Sack him, save our season

[Mud Pie]

It feels like we have come full circle and we are back to that lethargy and apathy that descended on the squad this time last year after Luke Williams left the club.

which brings the conversation back to the players' belief in the system/coaches. SM looked almost in tears today, and it's frankly weird to hear he was coaching players on the pitch at half time. We're still in the playoff places, but I'm finding it harder and harder to see SM dragging us up and out of this slump - and when you don't have the quality of players fit, it's all on the coach to get us competing.

[MagpieNate]

As is the nature of an internet message-board, it seems you?re either a bed wetter or club apologist but realistically most fans sit somewhere in between. That?s where I sit. I?ve been following Notts for 30 years and consider the owners to be the best we?ve had in that time. At the same time, I see a club with young inexperienced owners, coaches and players learning on the job. For what it?s worth here?s my take.

I actually would not be upset to see SM leave. I believe there is little chance he?ll lead us to promotion and the football on show on Meadow Lane this year has been dire if I?m honest.

It would be a risk but one worth taking in my opinion to let him go. We need leaders right now and I don?t get that vibe from him.

The league this year seems poor quality and we have such a great opportunity to get promoted. I don?t believe in the ?too early? to get promoted nonsense, it?s there for the taking and we have a summer to (hopefully) recruit the experience we need to help players like Whittaker, Jarvis, Hinchy, bed in.

[SmiffyPie]

I thought he looked very emotional. He knows he is under pressure.

[jacobncfc]

Wealdstone would have been a different situation entirely - Less pressure, less egos. If you're not getting any credit whilst having to put up with that side of things, then the pay check is the only thing that makes it worth your while, like most jobs. If he quit, as opposed to being pushed, then evidently the money wasn't enough for him to want to stick it out.

Not necessarily saying it?s the right decision, but I don?t personally think it could be any more obvious that Matty Saunders not being on the coaching staff any more was not a decision made by him.

[BigFatPie]

"On the cheap" is just football fan talk for not spending more than you're earning and trying to avoid accumulating debt, which is entirely sensible for a club that is not yet breaking even and has a history of near bankruptcies, but fans choose to ignore that because it sounds boring, while rabbiting on about "lack of ambition", "speculate to accumulate" and all the other lazy cliches is much easier.

Listening to the Saunders interview, I thought he sounded pretentious and full of himself, talking as if he had just completed the complete blueprint for football, rather than being a coach who had just left a League two club and had yet got another job. That said, the standard of our performances since he left has dropped considerably, so it leaves me wondering if he has indeed taken something with him. The talk that the players didn't like him may or may not be true - perhaps they thought he was a bit too full of himself too, especially given his lowly background - but the longer this run of bad performances goes on, the more it raises questions about Maynard's coaching capacities without the guys he chose to bring with him.

Performances, if not necessarily results immediately, went off a cliff after Crowley got sold and McGoldrick got injured. Results have now followed, but I dont think theres any great need to look too far behind the scenes to see why our season is going down the pan.

[nw6pie]

I thought he looked very emotional. He knows he is under pressure.

He has got a lot to lose, given that he packed up a secure job with a pension to pursue his dream of being a professional league manager. His assistants have left for reasons officially unknown, he has no head of recruitment to turn to at this time and we’ve had more injuries than A&E on New Year’s Eve. I do feel for the guy as it doesn’t feel like he’s getting all the help he needs at this pivotal time.

That said, his overall record at the club screams that he’s not the man to get us promoted. And the fact that both of the L2 seasons seem to be shaping up to end in the form falling off a cliff suggests a deeper underlying problem.

[upthemaggies]

Not necessarily saying it?s the right decision, but I don?t personally think it could be any more obvious that Matty Saunders not being on the coaching staff any more was not a decision made by him.

Fair enough, but then is it beyond the bounds of possibility that whatever led to him being ousted was a manifestation of the workload/pressure - pay imbalance. Wife in his ear saying "it ain't worth it, you need to give xxx a piece of your mind or quit", that type of scenario.

[marky]

I wonder if the people who held up those banners last season still have them, and if so would they dare bring them into the ground again.

[tommopie8]

All of that may be true but the two managers who preceded him left for greener pastures as did Maynard himself with Wealdstone. It was a risk but ultimately the football is stale and reeks of Ardley.

We aren't plucking fans out of the stand to play or throwing in under 18's. They train all week together and I can't see any progress, cohesion or anything that suggests that Maynard will be able to improve anything to the extent that the trip to Cleethorpes won't end in an equally impotent display.

P45 tomorrow, get JOB in temporarily - he can pick up where he left off on Tuesday.

[The_Pie_Man]

It is time for Mr Maynard to go.

I have no doubt whatever that he is a nice chap, is well meaning and desperately wants to succeed. However, it is also entirely clear that he is not a winner. We all know that the best managers have an X factor and a certain something that sets them apart from the crowd and I?m afraid it has become increasingly clear that he simply does not have *it*.

I believe he is able to set up a team in the right way at the start of games, hence our previous decent performances in the first halves of matches, however he is a reactive manager and not a proactive one, as has become increasingly clear in recent weeks.

It is always a shame to see anyone lose their job, but he has the aura of a dead man walking. He can certainly point to injuries, poor performances from the vast majority of the squad and the loss of key members of staff for our downturn in form, but this is a results business and the ultimately the responsibility lies with the manager to make the best of the situation.

The brothers now need to make a choice and give the fans a true indication as to whether or not they actually want to go up this season. Personally, I don?t think the squad is anywhere near ready and we would really struggle in League One without significant reinforcements, however to see this season fizzle out so dramatically leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.

Over to you, Notts.