Ryan Sparks

And yet we chose to go on the cheap last summer, something doesn't add up Park. Truth is we tried to bluff our way thorough and it failed miserably.

 

I say this with best of intentions but all Ryan has done is put in place the basics which the onion picklers, white van men, those in dead end jobs, social media experts and know it alls have been calling for for a year. The so called super fans who DM people and call out anyone being marginally critical of the club derided and in some cases bullied individuals who wanted exactly what Ryan has done, calling them c*nts, emailing their employers, I see you and I’ll remember the messages you sent.

We’re 8 games in to this run, the wheels might come off, they might stay firmly on. but let’s see where we are in May this year and next before we start slapping on the back everyone with an office at Valley Parade.

 

WTF?

Who did that?

 

Well we brought in Watt, Sutton, Clarke, and Hosannah not bad signings and the base of the team now Stuart’s mistake was not spending the money he had to get a couple of decent forwards

 

And who brought Stuart back?

 

Amazing what you borrow from Wonga isnt it.

 

I'll give you Watt & Sutton, but Stuart was the one who let Clarke go in the first place, so that was a panic move. Hosannah was probably a lucky punt judging by Stuarts "scouting" of under 21 teams

 

What on earth are you on?

 

Think too much is being read into this. Like managers, CEO's tenures are becoming ever shorter and shorter, as trigger happy owners ask for instant success. Just being realistic in the current climate. If he does want to move onto a bigger club, isn't that good? Don't we want an ambitious CEO whose only opportunity for making it there, is to make a great success with his work at VP?

 

Brilliant!

 

I feel we have turned a very important corner since Sparks has come in and T&S were appointed

We have so much to be happy about for a change:

• an emerging management duo who appear to be very talented at getting players to play for them
• a much stronger squad after one of the busiest transfer windows I can recall
• an unbeaten run of 8 games-god knows when that last happened and every chance to make that 9 on Saturday
• a pretty weak division where continuing good form will keep us moving upwards
• a squad that can be built on for next season

I have a great feeling of relief after this transfer window because no changes would certainly seen us battling to stay up.

BUT the changes were made and yes it was a shit show under JR but Sparks has at least done something about it.

That's all that can be done right now. Signs of positivity around the club again. So now we focus on imposing ourselves on the league and let's see where we end up. We don't look like being battered in any game, more the other way.

I know this post will be derided by some but there is nothing wrong with being a glass half full type.

 

I admit it - it was me

 

I think thats a fair enough summary. We’ve not achieved anything yet, but there’s definitely reason to be positive.

On T&S, they’ve already shown a degree of coaching and man management ability. They appear to have real potential. The big tests now, are whether they can take our performances forward to be more controlling across 90 mins and threatening in the final third, how they manage a bigger squad - they’ve basically been limited to a starting 11 for most of their games but they now have options to manage, and how they respond to defeat when it comes. I think we need to see all of this before committing to permanent deals with them.

 

Baffled by the point that we haven't lost yet after their first 8 games in charge with a mediocre squad to select from, so we don't know how good they really are. They have turned a sows ear into a silk purse. Good enough for me.

 

That’s not what I said. They’ve yet to experience defeat in charge of the first team. They’ve yet to even experience being behind in a game. We need to see how they react when we do.

 

I don’t think they have anything to prove. After all if we had appointed somebody from the roundabout when Stuart was sacked and he had produced these results we would have been delighted

 

I don’t think anybody isn’t delighted with what they’ve done so far.

 

Still baffled as to why you need to see how they react to a defeat to qualify them as being able to manager the first team. You have even pointed out the team has never been behind in a game and that's a team that, when they took charge, was a basket case and going down. Under considerable pressure situated second bottom of the whole EFL and with mostly a below average squad they have performed a minor miracle in my eyes. They should get the job now and lets not worry about losing the odd game here and there. Hardly going to improve their credentials IMHO of course.

 

So far they’ve been outstanding. But I agree with the point Sparks made in his interview; they have a total of 8 games experience in professional management. They’ve already faced down a difficult challenge, but there are many scenarios that will be new to them and we don’t know how they’ll react, including those above. The job they took on was a difficult one but it was also one of no real pressure, given such limited expectations that people had. The pressure will ratchet up now, expectations are higher, the squad is better. This appointment has to be right, and I’m not saying that it isn’t. But there’s no need to rush anything. A permanent deal now would only amplify that pressure. Let them continue learning and growing, see how they deal with challenges and situations they’ve never experienced before and then we can make an even more informed decision over the course of the next few weeks.

 

T&S have done a superb job of solidifying the defence and making us a tougher unit to break down. I don't think there's any question about their capabilities in this regard. On the other hand though, we've still been fairly impotent going forwards. Granted, for the most part they still had McCall's dreadful set of attackers to work with, but even in the last few games, we've sat on leads rather than try and extend them. Now they have brought in real quality, pace and width into the attacking areas, their next task is to improve our chance creation and goalscoring. If they can do that over the next few weeks, I'll be more than happy to see them get the job permanently.