Freedman.

Jamster26 wrote: as far as I'm concerned, it's so far, so good.

It's not difficult to be balanced about it is it? The facts are that for whatever reason, our lot has improved immensely under Freedman - we're unbelieveably in with a chance of getting into the playoffs in a season where relegation was a real concern for a long time.
That doesn't mean he's the best or worst at anything and it's annoying that everything that happens is stated as an extreme one way or the other.
Jamsters got it right IMO - so far so good. Whether we end up getting promoted, getting close or failing miserably at the last hurdle we'll have to wait and see, but we wouldn't even be talking about playoffs and promotion if it weren't for the progress we've made under DF.
There will be changes in the summer whatever division we're in and so far DF hasn't made any obvious howlers in the transfer market so there's reason to be optimistic that when he finally gets a squad that he can call his own it will be as good as we can hope for in our position.
Sure we're scraping through by the skin of our teeth at the moment and every armchair manager would change this or that to make us more dominant and reduce our risk of conceding, but at least we're not in the position we were.
I think Freedman has done enough to deserve a bit of leeway in his decision making without getting slaughtered for it.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:i don't understand people who seem to be practically willing him to fail so they can get their shine on on a bloody football forum.

It's the only thing in my life.

Fair enough when you're being ironic.

but there appears to be some who absolutely love to pick the shit out of Freedman for anything and everything.

even when we've gone on this great run. "It's all luck" "oh why did he play Bogdan though?!" "they hit the post though!"

I mean come on, enjoy it, we're sixth right now, we were 20th.

I don't buy all the negativity towards Freedman. His January signings have shown that he knows his onions. If we do win the play-offs I am sure the club will reward him by giving him the cash to buy three decent Premiership quality players.

Reebok Trotter wrote:I don't buy all the negativity towards Freedman. His January signings have shown that he knows his onions. If we do win the play-offs I am sure the club will reward him by giving him the cash to buy three decent Premiership quality players.

We're going to need more than three though.

But to be fair, I would prefer the club to go up, collect the riches on offer next season, and vastly reduce the debt, if that means instant relegation, at least we start the following season in a far healthier financial state, then build from there.

We created our own debt by buying into the theory that Premier league football was the only way, it clearly wasn't.

wanderlust wrote:

Jamster26 wrote: as far as I'm concerned, it's so far, so good.

It's not difficult to be balanced about it is it? The facts are that for whatever reason, our lot has improved immensely under Freedman - we're unbelieveably in with a chance of getting into the playoffs in a season where relegation was a real concern for a long time.
That doesn't mean he's the best or worst at anything and it's annoying that everything that happens is stated as an extreme one way or the other.
Jamsters got it right IMO - so far so good. Whether we end up getting promoted, getting close or failing miserably at the last hurdle we'll have to wait and see, but we wouldn't even be talking about playoffs and promotion if it weren't for the progress we've made under DF.
There will be changes in the summer whatever division we're in and so far DF hasn't made any obvious howlers in the transfer market so there's reason to be optimistic that when he finally gets a squad that he can call his own it will be as good as we can hope for in our position.
Sure we're scraping through by the skin of our teeth at the moment and every armchair manager would change this or that to make us more dominant and reduce our risk of conceding, but at least we're not in the position we were.
I think Freedman has done enough to deserve a bit of leeway in his decision making without getting slaughtered for it.

I'll agree with most of this ..... it's just a shame because we were supposed to be similar to Cardiff and crushing this division....now we are shipping 5 against bottom feeders and eeking out a win at the bottom club.....I'll take it but it's not what most of us expected. But after all that we are in with a shout with 4 games left....so better than nowt.

terenceanne wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

Jamster26 wrote: as far as I'm concerned, it's so far, so good.

It's not difficult to be balanced about it is it? The facts are that for whatever reason, our lot has improved immensely under Freedman - we're unbelieveably in with a chance of getting into the playoffs in a season where relegation was a real concern for a long time.
That doesn't mean he's the best or worst at anything and it's annoying that everything that happens is stated as an extreme one way or the other.
Jamsters got it right IMO - so far so good. Whether we end up getting promoted, getting close or failing miserably at the last hurdle we'll have to wait and see, but we wouldn't even be talking about playoffs and promotion if it weren't for the progress we've made under DF.
There will be changes in the summer whatever division we're in and so far DF hasn't made any obvious howlers in the transfer market so there's reason to be optimistic that when he finally gets a squad that he can call his own it will be as good as we can hope for in our position.
Sure we're scraping through by the skin of our teeth at the moment and every armchair manager would change this or that to make us more dominant and reduce our risk of conceding, but at least we're not in the position we were.
I think Freedman has done enough to deserve a bit of leeway in his decision making without getting slaughtered for it.

I'll agree with most of this ..... it's just a shame because we were supposed to be similar to Cardiff and crushing this division....now we are shipping 5 against bottom feeders and eeking out a win at the bottom club.....I'll take it but it's not what most of us expected. But after all that we are in with a shout with 4 games left....so better than nowt.

I think it comes down to how good you think the players are. If you think our players are a cut above most of the championship then yes we should be in a position like Cardiff.

Personally I don't, although I did at the beginning of the season. This years shown how poor many of them are, in that they were dreadful under OC and have improved a bit under Dougie. The fact is nobodies looked like they should be playing premier league football with the possible exception of Dawson. I think that shows how Dougie's made us a strong team with no particularly outstanding individuals.

FWIW I think if we had Dougie in charge from the start of the season then promotion would have been a REAL possibility. We have to remember that Dougie inherited our squad and some of our players wouldn't normally be Dougies choice. It takes time for a manager to instil his own approach on any team he takes over and acquire his own style of player to accomplish his vision.

Back to his best today, is it eight home wins on the bounce on something.

This guy knows his stuff that's for sure

...but don't forget, it's in spite of him.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

They have been asking the question on the Palace forum about how good a manager Freedman is.

My take on it is that he is a good manager, I thought he did a great job at Palace and to be fair to Dougie, even though we have been awful away from home and not looked all that great a team, he inherited a team that let goals in for fun, we have had huge problems in the centre of midfield this season and not had a left sided player (Petrov doesn't count because he was shit), we don't have strikers who score enough. He hasn't inherited that good a team to be fair to Dougie.

Realistically if we did go up we would need a complete overhaul of the team. This is one reason I am not sure a lot of the players want it enough because they probably know promotion will mean the end for them.

Boltons win today puts his combined side (Palace & Bolton) while he was in charge of each - top of the league

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Boltons win today puts his combined side (Palace & Bolton) while he was in charge of each - top of the league

That would be a great stat if it was true.

Teach me to trust that palace fan.

Until I see him address the away form he will be nothing more than an average manager.

It's all hypothetical and we can't know how good (or otherwise) a manager DF is until he's managed a team in the Prem.

Personally I think the 'Caretaker' would have done just as good a job and without making Freedmen's mistakes, probably better.

chipbutty wrote:
It's all hypothetical and we can't know how good (or otherwise) a manager DF is until he's managed a team in the Prem.

Personally I think the 'Caretaker' would have done just as good a job and without making Freedmen's mistakes, probably better.

chipbutty wrote:
It's all hypothetical and we can't know how good (or otherwise) a manager DF is until he's managed a team in the Prem.

Personally I think the 'Caretaker' would have done just as good a job and without making Freedmen's mistakes, probably better.

Terrible WUM.

Agreed.

Even if we crash and burn at Cardiff and lose out on the final day, Freedman will have had a good season results-wise so he won't be going anywhere and regardless of how you rate him, it will be Dougie's team next season.
So we might as well get used to it and see what the summer brings. I'm optimistic myself as his flirtation with the January transfer window suggested that he can work with a tight budget and appears to be fairly astute in the market - and well connected. Where he dug Medo up from is still a mystery to me and I suspect he has a few more in his address book. Looking forward to seeing what he can do.

Interesting to read other fans views on Douglas, quite a few seem to think he will become a very good manager and at the moment he is making small steps in becoming just that.

If we don't go up this season but manages to fix our away record next season then I see automatic promotion on the cards under him.