Eddie

I reckon it will be someone we’ve never heard of. Either a coach at one of the top teams (I.e McKenna), foreign or from L2 / national league

He did a very good piece on Monday night football with Neville and Carragher, just after Wolves had beaten someone and he talked them through the tactics as to how they went about it. It was very good, and was a clear example of the ideology working to its best - he got a lot of praise in the media following it and it was really clear that he has an unbelievable footballing brain. I genuinely think a lot of the positivity around his managerial ability came from that (plus he’s highly regarded here from his playing stint with us). However, roll forward 6 months and he’s losing matches left right and centre with his team making the same mistakes as he tries to find that same perfect formula. He’s not able to address it and be pragmatic to switch things up, he doubled down on the philosophy and ultimately lost his job because of it. I like the guy but it would be frying pan and fire for me. I don’t think the club, and definitely the fan base, is ready for the same stuff from a different person - it would not go down well!

Arfield. He’s doing fuck all in a playing capacity

Gary O’Neill still had Craig Dawson playing 5 yard passes across his box well after it was apparent that it was causing them problems. I like the guy, but from what I saw at Wolves he’s very much in the Martin, Evatt, Van Nistelrooy camp of style of play and I’m not sure we’re ready to see that again so soon. Can you imagine the first game, fans buzzing that Evatt has gone and the first goal kick Santos knocks it 3 yards to Southwood… it’d be over for him from that point!

Was it @Zico that put the next 6/7 fixtures up on the other thread (I could look but I’m being lazy)? I think it was Huddersfield away and then a run of a load of dross before we hit another couple of big games. Timing could work perfectly (ignoring the elephant in the room of the transfer window). Stick a caretaker in for Huddersfield, free hit, we all thought we’d lose with Evatt in charge so no hard feelings if we do. Then the new man comes in, should realistically be picking up 5 or 6 wins in those first 6 or 7 games, purely from who we’re playing. Feel good factor is back, we’d likely be in the play off spots, fans well back on board and bought into the new man and all of a sudden we’re the team you don’t want to get in the play offs (without really having to do too much considering the opposition). Amazing how one decision can change the way you look at something. We’re going up 😂

Hindsight says he should have gone after Oxford. It was a watershed moment and he was never recovering from it - I do think it was fair that he got another go though considering it had all been upwards before that. I thought he would take us to the Champ and do well. At one stage him having those shares and being able to fend off Championship clubs that might come looking seemed like a master stroke, and those personal allegations that could have potentially caused us to make a decision we didn’t want to seemed awful. Unfortunately it slowly started to unravel and the cracks were there well before Oxford. Ultimately his stubbornness and inability to flex his style - not formation, I know he changed that, but overall style of play, disregarding the requirement for some steel in the team and even spouting as recently as last night that he wouldn’t want to watch Charlton every week - was his undoing. I still think he might end up being successful somewhere, but he’ll have to learn from how this all ended and I’m not sure he’ll want to. He undoubtedly leaves us in a better position, although it’s hard not to from the rock bottom he took over and the amount of money he’s spent. Now for a fresh pair of eyes and new energy to take us to the next level.

I reckon this will be the most concerning part of last night for Sharon and the board. Granted most weeknight games will be less, due to now being on sky, but I’d bet that is at least 3k lower than our previous lowest. Loss of footfall is terrible for business and an indication of what’s to come with season ticket renewals. It’ll be the business side of it that pushes her hand more than the football side (albeit granted they’re intrinsically linked) in my opinion.

1 point from Cambridge and Charlton at home, off the back of the already terrible results, regardless as to whether we’ve played any better, is just not acceptable. HE’S GOT TO GO

He turned around to Southwood straight after, either because there was a shout and he didn’t come, or because he thought he should have come and he didn’t. Unless there was a shout then you’ve got to just put your head on it. Shame because I thought he’d looked really good to that point, he’d put his head on everything!

Really good from Collins. Calm when put through, made the right decision, executed it well (and made it look pretty easy). Glad for Randall too, he’s come into a shitshow and not really shown anything so far but hopefully that will give him a lift.

At risk of sounding like I’ve got a completely negative outlook today. We do look much better, but I’m afraid it’s as @gonzo pointed out - Charlton haven’t read the manual on how to play against us. They are properly shit and seem to want to give us the chance to play ‘our way’. And we’re still not winning.

He’s a liability. He is in no way physical. Fouling players is not physical. Getting 9 yellow cards in half a season when you’ve been out for 7 games is not physical. He’s too slow, which means he’s always a split second behind and has to resort to rugby tackling or lunging. He doesn’t go shoulder to shoulder and brush players off the ball, he doesn’t come out of 50:50s winning the ball cleanly, he can’t head. He’s seriously fucking limited and no bid from Bristol a few years ago is going to change my mind on that.

Water carriers generally tackle well, break up play, get around the pitch and track runners. GT isn’t very good at any of the above.

Amazing that he’s watched that shit show on Saturday and still Matete is on the bench

Let’s be honest about it, nobody’s really offended or that arsed about it. If we were flying high then not one person would give a shit. However, we’ve got a fan base that want the manager out, an owner that doesn’t want to pot him and he’s just given them a reason to make a mountain out of a molehill to see if that helps get him gone. Nowt more to it

So he should. Didn’t we have about 3 senior players and a few kids when he took over, and since he’s spent probably north of £5-6m - you’d be hard pressed to leave us with worse.

The diamond would work well on paper. Matete Sheehan Morley Randall Matete has the defensive side of his game and covers enough ground to be the base of the diamond. Morley and Sheehan play as your genuine midfielders, both freed up slightly to get further forward (which would benefit them both) and Randall plays as a genuine 10. Problem is, it isn’t Fifa on the PlayStation. We’d have fuck all width and you’d need a combination of your full backs, Sheehan and Morley and your forwards to pull out wide to make it work - all of which needs some time to coach and understand. Biggest thing for me though is just the change to the back 4. It fundamentally changes the way we play and should address the key issues. Whatever happens above it (diamond, 4231, 433) is what it is - at least you have another player up there and you aren’t solely relying on shit wing backs to be successful

JDC Forrester Toal [New left back] I’d rather a new right back but we can probably get away with JDC seeing as he has played RCB reasonably well. We absolutely 100% need a left back because Schon is no defender. Forrester and Toal for me could be a proper centre back partnership for years. Youngish, both love to defend, Forrester a bit of a nutter, Toal a talker (should be captain) and comfortable enough on his left to play LCB. If they had a run of games together with a decent defensive mid in front of them then I think you’d see a huge difference in our ability to defend. No requirement to overlap up the wing, just defend.

😂 you could, if you were his agent

That from Randall is a really worry. He ran from inside his own half to the corner flag without even trying to challenge him, he just shadowed him giving him a 3 yard buffer so he didn’t feel too much pressure. Unbelievably poor

Bad news when I’m watching the team 23rd in our league, who have lost the last 5 games scoring 2 goals and I’m wishing we had their number 18 up top for us. Turns out he’s 27, kicked around the lower leagues all his career, never done anything of note, has been kept out of the Cambridge team by fucking Dan and tore us a new one - why? He was fucking physical! Everything we haven’t got and enabled them to get out easily. Santos struggled with him (he also out-paced him which was a worry) and we generally made him look like prime Kevin Davies. Yet another sad indictment of where we are at the moment.

I was about to write about that second goal we conceded and the problems in our team that caused it, but it feels pointless. We all know it’s fucked and it’s not just that goal, it’s fundamentally broken and you could pick apart almost all of the match for one reason or another. I laughed when they scored and I didn’t jump up and celebrate when we did. That’s not me trying to prove a point, it was just my natural reaction which I think is really telling. Apathy is a killer. I very nearly found a reason not to go today but even when I was there I couldn’t really be arsed with it, I was more interested in just how shit we could actually get. He’s got to go, surely. I want the excitement back and it can be salvaged this season. We’re 3 points outside the play offs - if on Monday we sacked him then all of a sudden I’d be bang up for making a fight of it for the rest of the season (sheer hope from a change), whereas if he stays we may as well be 23 points away from them as I just have zero belief that we can go up with him in charge.

Pretty damning rendition of “we want Evatt out” post the equaliser and at full time from all sides of the ground. If the board had any thoughts that that equaliser changed any minds then they were made very aware of the answer.

It’s not even that we’re losing. It’s the fact that we look absolutely clueless how to play at home to 23rd in the league. They’re making it up as the go along (and not well)

To be fair I think we will be, I’m pretty confident we’ll win regardless. Doesn’t make it any less of a stupid decision though, it’s not like he’s saving Matete for a big game coming up. He just not drop GT