Quote Originally Posted by ragingpup View Post
I think that I find it difficult to pin anything specific on Warne without there being mitigating circumstances, most notably the budget he had to work with in the championship, that was the reason why he left. A poster said he was likely too soft with Stewart, but not sure how much more hardball you can take it by saying to the manager that he will have to look at alternative opportunities arise. I'm confient that this would have happened, and Stewart knew full well and accepted the risk that Warne would go. I don't think you can say Warne was too soft on this.

The bottom line for me is could he have done better in his Championship campaigns with the players he did have at his disposal, and my gut feeling is probably not. I think ultinately the chickens would have come home to roost on this season as well even though he can point to leaving us in a good place. But he did play to the strengths of the kind of player he could recruit and the last 2 campaigns we were competitive to the last. He deserves his go at a better resourced club but as I said in my post, I suspect it is only then that we will be able to see if he can properly punch his weight as a manager at that level. I personally was very proud to have him as spokesperson for the club and liked the values he aimed to run by, although I feel that the inclusion of allowing players to take the knee as they wished, and supporting them vocally on this, is possibly a prime reason why several people have been anti-Warne for so long. Fair enough, it's about opinions.

I'm sure that MT will be successful if allowed the time to rebuild and we should get behind him and the club in this difficult but as we all know from history, inevitable period of change. I take Derby's point that he may have made the change more gradually, or it may have had a more positive impact if the big target man was there, but it seemed to me that we were playing Ogbene/Wash up front before he called on big fella in the last 2 games. Didn't our bad run start before then (straight after the WC break?). But whatever, Waren's gone, MT is the leader and let's get behind him, the lads and the club.
As a self confessed "Warney boy" I agree with everthing you say, but you're wasting your time. It's ironic that the ones that wanted Warney out are the same ones that still bang on about him the most and blame him for the current situation. There's not a day goes by I don't read a disparaging anti Warne post from the likes of gru and Grist and I honestly don't understand what their agenda is...other than wind up merchants.

Whenever PW left there was always going to be upheaval. For whatever reason, this didn't manifest itself until after the world cup break. The bottom line is "is MT a good manager and a good fit for RUFC". Gut feeling says yes, but only time will truly tell.

He has to be given time and that time will probably involve a relegation. So be it, we're past masters of surviving that scenario ffs! Supporters have to play their part and we have to stick by MT. Discussion and opinion on MM etc is one thing and largely meaningless, but daft "TS out" banners (or such like) are a different kettle of fish and won't do any good whatsoever.

UTM