Sluffy wrote:I'm not actually arguing for his sacking - I think what is happening at the club precludes that until things are sorted one way or another - what I am saying that it actually takes some achievement to only manage 1 win in 29 - the odds are that any half decent manager given the same circumstances with the same squad would have better than just one win in almost 30 games.
As crap as we are we have players that have performed at a higher level than they have been doing for a large part of their careers to date.
Clearly the players have more to give, so the question must be why they are not?
Seems to me Lennon can't get the best out of them - maybe they don't give a toss for him, or play in the positions they want too but a professional footballer being paid around £10,000 a week or more should at least have basic footballing skills and fitness - and to manage just 1 win in 29 suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong about how they are performing - ergo how they are managed, motivated, led, inspired - call it what you will.
I feel sorry for Lennon but he clearly is not helping himself - and this issue in the Sunday papers suggests that his decision making in his private life is not the best never mind his professional one!
But then you have to ask if the reason they're not playing well is because they're NOT getting paid or at least they weren't until the PFA stepped in to help. Let me put it this way to you sluffy, if your employer said you got no wage for November and then refused to even guarantee you'd be paid at Christmas would you really feel like giving your best at work? Let's face it, we all call footballers for the huge wage they can earn but when that wage suddenly drops to zero with no guarantee you're ever going to get it back I don't think many of us would be performing in stellar fashion do you?
As to his private life, yep, he's a pratt for cheating but the tabloid story was nothing more than an attempt todrum up controversy without quite libelling anyone. It had more holes in it than a Phil Gartside fax and while I think he'd deserve being dumped by his missus I don't believe it should cost him his job. He's not the first man who couldn't keep his pants on and won't be the last. To be fair to the man if all men had the sort of opportunities he's had to bed other women I bet most of us would take it at some point. Pointing fingers and claiming moral superiority in those circumstances is slightly hypocritical imo.
For what it's worth I think Neil has shown courage by staying through what must be awfully stressful conditions in which to try and manage a football club. I think many managers would have gone the moment the true details of our finances began to emerge and no one would blame them. That he hasn't causes me to respect him more not less.
I believe the only way to truly judge Neil's abilities is to wait until a takeover is completed and he's got something, however little it may be with which to invest in improving the squad. I personally rate him as a football manager and think that we could not get anyone better at any time in the near future. I also believe that a lot of the players are marking time, waiting for january to see if they get sold/released and may not be playing to the maximum of effort and ability in a conscious or subconscious bid to avoid injury that might prevent them getting a move to a place where they WILL be paid on time. I don't think any manager can do anything about that if I'm right. I also can't help wondering if they've known for some time that bad things were happening behind the scenes that might further explain the long, much TOO long run of woeful form.
Home
). There are a lot of players in this team who have played in the Championship and some even the Premiership and they are all under performing. Lets not forget that 1 win in 29 games goes back to last season as well not just this one.
