I remember going to man city (i cant remember which of the recent thrashings it was!) And they had the sniffer dogs out in force, hope they got a few of the coke pricks!
Even Duxberry could see that it was a change we needed to make rather than continuing this short term quick fix muddle thats got us to where we are. He was speaking before our last prem season about taking a longer term view with a focus on younger players, I seem to recall the Norwich model being mentioned for some reason. Either way he was ignored as we promptly signed the likes of Rose on extortionate wages, hoping it would keep us up at the first attempt. Like you I hold some hope that we will see a change under Manga, but as we saw with the Edwards appointment - unless Gino is fully on board and willing to accept any changes then its a total non starter. Reading the athletic article that came out after Bilic was sacked, it seems that Giaretta is already clashing ith Manga. In fairness to say promotion wasnt looking likely under Edwards when he only got the first ten games of the season is a bit of a stretch. Its not like there wasnt another 36 games left. We all knew it was likely to be a slow start given the players he had to work with and his remit of changing the culture. As it was, he got 3 wins against the 3 teams that are currently running away with it. I'm not saying we would definitely have been promoted under him, but we would certainly be in a better position then we are now. I might be wrong but I thought it was the whole fiasco of Giaretta being binned off then reinstated rather than results that ultimately did it for Edwards. As for promotion at the first attempt being so necessary? Was it? I dont know any more with the incoherent way the club acts. They act like promotion is a must then go and spend 5mil on a player with a market value of only 1mil.
We probably would have seen more of Kamara at RWB! I could sympathise with him for the lack of RWB, but we didn't give him the tools in the summer to succeed, it's no wonder we were putting in scrappy performances on a regular basis. That said...maybe we could have become more coherent under him? Maybe Ferreira still comes in January and makes us look better? All of our best performances of the season (all 2 of them!) came under Bilic, but, apart from late December/early January, we generally had fewer injuries to contend with under Bilic and ended up looking worse. I'm not privy to any sensitive financial info, maybe we truly are so ****ed that nothing short of promotion this season will save us, maybe we could have had a more patient approach but ****ed it...neither scenario reflects well on the ownership...
As long as they don't stop me from smuggling in my heroin. I need an opioid hit to make it through our matches.
I think Edwards would’ve struggled if kept on too, because of our dumb ownership. They appointed him to pay lip service to something they thought was needed or wanted without really believing in it or being willing to support it. He was a young manager who had one season of experience in a much lower league playing a very specific system which was very successful. They then expected him to suddenly become a pragmatist and work with what he had, instead of giving him everything he needed to replicate the success he’d had elsewhere. We actually had fans saying if he’s good enough then he should be able to adapt, but that is just ******* dumb, if the club wanted a pragmatist hire a pragmatist, instead they hired a young promising manager who had only played one system in his career and then effectively tied one hand behind his back for absolutely no reason whatsoever, absolute madness. The very best, elite managers who get the most success out of the game generally have a specific way of playing. Of course they still need to be adaptable, but the best managers don’t constantly adapt to the opposition, they impose their methods on the opposition. We hired one with huge potential and then didn’t support him properly, and then to top it off only gave him 10 games to get it absolutely perfect. Everything else aside, it is actually pure lunacy to expect a manger with one year’s experience to get everything perfect literally from the first minute, all while not fully supporting him with the right players as well.
How long do these hits last ? Can’t you top yourself up before you reach the ground ? Seriously I assume those openly coking up at matches simply do it for the fashionable hard manboy look rather than anything else? Really no need to be doing it openly other than to show everyone they are doing it openly ?
To an extent, he did try to adapt, it's not as if we played 3-5-2 every game, sometimes it was 3-4-3 and sometimes it was even a back 4, but ultimately, regardless of formations, if a manager likes flying wingbacks and we give him Gaspar, it's negligent. Of course, Bilic came in and results generally improved (though we still had horror shows like Blackpool and Millwall which were worse than anything served up under Edwards), so what was the ******* point of going for Edwards in the first place? Why not go for a Bilic/Wilder style 'safe pair of hands' in the summer?
That’s the thing, he did try to adapt, but why make him have to? It goes back to what they think of the role of a manager, which is someone highly expendable who should just be able to slot in and do a job with what they’re given, and have very little to no say on the players they want or need. They wanted Edwards to be a Xisco type and just slot in and work with what he has with zero evidence that’s the type of manager he was. I think we’re doomed to be stuck in this cycle forever until they stop expecting miracles from managers who aren’t suited to the circumstances they force upon them.
I see their fans have taken up the timewasting too, stuck behind a proper trundler today in Aylesbury on the way to work.
