MacDonald, DiCanio and the season so far

[Peter Venkman]

If we're playing the blame game, my vote goes to Black.

After the first season with PdC he knew exactly what would be needed to keep the club challenging for a 2nd promotion.

The fact that he says he was close to selling the club before the start of the season says he didn't want to bankroll the club further. So why sign up to PdC's vision of promotion and how to get there?

If he wasn't willing to make a season-long commitment then he should have had the balls to tell Paolo from the off - not 'car-crash' the season with 3 months to go.

I still don't know/understand why the sale had to be done to such a short timescale.

If there were, indeed, other parties interested in purchasing the club but could not adhere to Black's timescale, surely it makes sense for him to keep things going for another 3 months with the prospect of having a Championship club to sell.

I just don't buy he couldn't bankroll the club for 3 more months. He didn't want to, obviously - and the real reasons for that we will never know for sure.

Exactly this for me too.

Oh and this....

For what it's worth, my opinion of MacDonald so far is pretty good. I was talking about this the other day and putting it into context, and pretty much made several of the points you've highlighted.
In his first 9 games in charge, we faced the following away: Coventry, Brentford, Yeovil, Doncaster, Franchise wankers and Sheffield United. Combine that with the fact we lost Ritchie and have a squad decimated by injury, to still be in the top 6 is a fucking good achievement in my humble opinion.

[dalumpimunki]

My biggest issue is I don't really understand why you're dredging all this up. Apart from a few outliers like DMR who want to go on fellating the memories of the old regime, most of us moved on as soon as Di Canio quit and left us in the shit, and all this post is doing is keeping the old arguments going by attempting to fight fire with fire (or arbitrary statistical analysis with arbitrary statistical analysis).

If I was to make a direct statistical comparison between Macdonald and Di Canio WITHOUT ignoring the last 4 games, then it would read:

Macdonald: 3 wins, 4 defeats, 3 draws, 12 points from 30; 12 goals scored, 12 against, +0 to the goal difference.

Di Canio: 6 wins, 0 defeats, 4 draws, 22 points from 30; 22 goals scored, 3 against, +19 to the goal difference.

And in the improbable parallel statistical universe where Di Canio could actually repeat those numbers with the squad we now have available, that would be the difference between hanging on for sixth place and being clear at the top of the table.

But it's all pretty irrelevant considering the complex off field circumstances of the last 2 months he didn't have to deal with which remain the only points that need making for the case in favour of Kmac.

Personally I'm quite excited to see what sort of team he'll build next year given his background in youth development. I wouldn't be averse to a Crewe-style model of financial stability based on the development of youth players integrated into a first team spine of experienced players. In this regard, considering the financial model many of us expect Kmac to be working to next year, he is probably one of the best qualified managers we could have put in charge in the long term, even if some people are questioning his credentials for the short term end of season push.

My point was that it's those sort of direct statistical comparisons that people keep reaching for when, as you point out, the factors like players available, opposition faced etc. are every bit as significant as whose arse is sitting behind the managers desk come Monday afternoon.

PDC still had Ritchie, Hollands and Martin available to him for all but 3 of the 10 games above, had a much smaller injury list, played more games at home and faced weaker opposition, blah, blah, blah....

You're right though it's a post aimed at a handful of regular visitors to the forum and the repeated one-off nutters/trolls that spout bollocks and have wound me up.

And I'm with you totally in looking forward to seeing the sort of team that Macdonald can build given a bit of time and funding.

[horlock07]

If we're playing the blame game, my vote goes to Black.

After the first season with PdC he knew exactly what would be needed to keep the club challenging for a 2nd promotion.

The fact that he says he was close to selling the club before the start of the season says he didn't want to bankroll the club further. So why sign up to PdC's vision of promotion and how to get there?

If he wasn't willing to make a season-long commitment then he should have had the balls to tell Paolo from the off - not 'car-crash' the season with 3 months to go.

I still don't know/understand why the sale had to be done to such a short timescale.

If there were, indeed, other parties interested in purchasing the club but could not adhere to Black's timescale, surely it makes sense for him to keep things going for another 3 months with the prospect of having a Championship club to sell.

I just don't buy he couldn't bankroll the club for 3 more months. He didn't want to, obviously - and the real reasons for that we will never know for sure.

But if it hadn't been for Black we would never have been in the position in the first place, if he had turned the taps off at start of season we would have been bust anyway if no sale, he chose to contiinue to fund whiklst tried to sort it which maikes him a good guy in my book, but it had to end sometime.

Equally how can it be Black's fault that Paolo and Wray exceeded budgets/cash flows etc, they were given the info and chose to ignore it, once the money was spent he did turn the taps off.

It reminds me of John Hartson on fivelive the other night suggesting that the trouble at Wembley was the polices fault as they knew that Millwall fans had a reputation.

Sorry but its a joint effort of many parties of which Paolo is a significant element.

[Simon Pieman]

We haven't had such an inspirational manager at the helm since Maurice Malpas.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

With you all the way.
As you kind of said, grow some balls and say NO to more players required, paying off contracts etc.
He could be selling a Championship Club now and recovering some of the losses.

Car crash ........More like a multiple pile up.

I can see why Black wanted out. It was his timing that fucked us over. He should waited until the summer. In fact if he had not only would the club have probably received compo for PDC but we could have sold Ritchie then for a decent amount. He could have used the money to pay off some debt and then write off the rest as well as selling the club for a better price than the peanuts he sold for it in the end. I still think there was something deeper to this that was driving him on even more to sell ASAP.

[sonicyouth]

Black had been trying to sell the club for at least 6 months.

[RobertT]

Black had been trying to sell the club for at least 6 months.

Try 18, he all but sold the club in the summer of 2012.

[Bob's Orange]

Try 18, he all but sold the club in the summer of 2012.

Was that to the fella who then died?

[Flashheart]

Was that to the fella who then died?

Could you imagine if that fella did buy and popped his clogs 2 weeks later. What a kerfuffle that would've been.

[RobertT]

Was that to the fella who then died?

Yep they were at Due Dilligence.  Did anyone ever dig around true TEF style and find out who it could have been?

[Dr Pierre Chang]

The consortium had links to the middle east, I know that much.

[Dr Pierre Chang]

If we're playing the blame game, my vote goes to Black.

After the first season with PdC he knew exactly what would be needed to keep the club challenging for a 2nd promotion.

The fact that he says he was close to selling the club before the start of the season says he didn't want to bankroll the club further. So why sign up to PdC's vision of promotion and how to get there?

If he wasn't willing to make a season-long commitment then he should have had the balls to tell Paolo from the off - not 'car-crash' the season with 3 months to go.

I still don't know/understand why the sale had to be done to such a short timescale.

If there were, indeed, other parties interested in purchasing the club but could not adhere to Black's timescale, surely it makes sense for him to keep things going for another 3 months with the prospect of having a Championship club to sell.

I just don't buy he couldn't bankroll the club for 3 more months. He didn't want to, obviously - and the real reasons for that we will never know for sure.

Nail on the head.

Close thread.

[jayohaitchenn]

The consortium had links to the middle east, I know that much.

Well at least we know they weren't from the middle east.

[Reg Smeeton]

Well at least we know they weren't from the middle east.

 

[Peter Venkman]

Well at least we know they weren't from the middle east.