What’s your expectation for the new guy? (18 Viewers)

[Ring Of Steel]

No one did, but they can pretend now. It's easy.

It seems like Robins was held to expectations that the new manager is going to be completely free from. Not a bad gig for whoever gets it. We’ve switched from someone who made a habit out of completely turning around bad starts to offering hugs & support to someone for bringing us in lower mid table even with all the remaining games to play with. To be confidently predicting that 8 points gap in 30 odd games is somehow unassailable, don’t get it- history shows it’s very doable.

I accept he’s gone but I don’t accept that we’ve now got to park all expectations. And if we are now saying zero progress is ok, what exactly was the point of getting rid of Robins?

 

---

[Skyblueweeman]

Robins had a history of turning it round and getting a great PPG ratio in the 2nd half of the season.

Not often I agree with @shmmeee but he's bang on. We're literally just 8 points off the play offs with 2/3s of the season to go. This is arguably the weakest Championship for a few years with anyone capable of getting results against anyone.

It's not going to take an 'Auto style run' to the end of the season to make the play offs.

Yes we've not been playing well and the Derby performance was horrendous. But we've just taken a point away at Sunderland, arguably the best team in the league, without a few of our best players.

As confident as I was at MR turning it round, if the new manager is the right appointment, we can totally make the POs. Anyone who says otherwise is more negative than Big G.

 

[SBT]

To those with more realistic ambitions.

What purpose does it serve to sack Robins mid season for us to finish mid table?

You either give him the season and see what happens. Part way amicably in the summer and proper planning for new setup if no play offs.

Or you sack him and expect play offs?

You get a new manager in now and give them the rest of the season and two transfer windows to remake the squad and the playing style. You then remove any excuses for a slow start at the beginning of next season, with the goal of properly going for it in 25/26.

 

[clint van damme]

To those with more realistic ambitions.

What purpose does it serve to sack Robins mid season for us to finish mid table?

You either give him the season and see what happens. Part way amicably in the summer and proper planning for new setup if no play offs.

Or you sack him and expect play offs?

There's a small band of our support who've had an agenda against Robins for a long time and are glad to see him go

I guarantee some of them will have been gutted when the winner went in against Luton.

The sudden lowering of expectations for the new manager says it all.

 

[Grendel]

you keep repeating this 8 points off the playoffs, it means little when there are 11 teams between us and 6th place.

History shows you need 74 ish points to make the playoffs, to get there we'll need to average a ppg rate that would get us near the automatic spots over a full season.

And one point from relegation......

 

[SBT]

We're literally just 8 points off the play offs with 2/3s of the season to go. This is arguably the weakest Championship for a few years with anyone capable of getting results against anyone.

There are ten teams outside the top six in this supposedly weak division who are currently in an even more advantageous position. What makes you so convinced they are all likely to underachieve for the rest of the season as we turn things round en route to the playoffs?

 

[Grendel]

Robins had a history of turning it round and getting a great PPG ratio in the 2nd half of the season.

Not often I agree with @shmmeee but he's bang on. We're literally just 8 points off the play offs with 2/3s of the season to go. This is arguably the weakest Championship for a few years with anyone capable of getting results against anyone.

It's not going to take an 'Auto style run' to the end of the season to make the play offs.

Yes we've not been playing well and the Derby performance was horrendous. But we've just taken a point away at Sunderland, arguably the best team in the league, without a few of our best players.

As confident as I was at MR turning it round, if the new manager is the right appointment, we can totally make the POs. Anyone who says otherwise is more negative than Big G.

Our record against top half teams last season was atrocious and we accumulate a large amount of points last season against the lower teams.

We have already lost to poor teams at home this season - the home form has been dire.

We will need around 60 points to get the play offs from where we are now. That is auto promotion form

 

[False9]

You get a new manager in now and give them the rest of the season and two transfer windows to remake the squad and the playing style. You then remove any excuses for a slow start at the beginning of next season, with the goal of properly going for it in 25/26.

Doug is not going to sign off on a new coach ripping up the squad.

They will be expected to perform with the squad available plus additions signed by the recruitment team.

You're effectively writing off the season. If we finish mid table under a new man, where's the optimism and hope?

 

[Ring Of Steel]

There's a small band of our support who've had an agenda against Robins for a long time and are glad to see him go

I guarantee some of them will have been gutted when the winner went in against Luton.

The sudden lowering of expectations for the new manager says it all.

all this pissing around with models and justifications- they just wanted him gone and now are scrabbling around getting the excuses ready in case it turns out it was a bad move after all. Incredibly transparent.

in 22/23 I remember the Swansea 3-3 game where there were people hysterical at what a disaster it was, worst ever, season over etc, then the Wrexham FA Cup game where people were saying it was one of the most embarrassing games ever, ranting & raving, the usual stuff- where did we end up finishing that season?

Robins did that on a regular basis, so now to be saying that the new guy isn’t going to have anything like the same expectation, pretty embarrassing really, and again I would ask what was the point if that’s now the limit of our ambitions for the season?

 

[TomRad85]

It seems like Robins was held to expectations that the new manager is going to be completely free from. Not a bad gig for whoever gets it. We’ve switched from someone who made a habit out of completely turning around bad starts to offering hugs & support to someone for bringing us in lower mid table even with all the remaining games to play with. To be confidently predicting that 8 points gap in 30 odd games is somehow unassailable, don’t get it- history shows it’s very doable.

I accept he’s gone but I don’t accept that we’ve now got to park all expectations. And if we are now saying zero progress is ok, what exactly was the point of getting rid of Robins?

As i said before, you can't play out 2 timelines at once unfortunately. I didn't see Robins turning it around, he was looking lost, had resorted to hoping for the best and was reacting increasingly slowly in game, often getting out thought by fairly mediocre managers. You can't keep saying but but but he's turned it around before.
He's spent a lot of money and shown that he's susceptible to going on extremely long poor runs of form. You don't get where you want to be by doing that. He's been treading a fine line for a while and as i say, many that have spent long periods of time moaning about him have now gone completely bananas.
Also i'm not saying zero progress is ok, i expect us to improve, i don't think improvement is hard from what i've seen this season in all honesty but i would hope for fairly significant improvement. Expecting play offs however from the position Robins had us in is ridiculous, its more babyish nonsense so people can back slap each other at the end of the season and say i told you so, Robins would have got play offs!
New flash... he fucking wouldn't have.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

Doug is not going to sign off on a new coach ripping up the squad.

They will be expected to perform with the squad available plus additions signed by the recruitment team.

You're effectively writing off the season. If we finish mid table under a new man, where's the optimism and hope?

and what was the point in sacking Robins if that’s what we’re now planning for, and why would you bother with Frank Lampard

 

[Nick]

then the Wrexham FA Cup game where people were saying it was one of the most embarrassing games ever, ranting & raving, the usual stuff- where did we end up finishing that season?

Captain Hindsight to the rescue. It doesn't stop that game being embarrassing, does it?

There is absolutely no chance Robins would have given us Automatic Promotion form from now until the end of the season.

Let's face it, some of our fans are being overly weird like Robins has had a hit put out on him from the way they are acting.All of this "it would have turned round" is weird considering the coaches are dog shit, the players are dog shit, the owner is dog shit, the recruitment is dog shit and Robins had his hands tied by being kidnapped by Doug King and forced to tow the line.

It's just making up bat-shit scenarios.

 

[SBT]

Doug is not going to sign off on a new coach ripping up the squad.

They will be expected to perform with the squad available plus additions signed by the recruitment team.

You're effectively writing off the season. If we finish mid table under a new man, where's the optimism and hope?

I don’t think the squad needs ripping up but I think we can all see that changes are needed, and any new manager will expect to be able to bring in new players.

We effectively finished mid-table last year and I seem to recall quite a lot of hope about this current season. If a new manager comes in and gets the team playing consistently well in a style that suits our top players then I’ll feel confident about next season whether we finish in the playoffs or not.

 

[skybluecam]

Doug is not going to sign off on a new coach ripping up the squad.

They will be expected to perform with the squad available plus additions signed by the recruitment team.

You're effectively writing off the season. If we finish mid table under a new man, where's the optimism and hope?

If we finish ~10th ish then the new manager will have averaged playoff form or close to it.

The hope would be that he carries that into next season and we have a chance at promotion.

This is also undoubtedly one of the reasons Robins was sacked, because over the last 3 seasons he's consistently failed to pick up where he left off last season.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

Captain Hindsight to the rescue. It doesn't stop that game being embarrassing, does it?

There is absolutely no chance Robins would have given us Automatic Promotion form from now until the end of the season.

Let's face it, some of our fans are being overly weird like Robins has had a hit put out on him from the way they are acting.All of this "it would have turned round" is weird considering the coaches are dog shit, the players are dog shit, the owner is dog shit, the recruitment is dog shit and Robins had his hands tied by being kidnapped by Doug King and forced to tow the line.

How is it hindsight? It’s fact, you can go and see the fixtures and league tables and see for yourself. It’s reality, it happened.

Do you think it was the right move to sack him if we are now just aiming for survival/ lower mid table? And again, why go after Frank Lampard if we’re looking at some kind of restructure job as opposed to an all out push for the playoffs?

The reality of course, as we all know, is a little more complicated that all this, it goes deeper than results, my judgement rightly or wrongly is that Robins just couldn’t work in this structure, and the relationships around him fell apart.

Not much anyone can do now, but to me it’s just weird and tinpot to now be rolling out a whole load of amended down expectations, and I believe some of it is to protect the ‘robins out’ position some people had.

 

[covcity4life]

I've said 9th to 11th which I think is reasonable but I can't see what's wrong with people saying higher than that.
After all, Robins has done it in the last 2 seasons from the poor position we're now so why have we sacked him to lower expectations?

But when first appointed in second stint he failed to save us from relegation. So that's why in saying short term if it's not great it doesn't necessarily mean long term isn't going to be

I think mid table and seeing promising patterns of play is reasonable but obviously I'm hoping for a playoff push with new manager.

 

[Nick]

How is it hindsight? It’s fact, you can go and see the fixtures and league tables and see for yourself. It’s reality, it happened.

Do you think it was the right move to sack him if we are now just aiming for survival/ lower mid table? And again, why go after Frank Lampard if we’re looking at some kind of restructure job as opposed to an all out push for the playoffs?

The reality of course, as we all know, is a little more complicated that all this, it goes deeper than results, my judgement rightly or wrongly is that Robins just couldn’t work in this structure, and the relationships around him fell apart.

Not much anyone can do now, but to me it’s just weird and tinpot to now be rolling out a whole load of amended down expectations, and I believe some of it is to protect the ‘robins out’ position some people had.

It's hindsight because people walking home from the Wrexham game pissed off is still valid because what they had just seen.

You are off your head, the expectations are amended from the start of the season because of the pathetic start we have had. You can say "but Robins would have turned it around and we would be in the play offs", would he though?

 

[Ring Of Steel]

It's hindsight because people walking home from the Wrexham game pissed off is still valid because what they had just seen.

You are off your head, the expectations are amended from the start of the season because of the pathetic start we have had. You can say "but Robins would have turned it around and we would be in the play offs", would he though?

We will never know, but what we do know is that pretty much every season he was here that’s exactly what he did do- turn bad starts around.

 

[clint van damme]

But when first appointed in second stint he failed to save us from relegation. So that's why in saying short term if it's not great it doesn't necessarily mean long term isn't going to be

I think mid table and seeing promising patterns of play is reasonable but obviously I'm hoping for a playoff push with new manager.

I agree. But theres a definite downgrading of expectation from the Robins haters, genuinely embarrassed for them.

 

[Grendel]

How is it hindsight? It’s fact, you can go and see the fixtures and league tables and see for yourself. It’s reality, it happened.

Do you think it was the right move to sack him if we are now just aiming for survival/ lower mid table? And again, why go after Frank Lampard if we’re looking at some kind of restructure job as opposed to an all out push for the playoffs?

The reality of course, as we all know, is a little more complicated that all this, it goes deeper than results, my judgement rightly or wrongly is that Robins just couldn’t work in this structure, and the relationships around him fell apart.

Not much anyone can do now, but to me it’s just weird and tinpot to now be rolling out a whole load of amended down expectations, and I believe some of it is to protect the ‘robins out’ position some people had.

If we average 2 points a game from today we may make the play offs. To be able to achieve that would be improbable to say the least.

Plymouth and Cardiff has as much chance as us at this stage.

 

[False9]

If we finish ~10th ish then the new manager will have averaged playoff form or close to it.

The hope would be that he carries that into next season and we have a chance at promotion.

This is also undoubtedly one of the reasons Robins was sacked, because over the last 3 seasons he's consistently failed to pick up where he left off last season.

I just think that leaves us In a position where a poor start the following season just kills all momentum and we have to sack again.

You're better off planning for a departure and giving a new man pre season.

Crucially the fanbase would be more accepting of Robins departure and season ticket sales maintained with the hope of a new era

Edit

The other advantage of waiting until the summer is we're not panicking to bring in a Lampard

 

[stupot07]

People really need to stop going on about the play off season, we had Hamer and Gyokeres, arguably the 2 best players in the league and genuine match winners, and we had them fit virtually all season

 

[covcity4life]

I agree. But theres a definite downgrading of expectation from the Robins haters, genuinely embarrassed for them.

Well I dunno about that as I'm not a robins hater . I think arguing against some crybabies possibly makes me look like one but I can confirm I am not.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

But when first appointed in second stint he failed to save us from relegation. So that's why in saying short term if it's not great it doesn't necessarily mean long term isn't going to be

I think mid table and seeing promising patterns of play is reasonable but obviously I'm hoping for a playoff push with new manager.

I could live with that, it’s a fair enough view, but some of the deliberate underplaying of what we should expect is ridiculous.

 

[covcity4life]

I could live with that, it’s a fair enough view, but some of the deliberate underplaying of what we should expect is ridiculous.

Playoffs are possible. Were for robins and are same for the new guy too. Doesn't mean should achieve it but it is possible if things click

 

[Ring Of Steel]

Playoffs are possible. We're for robins and are fine the new guy too. Doesn't mean should achieve it but it is possible if things click

I respect your view, solidly put

 

[clint van damme]

People really need to stop going on about the play off season, we had Hamer and Gyokeres, arguably the 2 best players in the league and genuine match winners, and we had them fit virtually all season

Yet we were still bottom of the table going into winter.
Did anyone genuinely believe we'd go on the run we did?

Personally I don't think that would have happened this season but to pretend there aren't massive parallels is just talking bollocks.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

At the end of the season see what PPG were need for play-offs. If the new manager achieves that over the games he has, then that's fine.

Even if it's slightly below but the team look organised, motivated and playing attractive football.

 

[stupot07]

I agree. But theres a definite downgrading of expectation from the Robins haters, genuinely embarrassed for them.

I'm not a robins hater, but there is a difference between expectations when you have 46 games of a season. And some coming in with only 31 with the team looking out of sorts and already conceding significant ground.

To finish top 6 c73 points

46 games = 1.59 points per game over the season

Assuming the manager will be before Sheffield United, if we expect play offs then we have higher expectations as we he will need a high ppg than what was expected of robins

31 games = 1.84 ppg.

Yes form goes in peaks and troughs, but given that the new manager doesn't have 46 games. If he matches the 1.59 for the rest of the season we will get around 65 points which will be around 9-10th place.

 

[covcity4life]

Yet we were still bottom of the table going into winter.
Did anyone genuinely believe we'd go on the run we did?

Personally I don't think that would have happened this season but to pretend there aren't massive parallels is just talking bollocks.

But for a owner that's a big risk to take no?

We always used to avoid relegation in prem....till we didn't.

 

[clint van damme]

I'm not a robins hater, but there is a difference between expectations when you have 46 games of a season. And some coming in with only 31 with the team looking out of sorts and already conceding significant ground.

To finish top 6 c73 points

46 games = 1.59 points per game over the season

Assuming the manager will be before Sheffield United, if we expect play offs then we have higher expectations as we he will need a high ppg than what was expected of robins

31 games = 1.84 ppg.

Yes form goes in peaks and troughs, but given that the new manager doesn't have 46 games. If he matches the 1.59 for the rest of the season we will get around 65 points which will be around 9-10th place.

I'm not expecting the play offs though. I've said 9th to 11th would be fine.
But if Robins had us finishing there, which I'm certain he would of, I wouldn't gave Benn crying like some of the entitled babies on here.

 

[stupot07]

Yet we were still bottom of the table going into winter.
Did anyone genuinely believe we'd go on the run we did?

Personally I don't think that would have happened this season but to pretend there aren't massive parallels is just talking bollocks.

It was completely different as we had the pitch debacle, had played more away than at home, had big gaps between games due to postponements. After 15 games we 22nd and had 2 games in hand, we weren't bottom.

 

[Grendel]

I'm not expecting the play offs though. I've said 9th to 11th would be fine.
But if Robins had us finishing there, which I'm certain he would of, I wouldn't gave Benn crying like some of the entitled babies on here.

There is zero certainty we would have

 

[clint van damme]

But for a owner that's a big risk to take no?

We always used to avoid relegation in prem....till we didn't.

Not sure what the big risk would have been?
People are saying you can't expect the new man to get play offs, which I agree with, only a fool thinks we were heading for relegation, so either way, bar something extraordinary, we're heading for mid table.

 

[clint van damme]

There is zero certainty we would have

There really isn't. No way we were going to be in a relegation scrap.