Fabrice29

Yeah, club is a mess and has been regressing for a few years now but we definitely shouldn't be having a second look at what our DOF has been responsible for because the narrative that he's a good one and SR and Ankerson are the nasty ones is set and that is final.

True, so would I, but it's not a simple Alcaraz stays on we hold out all half calculation is it?

Oh okay, that's that concluded.

You're writing off Mara and Edozie. If you swapped those for Ballard and Doyle and those two had performed like Mara and Edozie you would be writing off those two and wanting more minutes for Mara and Edozie who would been performing in the B team. It's not fair sticking kids in this situation, especially ones who are 2 and 3 years younger than kids that are being written off.

And it’s posts like this that sums up exactly why throwing Ballard and Doyle into the first team would have only done damage to them. Couple of poor performances in a shit season and that’s it, you’re written off.

Definitely Ankersons fault that 3 managers haven't thrown them into a relegation battle. Definitely. They'll both be better off being part of a fresh start next season and both be better off for focusing on getting promotion with the B team. No good could have come from throwing them into the first team at any stage this year.

There's no way Lavia will play in the Championship next season when he's got a Belgium Euro 24 squad to get into.

They're not. But there is a lesson here about how Sky/TV can control the sound and you should remember that next time you're told to believe Anfield is a wonderful atmosphere.

I get that people have a different opinion on the half time change and I had the same "wtf" moment when it came up on the screen but do people understand the reasoning behind it? Would much rather he was available for Thursday than the 2nd half of Friday.

He's 19. He's putting his body through an intensity it's not been through before at a complex and delicate age. He's lasted 90 minutes at times but bearing in mind his importance to the squad, the least the club could do is manage him properly and not force him to do it every few days. He's also had one serious injury this season already. Just wondering how many 19 year old's are currently delivering the physical output he is?

Apart from one decent spell each in America, I'm not really sure the appeal of these two? Viera's last two jobs have ended with him resorting to dull defensive football in an attempt to stop losing runs and both times he failed. Both these were in his second season. That's a trait, not a one off. Henry just has nothing he could point to in his managerial career that is good enough to demand a job like ours. At best it's a punt based on playing careers really isn't it? (and expensive if you really wanted both). Words like "galvanise, stardust, power to attract players, status" are all just buzz words and will evaporate very quickly when the season starts if we don't play well or get results. The evidence underneath those words on their CV's doesn't suggest much substance over a extended period. If you're going for a punt, I'd rather go for a punt like Carrick who hasn't proven himself to be out of ideas when times get difficult like Viera has.

Poch is the epitome of a coach. I hate to break it to you, but wherever he ends up next he'll be appointed as a head coach. Nobody is saying a "coach" won't be man managing the squad. "Sorry fella's, this isn't my remit, I'm merely a coach so can only talk body positions and formations,". It's a title and a way of working. Rather than worrying about external things they'll be focusing on the first team. It's nothing different to any of our previous managers but Jacob has fluffed it up a bit for his word count (in an article which is designed to rehash old stories and already known things as news). Just love the idea of Poch going for an interview for the job and daring to mention he might man manage the squad. "You what? How dare you. That's way above your station little coach, you won't be man managing anyone at this club, this is a strict coaching role only". The desperation on this forum to think the worst is really amazing.

Enjoying Blackmore's and Tanswell's "everyone is leaving, doesn't it look a disaster" narrative. Consider me absolutely shocked that a club that needs to change how it operates is changing how it operates.

Fenn? He wasn't.

I doubt anyone being lined up would want to walk into the Arsenal game first up to be fair. The real issue comes when we win 1-0 tomorrow.

Pretty sure Beattie has been trying to get back in to the club for a little while now so wouldn't be shocked if it was him and Monk.

Not correct fwiw.

The top clubs have known this for a while. He's been with us so long and seen many around him leave and the closest he's come to going is to Watford. Will be interesting to see if West Ham/Everton panic splash some money on him, are willing to pay 100k wages, and he wants to go. He might want to have a proper deep chat with Southgate and ask realistically if he goes somewhere and has a wonderful season will be anywhere near his plans for Euro 2024? If so, he might push for a move, if not, I suspect he'll not bother.

🤣 I'm not up anyones arse, I just think that maybe, just maybe, our issues might be slightly bigger and more fundamental than one bloke. We've currently got a seemingly non existent director of football so getting an active one in the summer will help, we had our head of recruitment leave within a few months, we've been consistently regressing for a few years now both in terms of recruitment and in terms of coaching on the pitch. Fanbase is disillusioned because of the football they are served up, especially at home and results in a nothing atmosphere at the ground. I think because the lack of the connection with the club in terms of good media theories, opinions and easy solutions are allowed to fester online and become part of the chaos (everything is leaked through a group of journalists rather than officially through the club). There's loads of shit that needs sorting at the club, but bloody Rasmus eh! Clearly Rasmus should take the blame for his role in the managerial decisions and recruitment and whatever role he's played in other bits but it doesn't all start with him and doesn't end with him either. There's 3 others at his level, one of which is with Sports Republic for a start but apart from Semmens why doesn't Kraft and Crocker get any stick?

Okay. You're right. In that case, going back to the original point, history should be re-written to show him as a failure at Brentford, any success they enjoyed with him should be taken with a pinch of salt but we even though we need video proof of his work at Brentford we can 100% validate our theory that he's the sole reason for our failure this season.

Most obscure league Rasmus has recruited a manager from whilst at Brentford and Southampton is the dutch league. The rest have been in house appointments or the Championship.

🤣 bet Brentford wished they noticed that Giles was the brain behind it all a lot earlier. Would have saved them a salary. But yes they decided to go with a sole director of football after Ankerson left so you're probably right, Ankerson was merely in the room for those 6 years and shouldn't get any credit for his time there. The Brentford fans I lived with during that time are wrong to be grateful to him, no credit should go to him for recommending Thomas Frank joined as a coach and don't even dare to suggest that a well run football club over a 6 year period with consistent player sales but consistent improvement should be in anyway be down to Ankerson and we have definitely got a dud.

He left on his own accord to be the co-founder of Sport Republic and subsequently invest in us. He was a big part of Brentfords revamp and did very good work as Chairman of FC Midtjylland before that. Lets not rewrite history here. Some poor managerial decisions and transfer decisions seemingly but I think he'd have appreciated his head of recruitment staying for more than 1 window at the very least. Don't think the blame should be placed at one person for this season. It's the result of a lack of evolution in coaching style IMO and a failure to replace Ings to mask the problems mainly. Plenty to blame.

Isn't that the issue though? Same group (minus the exceptional goal scorer which can mask any issues) and same ideas. We didn't evolve any of our patterns of play. We tried little adaptations and occasionally different formations but they all felt pretty desperate and never really clicked but the other teams in the league have quickly become accustomed to our style of play. We went top and then did a free fall later that season. Teams came to St Marys and defended deep which put the onus on us to do something different and we've been clueless at home ever since. Fundamentally there's good traits in the team, it's why we don't get battered too much and it's why a fair few of the squad will be courted by top teams if we go down (none of the attackers fwiw) but we don't have any star quality we had back then and other than get it to some of the dribblers in the squad we don't have any drilled way of attacking either and probably haven't had since the times you are talking about.

Honestly baffles me there's people who still think there is a correct 11 to pick from our squad. Few months back people were apoplectic with rage if you even dared to suggest DCC wasn't the greatest CB we have but he gets a start, performs terribly and we move onto the next one. There isn't a player in our squad who can say they've not had a chance. There's no magic 11 that will suddenly attack. We've recruited for 4 years for a manager who prioritised off the ball qualities. Then in January we recruited for a manager who wanted more physical qualities, we then sacked that manager and appointed someone who wants to go back to the previous managers traits. There's probably logic in every step individually (why wouldn't Jones want a bigger/quicker squad? why wouldn't Selles look at the squad and revert back to what it's been recruited to do?) but the result is we're in a situation where we have a whole squad that lacks ability on the ball. There's isn't an 11 that suddenly attacks free flowingly because it lacks the quality to do so. There will be occasional moments of course and we need to find a way to covert those moments into wins but we haven't had a manager who has been appointed to focous on attacking patterns of play for years and it shows in the whole squad.