Tuesday 21 Feb/ Sat 25 Feb

[thewwfc]

I really want Big Dunc to succeed, he has already won the fans over...a big gamble bringing him in, hopefully one that pays off.

ah phew, that is a huge plus, it makes a major difference if the manager makes the right noises if they've been brought into a situation where they're on a hiding to nothing.

I guess your assistant manager will have a better grounding in the lower leagues and have a better perspective on the kind of players that it's realistic to bring in.

I don't want to base and project all my experiences of parachuted ex-Prem player lower league managers on our one bad experience with Tony Adams - who was seemingly not just a crap lower league manager but a crap manager full stop - but in the case of Adams he literally just couldn't relate to the limitations of lower division footballers and just expected them to be better than they were all the time.

Hopefully Big Dunc has a bit more humility and is more prepared to learn his trade and get stuck in.

 

[Chris FGR]

To be clear, most of us didn’t expect to do anything other than struggle at this level. What’s frustrating is we’ve not really even given ourselves a decent chance to be even semi competitive, far too many poor decisions and incompetence. You can’t get away with it at this level.

Vince couldn’t do anything about Edwards going to Watford, but other than that the finger has to point at him. Very poor managerial appointment last summer, failed to replace key players and seemingly fell out badly with our ex DoF who he’s tried to pin the blame on for our piss poor recruitment. Altogether we’ve used 38 players in 34 league games so far this season which is never usually a sign that a club knows what it’s doing. The timing of appointing DF was all wrong as well, less then a week before the end of the transfer window with no time to assess the squad and no say in the near 20 in’s/outs during the month. On that front questions also have to be asked about bringing in a new ‘head of performance & recruitment’ with zero prior experience of English football in the middle of the season. He’s been very busy and talks a good game, but the end result of his squad rebuild isn’t looking brilliant.

Not only that but off the pitch other staff including our CEO have left during the season. Should serious questions be asked, yes. Will they, I’m not sure. Vince rarely listens to criticism.

 

[Si Robin]

He not only doesn't listen, he's so pig-headed that he'll continue doing the wrong thing as if to make a point.

 

[Greenacres]

Not only that but off the pitch other staff including our CEO have left during the season. Should serious questions be asked, yes. Will they, I’m not sure. Vince rarely listens to criticism.

You hit the nail on the head here...he never listens to criticism...well, he sort of does but gives the impression that if someone criticises him then he is doing something right...not in this case, he needs someone with even a small clue about football and the game in general to have his ear, but he hasn't.

He seems to be a bit of a just in time Chairman, he makes decisions to get rid of people...like our last manager...just in time to stop attention turning to him. I'm pretty sure I heard the South Stand singing an anti-Vince song just days before Burchnall got the boot, but I can't be 100% certain as much of what they sing sounds a bit muffled/mumbled from my seat in the stand...which isn't too far from where Dale sits, so unless he has the hearing of an eagle owl I don't think he will have heard either.

 

[Luke Imp]

Goalkeeper situation summed up here:

We actually have the 6th best defensive record in terms of shots on target against which is great, only Derby, Posh, Ipswich, Wednesday and Barnsley beat that but:

View attachment 18313

No surprise to see Rushworth up there, he's been fantastic for us. He doesn't necessarily have much to do but he's been top drawer, aside from the odd game earlier in the season where his distribution wasn't great.

We've been lucky to have had three decent GK's on loan in the last three seasons. Alex Palmer (WBA), Josh Griffiths (WBA) and now Rushworth (Brighton) and the latter is certainly the best of the three. We also had Josef Bursik from Stoke on an emergency loan so we've obviously got a contact somewhere within the England U21 set-up!

Palmer is now WBA's first choice 'keeper and Griffiths is covering him at the minute. I'd be amazed if Rushworth wasn't a Championship regular next season.