Current State of OUR Club

What no @Park bantam ?.

 

Have you given any thought to us becoming a feeder team, hearing it could be the future ?.

 

It's the way forward. Can't believe Edin hasn't thought of this. Big academies on our doorstep. No brainer.
I'll get on the phone to Liverpool......

 

Have many new players have we signed, about 15?

Why would a player like Josh Wright have a hangover from last season when he wasn't here?

 

Now you really pushing it

 

Damn, was over in Looe - came back feeling pretty chilled but now catching up and twitch is returning!

 

all apart from pompey.. yes, i agree that he did well then but when things got difficult he had no answers and couldn’t change it around. rotherham away when 1-0 down, half an hour to go and a break in play for 5mins due to an injury - their manager had the rotherham plays in a huddle, stood in the middle of them and barking orders at them. mccall left our lads out in the middle and had them passing between themselves whilst he stood with his arms folded; no getting into them, no change in approach, no tactical advice, nothing. we were 1-0 down with a big chunk of the game left and plenty of time to turn things around, but he did nothing - and that’s when i thought he’d gone. much like when his first spell came to an end.

 

Stuart's fate as manager was sealed pretty much after the Wembley play off final when Rahic wanted him gone. The fact he managed to keep the sinking ship afloat for so long only delayed the inevitable. Rahic should have sacked mcCall after the playoff final if he didn't want him but didn't have the balls.

 

i agree to some extent.. my point being that if people sing his praises when things are going well they should criticise when things didn’t and his role in that - but there are people on this board and some that aren’t that flatly refuse to consider that he got things wrong and played a massive part in last seasons slump.

 

and this goes against what mccall said at the start of his second spell, that he took the job the secong time round with his head and not his heart.. if he was that sure that things were going to go south and he couldn’t work under those conditions he should have used his head and walked but he stuck to it knowing that he wasn’t really in it. yes, you have to commend him for that but his heart ruled his head, something he said he wouldn’t let happen again.

 

Why should Stuart leave? Rahic and Rupp went cap in hand to him in the first place knowing full well he would not turn down the club he holds dear to his heart. He does admit after his sacking that he had doubts about Rahic in the first place but that does not take into account the emotional attachment the man has to this club, more than any other player i would say. I'm sorry but for me the ball is in Rahic's court with this one, if you didn't want him to carry on then grow a set of bollocks and sack him after Wembley. The fact we now have a glove puppet as head coach tells you all we need to know about what sort of man Rahic wants working or him.

 

The slump was as bad form as it gets but the season was over way before that run, we were pushing our luck way before that run even started due to a shambolic pre season transfer window. People bang on about the money we spent, well what did we get for it? Poleon, McCartan, Reeves? The best signing of that summer was Taylor and that was a gamble that went tits up. Truth is last season was doomed before it even started, an owner that doesn't want the manager and a squad that was paper thin at best. If that squad was good enough Grayson should and probably would have turned it around. He didn't. McCall took the can for the run of poor form, now its been proved the problems run way deeper than a misfiring manager.

 

for that simple reason; emotion. he vowed when he re-joined not to do it out of emotion and not to let his heart rule his head. now you’re saying he would never turn down the club he holds so close to his heart - we all know that he’d never be able to do that but emotion can cloud your judgement and do things you wouldn’t normally. so which was it, an emotional decision for him or not? you are saying it may have been yet he’s saying it wasn’t. take the luke hendrie situation; now i’m not saying that he wanted him because he was john’s son but he didn’t exactly set the world alight when he was here and would have been a squad player at best.. now where does he find himself - getting a game at grimsby if he’s lucky.

 

I picked this one but it could have been many, many more.

This response is a perfect illustration of my point. It screams 'It wasn't Stuart's fault'.

There is a complete lack of any objectivity from McCallites as soon as his name is mentioned.

 

Luke Hendrie wasn't the best league one player i've seen and his drop down a league suggests he wasn't. What was the point with Luke Hendrie was how the whole situation was handled, situations which our club seems to shoot themselves in the foot with regularity now. As for me saying something regarding an emotional decision, they weren't my words, they were from McCall himself when interviewed by Width of a post.
He mentions how his wife was reticent about him taking the job after discussions about a playing budget where he received no definitive answer. He admits to a point in letting his heart rule his head but this is football. Football IS emotion, without it you have no game, the whole passion of football is built on emotion. McCall always said he had unfinished business at Valley Parade.
Did you honestly think a doubt or two in hindsight would lead to him turning down a job at the club he loves. Never would he turn that down, i will guarantee you that. And but for a finger tip save from a Billy Clarke shot he just may have succeeded in giving the Valley Parade faithful what they had dreamed about, a promotion with their very own at the helm of the ship.

 

Nom, i like you but you have an agenda which means you read what you want without reading all of the correspondence. Its a shame because you post some thoughtful stuff but your view on 'McCallites' is blinded by your dislike of McCalls management. I'm never gonna agree with you on this one but respect your view.

 

If we accept your view that the board didn't want him and had a hand in some of the bad decisions will you then accept that McCall is partially responsible for the poor recruitment? Will you accept that he was totally responsible for the pre Christmas form and top six position? Will you accept that he was totally responsible for the post Christmas nose dive and admit he stated that he didn't know what to do?

Is there any balance? Or is it all Edins fault?

Norman

 

He got the sack, how much more responsibility do you want? The recruitment? Not sure how much input McCall had regarding that, i don't think we will ever know. It was supposed to be a three way decision but the model Rahic is implementing is for the head coach to coach and the chief scout to come up with the players. Remember when Abbott was admitted to hospital? The club has his list of targets that we will follow up while he away. As for it all being Edins fault. Of course, he's not the only person at this club accountable for failure. But from my own opinion, he's the elephant in the room in where this club is heading, not Collins, not Drury, not even the players. He got rid of McCall because he deemed he was at fault for the clubs demise from January onwards. Well since his sacking, the club hasn't got any better in any way. So who's at fault for that? can't blame McCall now, he's long gone. Or is it still his fault even though he's not here.