Matchday thread: Rams v Sunderland

[ramAnag]

It is nothing but idle and largely misinformed speculation that Warne doesn't coach or set the tactics etc. Obviously he has other coaches who he works with, but this utter *******s about him is laughable.

I see fans questioning selection tactics every day, yet none of them know the issues the manager/head coach is dealing with. In Warne's case, for those who bother to read, its obvious that a number of players CBT among them are suffering knocks and injuries, the result has been that he is constantly juggling players according to fitness and availability and has been obvious from the start has not got quality replacements in the squad to cover for those injured.

The substitutions reflect this lack of depth and of course again the observing fan doesn't know whether a player is fully fit or suffered a knock its not always clear.

As for the signings issue, of course he is instrumental in them, he knows the type of player and the position required, the recruitment team then go out and seek those players that are available at a price the club can afford. The Cloughie days of scouting players oneself and doing all the leg work to sign them have gone but that doesn't mean the ultimate decision, certainly in Warne's case isn't the his!

Yes being a football manager is a well paid job with a public profile and yes fans have every right to criticise. But often that criticism is done without full knowledge of the circumstances a manager is working with and a lack of reality about the situation both financial and player depth a club is operating in.

I'd say it was fans unrealistic expectations that led Mel Morris to overspend and nearly led to its demise. But then football fans have always been over entitled and keen to criticise, with the freedom of not having to pay the millions required to operate a football club!

Hmmm, but you have been one of those fans who, before the recent injury crisis, was criticising (not unreasonably) all the manager’s chopping and changing.

Of course, you’re right, none of us know as much as the coaching staff about the relative fitness of individual players but I think it’s unfair to blame fans for the unrealistic expectations of Mel Morris. Morris fuelled those expectations himself, on the back of our near miss against QPR. Fans could hardly be blamed for believing him.

Thankfully we seem to be in safer hands with Mr. Clowes but at the moment we’re not a million miles away from where we were under Rooney and I imagine important decisions have to be made over the next week or so about how much we can spend to try and secure our Championship future and earn the investment which the owner is said to be seeking.