Evatt out?

What do Nutters think?

Do we give him more time or is it time for his taxi? A lot of our fans on social media want him out now but can't see it happening just yet. If Nat was still here she would have had the bedsheet out by now 

If he did go, who would replace him?

I'm still undecided as overall his record has been great but this year it has been painful to watch us and they are so up and down performance wise.

FV won't sack him.

Evatt won't walk

We've only played four games and it really does take time for players and new styles of play to bed in.

I just think it is absolutely mental that so many people get so worked up on social media over just four games at the start of a new season.

I think its a combination of how we ended the last season (even though we got to Wembley) and the bad start to this one. Evatt's stubbornness doesn't help either as he will continue to play as we do even when it plainly doesn't work as Saturday showed all too well.

They won't sack him. He has enough goodwill in the bank to merit them staying their hand.
However, this is a make or break season for Evatt, and a descent to mid table by Christmas might mean the writing is on the wall.
I'll judge us 12 games in.

Yes. I hate disagreeing with sluffy but Evatt's record isn't as great as some make out. From League 2 we got automatic promotion by the skin of our teeth and had it not been 3 auto spots we'd have been in a play off there which I have no doubt we would have lost. The tame surrender in the play off the following season was actually nearly duplicated last season when we very nearly lost the semi to Barnsley having won the away leg by 2 goals. The utter surrender against Oxford was unconscionable. 

I realise money is a problem so sacking Evatt may not be possible but I feel based on results alone it needs to happen and soon. I have been to all the home games this season and honestly think we look clueless in far too many situations. That isn't the players, it's a serious and growing problem from the manager and coaching staff in my honest opinion.

To sum up: Can we change manager? I don't know due to our shaky finances. Should we change manager? Absolutely and perhaps the coaching staff as well. 

I personally wonder if FV and Sharron are trying to find other investors and if they do will that make the frankly necessary change financially viable? I certainly hope so because at this rate I don't fear another choke at the top of the table, I fear a scrap for survival at the bottom, one I don't think we'd win under the current structure.

Norpig wrote:I think its a combination of how we ended the last season (even though we got to Wembley) and the bad start to this one. Evatt's stubbornness doesn't help either as he will continue to play as we do even when it plainly doesn't work as Saturday showed all too well.

It is.

It is exactly that, that the morons on social media are getting the bed sheets out for.

Wanderlust even seems to be leading them in respect of getting Sheehan out of the team ffs!

It seems so simple to me all of this.

The killer for us last season was a short squad (we had places in the squad deliberately left vacant) and a very long season - over 60 games including cup games - it was inevitable that performance towards the end would dip.

For the record in 2023/24

We played a total of 61 games 46 league and 15 Cup and play offs
Portsmouth played only 53
Derby 54
Oxford 55

We therefore played 10% more games than all the other clubs who got promoted and we didn't even have a full squad whilst doing so!!!!

(It's not really rocket science why we came up short in the end, is it?)

There's also been a weakness in the team from the beginning by having no 'muscle', 'hardman', 'enforcer', call it what you will leading to us being bullied and intimidated at times (Even Exeter were 'niggling' at us in the first half).

Evatt's master plan was to come up with Tippy Tappy Mark II.

FV have given Evatt a full squad and he's brought in muscle and tinkered with pushing up the wing backs and playing two number 10's.

It simply hasn't worked up to now - but it still is early days (just 4 games in).

Maybe it will work when it beds in and all players have become fully match fit.

Maybe it won't.

I think Evatt will be his usual pig headed self and persist with it.

I also know the social media morons will make everything more toxic until it does or until ultimately Evatt goes (even if he manages to change things around and gets the results we want).

We do have a very good team from last season (Paris is the only regular that left) and we've spent big improving it in the summer.

There's no reason not to think that we/Evatt can turn all this around.

Just hope he doesn't leave it too late to do it though.

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Sluffy wrote:FV won't sack him.

Evatt won't walk

We've only played four games and it really does take time for players and new styles of play to bed in.

I just think it is absolutely mental that so many people get so worked up on social media over just four games at the start of a new season.

Despite my own negative comments about the situation, I agree with you Sluffy about it being far too soon to contemplate sacking Evatt.

Let's see where we are after 10-12 games. 

It is worrying though and I  do think we will struggle to get in the play-offs this season. The competition is much harder this year.

I'm unfortunately in the Evatt out brigade and have been since half way through last season. The playoff final was the last straw for me.

The transfer window showed a glimmer of hope with adding some new additions to the squad but we still have Santos fucking around with the ball at the back and Evatt has simply done fuck all about it.

I agree with one or two players being injured though.

We put 7 goals past Exeter last season and lost 2 nil last Saturday so something isn't right with the management. We have been very poor so far this season IMO apart from the Shrewsbury game.

I just can't see us going up again this season so next season will be the 6th year of the 3 year plan to get us up!

karlypants wrote:I'm unfortunately in the Evatt out brigade and have been since half way through last season. The playoff final was the last straw for me.

The transfer window showed a glimmer of hope with adding some new additions to the squad but we still have Santos fucking around with the ball at the back and Evatt has simply done fuck all about it.

I agree with one or two players being injured though.

We put 7 goals past Exeter last season and lost 2 nil last Saturday so something isn't right with the management. We have been very poor so far this season IMO apart from the Shrewsbury game.

I just can't see us going up again this season so next season will be the 6th year of the 3 year plan to get us up!

I totally agree with your comments about Santos and Evatts lack of action on this.
I was gutted by our performance in the Playoff Final and have lost faith in Evatt's ability to turn the 

situation around. I guess the next 10-12 games will tell us a lot about our future

Still pissed off though.

We just don't get the ball forward quickly enough....and Santos and Evatt are largely to blame, as mentioned in the posts above.

 The answer lies in the manager's hands:-he needs to relieve his captain of the responsibility for controlling the pace of our game. We are not Manchester City(!), so must drop this idea of trying to copy their ability to play out from the back, build slowly and still find the killer pass at the right time.

Liverpool provide an easier example for us lesser mortals to try to copy via their rapid breaks out of defence, using runners to provide the outlets. In Dion we have at least one tireless runner, so use him (and others?) rather than drive him to utter frustration, as he waits in vain for a through-ball or the chance to link up play. At the moment, he just uses his energy to harass defenders.

Santos needs to make more instant, simple passes to nearby colleagues with better vision and passing ability.

okocha wrote:We just don't get the ball forward quickly enough....and Santos and Evatt are largely to blame, as mentioned in the posts above.

 The answer lies in the manager's hands:-he needs to relieve his captain of the responsibility for controlling the pace of our game. We are not Manchester City(!), so must drop this idea of trying to copy their ability to play out from the back, build slowly and still find the killer pass at the right time.

Liverpool provide an easier example for us lesser mortals to try to copy via their rapid breaks out of defence, using runners to provide the outlets. In Dion we have at least one tireless runner, so use him (and others?) rather than drive him to utter frustration, as he waits in vain for a through-ball or the chance to link up play. At the moment, he just uses his energy to harass defenders.

Santos needs to make more instant, simple passes to nearby colleagues with better vision and passing ability.

A really good point about Dion and how he is used. He works so hard for little possession and little reward for all his efforts.

It’s not the manager it’s the owners. We don’t have any money. Billionaires at Wrexham and Birmingham will piss the league as they are already because money buys success. 

Simple as that. We had every chance to go up last season automatically by some distance but shit the bed in every important game. The league last year was of very very poor quality and we still couldn’t go up. 

This year we will be lucky to scrape into the top half.

Evatt must go. Now.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Evatt must go. Now.

I completely agree Peter.

After today’s shit show there is no other option.

Who on earth is gonna come in. 

I’ll have a guess at the fans picks. Jimmy Phillips. Kevin Nolan. Super John. Big Sam of course. Jay Jay.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Who on earth is gonna come in. 

I’ll have a guess at the fans picks. Jimmy Phillips. Kevin Nolan. Super John. Big Sam of course. Jay Jay.

You've forgot this man...

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Ha ha. Indeed. 

When you see the names being banded about I think I’d rather play without a manager and just let the players do whatever the hell they want. 

Mick McCarthy? What’s he doing.

Yesterday was hard to take, i still think Evatt can turn it around he's done it before, but i expected much more from the last two home games and Charlton away. So he's hanging by a thread.

Somethings changed Georges passing for a start, Dacres Cogley way off his game, Sheehan going from the best midfielder in the division to a bench warmer?  Collins just not performing we don't look like scoring.

A bit controversial but just recently the fans are becoming a problem even before we concede the atmosphere is hostile as soon as we play a backward pass they are moaning, you would think they hadn't realised how we play. 
We can't go long with Charles up front, he never wins an header in fact he doesn't try to win a header he goes to try and foul the centre half. He can't hold the ball up, and given time on the ball he looks like he's never played. Its a good job he scores and runs around a lot because he is a very poor footballer. Victor tries but he's not the answer.  If he stays i would revert to last seasons team and slowly blend in the new guys. But its hard to understand how bad we have become. Hope everyones ok been away for a while.

wessy wrote:Yesterday was hard to take, i still think Evatt can turn it around he's done it before.

Wessy I admire your optimism but there's no way he can turn this around. Frankly he's a choker, that's shown in each of the last two seasons with craven surrenders noth at the business end of the regular season and in the play offs. Sluffy can talk about injuries etc and I take his point but last season we should have been solidly in the auto zone and out of sight by February given our position and number of games in hand. 

For me Evatt has reached his level and will never get higher at least not here. In fact I will predict right now that if Ian Evatt is in charge next May we will spend the summer getting ready for life back in League Two. His confidence is shot and it's reflected in the attitude and performance of the players. New leadership is required now if we are to salvage anything from the season. I realise it's very early but only if you take this season alone as context for my comment. The truth is we've been on the slide since Christmas and now it's accelerating. 

Sharon needs to bite the bullet and make the change now or this is going to get worse, much worse. It's not even a case of league position, I honestly think the club's very survival may be at stake. If we go back down how will we attract any kind of meaningful investment to take the club forward? Survival at this level is the absolute bare minimum of requirements to have any chance of that and we WILL fail if Evatt stays.

We can’t afford to pay him off.