Match Thread vs Sutton 07.12.19

[legs77]

Is giving a manager a full season excessive? I know it is at Meadow Lane but not in football in general.

A calendar month ago he was looking all set for the play offs. One month later , we don't. In a month's time?

If results don't get significantly better soon, then maybe the owners will slowly methodically will plan for a replacement for next season.

No not at all but he has been here for over a year and I have seen zero progress.

He seems to be given a free pass for the relegation his record was shocking and its just above average this season mainly due to the poor teams in the league.

The longer he is here the more damage he will do as he will get another transfer window to sign even more dross.

I would have accepted it if we played a younger squad who can get better but nope he has gone down the spineless route of several 30+ aged players.

Bird and Osbourne should be played more this season regardless of what he says to Radio Nottm its not like any of them have had a fair crack under him.

I do suspect he will probably get the season as you say though which isnt something I want to think about !

[laddo]

I think he has been given the benefit of the doubt , but rightly so. When he took over , the Notts County official private jet was already descending too dramatically for an average manager at the controls to save it.

No free pass in my eyes , a complete clusterf&#k of a season and almost as bad pre season.

That excuse has no fully run its course as Stall, and many others have said but anyone choosing to ignore last season and pre season is living in bananaland.

[BigFatPie]

I watched our goal this morning. It was being bigged up by the National league as a flowing 11 man move from the goalkeeper forwards. In reality our back 4 passed it about for a bit while getting pressed, looking about as comfortable as Boris Johnson at a paternity test, before one of em lumped it, someone picked up the bits and pieces, and we managed to get it into the area.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Ardley’s continuing employment, the players just can’t effectively play the sort of football he wants to play. And that’s got bugger all to do with pre-season.

[Davy500]

So that's 3 out of about about 30 managers since Warnock. So Ardley falls into the 90% of Notts managers camp.

Well blow me down , let's sack him and hire another 9 and then 10th time lucky

Bingo!

No Ardley falls into the bottom 10 % of managers, and will always be known for relegating us from the football league

Yes lets get another manager with a better win rate, and average points per a game, which nearly all of the other 90 % have

And recently Kevin Nolan, and Keith Curle streets ahead of Ardley, and on facts of average points per a game always will be

[laddo]

But don't forget the fans wanted rid of Curle quite aggressively, the main reason as I am sure you will remember was the fact the home record under him was poor. He was just one of a lot of managers in the recent past us fans wanted rid of.

I agree no doubt we can get in a manager with a better points per game average but history shows us it's not good enough to satisfy the locals and the next:

Get <insert managers name> poll

Will be set up amongst the half dozen similar themed threads with fans demanding the current manager is removed.

Sadly we have all seen it many times before, it's nothing new.

And so the cycle continues...

Yay!

[Davy500]

But don't forget the fans wanted rid of Curle quite aggressively, the main reason as I am sure you will remember was the fact the home record under him was poor. He was just one of a lot of managers in the recent past us fans wanted rid of.

I agree no doubt we can get in a manager with a better points per game average but history shows us it's not good enough to satisfy the locals and the next:

Get <insert managers name> poll

Will be set up amongst the half dozen similar themed threads with fans demanding the current manager is removed.

Sadly we have all seen it many times before, it's nothing new.

And so the cycle continues...

Yay!

Yes i do remember that Curle was sacked due to the average home form, still if the points are picked up away who cares.
I believe we would have got into the top 6 that year , if ched evans had not gone to jail. because if he had played , stevenage would have never got a 1-1 draw against Sheff United , that helped them pipp us to the play offs on goal difference
The decision baffled me at the time, but like mad magpie said he was always on a hiding to nothing after succeeding the highly popular Martin Allen

Also the decision to sack Nolan was one of the biggest mistakes Notts ever made,again baffled after just 5 games, and his relative success the previous 18 months

Even the relative stable Monitz should not have been sacked in my opinion

Still we see where we go, not many teams get straight back into the football league at the first attempt. But time is valuable, the parachute payments run out after 2 years, I just do not think Ardley is the man for the job, almost 90 % of managers could do better

[laddo]

Agree about the Nolan and Moniz sackings but clearly the supporters cared about the lack of home wins and performances as the majority wanted another one gone.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

As someone who has up until recently been giving Ardley the benefit of the doubt I thought I might chip in if that's ok.

I agree with your sentiments regarding the number of managers and how we have essentially experienced a chronic decline because of this. For a club to have some success you probably need a degree of synergy between the players and the manager. The most obvious way to achieve this is to allow a manager to compile a squad of players HE wants at the club. It might be argued that many of the managers sacked over the last 20 years probably haven't had that luxury and you could argue they were sacked too soon.

Ardley has pretty much been given everything he needs and has with the exception of two regular first teamers built his own squad. He has had the time to impart his own footballing ideology on HIS squad and has in my opinion been given enough time to make this combination work. For a while in October it did look like the team had finally gelled and we were a quality outfit. Unfortunately we have been found out, any team that presses us high will reap their rewards. We have not reacted to this quick enough, we've hit a bad run because of it, the players are losing the confidence they had developed in the good patch we had and the manager is now moaning saying they don't do what they have been told in training. When a manager and squad of players are collective in sync with each other what happens on the training ground occurs naturally on the pitch.

As I have said earlier, a manager cannot be judged until he has had the time to develop his own squad and style of play. Ardley has arguably been given more time and financial support than most at this club to do this and as much as I want him to succeed I just cannot see that he has anything else up his sleeve that will turn this poor run of games into the kind of run we need to start challenging for a play off spot. Unless of course he is banking on a killer signing in January and the return of JOB. Is that a risk the owners should take?

This is an excellent post. As someone who has been prepared to give the manager time and be patient then in his defence he did have to try and build this squad within a week before the start of the season. We have no idea of whether he got the players he initially wanted or what his target players were or how many that went elsewhere.

For me now we are at the halfway stage of the season it’s clear that we need to be better in the second half of the season to finish in the playoffs. The big question is whether Neal Ardley can deliver this or not? Could he pull off like what he did at Wimbledon by us coming good at the business end of the season.

As it stands Halifax in the last playoff place are averaging 1.58 points per game and would finish on 73 points. We are averaging 1.38 points per game and would finish on 63 points. That’s a 10 point betterment over the next 22 games.

Say we need 74 points to get that last place. That’s 41 points from 22 games which is an average of 1.85 points per game. Barrow are top and they are averaging 1.96 points per game.

If we are to get into the playoffs then we need to be showing automatic promotion form starting Saturday for the rest of the campaign. It’s looking a tall order compared to our current form and would require a massive turnaround.

If our form is no better after Christmas and New Year then that is going to be a point where we will have to accept as supporters the club will be going nowhere this season. The Barrow home game for me was the defining game where I began to think we are someway off being a consistent force in this league.

Soon preparations will have to turn towards next season and looking at targets and who may be able to come in during January to begin laying those foundations.

I guess the big question is whether Neal Ardley is the man who can do this and get a squad ready for August starting by building in January that would grow to be a serious force at this level? If the answer is yes then he will get the rest of the season. If the answer is no then there needs to be someone out there who would come in like Cotteril did. This is the problem we’ve had in the past sacking managers and not having any plan or replacements lined up. When they have been replaced most in the past 20 years have been no good and not improved our league positions so makes it pointless.

[laddo]

Excellent considered post