How did we end up like this?

[optipez]

Can't agree with that, Scanlon. I'd say get through this season with our league status intact and our manager bedded in for half a season ready for next.
A lot of players out of ontract, buy less, buy better.

[irishpete]

Maybe a couple of seasons in the Conference is what the club needs - clear out all the dead wood and non jobs, start again with a clean slate and with people who have some passion and drive.
Short term (?) pain for long term gain.
The club is on life support and despite Mr Hardy's significant backing and well meant actions, needs a complete overhaul.

Is it ****.You think its easy getting out of the Conference,another bad season like this,god knows what would happen

[LaxtonLad]

I wonder how much owner interference influenced the signing of these players. It's their club, they own it so they - and only they - have the right to bring in the manager of their choice. I also wonder how deep they go into the manager's background and history of signing useful players - ones who made a difference to the team's performance. Ray Trew played a masterstroke when he brought in Steve Cotterill but then again we had the PR disaster named Jamie Fullerton, neither signed a player which shows recruitment isn't all.

Glad it's not up to me, Alan.

[Scanlon's Hatrick]

Is it ****.You think its easy getting out of the Conference,another bad season like this,god knows what would happen

Never said it would be easy Irish.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[LaxtonLad]

Maybe a couple of seasons in the Conference is what the club needs - clear out all the dead wood and non jobs, start again with a clean slate and with people who have some passion and drive.
Short term (?) pain for long term gain.
The club is on life support and despite Mr Hardy's significant backing and well meant actions, needs a complete overhaul.

No need for the Conference/National League bit, you can still clear out the dead wood and non jobs and start...etc.
You will still need a capable manager and IF rumours are correct, we are struggling to find one who would fancy the job now, in League 2.
Leyton Orient, Wrexham, Halifax, Hartlepool, Barnet, Aldershot, Chesterfield, Dagenham, etc.
Short term? Maybe longer than you think.

[marky]

Stockport, York City, Torquay etc.

[Simon the Pieman]

I wrote to Hardy three weeks ago and, amongst other things stated that I have no intention of watching non league football. His very interesting reply stated, amongst other things and I quote. "I don't want to watch non league football either".
I don't have to, and won't, he will if he and his staff carry on the way they are doing. Drain the swamp now!

[upthemaggies]

Darren Fletcher overseeing recruitment is why Notts are where they are now. He should have stuck to helping the club raise its' media profile.

[LaxtonLad]

Stockport, York City, Torquay etc.

Yes, marky, the list goes on. They all must have thought of a quick return to League football.

[jackal2]

Top quality opening post by MAD_MAGPIE. You won't find many football message boards with posters as good as we've got on here!

Absolutely right too, there's been far too much 'churn' at this club and that has undoubtedly played a part in where we find ourselves now. In some cases, managers like Ince, Kiwomya, Sheridan and Derry were dismissed under genuine pressure because we were in the relegation zone and on long losing runs, so the feeling was that something had to happen.

However, there's a fair argument to say that Short, Curle, Allen and Moniz should all have been given more time. They may all have been on a run of indifferent or moderately poor form at the time they went, and appearing not to be on course to achieve the mythical five-year plan, but we weren't actually in the relegation zone or looking beyond recovery. Indeed, the same could be said for Kewell, on the basis that 10 weeks isn't enough time for any manager to prove their worth.

On balance I think Nolan probably was the right call, based on 8 months of decline and possibly other factors, and whilst you could apply the same argument for Fullarton as for Kewell, I think he was just the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time at the fag end of the Trew era, with the fans' antagonism towards him and the board making it impossible for him to do the job.

But ncfcog's reply to MAD_MAGPIE is right. We need to stop judging managers harshly against this nonsense about "five-year plans for the Championship" (as if football works like any other business!). Instead, we need to appoint the best manager we can find and then give him plenty of time, not getting too excited or too panicky about short-term runs of good or bad form. For me, the only aim for any incoming manager this season is survival, and if we finish above the bottom two he's done his job. Then, next season, unless we find ourselves in or perilously close to the relegation zone by Christmas, then we just stay calm and keep building. Value stability ahead of instant results. Mid-table or lower mid-table is okay, anything else is great, but don't go sacking any more managers in circumstances that don't actually warrant such a panic reaction.

And by the way, the owner should get as far away from social media as possible and keep a calm head as described above, because a lot of the time the likes us don't help. There's a fair amount of evidence that several of the managers sacked under Trew, and maybe the most recent one by Hardy, were unduly influenced by the social media echo chamber, be that consciously or sub-consciously. I put my hands up, I was amongst those on this particular social media platform who welcomed the sackings of Short and Curle, but maybe with hindsight I was wrong. In neither case were we in a truly desperate situation and perhaps too much emotional emphasis was placed on a short-term run of poor form. Perhaps we all need to learn from where the constant cycle of hirings and firings has landed us.