Artell sacked.......

I must say I was surprised that the board decided to relieve Dave Artell of his duties however I have never seen him so down as he was after the Doncaster game so it could have been mutual will we ever know?
Personally I think the Dave Artell is a thoroughly decent chap who did his very best for the Alex as player and manager and was a fan as well it is sad to see it ending as it has and did not deserve some of the comments aimed at him.
I think he had some huge challenges this season especially having all the talent removed prior to the season starting it was always going to be a struggle so it was all about recruitment and budget, he recruited what he thought were good enough and what he could afford and those signings were not up to the job hence many were shipped out in January and another number of signings made initially they looked OK but injuries hit and they all disappeared leaving us short on numbers and having to blood numerous youngsters who to their credit performed well and showed commitment unlike some of the mercenaries we signed. The appointment of the next manager is of paramount importance and we need to get the right person to develop the younger players but has the knowledge of league two to understand he needs good experienced pros as well, a major sort out and rebuild is required a difficult task. I have said it before we need a solid spike GK,CH,CM,CF of the like of Nicky Hunt, Paul Green etc and go again.
The Chairman is on Radio Stoke tonight will be interesting to hear what he has to say.

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Originally Posted by gazan

Well the disaster junkies have got there way and a man committed to the club has lost his livelihood. Well Artell has been sacked and going by the level of depth of analysis applied to this situation I.e. pitifully little, I suppose the golden days will return immediately. After all, sacking a manager is all it takes isn't it?

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Agreed

I think that the posts expressing concern about the direction the club has been heading this season have not been devoid of suggestions concerning necessary and fundamental change. Equally, I see no point retaining someone who clearly was incapable of arresting the club's downward spiral this season or possibly the next. There are obviously broader and more fundamental factors to do with the club's structure and operation which, aside from awful recruitment, tactics, team selections etc. which are somewhat closer to Artell's remit, require early resolution to impact positively on the first team's future fortunes. For the record, up until late January, I thought that Wartman was being rather bleak in his assessment. However, the home defeat by Plymouth was the final straw for me.

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Originally Posted by Furberstreet

I think that the posts expressing concern about the direction the club has been heading this season have not been devoid of suggestions concerning necessary and fundamental change. Equally, I see no point retaining someone who clearly was incapable of arresting the club's downward spiral this season or possibly the next. There are obviously broader and more fundamental factors to do with the club's structure and operation which, aside from awful recruitment, tactics, team selections etc. which are somewhat closer to Artell's remit, require early resolution to impact positively on the first team's future fortunes. For the record, up until late January, I thought that Wartman was being rather bleak in his assessment. However, the home defeat by Plymouth was the final straw for me.

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I thought the Plymouth game was the start of our spiral towards league 2, although you could go back much further, but Fleetwood and Doncaster sealed DA's fate, it is sad but even our board who don't like the idea of sacking managers could not let this go on. I was surprised by the timing but we now have to try and rebuild for next season and maybe we do need new ideas. I do feel though that the new management team who ever that may be will be struggling to get there first choice players in and will be scraping the bargain basement for players just as DA was forced to do. I hope I'm wrong but we need a budget for next season that the new management team can use to improve what is an extremely poor squad as it stands.

Fair enough, F St and Gobstopper. As you know, I've resisted the calls for a sacking for most of this season. Early on, I believed that the club was facing a number of unusual circumstances that stacked against the club and the manager. I think I thought that Artell was having bad luck. I still believe there was an element of that due to the constant turnover of injuries, something I think some people overlooked. However, my position began to entrench as I became aware of the general and sometimes vile abuse being thrown at the manager and the club itself. Unfortunately, I believe this coloured my judgement a little and so refused to allow myself to consider whether DA was unable to cope. My visit to Stockport introduced a lot of doubts, particularly the playing of a back 3 against a team who did all of their forward play down the wings.
On reflection, I think Artell was a good manager and achieved good things with the club. However, as the various calamities befell the club, DA became reactive and started to panic (as I think most people would!). In the end, it seems he could not cope with the downward spiral and was unable to break the fall. Therefore, it's possible that a change will be good for both sides.
I have to reiterate that I have great respect for the man. He is intelligent and was completely immersed in the club and it's sad to see such a man chucked onto the scrapheap. I imagine he may follow his previous line of study and find an opening in forensics.
In the meantime, can I point out to people that the youth team lost in the final minute to a top Premier academy so it can't be all bad at the club.

Dave Artell was, is and will remain, both as a player and a manager, a club Legend.
I wish him well in his future career.
He has been very unlucky this season as previous posters have pointed out.
I was both surprised and disappointed to see him sacked, but there must be stuff going on behind the scenes that we aren't aware of...I would guess that he had lost the dressing room amongst other things.

We do need to be very careful with the next appointment, if they don't use the youngsters, then the Academy will be at risk, and although that will please some, without it, we are a very small club, with very limited resource.

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Originally Posted by RedandWhiteSpartan

Dave Artell was, is and will remain, both as a player and a manager, a club Legend.
I wish him well in his future career.
He has been very unlucky this season as previous posters have pointed out.
I was both surprised and disappointed to see him sacked, but there must be stuff going on behind the scenes that we aren't aware of...I would guess that he had lost the dressing room amongst other things.

We do need to be very careful with the next appointment, if they don't use the youngsters, then the Academy will be at risk, and although that will please some, without it, we are a very small club, with very limited resource.

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I always liked Dave and he has been unfortunate with losing his best players, injuries and the lack of quality in some players who he probably thought were better than they were, I do wish him well. I do think at the beginning of the season he made a mistake when he said he wanted 10 new players, the numbers were all well and good but as it turned out we got the numbers but not the right players, its difficult without the right budget.

I never called for his sacking and never would I think there have been some vile people throwing a lot of vile stuff around and there was no need for that, Artell deserved a lot more respect for what he has done. I was disappointed to see him go but like you said probably more going on behind the scenes, but results don't help. As for the new management team I think the club will try and recruit from within and I suppose Morris has to be favourite to take that position if he wants it. It gives some continuity and youngsters will be given a chance.

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Originally Posted by gazan

Fair enough, F St and Gobstopper. As you know, I've resisted the calls for a sacking for most of this season. Early on, I believed that the club was facing a number of unusual circumstances that stacked against the club and the manager. I think I thought that Artell was having bad luck. I still believe there was an element of that due to the constant turnover of injuries, something I think some people overlooked. However, my position began to entrench as I became aware of the general and sometimes vile abuse being thrown at the manager and the club itself. Unfortunately, I believe this coloured my judgement a little and so refused to allow myself to consider whether DA was unable to cope. My visit to Stockport introduced a lot of doubts, particularly the playing of a back 3 against a team who did all of their forward play down the wings.
On reflection, I think Artell was a good manager and achieved good things with the club. However, as the various calamities befell the club, DA became reactive and started to panic (as I think most people would!). In the end, it seems he could not cope with the downward spiral and was unable to break the fall. Therefore, it's possible that a change will be good for both sides.
I have to reiterate that I have great respect for the man. He is intelligent and was completely immersed in the club and it's sad to see such a man chucked onto the scrapheap. I imagine he may follow his previous line of study and find an opening in forensics.
In the meantime, can I point out to people that the youth team lost in the final minute to a top Premier academy so it can't be all bad at the club.

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I didn't say I called for or welcomed his sacking I was disappointed to see him go its was a sad end for someone who I liked and respected, but I can also understand why the board thought they needed a change, I never called for his sacking nor would I, but the board decided it was the best thing for the club and I can accept that. None of us knows what happens behind the scenes. I do wish him all the best for the future though and am sad to see him go.

I share the views of the posts above concerning Dave Artell being a decent man who gave everything for this club. However, being a good guy does not guarantee a job for life and he had to go in the end. I also agree that he did face a number of wider issues as mentioned by Gazan that did not help his cause. However, the Board decided these issues were not sufficiently mitigating and it would of course be interesting to know the Board's response to any solutions advocated by DA as well as the issues/suggestions identified by Alex Neill. Would their implementation have helped DA's cause? We may never know.