Quote Originally Posted by laddo View Post
That's a very interesting question and we will obviously find the answer come next May. Unsurprisingly I don't know their side and didn't see them play last season. Their results show they are a talented but streaky inconsistent side, going on good runs followed by disappointing periods more than once.

Tbh Mansfailed have underperfomed for a long time now, they have a generous long standing chairman who has backed his managers with sufficient finances, they have a talented manager who has successfully operated at L1 and Championship level. I don't know the ins and outs (nor want to) and am only commenting from a distance admittedly but those two things combined should have now given them promotion to L1 or at least more playoff appearances at L2 level. I'm still surprised the unpleasant Mr Steve Evans didn't manage to take them up, as that is what he does at almost every lower league club he managers.

If I had to guess why they haven't had more success under Radford I would guess it comes down to substandard recruitment, or their is a curse on Field MFI.
They did some Trew-style chopping and changing for a while, recruiting the youth team coach as manager and then sacking him a few months later. That can't have helped. But they've had Clough for a while now, and from what I can see, they have a strong L2 squad that's good enough to challenge at the top. They'll get there eventually, but it just goes to show that L2 isn't a walk in the park. We can't just expect to turn up and turn teams over.

It's way too early for predictions, but I suspect we'll have a shaky start as we acclimatise to the new level. We might even have to adjust our style when we realise that decent teams can take advantage of our high line. But we'll eventually pick up some momentum and finish top half.

It all depends on who comes and goes over the summer though.