Ryan Sparks

I know the feeling, but I think I'll be really happy to be back in the stand when the time comes

 

Sparks interview on the Hard Truth podcast today. not listened yet but interesting seems there may be a relationship potentially building.
D Mac ask the other host about one of our players last week but didn’t say who. Wonder if Wood or Staunton

 

And how long would you give a new manager before pronouncing on him. September?

 

He can't sack two managers in six months or his reputation as a CEO would be in tatters. He's a PC World warehouse manager at best who by some huge stroke of fortune finds himself running a football club.

 

Certainly in need of a Performance Director Fordy.

 

Had Sparks just given Trueman and Sellars a contract till the end of the season it wouldn’t have made any difference. We would now be coming to the time when they and the players would want to know what’s happening next season. So with their record of gaining 45 points since their appointment he would be certain to offer them a deal for next season. Any other decision would be nonsense with their record, would an experienced manager have done any better? Of course there are doubts wether they can sustain success next season but that would apply to any other manager. Bowyer, McCall ,Hopkin all sacked, so we have to give these lads a shot at it. We’d look stupid sacking them now with their record. Have a little patience.

 

The time to judge is Christmas, If we are not in the top six by then Sparks will have a decision to make, Does he do what sleepy Julian did and prevaricate or act and try save the season,

 

Top 6? They need to have us well within the top 3, preferably first.

 

You're right Fordy, an expectation of anything less than automatic promotion next season will simply not be good enough. That's not to say we will achieve it, but it has to be the message coming out of the club both in words and in actions, which might mean some difficult decisions will have to be made. I hope we have an excellent summer recruitment wise, and that T&S will have a squad going into the season that they are capable of coaching and managing to a top 3 place. However, if we are on anything lower than 20 points after 11 or 12 games, that for me is when Sparks has to seriously think about making changes.

 

Exactly right. Top 3 should be 100% the aim and our manager decision in the summer, along with our recruitment and player retention decisions should reflect that.

Sparks says all the right things about not tolerating mediocrity. Lets see if its backed up. Its a mindset that still pervades. 'We need 5 years to undo Rahic' - when semi professional clubs have overtaken us in less time. 'Missing the playoffs ain't that bad cos we could've gone down' etc.

Every single year in this league is an embarrassment. Being doubled by Harrogate is a pisstake.

 

T&S are running at auto promotion points total-which is what we all want isn't it?

If that's what they are achieving with the current squad imagine what they could do with better players. We need to stop this knee jerk reaction.

T&S for me are good enough, they have shown it already.

 

That's the dilemma for me. Its a very good point. And yet, at point really have we looked like an automatic promotion quality side. I worry that the stats are skewed by a run of just shading a number of very close games. I.e. a fair bit of luck and new manager bounce fudging the picture.

Its going to be a tough call for Sparks. Either way, the squad has to be the main area of focus for improvement.

 

Our club have a habit doing just that waiting till Christmmas and even though we were sat nicely in a play off place McCall & Bowyer got the boot.

 

I suspect there is more to the Rowe thing than meets the eye.

Agree that midfield has gone to pot since Cooke got injured. For me, he was our stand out player in that great run.

 

We are not a million miles away to give it a good go next season. I think keep the squad together in the main and add 4/5 quality players to it. Similar to the ilk signed in January.
Particular focus on the defence and central midfield for me
Keep that consistency and with other teams scrabbling about to rebuild we can hopefully hit the ground running this time.
It’s much like when McCall lost his play off final, I know we won’t get that far this season, but that summer he needed to be backed by keeping his squad and adding 4 or 5 more quality. We all know what happened but we are not far away in what will be again a poor league id bet.
Only side coming down who are a “big club” are Bristol rovers. The rest are sides who have been at this level for a long time previously.