Legod Third Coming

Don't think they have to like him, just respect him. One of the things that people like Cortese often fail to understand - in my very amateur assessment of him - and that Lowe definitely failed to understand, is that there is no 'right way' to manage a football team. Just look at Fergie vs Mourinho vs Wenger - you could not find three more different headmasters. Fergie - the man you fear like no other and perform because you have to prove yourself week in and week out. You know he will back you today and drop you tomorrow without a second thought. Jose - your pal in the staff room. He will fight for you, is one of you. It's you and him against the world. Arsene - the professor. The man in whom you place your faith because of his apparent knowledge, which you occasionnaly question because it fails to deliver the result you were expecting, but then you fall right in behind again... Now. How would Cortese or Lowe manage these men? My guess, they couldn't. Just like Lowe could not accept Arry is a cheque-book manager but with an exemplary record, albeit with a chequered personal history around cash... I don't believe that Pardew's relationship with Cortese affected his performance, but I do believe managers will deliberately change the way their team performs to make a point. Case in point is Arry losing at Southend with a team full of kids... He knew what he was doing and the point he was making. With Pardew I think Cortese found a man who was not willing to roll over. He (Pardew) knew better because he's been there and done it. In Adkins, we have a manager in his first big job. That doesn't make him better for the club in the long run. It makes him better for Cortese. He's not going to argue over cash for a player is he? I bet there isn't a week goes by mind when the Manchester United board don't wish that they didn't have a manager who has won so much for them that he's unfireable. Equally, I bet there's not a week goes by when they don't thank their lucky stars they have him...

Seems that although I for one was pretty uninspired by the selection of Adkins, we got a lucky escape when Senor Cortese swept Micky Adams' CV into the bin because he was unlucky (that's an Office reference for anyone who hasn't seen it).... Shame, I was looking forward to another trip to Sheffield next season.

Good call Phil - but I don't think that scenario would be a fair reflection of the two managers. What you're really saying is that the outcomes are shaped by the Chairman's support (or not) of the man in the saddle...

I think both managers are within a gnat's c o ck of each other. But I reckon we would be higher in the league under Pardew because he bought the players and built the team. He knows them (had at least a season with them). Even if he wasn't really paying attention, he has a season's worth of experience to use, whereas Adkins is starting all over again. For me this is not a question of who the better manager is - but where we would be without the turmoil and wasted opportunity of the three games while Wilkins was gifting the remainder of the league a nine point advantage....

I don't see it like that at all. We're very good at retaining possession in all the games I have seen. The problem is that we do not play the killer ball often enough. The perfect example of this was Swindon. We held onto the ball and moved it around, but often only sideways, ending up going back to Kelvin or Fonte to lump it nowhere through lack of options because noone was moving, Swindon were closing us down very well and the wingers/midfield were not going wide or creating space to receive the ball. Morgan came on, looked up, hit a ball 30 yards to Chamberlain running at the defence. Foul. Free kick, Goal... Our problem is not possesion or passing, in my view. It's more about having a little better creative nous from back to front - using the midfield to link up play and shift the ball faster to the front. To me we still look unfit and we lack pace - even chamberlain is not that quick. Often coming forward, Lambert is labouring so even if Chamberlain or Lallana can get the ball and look to use it, there is noone in the middle to hit. It's not quite right. And it's why I really liked Pardew playing 4-5-1 - because we were able to control the game much better and play to our players' strengths. It's noticeable that when Barnard arrived and Pardew felt the need to accommodate him we started to stop scoring so many goals....

Utter cobblers. We were mugged by Plymouth and just over a week later slammed Bristol Rovers away 4-0. Three games, four points. Not brilliant but not a disaster either. When he left we had a game in hand to go seventh after four games... There was no problem with the team. Adkins won his first game FFS, that's how hard it was to turn around. There was no mess, nothing wrong at all when Pardew went, other than we lost our first game. And guess what? It wasn't to Rochdale at home or Wallfeckingsall away! Good luck with the Booker prize...

The problem with today is that this is the game we should have been allowed to lose... I hate losing but losing to Colchester would be more forgiveable than Wallsall and now we have heaped pressure on ourselves...

Speako Inglesi??

100% Mike. The biggest disappoint for me is that THIS is how Hammond was sold to me... a box to box engine who can drive the team. I have yet to see any evidence...

I'm afraid Chez, that's my point. If you ask me what we should do about it now, we have to sit back and wait for nature to take its course don't we? It's like saying "so having started that snowball rolling downhill, what can you do about stopping it?" The answer was, don't start the fecking thing rolling... Adkins, like all successful managers, has to learn his players, his team and build it HIS way. I have no doubt if Pardew was here we would be playing better and be winning the league - this is not because Pardew is a better manager but because it's HIS team.

Because he's a golden boy for some bizarre reason, people seem to be blaming Adkins who is in fact doing a half-decent job, rather than Cortese... When this season started we had everything in place to win the league at a canter. We had a poor first result, improved, and then fired the manager who had BUILT the entire foundation of our squad. Why are people now blaming Adkins for any problems?? Yes, he inherited a great side, a really, really good side. But he didn't build it. The man who did was removed from post before he could use the team he had created... bonkers.

Ah Gotcha!!

Er, think the quote is now a bit more realistic. If we don't go up, it's game up. We've seen how much patience Cortese has...

And yet the game you describe is also what happened in August - we totally outplayed Plymouth and lost 1-0 and immediately the knives were out for Pardew and three games later he was gone...

Like last season's second top scorer?? Oh, he's here already but for some reason we don't play him and when we do we don't seem to have a system that suits the players.

My massive worry about Adkins, and why I was amazed we appointed him, is all about 'weight of expectation'. Pardew could deal with it because he is a surly fecker and it's water off a duck's back... Adkins, however, has managed a club with zero expectation and now finds himself at the helm of a team with Manchester Citeh expectation levels - not just from the fans, but from his own board. He must know that failure to be promoted this season and the game is up. So what effect does that have? Will he, at some point, become resigned to his fate? I support him 100%. I want us to win every game. I backed us at enormous liability at 4/1 to win this league. Because make no mistake about it, we have the resources to win it - comfortably. I just hope that he can instill the confidence and steel that is required to grind out wins every game. Because in reality that's what we need from now on...

Wallsall.... So bad last season we beat them 3-1 with Graham Murty, Paul Wotton and Lloyda James on the pitch. Adkins = pick a winning team and f u cking stick with it eh?

One thing to say for Adkins compared to Pardew, our set pieces are a 100% improvement. We're scoring from them, they're original and they're opening up opportunities. Yes, we still get the odd overhit corner but then we are in League One...

Amen to that brother.

Stay with a winning team please Nigel. Football is a very very simple game.

I would say he could come to training dressed as a hazelnut and I wouldn't give a flying fig. As long as we are winning on Saturday and Tuesday, all else is bloody immaterial to be honest...

I can remember being sat in with the Astoon Villa fans at Villa Park when Deano scored in the 89th minute. Had to bite my tongue and it was all I could do not to run down onto the pitch and plant a kiss on his big shiny forehead. Tragic, tragic news. RIP Big fella. And lads and lasses, please live today like it's your last, because sadly for someone it will be.

It rather depends who those games are against. If you offered me a draw at Brighton, I would take it. A draw at Hartlepool feels like a missed opportunity and I'm sure Adkins feels the same way...

Nick I don't always agree with your outlook but I appreciate you keeping this record up to date. However, could you possibly add goals scores and conceded to see where we are either winning this battle or losing it?

This is a fatuous argument because of circumstances. Adkins (who I rate and I don't hear a single person calling for his head, but that makes your argument less controversial of course) took over the most expensively assembled squad in this league, and by a margin of ten times by my simple arithmetic. He is doing a good job. No better or worse than the man sacked to make way for him. Gus Poyet did not have the luxury of inheriting an expensively assembled squad. Today he is getting more from his players and therefore can be judged to be doing a better job this season. As for Lawrie, did they have transfer windows then? And was he employed, and/or did he agree that his job would be, to win the league?? If he did, I can tell you categorically he WOULD have been fired. Put it this way, if Ancelotti doesn't win the Champion's League, I would be stunned if he wasn't replaced. Do I like it? Does it matter? That's the commercial reality. Welcome to 2011.