I saw a lad in the family stand with a "Bachmann can I have your shirt?" sign. I nearly called social services.
Pollock and Morris definitely aren’t potential PL players, you’re right. The issue is they aren’t really Championship level players either. Both have had the odd decent game in 5 but are generally off the level all round and aren’t really progressing. Porteous could be decent if he was coached properly to stop the brain-dead moments…the fact that Valerian Ismael, a former CB of some calibre, couldn’t coach him to be more sensible is quite telling. The Ince signing? I never minded it. But it didn’t really get any abuse from fans given we all mostly accepted it was a decent move for £50k. Seems strange to say fans had a hissy fit about that one. Yes, mostly everyone bemoaned the signing of Livermore. And given the way he conducts himself, we probably should have taken that into account as being something the squad needed. But playing wise, after a brief spell of great form, he’s returned somewhat to be the player we all feared we were getting. I think Cleverley will probably lean on him heavily in the remaining games given the options available to him (I just can’t see a novice manager who isn’t a blowhard personality, ostracising an experienced player and creating a story he doesn’t need) - but I highly suspect he’ll be gone in the summer as the interest in him is linked to Bilic and Ismael, who have met their demise.
I had a hissy fit about Ince. Not because of the fee, his apparent skill level or potential position but because we signed Tom ******* Ince.
Yes i guess it is about the optics and how not sacking a manager during the season would feel l kind of good . As odd as that might sound .
I thought I'd seen a couple of people on here mention that he was very unpopular in the dressing room.
It’s pointless talking about the merits and failures of Ismael. It’s like spending time thinking about which shock absorbers will make a car perform when the engine has burned out and the gearbox needs replacing.
Fair enough. My thoughts there are that the optics don’t really change either way. We will still be Watford who sack managers. I doubt we would get praise from any quarters for keeping one for a season. In fact, we’d probably get more detractors saying we have done it unfairly after a season. But the overarching outlook (for me), is that we are conditioned to it and that’s the saddest part. And every time it happens, the news article is buried somewhere way down the news feed on SSN or wherever. It’s simply not that interesting for outsiders to even make the joke or laugh about anymore.
Quite possibly. But footballers want to win games and have success (not that you’d know that from watching us at times!). And to do that, you want your best players on the pitch. The belief within the squad will be that Louza is one of our best players. Unpopular or not - I doubt they were dancing in the streets when he left.
WBA and Besiktas fans' experiences were played out in almost identically, in terms of the wheels coming off big time and singling out a player. How has he not learnt anything? Doubt anyone serious touches him now. Pozzo and Duxbury:
Ah, the old briefing from the club to undermine the recently departed manager, a tale as old as time. Ismael had the opportunity to sign lots of players in January but refused all of them because they weren't his first choices? Will take that with a hefty pinch of salt unless he subsequently confirms it in an interview somewhere...
We have 16 goals from long range this season, plus a few more from rebounds from long shots, I don't think that's the problem, we are just not very good at creating good chances, and even when we do, our strikers aren't good at taking them, let alone the others
Said it in another thread and will say it again here, the best thing for us now (outside of Gino selling the club) is for Udinese to get relegated. It would force them to focus on us again as the money in that division is peanuts compared to the championship. Who am I kidding, they wouldn’t actually care about us.
Also questioned this in the other thread, they don’t need their mind focused by something to get them to focus on us, they just no longer have the ability to do it and are hampered by the debt they’ve accumulated by constantly trying and failing to do it. Udinese getting relegated would just be another nail in our coffin. No Kamara like loans, less then zero chance of getting any decent players from then etc. etc.
We're basically back full circle, the best thing for us would be for Udinese to make the Champions League so that they can give us their reserves again!
Andrew French certainly seems to feel Ismael was at falls for the January recruitment or lack of it !
I’ve got an idea, why don’t we just hire temporary Managers all the time, if it works out they can be made permanent with a one year rolling contract, would save an awful lot of money!
… and the brakes don’t work and the tyres are worn out and you owe a pile of dosh because you wasted a fortune a few years ago on a really flashy stereo which sounded great on occasions but didn’t stop your car failing its MOT.
In a vacuum though it's impossible to know if VI should be blamed for the lack of recruitment. It's alright saying he was offered players to sign but if those players were more Bayo-esq over inflated Bayat deadwood then he was right to stick to his guns. VI spoke about having the right players for the group. Unless someone ever names the players we could have signed we will never know
What a pathetic club we are. Always remember someone saying that Pozzo is like a gambler on a losing streak in Vegas, desperately trying to win back his losses.
Also you are under the impression the car is a Lamborghini, but, as everyone else can see, it's actually a Daewoo.
Lots of people when he arrived said he was an uninspired, mid tier choice with a patchy, journeyman record. Dunno about specifics but let's face it, how it's panned out is exactly how it was always going to.
Omer Riza also gone. Not surprised, as I would have thought he'd have been ahead of Clevs in the pecking order to take the interim job
Val's saving grace this season was to identify that Bachmann will always be a rash goalkeeper whose decision-making, positioning and discipline always end in disaster. Dropping him from the team for Hamer (although far from a world-beater but competent and experienced) and removing the captaincy from our Austrian international (someone who rinses and repeats his errors as night follows day) were 2 decisive and correct decisions. By going back on the former at the wrong moment in the season - despite the wealth of evidence available - was the equivalent of signing his own death warrant. A ludicrous change which resulted in the return to the defensive chaos we've seen so many times before. I have a little sympathy for Val's lack of squad quality, untimely injuries more generally but shooting yourself in the foot on this decision deserves zero. He had to go in the end.
That is completely idiotic thinking; if Udinese are earning significantly less money from having been relegated then that will also ultimately mean less money for us - no more having the fall-back option of being able to sell a Hassane Kamara to them for £16mil for example. The resulting drop in cash flow will ultimately mean the Pozzos being able to spend less all round.
