What on earth happened? (9 Viewers)

[Nick]

Are you saying Robins chose every player that has come in since King took over? Are you saying Robins chose to suddenly not have loan players to cover our weaknesses?

Robins had the final say. He still had scouts like he did before King.

It was explained about Loan Players and parent clubs not wanting them going out and not playing so some were pointless like the Ayari one. We were trying to get the player who would have improved the starting 11 and he got injured.

 

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[stupot07]

Robins had the final say. He still had scouts like he did before King.

It was explained about Loan Players and parent clubs not wanting them going out and not playing so some were pointless like the Ayari one.

You're forgetting the narrative

Good signing = Robins choice
Shit signing = was forced on Robins against his wishes.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

We've made some shite signings and recruitment has been pretty poor overall, yes we may have brought in some good players but the balance is all wrong. Our defensive signings on a whole have been poor. If I was signing people from scratch based on what I've seen, I'd only sign Milan and Thomas out of the 7 senior defenders we have.

We signed the defenders we did when planning for a back 5 that we had to abandon because it didn't suit anyone else in the squad. If we can just avoid relegation then most of the duff signings can be offloaded. If we go down then we're stuck with the lot of them.

 

[SBT]

It's neither noble nor foolish, it's based on seeing the disaster that swapping managers every 5 minutes bring about.

It's not cheap either

You keep the manager in place until the music stops. For Robins it lasted 7 years, and it was great. If Lampard is stinking the place out after 20 games then I won’t be imploring DK to hold fire just because it costs him less to stick with his own bad appointment.

 

[MalcSB]

Jeez. If we’re to be considered a proper club Lampard has to be given this season and next as a minimum.

Even if we get relegated?

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Even if we get relegated?

Get relegated and Lampard probably resigns and will never manage again.

 

[MalcSB]

There is constant comment on here and elsewhere about lack of mental strength, aggression and fighting spirit. And yet there was an appointment who was supposed to have been able to, amongst other things, improve those qualities. I will get pelters again for saying this, but I would suggest again that this has failed and, If it had anything to do with Viveash departure, ( not saying it did but IF), that failure compounds in to a disaster.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

Even if we get relegated?

First off we are not going to be relegated, despite the frantic efforts of some to convince everyone we are all but down already.

Someone was on about giving him 4 windows, I get it but that still seems overly long to me, in my humble view he should get at least a full year before being seriously questioned.

And before anyone says it- pointing out we’ve seen nothing yet is not the same as saying he should be sacked.

 

[MalcSB]

First off we are not going to be relegated, despite the frantic efforts of some to convince everyone we are all but down already.

Someone was on about giving him 4 windows, I get it but that still seems overly long to me, in my humble view he should get at least a full year before being seriously questioned.

And before anyone says it- pointing out we’ve seen nothing yet is not the same as saying he should be sacked.

I did say even if.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

There is constant comment on here and elsewhere about lack of mental strength, aggression and fighting spirit. And yet there was an appointment who was supposed to have been able to, amongst other things, improve those qualities. I will get pelters again for saying this, but I would suggest again that this has failed and, If it had anything to do with Viveash departure, ( not saying it did but IF), that failure compounds in to a disaster.

makes sense.

 

[torchomatic]

Even if we get relegated?

Despite the SBT pearl clutching, it's not going to happen is it?

 

[MalcSB]

Despite the SBT pearl clutching, it's not going to happen is it?

Can Never say never, unfortunately. Ive been through too many close shaves in 60 years to ever be entirely confident and we look pretty shit and devoid of anything at the moment. We have no game changers of note.

 

[MalcSB]

makes sense.

I’m shocked at that response

 

[SBT]

Someone was on about giving him 4 windows, I get it but that still seems overly long to me, in my humble view he should get at least a full year before being seriously questioned.

There’s absolutely no point putting an arbitrary time limit on it. If we play like we did against Portsmouth every week then he’ll quite rightly be gone by Easter.

 

[MalcSB]

There’s absolutely no point putting an arbitrary time limit on it. If we play like we did against Portsmouth every week then he’ll quite rightly be gone by Easter.

As long as that?

 

[clint van damme]

You keep the manager in place until the music stops. For Robins it lasted 7 years, and it was great. If Lampard is stinking the place out after 20 games then I won’t be imploring DK to hold fire just because it costs him less to stick with his own bad appointment.

Well depends what stinking the place out actually is. If we're in the bottom 3 then I get it.
But other than that let's give him a chance.

 

[Ring Of Steel]

I’m shocked at that response

lol- why? It’s so tribal & black & white on here that you immediately get told you’re in one ‘camp’ or another whatever you say- but I agree with you

 

[Ring Of Steel]

There’s absolutely no point putting an arbitrary time limit on it. If we play like we did against Portsmouth every week then he’ll quite rightly be gone by Easter.

I agree. I’m working on the basis that we are not shaping up to be in genuine danger of relegation- which I can’t see happening. I’ll reframe it by saying that as long as we’re not in that genuine danger, then I for one wouldn’t be thinking about the manager’s position for at least a year.

Whether that aligns with King’s views though- who knows.

 

[Sick Boy]

Jeez. If we’re to be considered a proper club Lampard has to be given this season and next as a minimum.

Unfortunately there’s a vocal minority desperate for him and the club to fail.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Despite the SBT pearl clutching, it's not going to happen is it?

A team conceding goals for fun while struggling to score in no danger of going down?

 

[Lamps]

Unfortunately there’s a vocal minority desperate for him and the club to fail.

There's a silent minority worried that we will get rid of Lampard the same way as Robins if we don't sort out our defensive problems and continue to lose games we should win.

 

[Irish Sky Blue]

So why are so many people trying to paint last season as a disaster?
We definitely hoped for better but it wasn't a disaster.

Last season produced my most memorable moment after 60 years of supporting this club, even more so than winning the cup. That 90 seconds after Torp had scored was simply unreal. I had never felt anything like that before in my life. Add that to the fantastic day at Molineux and there is no way that last season could be described as a failure.
Anyone who couldn’t see that the poor results after the semi-final was down to complete player burn out is also deluded. Unfortunately many of our fans and perhaps Doug King seem to fall into that category.

 

[Sick Boy]

There's a silent minority worried that we will get rid of Lampard the same way as Robins if we don't sort out our defensive problems and continue to lose games we should win.

Weren’t you gushing his praises after Millwall?

 

[Cally Fedora]

Even if we get relegated?

We’re not getting relegated. But yes, even if we did.

 

[Grendel]

First off we are not going to be relegated, despite the frantic efforts of some to convince everyone we are all but down already.

Someone was on about giving him 4 windows, I get it but that still seems overly long to me, in my humble view he should get at least a full year before being seriously questioned.

And before anyone says it- pointing out we’ve seen nothing yet is not the same as saying he should be sacked.

Have you seen something yet?

 

[torchomatic]

A team conceding goals for fun while struggling to score in no danger of going down?

We're not struggling to score and we won't go down.

We've scored the same amount of goals as Sheff Utd and more than Burnley.

Keeping them out is an issue though obviously.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

We're not struggling to score and we won't go down.

We beat Blackburn 3-0 then followed it up with a stinker. Let's manage a few decent performances in a row shall we?

 

[Chris1987]

You know as well as I do there is a cohort determined to run the guy down, so don’t play dumb. There is zero positive to say about Lampard, so the tactic is to point at Robins and unearth incredibly far-fetched reasons as to why he was average at best.

Pot and kettle. Which bit of that statement is not running Lampard down ?
You really need to let it go . Boring boring boring and childish

 

[shmmeee]

King said he wanted a side challenging for the play offs 3 out of 5 years didn't he, or something along those lines. Not that play offs were a minimum requirement every season. Certainly didn't sound like he classed the season as a failure, "Once more we have been competing for the Play-Off places in a very strong EFL Championship, only missing out on a top six position in the last two/three weeks." And we were told there was a thorough end of season review which didn't result in Robins going

He also wanted a cup run, can't say we failed to deliver on that request, "The FA Cup run was truly historic. Reaching our first Semi-Final for thirty-seven years and putting on such a heroic performance against Manchester United has showcased our Club again to both a national and international audience"

Really not sure why people are trying to make out last season was a disaster. The we only finished 9th because we had a run of winning games discourse is very strange. You can think it was the right time to get rid of Robins and still say last season wasn't terrible.

If you take King at his word Robins was sacked for the 14 games at the start of the season and nothing else.

 

[Nick]

If you take King at his word Robins was sacked for the 14 games at the start of the season and nothing else.

Not sure that was his word.

Weird.

 

[shmmeee]

Well I don't agree he should be on a shorter leash.
Sacking managers every 5 minutes might work for some clubs.
It's never been anything other than disastrous for us.

He should be given time.

Most managers aren’t very good. A few are OK and a tiny amount are excellent. They aren’t like players either where they get filtered out early. The trick is getting shot of the majority of awful ones early and keeping my hold of the good ones that turn up once every thirty years.

 

[shmmeee]

Not sure that was his word.

Weird.

His words:

“We had a pretty good pre-season, to be fair, we were all at the Everton game and I think that was putting us under a false sense of security of what may occur when we got down to the real battle of trying to get out of this very difficult league.

“We then come to this point where we start badly, it’s a little unclear for all of us how it’s all working. Listen. I am talking here very openly. I have got employees who we are talking about who are fantastic coaches and who I respect very much. You saw what Rhys did at Sunderland and so I am putting a disclaimer on that because they are all fantastic people that this club respects very much.

“I had a meeting with Mark on September the 30th, I think it was, where I made it... Well, I shot him a memo and said to him that he has a few options. And the options were that we either keep it as it is or we look to put some hierarchy in. Or we look to, again, bring a head of first team coaching because I said he needs some balance, it seemed to me. That worked in the past, so we went out again to try to find a head of first team coaching and, again, we couldn’t get anyone through the door.


“The senior team of the club, myself, Dr Claire-Marie Roberts, Dean Austin and Mark met for a first quarter review to look at the situation on October 30, I think it was, and went through all the aspects of the football club. Anyway, it became clear that at this level, with this deck of players, we are lacking an elite coach/tactician to support the manager..”

So technically if you take 30th Sept as the date Doug decided it wasn’t working it was 10 games including three cup matches.

Viveash leaving was the starting point. King clearly decided to give Robins a go on his own. He was happy pre season. Ten games later he wasn’t. He blames end of last season on the fallout. This are his words.

Weird indeed.

 

[Nick]

His words:

“We had a pretty good pre-season, to be fair, we were all at the Everton game and I think that was putting us under a false sense of security of what may occur when we got down to the real battle of trying to get out of this very difficult league.

“We then come to this point where we start badly, it’s a little unclear for all of us how it’s all working. Listen. I am talking here very openly. I have got employees who we are talking about who are fantastic coaches and who I respect very much. You saw what Rhys did at Sunderland and so I am putting a disclaimer on that because they are all fantastic people that this club respects very much.

“I had a meeting with Mark on September the 30th, I think it was, where I made it... Well, I shot him a memo and said to him that he has a few options. And the options were that we either keep it as it is or we look to put some hierarchy in. Or we look to, again, bring a head of first team coaching because I said he needs some balance, it seemed to me. That worked in the past, so we went out again to try to find a head of first team coaching and, again, we couldn’t get anyone through the door.


“The senior team of the club, myself, Dr Claire-Marie Roberts, Dean Austin and Mark met for a first quarter review to look at the situation on October 30, I think it was, and went through all the aspects of the football club. Anyway, it became clear that at this level, with this deck of players, we are lacking an elite coach/tactician to support the manager..”

Yeah, not his word then.

 

[clint van damme]

Most managers aren’t very good. A few are OK and a tiny amount are excellent. They aren’t like players either where they get filtered out early. The trick is getting shot of the majority of awful ones early and keeping my hold of the good ones that turn up once every thirty years.

Some clubs seem to do well with appointments more consistently than others.

I think more owners/boards should focus on their selection procedures and the environment they're creating for managers to work in.
Southampton had a pretty good record for a while and they used to scout managers in the same way they scouted players. Gone a bit awry more recently so not sure if they still do it.

But changing managers every 5 minutes is an expensive business, not sure we've got the finances to support it without affecting the playing budget.

 

[shmmeee]

Some clubs seem to do well with appointments more consistently than others.

I think more owners/boards should focus on their selection procedures and the environment they're creating for managers to work in.
Southampton had a pretty good record for a while and they used to scout managers in the same way they scouted players. Gone a bit awry more recently so not sure if they still do it.

But changing managers every 5 minutes is an expensive business, not sure we've got the finances to support it without affecting the playing budget.

It’s why picking managers is so important TBF. And whether it was Fisher, Joy, Boddy or Sky Blue Sam that got Robins back they recognised that. It’s also why I’d stay a million miles from a completely unproven manager if at all possible. There’s a huge amount of them to choose from and someone somewhere will always either be on their way up or down. No need to gamble on a manager being good IMO.