Sparkie Out

I've never been less annoyed at how the club has been run with Hughes in charge. The PR is organic, not forced; the focus is on the players, not self congratulatory commercial codswallop. The club instantly appointed a head of recruitment, which we never did well without Hughes. Staff are not leaving, they are all pulling in the same direction. We're not inundated with the thoughts of an inexperienced and over excited CEO. We're recruiting players in positions that need filling.

We're behaving like a club that understands what it's doing. This is in stark, stark contrast to how we operated with Adams here, where Sparks was the club's de facto personality (since Adams had none).

We are heading in the right direction.

And yet we aren't there yet, largely due to a legacy of incompetence and u-turns, a lack of identity (it remains to be seen if we have the bottle to stock with modern football after Hughes leaves, whether that's next week or next decade), and a lack of expertise at the highest levels.

Have I changed my mind or contradicted myself? Not on your Nelly!

Hughes must be a boardroom figure post-management or it's very much back to the bad old days of incompetence and lack of expertise.

So yeah. It's been refreshing. I'm just worried it won't last.

 

Why can't people see past the last appointment though?

How is Sparks NOT to blame?

Who follows Adams with Hughes and thinks 'that's logical, that makes sense, that should be a seamless transition'?

Come on, Park, you're effectively giving Sparks a clean slate every time he changes his manager - the one he appointed! That makes no sense.

Adams made no sense as a follow up to McCall (and Trueman/Sellars) either.

You would think right now we'd know what type of manager we're getting next, IF SPARKS WAS DOING A GOOD JOB, but honestly, I have absolutely no idea. It could be anything from a 4-4-2 long baller, to grumpy old fart, to a guy nobody has ever heard of with zero experience who will learn on the job.

Spin the wheel to see what tactics we'll play, because we're not renowned for sticking with a style and building on legacies, are we? We just throw dung at the wall and see what sticks.

That is NOT good running of a football club, and we are where we deserve to be as a result - like it or not.

 

@Storck your fault this time.

 

Get him gone.

 

I hate Steve Evans with a passion, but he would piss this league with the resources Hughes has been handed

 

The problem is that despite being here nearly a year, he's learn nothing about league two football

 

Yep you'r right he was what we needed, i think he wanted the job, never mind we went for the name.

 

Agree Idle. We’d have defo gone up. The man just gets results.

 

Starting to look like a showboat appointment

 

If we'd have turned Hughes down, can you imagine the backlash Sparks would have got, particularly after Adams. I think we let him see out his contract, then wish him bon voyage. I haven't seen anything to say we're building something for the future, other than handing 3 year deals to players he won't put on the pitch. I suppose like players, not all top managers can manage at the lower level without having the knowledge of what's needed.

 

I was willing to give Sparkie time to do his magic but after last night I dont think he has any.
The substitutions were 1/2 hour too late then to bring on Pereira and giving our top scorer only 10 mins to rescue something against a team second from bottom is poor decision making.

 

Folk going on about giving him time ffs how come smaller clubs who get out of this division don’t need time ?????
Stevenage for starters I bet there budget isn’t anywhere near ours and yet that fat clown is easily outperforming an elite manager ............still a long way to go but up to this point there is nothing to suggest we will be out of this division come the end of the season ............ if you can’t beat a team like Rochdale then don’t expect anything going forward

 

Of course it was, but be honest, we were all taken in.

I hold my hands up and say we were probably wrong not giving Evans the gig. I'm sure we would be running Orient close for the title.

 

I doubt he’d have been given half the budget that Hughes was given. Add to that a percentage drop in season ticket renewals, the money just wouldn’t have been there. With this current squad I’d expect he’d do OK. With half of the last lot, we’d probably be calling for his head about now and looking for a new manager in a months time.

 

Yes maybe through gritted teeth, but you can never tell, it is speculation. If he wasn’t in autos by Christmas the clamour for his head would have been deafening! I really can’t stand him!

 

For me the easiest way to sort out issues out is midfield recruits, with the likes of Gilliead and Chapman you’ll never control a game. This should have been done better in the summer, but we’re still in touching distance so needs sorting asap, stop playing failed wingers in there.

 

On one hand, I think that Hughes shouldn’t be in the position in which he finds himself; In the playoffs with the biggest squad in League 2, half of which aren’t used. Same tactics, late changes etc.

On the other hand, I remind myself that this club was rotten to the core for the better part of 5 years, an its hard to turn that around, mistakes will be made, an lessons will needed to be learnt, sooner rather than later. We also have a habit of sacking managers after 8 months an it hasn’t worked in the past so don’t see it working now

Im willing to reserve judgement till the end of the year. we still half more than half of the January window to go, players are going out, some players have come in with more to follow. An Bradford City have this trend, that I can remember from the Parky days, of having a shit run in the winter months an then getting into good form in the last few months. Happened somewhat last season with Hughes, T&S the season before, McCall the season we almost went up in League One, Parky in 2013.

Still pissed off about last night, but there’s still time to turn this around, season is far from over yet

 

Just keep having this nagging feeling that Hughes thinks we are lucky to have him - his interviews after a win are full of positives but no-one (at the club, local media) seems to have the gonads to question him after a loss or sub standard performance

 

Agree totally.

Worryingly poor as we are at coming back from setbacks, this is still one of the best 24 game points totals, ever.