Im used to being alone in my opinions and fighting a losing or unpopular arguement , but here is I think , some food for thought. 

After the Tranmere Play Off Final the club had an unbelievable hangover from that defeat which lasted the whole season . We were doing ok until mid feb and got the stuffing kicked out of us in an FA cup tie away at Southampton .

Despite signing Andy Walker & Mark patterson , and yet to have Stubbs & MacAteer play , From Jan we won 4 out of the last 19 games . Philliskirk 19 , Walker 18 , Reeves 15, Darby 10 goals and finished 13th . After getting beat away at Preston at the end of March when 1-0 up in the 89th minute and losing 2-1 , Phil Neal, realising the play offs were too far away  played the kids to see if any of them would step up and change things : Spooner, Roscoe, Fisher, Brookman, Stevens, Jeffrey.  It didnt work and we finished 13th .

I see a lot of similarities to this team and manager . Devastated by missing out on promotion at Wembley when everyone outside of the wirrall/Oxford thought we would do it. Players who did amazing last season just no longer cutting it . The Wembley hang over curse that only seems to affect us . 

Rioch came in and was obviously a genius but he already had a first team of Felgate, Seagraves, Stubbs, P Brown, Macateer , Storer , Patterson , Winstanley , Green , Darby , Kelly , Reeves , Philliskirk & Walker . I think Neal would have got us promoted with that squad. 

Rioch brought in Brannigan , McGinlay , Lydiate & Gary Parkinson, and in January David Lee . 1 would fire in a shed load of goals , the keeper IMO didnt need replacing and the other 2 the less said the better. Lee replaced Patterson wide left and Paddy was moved inside to midfield to compete with Kelly & Macateer . I remember the abuse Tony Kelly used to get as he was brought in to replace Steve Thompson and wasnt half the player , but with Macateer replacing Jules as they call him at Bolton , it worked . With Darby becoming the epitomy of a utility player and eventually being hounded out by the Bolton fans for being home grown . We just dont take to um , strange really.  

The point of all this waffle is that  IF we write off this season as just another 91/92 and regroup , the squad IS good enough to get promoted next season . The Board place a very high regard on working relationships and it seems to be the best Ive known .

If thats the case Then I expect a huge clear out and rebuilding in January . The 2 in midfield simply does not work , Adebanjo , as much as you want to love the guy is just not good enough , playing Macatee in midfield isnt good enough and playng wingers as wing backs is not good enough . There are players like Ricardo gardner that will adapt there game to suit whatever is asked of them , as did Campo , Hierro , Bernard Mendy (which was when we played with actual wing backs and scared the crap out of the Prem at the time) , Kevin Davies et al . yes we are talking about National and World class players but the principle remains. 

If Evatt stays , then he has to know/learn that his style of football  (whilst it has given us plenty of joy) isnt pragmatic enough to play the way he wants with 3rd division footballers . I would take a Steve Thompson & Julian Darby over what we currently play in midfield , a ratter and a passer . SJM and Andy Walker showed you dont need a big un and a litl un at this level up front, and the last time we got promoted from this division we had 2 centre backs in wheavers and Beaters that would never allow a cross into the box at head hieght or above and would put there body . legs , face, bollocks on the line to defend. and come up with 10 goals between them .   If a cross comes in now if Rico doesnt head it out then who can ? 

Speaking of which why has Santos suddenly morphed into Mark Fish ? 

As is stands so far this season , being nearly half way thru :

Baxter : Always thought he was a bit Dracula but now his dithering with the ball at his feet is just pissing me off , excellent shot stopper but Id drop him . 

Southwood : After a shaky start looks a proper keeper , decent shotstopper and quicker with the ball at his feet than his oppo . I couldnt give a shit if its fear . Im now in the saftey / row zed / put some fucking snow on it , camp. 

GJ : If he had been fit all of last season we would have gone up , no question no arguments. Since he came back apart from the first 2 months he has looked a shadow of himself. 

Santos : looks an absolute shadow of himself , like he has lost some pace and no longer knows what to do on the ball .

Jones : filling in and back from injury but a center half he isnt , had his best season with Bradley in front of him but then I would have too.

Toal : FFS mate stay fit , see GJ above .

Forrester : Im a fan of , has rarely let us down , no more than any one else. Did he fall down the stairs or did he kick fuck out of the microwave for getting his beans wrong ? 

Schon : A winger not a wing back , hampered by having to do both jobs. 

Desmond : As above , jury out on his defensive side . Evatt pandered to the crowd to start him today . Big mistake. 

JDC : Not his biggest fan but unreal engine and defends better than the above .  If he could only stop trying to cut inside when he gets forward !!

Williams : Has a long throw.

GT : Not the Messiah everyone wants him to be , 1 great game + 2 crap ones .

Matete : Player in there somewhere , but if playing as a DMC stop fucking fancy daning it.

Sheehan : Hugely disappointing this year , should never have been turned into a dmc quarterback . Play him behind the front 2 and give him a free role 

Morley : see above , cant come back quick enough if only to solve the 2 in midfield fiasco . Smacks of the last year of JJ when BSA wanted him to defend more . Like Sheehan , JJ , Ricky.  you lose more than you gain . 

Dempsey : crowd favourite , drives us on forever injured.

Lolos : no idea 

Adebanjo : should never play for us again . Lovely guy we all want to succeed , never gonna happen. 

Macatee : Im being asked to play where ?  probably MOM against Wigin but a very very low bar . Put him up front with Charles to have two ratters , I could see it work. however...

Charles : Did he get a pass ? Did he make any kind of movement to open up for a pass ? Looks burned out .

Collins : clearly the best footballer at the club ...how do you fancy 15 mins every other month that has a q in it ? 

Arfield : who ?

Sonny sssasasa : Anyone and I mean anyone would have been better in midfield than the tactics today . 

 

So , and if you are still reading God bless you Im boring myself, whats the answer ?  

Either Evatt gets the time to have a miraculous January where he brings in the second coming of Kieron Lee , Stig Tofting & Gudni Bergsson , flukes a Sasa Curcic & Abdoulaye Faye/ Rahdi Jedi . OR He completely reevaluates his philosophy and becomes the new BSA , If it works we do it , just to get us out of this shitty fucking league . No VAR ? Stand in front of the keeper and see what happens , linesmans blind and we now have Andre the Giant to aim at !

Or the board back him saying this season is a write off but here is some cash for the summer , go get Dennis Bergkamp.

Or he falls on his sword . Says Ive done all I can with this group of players , time for someone else to kick on . (Schumacher ?)

For me , I hate that its got to the Megson point (at least Evatt hasnt spunked 44 million) but the fans have turned and so have I .

Phil Neal had the OLD Liverpool way of 15 first teamers that would play anywhere rather than bringing someone else in ( Mark Came up front ?) til it was too late . Evatt is the same .

(cant believe I managed to bring it full circle)

And so now unfortunately , regretably , finally , and I take zero pleasure form writing this........I am also for a change of manager. 

 

 

 

 

 

Just now, gonzo said:

My 10 year old didn't go yesterday as he knew we'd get beat and was tired after his football.

It's a poor do when the kids are losing the appetite.

That’s grim. 

Just now, wakey said:

the most pointless bit of espionage in the history of mankind.

maybe just fancied a bit of a laugh ...

“I’ve got this lads…. Schon you go to the right”

“But but gaffer I don’t have a right foot..”

“Tutu you go on the left”

”Anything else lads?”

“Yeh boss Wigan coach is listening in”

”Fuckin hell, how have you all let that happen?? My master plan has now been rumbled..”

Players run off

“Just mix it up, we’ll sort it out at half time”

Schon: “So where am I playing then?”

Sharon will only pull the trigger when the fans’ noise is too hard to ignore. A couple of bedsheets and yesterday’s booing won’t be enough.

She’ll be desperate for a couple of home wins against Barnsley and Lincoln (as we all are) to settle the nerves and push us into the play off spots. But if we lose at Wycombe and we get turned over by Barnsley, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was too toxic for her to ignore.

I used to see a bloke from work in the king Bill before games at Burnden, then I'd bump into him again sometimes on a Saturday night, " what d'ya think of that dross again today?" I would ask and more times than not he would say dunno i couldn't bring myself to go in.

30 minutes ago, tomski said:

Good man. I’ll be back all over it the day he leaves 

Me too, but I do think this isn't going away the day IE leaves, as much as that will give us all renewed hope and optimism, and no doubt some new manager bounce wins (if the fixtures are kind). 

But the squad he's left us with is so weak and devoid of full backs/wingers/centre forwards, this squad isn't suddenly winning the tougher games.  A year ago, maybe, but he's weakened us and made the job harder for his successor.

No chance

9 minutes ago, Zico said:

SB: "Go on, pull my finger ..."

2 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Me too, but I do think this isn't going away the day IE leaves, as much as that will give us all renewed hope and optimism, and no doubt some new manager bounce wins (if the fixtures are kind). 

But the squad he's left us with is so weak and devoid of full backs/wingers/centre forwards, this squad isn't suddenly winning the tougher games.  A year ago, maybe, but he's weakened us and made the job harder for his successor.

Correct. They aren't suddenly going to start winning the games they can't win now just because they've a new manager to listen to

1 hour ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Correct. They aren't suddenly going to start winning the games they can't win now just because they've a new manager to listen to

Squad is full of players who have looked quality and given full effort before. They didn't all become permanently lazy and shit at the same moment.

New manager will clearly need to fix some of the squad balance mistakes made, but they'll get a different tune out of the same instrument pretty quickly.

6 hours ago, Whitestar said:

I used to see a bloke from work in the king Bill before games at Burnden, then I'd bump into him again sometimes on a Saturday night, " what d'ya think of that dross again today?" I would ask and more times than not he would say dunno i couldn't bring myself to go in.

Nicky Brookman?

13 hours ago, Zico said:

Could be ripping him a new arsehole or handing him a festive Cadbury Favourite.

I'll do the two Xmas home games plus Mansfield & Exeter, because Jnr will be back from Uni and then I'm taking some time out.

17 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

All those sorts of things seem so melodramatic to me. We already have boycotts every week with 5 minutes left, and yesterday’s was brought forward 25 minutes earlier than usual. 

A bit like Sunshine On Leith then? 😉

15 hours ago, Zico said:

Is it just me or does Sharon look rather delectable from this angle?

4 hours ago, Traf said:

I'll do the two Xmas home games plus Mansfield & Exeter, because Jnr will be back from Uni and then I'm taking some time out.

See you at Rotherham 😀

6 hours ago, perth_white said:

Could be ripping him a new arsehole or handing him a festive Cadbury Favourite.

He's got a look on his face that says "you want to see the state of our wes"

16 hours ago, maaarsh said:

Squad is full of players who have looked quality and given full effort before. They didn't all become permanently lazy and shit at the same moment.

New manager will clearly need to fix some of the squad balance mistakes made, but they'll get a different tune out of the same instrument pretty quickly.

The new manager bounce.

No guarantees of course, but sometimes just a new voice can help.

Beyond that, some tactical flexibility wouldn't go amiss.

Can see the tipping point being when the early bird season tickets go on sale and a poor take up might force the clubs hand for now looks like there digging there heals in 

1 hour ago, Zico said:

He's got a look on his face that says "you want to see the state of our wes"

Any chance of an explanation? I haven't a clue on that reference.

7 minutes ago, perth_white said:

Any chance of an explanation? I haven't a clue on that reference.

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, gonzo said:

 

 

 

Haha thanks, well after I left Blighty and I've never seen it.