In Perspective

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wanderlust wrote:
He seems to have halted the inevitable slide into relegation that many on here predicted only a few months ago so let him have a shot at creating a competitive but affordable squad (if that's possible). Once the dirty work is done DF will have to start showing some tactical nous as there will be no excuses left - and that's the time to judge him. It will come soon enough, perhaps as early as 10 games into next season.

Right, so after 18 months in the job it's fine with you that he hasn't used any tactical nous yet?

Is it possible he has none?

Quite possibly, but that's the compromise that is made to secure his talents in shipping out ponces like Ngog, making decent loan signings and (allegedly) developing the youth squad - facets of the managerial role that we are desperately in need of right now and talents that none of the no-mark names you've suggested this season possess.

Anyone can be a tactical genius if you have the talent on the pitch to execute the plan - any plan.

How many youngsters has he brought to the club? He's said they'll be ready to breakthrough this season, they shouldn't be rushed just to satisfy the fans, White made his debut and looked solid, Hall was excellent against Wigan and should have played again at Huddersfield, Odelusi's played and Kellet has been on the bench along with others.

He's blending youngsters into the squad, it's undeniable.

Any fool can bring a raft of teenagers to the club and hail them the next big thing.

The simple fact is there have been plenty of times this season when blooding a youth player would have been right (game after 7-1 drubbing at Reading being the obvious one), but Freedman chose to play someone out of position or a tried and failed player.

It's a complete myth that Freedman has a long term plan, the fact we have so many loan players proves this.

You can't say it's a myth he has a long term plan when he's brought these kids into the club, they're obviously here to improve our youth system so we actually bring some through. Throwing a bunch of kids who aren't ready yet into the first team will help nothing.

The long term plan can be judged next season when we should start seeing some come through, to write it off as non existent is just blindness.

Natasha Whittam wrote:What bugs me is that the majority of us can see Dougie isn't the man. I can't think of any team ever getting promotion playing negative football. Remember the last time we won this division - we played attacking football and the object was simple: score more than the opposition. Just as Leicester have done this season.

The happy clappers seem to want to blame the debt, or the players signed by Coyle, or basically anything but the manager. But the fact remains that NOTHING has improved under Freedman. There is no youth, no decent football, no flair and no atmosphere.

We all know that we'll get rid of Dougie at some point next season, probably when the promotion ship has long sailed. So why not get shut now and give someone else the chance to mould this team ready for August.

I feel the same as you.

There'll always be people that defend shit managers right until the day they're sacked. It happened with Megson, it happened with Coyle, it's happening with Dougie, it will happen with any other clueless idiot we have in the future.

What annoys me is that most of the pro-Dougie stuff I see is based on the "mess" he's gotta sort out, rather than actual qualities people see in him as a manager. It's like we could have brought in any old cretin after Coyle and people would still be saying "give him time, Rome wasn't built in a day".

The idea that he's made improvements to the development squad is meaningless until we see some playing a useful role in the first team. I'm not saying that won't happen eventually, but there's no evidence right now that he's made the chances of young players coming through any greater.

Yes, some of his signings (mainly loans) have been good but we need more than that. Let's suppose he gets rid of all the time-wasters in the summer and builds a great squad. He'll still make nonsense decisions on a weekly basis. He'll still drop players that were fantastic the week before and stick with the ones that were shite. There'll still be 5-3 defeats where he names an unchanged defence and drops all the goalscorers the week after. All managers have their funny ways, but it's more than that with Dougie. I've never known a weirder manager in terms of how he picks a team. It doesn't instil confidence in me as an observer, god knows what impact it has on the players.

I don't count myself as either pro or anti Doug. There are some signs that promising young players are actually being groomed to step up, however. Case in point being young Jamie Thomas who has been moved up from the U18's to the reserves. He is the scorer of our first goal in the video below.

Which of the senior players do you think has the composure and confidence to score a goal like that? He has been scoring for fun recently and was moved up on that basis. Before him was Georg Iliev who has signed a professional contract and notably scored a hattrick as a substitute against Spurs recently. A sample of his work can be found in the video below:


He was a regular star for the U18's and was moved up to the reserves. The style and flair shown by our younger teams against teams turned out by Spurs, Stoke, Liverpool and Manchester United indicate a real determination for the club to produce players instead of relying on cast-offs or has-beens. I don't know Doug to be a 'Special One', but the senior team is not exactly packed with ball-handlers and you still can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

The younger teams seem to have a number of those, however. I'm willing to see what the summer holds and just to be clear, these kids will not rescue us from the Championship in a year or two, on their own. They can form a basis upon which to grow, though.

doffcocker wrote:The idea that he's made improvements to the development squad is meaningless until we see some playing a useful role in the first team. I'm not saying that won't happen eventually, but there's no evidence right now that he's made the chances of young players coming through any greater.

Yes, some of his signings (mainly loans) have been good but we need more than that. Let's suppose he gets rid of all the time-wasters in the summer and builds a great squad. He'll still make nonsense decisions on a weekly basis. He'll still drop players that were fantastic the week before and stick with the ones that were shite. There'll still be 5-3 defeats where he names an unchanged defence and drops all the goalscorers the week after. All managers have their funny ways, but it's more than that with Dougie. I've never known a weirder manager in terms of how he picks a team. It doesn't instil confidence in me as an observer, god knows what impact it has on the players.

In regards to the youth teams you're right that unless we see any of them break into the first team it's meaningless. But given how many have come in and that we've had some appearances from the better ones I disagree and think he has improved the chances of young players coming through. 

But what annoys me with a lot of anti-dougie posters is that anything and everything is his fault. For instance, we have more youth players on the brink of the first team than I can remember yet that's being used against him, in as much they're not playing so there's no long term plan and he doesn't give youth a chance. 

I agree he needs to sort out his selections, too often there's chopping and changing, sometimes I also think he's too negative but often I understand what he's trying to do and agree with it. Too many fans don't see two strikers on the pitch and instantly start moaning about negativity, it's not always as simple as that.

As I said in another thread, he's got 10 games next season with 'his team', can't say fairer than that.

What annoys me is that some people write crap like "Any fool can bring a raft of teenagers to the club and hail them the next big thing" - for effect.


No. Dougie NEVER claimed that, nor did he claim that they would be ready this season.
He simply stated that given our financial situation, youth development was important. 
No big claims. No bullshit.
Now that Dougie has managed to get this frankly average interim squad to get 22 points out of the last 33, some whingers are really clutching at straws to find a way to crucify him. Frankly I don't care what criticism is levelled at anyone as long as it is founded on the truth but this is just more bullshit.