What Happened Last Season? (2 Viewers)

[Offhegoes]

I remember 12 months ago, and the feeling of optimism around the club & the fans. We beat Leicester at the CBS, and thrashed Oxford in the cup.

O’Hare was back and firing. Sakamoto, Wright & Simms were blooming, and we had a solid CB partnership in Thomas & Kitching.

Then…….

Dennis Lawrence leaves, with rumours that we wouldn’t pay what he wanted.

O’Hare is dropped in February and barely gets much game time until the end of the season. A fallout with Robins or Adi? His contract negotiations were going on months before this, and he was playing.

The dramatic total loss of form after the magical Wolves win. That kind of win and performance should galvanise a team. Leeds & Man U aside, our results, and performances were awful. 6 defeats in the last 9 league games. Was this the time that Adi & MR had their fallout?

 

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[shmmeee]

Yeah the Telegraph article that apparently kicked it all off was in April I think.

 

[Irish Sky Blue]

Yeah the Telegraph article that apparently kicked it all off was in April I think.

Hard to see anything in that article that would make Robins upset

 

[shmmeee]

Hard to see anything in that article that would make Robins upset

Wasn’t it the idea that Ady does the hard work and Robins “paints the pictures” or something? Not read it for a while.

 

[clint van damme]

Hard to see anything in that article that would make Robins upset

If you read Kings interview apparently it was Adi who got the hump over a Robins interview.
That was his response, Robins didn't like it and it escalated.

I agree there seemed to be nothing in it, and the same goes for the original Robins interview but there's obviously egos involved.

Then there's the matter, and I think I've got this right, of King claiming the Viveash interview wasn't sanctioned by the club and Turner claiming the club press officer was present!

 

[hamil99]

I remember 12 months ago, and the feeling of optimism around the club & the fans. We beat Leicester at the CBS, and thrashed Oxford in the cup.

O’Hare was back and firing. Sakamoto, Wright & Simms were blooming, and we had a solid CB partnership in Thomas & Kitching.

Then…….

Dennis Lawrence leaves, with rumours that we wouldn’t pay what he wanted.

O’Hare is dropped in February and barely gets much game time until the end of the season. A fallout with Robins or Adi? His contract negotiations were going on months before this, and he was playing.

The dramatic total loss of form after the magical Wolves win. That kind of win and performance should galvanise a team. Leeds & Man U aside, our results, and performances were awful. 6 defeats in the last 9 league games. Was this the time that Adi & MR had their fallout?

Dennis Lawrence left to be closer to his family in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, if I remember correctly), nothing to do with us not paying him enough. Not replacing him adequately was a massive mistake, and I feel definitely contributed to our downfall in form.

 

[djr8369]

Dennis Lawrence left to be closer to his family in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, if I remember correctly), nothing to do with us not paying him enough. Not replacing him adequately was a massive mistake, and I feel definitely contributed to our downfall in form.

As I’ve said before it’s a mixture of things, circumstance, bad luck, and some decisions.

It doesn’t seem like anything would keep DL here and it’s nobodies fault MR and Adi fell out (aside from theirs).

Everyone seems to want to blame King, or Austin, or the performance director.

Reality is messy.

 

[alexccfc99]

Dennis was always going to go, he was offered the chance of a new lifestyle in America (Which considering he is from Trinidad and Tobago) is actually closer to home

I always think Mark and Adi were completely different as people, I went to the pre-season tour of Spain in 2022 and happened to stop in the same hotel as the players, after training MR would return to his room and Adi would be sat at the bar with Chris Marsh and the rest of the backroom team, MR seemed introverted and Adi extroverted, but opposites attract and as a footballing force they seemed to work well - But as people they certainly seemed polar opposites

It’s clear that something happened somewhere between MR and Adi for their relationship to completely break down and the fact that Adi’s departure was announced so suddenly and without any major fanfare from the club, the fact he issues his farewell statement through legal reps and the fact MR now has a new job and there was no mention or indication of Adi joining him goes to show whatever has happened is pretty terminal

It’s one of those things that we will probably never ever know the full story, but whatever it was ruined a very good thing we had going on and has made us have to start afresh in a new direction

 

[SkyBlueSteve81]

There is a guy who sits near me at the CBS and likes spouting that he's in the know about X,Y and Z. To be fair to him the majority of what he says turns out to be true, Palmer not being offered a new contract and O'hare going being just 2 of the nuggets that he's shared on a match day. The very start of this season he said that whatever had happened to end up with Ady leaving would stay behind closed doors because if it got out it would either cause or affect (I can't remember his exact words) a legal issue. Now that is still quite generic and could be 101 different things, but I suspect he isn't far wrong because I would have expected there to be more known about it by now.

On the Robins front it is clear he had the right team behind him up until DL left and ever since things just haven't been the same.

 

[skybluecam]

I think the failure to recruit any depth out wide and Sakamoto's injury goes under the radar a bit.

You can almost pinpoint our loss of form in the league to the moment of his injury.

 

[SAJ]

I remember 12 months ago, and the feeling of optimism around the club & the fans. We beat Leicester at the CBS, and thrashed Oxford in the cup.

O’Hare was back and firing. Sakamoto, Wright & Simms were blooming, and we had a solid CB partnership in Thomas & Kitching.

Then…….

Dennis Lawrence leaves, with rumours that we wouldn’t pay what he wanted.

O’Hare is dropped in February and barely gets much game time until the end of the season. A fallout with Robins or Adi? His contract negotiations were going on months before this, and he was playing.

The dramatic total loss of form after the magical Wolves win. That kind of win and performance should galvanise a team. Leeds & Man U aside, our results, and performances were awful. 6 defeats in the last 9 league games. Was this the time that Adi & MR had their fallout?

Lawrence left as he was offered the assistant manager position at Minnesota got nothing to do with not being offered enough money.

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

I think the failure to recruit any depth out wide and Sakamoto's injury goes under the radar a bit.

You can almost pinpoint our loss of form in the league to the moment of his injury.

There’s a lack of depth across the board.

After Sakamoto got injured the issue was more that we didn’t have the right players to play in the system. If you look at midfield, you’ve got Sheaf and Eccles playing more or less every single minute in games because Torp struggled for fitness and likewise, Allen and Sheaf too at various stages last season.

The profile too was lacking, we couldn’t really breakdown the midfield against the better teams in the division.