Mr X

A current international, not playing in the UK; the member of the scouting network who divulged this said he wouldn't give his name as he would get in trouble.

You are full of crap you had no hard evidence and tried to pass it off as fact that we' d put in a bid for more than twelve million for a defender, and then say I speak cr@p pffft !

Total cr@p. We also had a bid of more than the Ramirez amount accepted by a club for their CB only for them to pull out at the last minute.

Where is your evidence of this? the words total crap seem to be more fitting to this

Good post. The key difference with Wigan was a man who had experience at this level.

I desperately want Nigel to succeed but if we do not start learning quick, he won't have any more time to learn...

 

I wish he would go back to what we know and what works. Playing football.

If Adkins hands are tied as appears to be the case, he can hardly be blamed. I think he is the best person for the job and learning fast about the premiership. He just needs to tell Reed and the Dwarf to butt out.

you are joking right? One win in nine is learning fast? The only thing he's learning is if you adapt weird formations put out under strength sides and take off your best players you get hammered!

Ramerez is a glory buy that that Cortese had to push through once he'd put his money were his mouth was. A buy designed to appease the fans if this guy was so good united and arsenal would have had him on the radar he's a decent player but one pricey buy doesn't make a team. What's most tragic is the purchase of ramerez has cost us the opportunity of buying a decent defence as the money allocated is already gone!

1)The defence is awful because we have a team of championship defenders. NA clearly stated at the beginning of the summer that defence was a priority for strengthening and the recruitment team quite clearly failed to deliver.

2)Starting without Lambert worked at City and there is quite clearly some logic in why he starts him from the bench in some games. Scoring goals hasn't been a problem this season, so i don't think this has contributed to our poor start

3)He had no choice but to play Yoshida at full back when Fox has been out injured. Who else was there?

4)Kelvin deserved a chance after what he's done for us the last few years. He isn't up to it so was replaced

5)'toe to toe' against who? How else will this team win games with such a woeful back four?

6)Strange substitutions or players who had run themselves into the ground and couldn't give any more?

7)You're blaming NA for our transfer policy despite Les Reed being 'Head of Recruitment'

 

Our poor start is down to our poor recruitment over the summer. I'd say the Head of Recruitment should shoulder the blame myself

So basically a list of excuses for Adkins mistakes! Your right he isn't to blame for everything but some of the issues the buck clearly stops with him and its time to face up to it. It is Adkins job to get the most out of the players whoever they may be first choice transfers or not

I'm starting to believe Cortese doesn't have a replacement lined up he would have acted before now if he did, It was clear ages ago that the players were not performing in any way for Adkins and had lost faith in him.

No we are playing the poorest football in years the players look very low on morale the manager looks out of his depth and we simply aren't good enough. another we are in a relegation battle already! We need at least two defenders in January.

I want to keep Adkins, but I'm not sure what that article really tells us? If any of us do well in our jobs and get a promotion, we'll be expected to deliver at that level. If Adkins makes a mistake, which he has, he should be criticised like any other manager. The crowd has been pretty clear in it's vocal support for him, both on Sunday and last night, so there can't be too many complaints in that regard?

Agreed he has to deliver and clearly isn't wether he can change that I don't think so as the players have lost confidence in him too

here we go again!

This team/manager isn't good enough we need a change if were in the same situation at Xmas, don't know where are next points are going to come from

whats bizarre is he often never even refers to the game in question! he just generalises everything with statements that could refer to any game. Why can't he get back to basics and some simple honesty? i.e. we were awful but heres what Im going to work on to change it around next time.... might have a bit of respect for the man then. I realise its not his job to discuss tactics with the media or anything

It seems that even constuctive critisicism of adkins is shouted down on here. Personally I want him to stay till xmas to have the chance to prove himself but I'm totally fed up with his lame and wet after match interviews seems to keep repeating "we score goals" like that's all we need to do and doesn't seem to be worried by the fact we haven't kept a clean sheet this season and are still shipping the same average of goals it's like he thinks its all going to magically click!

In which case the five year plan must include a yoyo.

A thirty million pound+ yo yo ?

As the club thats our closest likeness in terms of being newly promoted and a similar sized fan fanbase, Cortese will no doubt be making comparisons. They haven't spent quite as much as us but seem to have got the basics so much better than saints.

What do you see is the primary reason:

1) Transfers, they built from the back and invested in the defence first with physical strong players.

2) They have solid experience in Sam, he knows whats needed in this league.

3) Their direct Style is much more effective than saints and they utilise it.

4) They can adapt formation better and have a plan B

4) you own reasons

Do you think West-ham are currently in a false position and will be brought down to reality? fair play to them for their achievements so far

Someone on here suggested that he talked to Mike Ashley in the summer whilst he was still our manager, the Don found out and promptly said off you go then. Sounds a lot more believable to me than the alternative explanation... which was that he poked Fonte's missus.

 

I think all Cortese ever said about it was that he was put in a position which meant he had no alternative but to let Pardew go.

People seemed to confirm there was something in the fonte's mrs rumours but noone was really ITK. That makes more sense to me, would it count as gross misconduct?

It's been 8 games people, Still early days I have faith that Adkins will come through the team has a few players out injured, Cork, Ramirez will make a difference. Also Luke Shaw is worth a go at left?

 

I feel bad for Adkins he Has done a fantastic job the last two seasons for us are people forgetting this? His past accomplishments of double promotions, I think at least merit him a chance to have a Season of Premiership football. The starting fixtures have been very tough Man City, Manchester United at times we outplayed both of them,

 

The potential obviously is there, Adkins has vision sure he has made a few tactical issues, It's a learning curve for everyone but the last thing him and the team need are the fans turning against them. Morale probably isn't the best at the moment so instead of bashing the team and manager we as fans need to get behind them and give them some belief.

 

Takes a while for teams to establish themselves in the Prem it wont happen after eight games, Keep the faith

 

And whoever suggested Harry Redknapp should return clearly needs to be shot lol

I agree with the sentiment and i think we should indeed stick with him till christmas at least and fully get behind him and the team, it will be hard to though if we are humiliated again against spurs saturday, but thats life

Will we ever know the real reason he was booted out?

It's going to be Benitez...put your money on it now.

HP sauce?

What the f*** has that got to do with Cortese style...when do we have to stop doffing our cap?

Yes things have been great on the pitch for the last 2 seasons but does that mean we have to suck up everything

that is going on at the club as correct? Its not and as customers surely we have the right to ask when things are not

as we would like?

Lowe did some very good things here(snarl,gnash) Ask Rupert, radio phone ins and fans forums at least put you in touch

until he turned the green army on us.

It will bite Cortese on the ass if he doesn't at least bend a bit towards his customers.

Agreed a bit of transparency with the fans wouldn't go a miss. I'm waiting for the fateful vote of confidence in Adkins!

that is my point..you have no idea if all this 433 malarky is not driven by nigel himself..?

That is true! And will we ever? Adkins interviews are just corporate rehashings like he's primed and on autopilot he reveals nothing and that's the way Cortese likes it.

I know that..but to dismiss one manager saying he should be 4th and is average..yet ours in amazing despite the team being rather crap....

 

if you hadnt had guessed, my faith in nigel is (sadly) gone with regards to his ability to keep us up....

if it was that easy..I am amazed they have not won the league recently

 

how will money spent equate to adkins and saints being 7th biggest spenders in europe....added to the likes of lambert, lallana and morgan.....???

 

should we be further up the table....if it boils down to money spent...?

there is a correlation between money spent and league position but its not as black and white as that however whichever way you look at it Adkins has been given the largest transfer kitty in the clubs history and has spent it absolutely bizarrely (little premiership experience and in totally the wrong areas when we should have built up from the back four) in Adkins defence I don't believe these our solely his signings Cortese is pulling more strings behind the stage than anyone can imagine

HR is no mug as a manager, but I honestly believe he is overrated due to his popularity with the media and within the game.

 

I remember Lowe commenting that he was approached by HR after he left WHU, Lowe made some comment that WHU had one of the 4 highest wage bills in the premiership and HR only just escaped relegation.

 

The saving spurs story is a bit of a myth.

 

The three seasons before HR

05/06 5th 65 points

06/07 5th 60 points

7/08 11th 46 points

 

Then arrived Arry.

 

The squad that had finshed 11th had just had these players added to it;

 

Modric £17m

Santos £9m

Gomes £8m

Bentley £15m

Pavluchenko £14m

Corluka £9m

 

 

Arry also added in the January window

 

Defoe £15m

Palacios £12m

Chimbonda £2.5m

Cudicini free

Keane £12m

 

Arry, with his management skills, and an addition of a mere £105m worth of talent, took a team from 11th (46 points) to 8th (51 points).

 

The next season he only spent £30m on Crouch(£10m) Bassong (£8m) Kaboul (£8m) plus few others, season after £20m on Sandro (£6m) Van Der Vaat(£8m) Piernaar (£3m) Gallas free. Before slowing down with Parker £6m.

 

This management, and spending, took spurs from

04/05 9th (52)

05/05 5th (65)

06/07 5th (60)

07/08 11th (46)

 

to

 

08/09 8th (51)

09/10 4th (70)

10/11 5th (62)

11/12 4th (69)

 

Yes improvement, yes decent experienced manager, but not manager who dragged Spurs from nowhere like some suggest..and was at huge cost.

There's zero chance that he'd want to come back after publicly declaring he didnt want to be here the last time! and he would just walk out on us the first opportunity he got to go to a top six club so what's the point it would be a huge step back.

A unlikely win against spurs and I will feel much more positive that we have the bottle to get out of this mess. Another tonking and the same people that are on this thread will be back to doom and gloom