New Manager

Pretty sure I've recently seen him driving a Mercedes EQC. Not that it's anyone's business and in the greater scheme of things means absolutely nothing

 

Saw one of those drive out the main stand car park yesterday. Didn't see the driver but it was probably paid for with the profits of the trip to Spain travel package or summat.

 

Afraid not. If I was conspiracy candidate I would say the EFL like us in lg2 just where we are thank you very much. A good advert for sustainable football!

 

Sadly looks like it was just a dream bantam65, but I'll keep my hopes up until around 5pm!

 

Thats a bit of a nonsense comment, of course fans get a level of excitement when a new player signs, the club goes into hyperbole about being a long standing target and fighting off other clubs etc - fans can't know who all these players are but are supportive because they take the clubs comments and actions in positive faith.

Talk about creaming their pants has put me off my lunch!

 

Just read it.

 

I was being sarcastic towards our previous 'I know football CEO' and your comment as that appeared to be what was being suggested by your comment. Anyhow, your comment about MH not having that type of expectation on him from above seems a little naive tbh. Most clubs train for only a couple of hours a day max anyway. Deluded Derek's approach of flogging them worked well didn't it....

 

Does he wear pointy shoes like James Mason used to?

 

In place of Mr Undroppable Smallwood?

 

Yes that is Hughes car.
Seen him up Undercliffe in it a number of times

 

Cruising undercliffe. Surely a sacking offence.

 

Whilst I don't disagree that Hughes and Gent have/are failing, if Sparks has recruited two people who are inadequate in their roles, then as the CEO, the buck stops with him. I think the frustration and discontent with Sparks is his constant failure to run the football side of the business to any degree of success. He's been CEO for about three years now, if that, and is on his fourth manager and third recruitment setup, all of which have failed up to this point. His inability to create a footballing strategy has led to the constant change in ethos which becomes contradictory with every managerial change. Its no wonder we're a shambles on the pitch.

There's not a single person on the board who could make a compelling argument that Sparks isn't failing at running the football side of this business. He should hire an experienced DOF just as he has hired a commercial director. I can only assume its his own arrogance thinking he's capable of doing the job thats preventing this.

 

Hiring a successful football manager is not an exact science,it’s not like appointing someone to run a supermarket, there are so many variables that can go wrong with a manager of a football team. Sparks is not unique, over half this season’s managers will be sacked before this season ends. Watford’s owners would think they had massive stability if they only had 4 managers since December 2020. We’re you furious when Hughes was appointed? Or even Adams at the time who had just got Morecambe promotion. I don’t think he ever intended to appoint Trueman and Sellars but they just couldn’t stop winning.

 

He didn't need to give them 18 month contracts though. He could have just made a statement saying they would remain in charge until the end of the season and then reassess at that point.

 

They deserved a reward which won’t have cost the club much for an outstanding run of results which recovered the mess McCall left us in when we were 2nd bottom. 34 points from 15 games is better than any manager we’ve had in years. Trueman stayed at the club so no cost there and Sellars decided to go but I doubt they were on a fortune.

 

Sellars took it badly, and I guess it also probably dented Trueman's confidence and there was absolutely no need for that to happen. If it had just been, 'the job's yours until the end of the season and then we'll sit down and talk', I'm pretty sure they would both have been happy with that, given when they took over they were only expecting to be in charge for a couple of weeks. They had an excellent run but then as soon as other teams worked us out, they were out of ideas and the results tailored off. It would not have come as a surprise to them to then be told at the end of the season, 'thanks for everything you've done, but we need to bring in someone with more experience'. They would have been grateful for the experience and there would have been no upset or bad feelings.

Giving them the job permanently and then taking it away from them just as quickly made Sparks look like he didn't know what he was doing and brought back memories of Stuart being given the contract extension and then being sacked a few days later (and I know people say that was Rhodes' last act, but Sparks was in the hot seat so it reflects on him). This is the problem when you have non football people making the big footballing decisions. Look at Adams, Sparks went for him because of his success at this level with other clubs. That was his target and he didn't ask for other applicants to apply. All he saw was Adams success at other clubs and thought that meant he could just replicate it here without thinking too deeply about whether or not he'd be a good fit for our club, which it quickly became apparent he wasn't. Then when he sacked Adams and got the infamous email in his spam folder, his first thoughts imo will have been the media interest and commercial opportunities appointing Hughes would bring. Nothing wrong with that if he also brings us success on the pitch, but if he doesn't, it is yet another poor appointment from a footballing point of view.

 

Perhaps this is part of the conspiracy! The Match Officials Group are in on it too, sending in Drysdale to take the spotlight off Hughes and Sparks for the match.

 

Bolton last weekend. Apparently it’s a one off?

 

Pattison has three doing exactly that hasn’t he?