Originally Posted by
KCNotts
Now hang on a second. I'm not exactly Hardy's biggest fan, and yes he made many mistakes, but he also backed Ardley massively, despite his world falling apart around him. Ardley brought in 7 new players in January, including Rose, O'Brien and Doyle...and still couldn't get his team to fight.
Last season was touch and go until the arrival of the Danes, and I accept that there wasn't much time to sign a team. However, Ardley was then able to add to the players he had already signed to build a big squad with an excellent budget. He had a clear slate to sign players that no other team in the conference could have attracted. Then, when things still weren't clicking, he was able to go and sign Lacey, Wootton, McDonnell and Roberts. Outstanding backing from the owners. Show me a manager who would not want to sign his own team from scratch.
Make no mistake, on paper our team was the best in the Conference last season and so was our budget. Yet despite this we were woeful for a large part of the season. It wasn't until Roberts came in that things began to change. Ardley was out thought many times last year and frequently had fans pulling their hair out with his negative tactics and boring football. Sometimes you need to step back and realise the standard of opposition we are playing against...part timers and teams on a fraction of our budget.
Last season was a failure in my eyes and anything less than promotion this season will be unforgivable.