The Voice - Match preview MK Dons vs Bradford City Tuesday 24th October 2023 19:45

Absolutely they were.

If we'd been in the business of sticking by managers we'd have had more patience collectively. But you know the stats. 12 managers in 11 years or something?

 

Well they bloody well should have done! Oliver had surgery a week into pre-season. It seems like they gambled on him making a very quick recovery and/or Cooky staying fit and firing like he was last season. Reckless decision making. They took the cheap option in signing Smith, who looks like he could play until doomsday without scoring.

 

And? Do you know that sticking with any of those managers would have seen us in a better position?

Perhaps, and obviously there's no definitive proof we'd have been out of the football league now had we stuck with someone like Bowyer or Adams.

 

Don’t disagree by the way. 3 players for every position is a squad of 33 .Remember supporters don’t like utility players?

 

It’s taking too long though Wilsden?

 

Absolutely that cabal are all at fault.
Gent for “identifying “ and arranging, Hughes for the confirmation on the playing side. CeO provides the funds. Even Hughes confirmed that’s how it works during one of his interviews.

 

I don’t know. Tbh he’s a lower league keeper, they make blunders I see it every week on the highlight show. Other than the Tranmere one non have been absolutely shocking, saveable absolutely , but howlers no. He’s also pulled off some worldie in that time as well. For me he’s just levelling out into what he is. A league 2 goalkeeper with a years experience in the English game. It’s been overblown due to our terrible form this season, in no way should any keeper be as overworked as he was last night, unless you’re cut adrift at the bottom like Scunthorpe was but then they let in 7 against Bristol Rovers so overworked keepers often let in more than ours.

 

I think you missed the point there in your haste, Kev.

I'm not for sacking Gent as part of some big clear out, we need footballing men at the club and he's the last one standing. But if we're having a clear out for the sake of it, there's no justifiable reason to keep Sparks.

If you blame Gent for recruitment, how can you not blame Sparks for his recruitment too?

Seems lik a double standard.

 

Whatever you want.

The bottom line is this club is embarrassing. Our turnover of players and managers is embarrassing. One full season without promotion, even if you com close, is intolerable.

You can't achieve success like that, and we won't.

 

I think you can differentiate Jon. Sparks is clearly not a football man, first and foremost but has seemingly done well in another area of his job, which is to bring finance to the club.

Gent, meanwhile, is primarily a football man and has seemingly (who knows his actual influence if we're being fair) played a big role in us recruiting a poorer squad than last term.

 

And today we loan Dylan Youmbi for a month to Farsley Celtic. Hope he listens and learns from Clayton Donaldson and comes back a better forward player.

 

Not convinved still not the best view, I as hoping for one from behind his goal, but even looking at that video once again his wall looked poor, Harry knows all about the modern ball and how it can react when kicked with any power that's why many keepers punch rather than try and collect the ball.

 

Whatever you want.

The bottom line is this club is embarrassing. Our turnover of players and managers is embarrassing. One full season without promotion, even if you com close, is intolerable.

You can't achieve success like that, and we won't.

You're flip flopping Monkey. This squad is capable of so much more in your eyes? Now it's poorer than last term?

It makes no sense to have zero culpability at the top for what actually matters: football.

 

Loads of clubs turn over managers and players at this level, that's the nature of league two. Especially the bigger clubs.

You can also achieve success that way.

What have Bolton, Leyton Orient, Stevenage, Forest Green Rovers and Cambridge United got in common?

Answer. In the last 3 years they have all been promoted from league two immediately after changing managers.

You can also add Bristol Rovers, Carlisle and Port Vale to that list who appointed managers at the back end of the previous season and took the club up in their first full seasons.

That's 8 out of the 12 clubs promoted in the last 3 seasons of league two that disagree with your statement that you won't achieve success by changing a manger.

In fact, I'd suggest that the above statistics show that it's more likely the contrary of your opinion has been proven to be true, or at least recently at this level as I can't be bothered going any further back.

 

As poor as Lewis was for a couple of the goals last night,the complete shitshow in front of him has to take most of the blame.
In the first 15 minutes they had a 3 against 1 situation which fortunately came to nothing.
That’s the sort of thing that should only happen in the last 5 minutes of a game you are desperately chasing,not a game where you are already 1down and have barely broken sweat.
The really good save he made in the second half came from a bog standard cross that was headed down to their player in the box with 2 yards of space all around him.

They put in the best performance by an opposition side I've seen this season but we absolutely put it on a plate for them at times.

 

Then there was recruitment. There are a number of players who are not good enough or just not fit for high intensity football. I am making a presumption that MH had some input into the recruitment. There is no point in having a large squad if half of them are not up to it. Our older players can’t play two games inside a week or even the full match eg. more than 20 minutes. The younger lads just lack experience, hopefully they will come good.

 

So now you think our high turnover of managers is a positive, and we are well run?

Or you're playing devils advocate?

What's going on here? This doesn't feel at all like any stance you've taken these past few seasons?

I'm very confused on where you stand. It seems to all be okay all of a sudden?

 

I'm going to admit I don't know much about Sparks. But there seems to be a lot of people aiming everything at him which may or may not be fair. But as I've said before, his last two appointments were Hughes and Adams. On paper both seemed reasonable appointments. I know some have rebuffed about Hughes and once you dig deeper there could be some questions, but there won't have been many fans who said at the time he was appointed "Not happy with that".

I can't imagine Sparks is the only person interviewing potential managers. I would imagine there will be at least 2 and most probably 3/4 interviewing. They need to get this right.

The recruitment was poor in the summer. I don't know everyone at the club and what their role is, but at this level the manager probably has a large input into player recruitment. If Mark Hughes says he wants a player and he's in budget, as a CEO you'd probably trust that judgement. I mean you have to, you can't just not back your man.

Anyway whoever gets the job needs a good 1/2 years before we get on their backs. Can we do that? I suspect not. Unless it's blatantly obvious it won't ever work.