enjoyable. I put up with it in the playoff season because it worked and it was nice watching us just pin teams back but I'm not really a fan, and has been showed in the last few years, a decent, organised, fit, hard working side (with a bit of skill) will do well in this division.

Reading play the exact same way as we try to play, they are top 6 in the Championship and their crowds are dreadful because their fans don't enjoy watching it. I've been down there a couple of times this year and I can see why, it is so drab to watch.

The style of football is constantly questioned by away fans, and I still don't understand why we do it, we are not good enough to do it and when we give the ball away it puts us under pressure and we panic.

I think that has to change in league 2 for sure.

Yeah, but slow tippy tappy football won Spain the Euros and the World Cup..so it must be right.

England have tried it and failed.
England are not Spain.

Swindon have tried it and failed.
Swindon are not England, England are not Spain.

I'm going to take a pot shot at trying to work out where its going wrong. I'm going to say Gladwin, Colkett and Brophy and are not as good as Iniesta, Xavi and Alonso. There. You're welcome.

It won't. Power thinks of Crewe.

Davis before he was sacked earlier in the season, said that with the model of young players you have to accept that some years you'll go down, whereas in others you'll develop someone to sell.

Crewe are currently 4th bottom, (perhaps an ill advised term given their up to neckness in the abuse scandal) whereas Donny, Blackpool and ColU have done alright this season from last year's relegation crop.  I don't suppose there's too much flick fanny about their style.

Of the players who'll still be on board next year, I think maybe Luke Norris, could get a few goals in Div 4 a sort of poor man's James Collins.

If (when) we go down, there's no doubt in my mind at this stage that we'll put together a competitive squad. This is based on not much more than thinking Power wants us to do well, because why wouldn't he?

He's just here to make money, he doesn't care if we play in the Vanarman National League as long as he does *



*an argument which I just don't get because league football is going to provide far better returns

A competitive squad like this is supposed to be with a 'top 10 budget'

Exactly, hes not making us crap deliberately.

L1 players worth more than L2 players, simple, but saying that Omar Bogle was a L2 player when he signed for Wigan on deadline day for £1.5m.

If he was scoring those goals in L1 then maybe his value would have almost doubled as it seems to with each division you go up the ladder.

Also if he is serious about selling the club for a profit then a L1 club will be worth probably double the figure of a L2 club and also a more viable option.

I'll counter that.

Of course he doesn't want us to be shit. That much we are agreed on. I disagree its a given we'll get a competitive squad.

I'll start with the obvious disclaimer. What he says and what he does may not match. We may also 'get lucky' with recruitment. i.e. Its not a forgone conclusion we won't be competitive.

Short answer reasoning:The model isn't right. The total policy of youth, of Prem rejects, loans and non-league punts is very very high risk. I'm surprised this is the only approach we can take, surely there is budget for some tweaking so that more experience can come in.

More reasoned:
   - Sherwood is in charge of recruitment. In the January window he stuffed up. He's going to have to pull in some serious favours to get better players in for a lower league.
  - Policy of youth 
       - seems we want to totally recruit young, technical players that are ill equipped at this stage for the physicality of the league. Mentally fragile. Understandable given where they are in their career, but that's irrelevant.
       - no "wise heads to learn off". NT fair enough, but if Branco is the type of elder statesman we see as providing advice to the youngsters we are stuffed.

 - Style of play
       - seems to match recruitment (obviously), technical style but not effective.

 - Previous Recruitment
     - seems to be little evidence of a plan, everything seems last minute
    - even if we have a plan, seems we don't have the budget to execute (hence lastminute.com buys).

 - Reluctance to change things/stubborn a-hole
   Two seasons in a row we've done the same thing. Got away with it last time, blew it this.


So you can disagree with that. But surely its a concern to most?

So a Gary Alexander then?
I could see it.

Spot on Batch.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Power approached Chelsea for Adi Viveash to be our next manager whenever Williams goes.

Think of all those contacts.

"We all dream of a team of Islam Feruz'"

Finally, an Islamification we can all rightly fear.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

However shit we have been this season on the evidence of our 2 games against them we are no worse than Shrewsbury and really should have beaten them twice. When their manager was proven to be out of his depth they got rid and replaced him with a guy with potential but no great record behind him. The fact that they are now 18th and 7 points ahead of us just proves to me how incapable Williams is of keeping us up, and how bloody minded, obstinate, tight wadded - call it what you will - Power is in not getting rid when he clearly is not up to the job in hand.

I admire your optimism, and someone needs to present the opposing view, but your grounds do seem a little flimsy.

If Power wants us out of Div 4, surely it would have been relatively easy to achieve by making sure we didn't go down in the first place. This hasn't been a vintage year in Div 3 an 18th/19th slot should have been doable, Oldham style.

The only mitigation I can find, is that the lack of emergency loans meant we were fucked once the wheels fell off early doors.

One man's mitigation is another mans damning of the piss poor summer recruitment.

The more obvious relegation becomes cue the Power and Williams defenders who have been saying we wont go down now stating we will be a force next season.

We are shit now and I cant see much of an improvement next...

I have zero confidence in the current set up.

The Post by Batch sums it up nicely and the seemingly unwillingness to learn from past errors, scares me!

I want to give Power the benefit of the doubt, that this season hasn't been a sinister plot, like a Producer's style scam to have guaranteed relegation, but wouldn't be surprised to see Springtime For Hitler introduced as the walk on theme.

And so are cup runs. Building a side that can be competitive in cups can reap huge rewards. I know it is a bit of an extreme example, but on the radio at the weekend, the Lincoln boss stated that their FA Cup run this season has earned them around five times his budget for 2016/17.

A decent cup side should also be better placed to deal with the play-offs or 'must win' relegation matches.

Bit of a shame we're every bit as bad in the Cups as we are in the League then really.

Unfortunately this shows the pie in the sky dreams of many of our fans now, we would never in a million years be able to approach a manager of this calibre....which is why he is about to take over at Derby today.

If Williams walked we'd get another yes man who would let Power and/or Sherwood pick the team. Highest priority will be that he has an excellent reputation coaching youth players again no doubt so we can get them in on loan and/or cheap.

Little would change.

For any Matthew Syed readers, it's known as Cognitive Dissonance. The presence of compelling evidence to show that somebody's view or approach is plainly wrong, only serves to harden their view that they are right.  

I suspect that next season Power will be even more determined to show that kids and misfits can win, rather than accept that a different approach could be more effective.

That's a cognitive bias. A cognitive dissonance is the mental stress felt by having two conflicting views at the same time.

No it isn't.

Yes it is.

Argh.

We will never get a real manager with this regime.

Martin Ling?

Cheap options aren't real managers, obv.

 ;)

Cooper was a real manager, although it's debatable whether or not he was a good real manager.

Looking back, Paul Hart was a real manager, as was Maurice Malpas.

Macari, Ardiles, Hoddle, diCanio. All of these weren't real managers when appointed.

Experience doesn't guarantee results.

Do you really think he was 100% in control of playing matters?

I said under this regime.Your list of former untried managers had one thing in common,they all played league football and at top level.      So there.

Did I see a picture of a banner saying Williams out in the TE?

Only there for a minute before the stewards jumped all over it!!

Thought that was pis poor by the stewards. Whether people agreed with it or not it's their freedom of speech. Maybe they should change the wording to "Williams your doing a great job" 😂


Sent from my iPhone

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C66M3ixWYAMTUE3.jpg)

What was the point of that? Would anyone actually see it?!

it read more visible than my shitty  camera phone shows.

Kinda looks like it says Willims Oui

Either way I agree with it

Don't be a tit Sippo  - the banner stretches across a whole block of the Town End, you'd have to be Mr Magoo not to see that. Even from the not terribly good photo, you can see what it says.

think the steward was bring an arse and tearing it down at that point.. it was very clear .. hence it's removal.

But would even Williams see it from the bench? Would anyone that far away see it? Bit pointless showing it at the end of the game - or was it produced mid game?

(.)(.)

towards the end of the game, game still in progress. and yes there is no doubt Williams could see it.

Perhaps not the person stood in front of it.

 Stewards are employed by a Power company....therefore a private army. Expect worse if things turn orange any time soon.

I doubt the stewards would even have had a chance to see what it says would they? They'd have taken it down due to the same H&S rules that jay and his crew have to jump through?

yeah, it was up for long enough for all to see.

but yeah, maybe it was removed on h&s grounds rather than content. there is no justification on the latter.

Well it would hardly have been a fucking surprise to him would it, waste of a good bed sheet.

I take your point, I was merely trying to highlight that not all experienced managers have been successful here and not all unproven managers have failed.

Playing experience at a high level counts for nothing, look at Wenger and Mourinho, to name just a couple...

I'll do it,i love being told what to do it's no problem.

Teddy Sheringham seemed a bit clueless at Stevenage.... but whoever they've got in now, is doing a sound job.

People would probably be happy with Teddy.

I'd want an experienced man or woman.

Helena Costa who's coached in French Div 2, seems to out of work atm having quit Clermont Foot because  so probably wouldn't get on well here.

Power has shown no imagination in his appointments, but I suppose it is possible he may be suitably chastened by the damage done to his reputation as a football man, so might listen to reason and get in Kenny Jackett.

I remember last season when we were flirting with relegation people were willing to reserve judgement on Power until he recruited in the summer - quite rightly at the time as we were ravaged by never ending injuries.

Obviously that hasn't worked out well and yet again I think Power is in the last chance saloon when it comes to replacing Williams. Another no-name or, God forbid, not replacing Williams, will be the final nail in the coffin for even more fans.

Power's project has clearly, over the course of time now, failed.  That one good season provided the potential to allow for a bad one, but consecutive periods of bad recruitment suggest it was more by chance in relationships at that time than a long lasting strategy for success.

However, just because that is true, does not mean it's his last chance saloon - he has the freedom to take as many chances as his finances and interest so desire.

That's why, if the fans who are so frothing at the mouth really give a shit, they'd be working with the Trust to produce a buy-out plan.  Either way, the Trust needs to put to bed plans of building roofs or toilets and instead focus on preparing for the time he does give-up or, even better, have a plan ready to tempt him.  Until then, we can moan all we like....

Trust AGM tomorrow, perfect time to raise these concerns

I'm a bit far away, like 4,000 miles.

Excuses, excuses.

Our next manager is on the One Show tonight ;)

Sheena?

Yeah

How's the wee Scottie lass looking?

Not at all bad for a lass in her mid 50s

The only requirement for the person replacing Williams is that they must be cheap.