The night of the long knives

[QOS_MAD_ADMIN]

Queens dismal form continues and the fans have their say as to the reason for the decline

1. Skelton not good enough to manage in the Championship
2. The team's fitness is brought into question and extra training sessions is the answer.
3. Big Jim Thomson is to blame due to his touchline antics.


What do you think - discuss

[Ftivano1]

Some scathing posts about our management duo on the Pie and Bovril Queen of the South thread - cannot see the board making any changes at the top but it has happened before in 2005 when Iain Scott got the bullet at the end of October !

[DouglasQOS]

A few points
1. We knew the squad was not big enough, but the manager has explained that he is trying but it is difficult to get anyone better than our young guys.
2.We knew our early form was because we were punching way above our weight, so why is everyone surprised.
3.We knew no matter how good or badly we play there are certain people on this site and pie and Bovril would moan anyway.

So we are exactly where we thought we would be at this stage of the season, stop moaning and start supporting our team.

[arrol1919]

Queens dismal form continues and the fans have their say as to the reason for the decline

1. Skelton not good enough to manage in the Championship
2. The team's fitness is brought into question and extra training sessions is the answer.
3. Big Jim Thomson is to blame due to his touchline antics.


What do you think - discuss

1. Skelton needs time to get things right and the opportunity to bring in his on assistant manager . Did anyone see former player Willie Gibson's tweet yesterday . Absolutely spot on

2. Nothing wrong with the team's fitness at the start of the season and don't see a problem now . Let's not forget we were unbeaten in our first 8 league games and reached 2 cup quarter finals . That's not a bad effort

3. Jim Thomson's actions and language at the weekend were unacceptable . He's total exactly setting an example to the young fans sitting in the main stand . Skelton needs to bring in his own man

[jardi]

1) Skelton is good enough and time will sort out some of the problems.

2) I do think that extra training would help the lads get out of the rut they are in. I'm also of the opinion that a much less strenuous pre-match training session would help the players hit the ground running.

3) I'm sure Jim will have been sanctioned by the club. His response on Saturday was to suggest to Anderson to make an attempt at heading the ball. To be honest he was spot on, but in this PC world Jim should not have used such colourful language. It had the desired effect though, because Anderson promptly moved well away from the touchline, had a wee think about his lack of effort, and then said 'up yours Jim' by heading our only goal just before half time.

I'm not quite sure what the fans actually want? Are you happy to see a half hearted display and for the management team to wring their hands and scratch their heads? Football is an emotive game and Jim (like the rest of us) could see that Anderson and some other members of the squad were not giving a 100% and he went for the hair-dryer treatment, - albeit in front of the fans.

I'm sorry Arrol - if it was good enough for Sir Alex Fergusson to use the hair-dryer approach, then its more than good enough for big Jim. Perhaps next time though, he should wait until he's in the privacy of the dressing room.

[arrol1919]

When did you ever see Sir Alex Fergusson's assistant , or football development manager as JT is now known , ever swear at his players like that ...? The answer to that is never because that's the managers job

If Gavin Skeletons isn't aloud to do things HIS way without interference from elsewhere then what's the point of him being there

[Cresswell]

Queens dismal form continues and the fans have their say as to the reason for the decline

1. Skelton not good enough to manage in the Championship
2. The team's fitness is brought into question and extra training sessions is the answer.
3. Big Jim Thomson is to blame due to his touchline antics.


What do you think - discuss

I'll deal with your three points in reverse order. 3) No, poor performance on the field is not down to Thomson's touchline antics. That said, it sets a poor example to have him cursing and swearing on the touchline and I certainly think that the club should condemn it loudly and clearly. 2) The team's training/fitness regime is certainly inadequate, but that applies to most if not every team in Scotland. How many of you saw the recent TV series on the state of Scottish football? John Collins who went to play in the French league and Paul Lambert who went to play in the German league each expressed their surprise at the intensity of the training over there compared to training in Scotland. When Collins took over as manager of Hibs he tried to instil the same work ethic into his players and nearly had a revolt on his hands. Some of you may recall Paul le Guen's appointment as manager of Rangers. He immediately condemned the culture in Scottish football but he found the players resistant to change: and to his shame David Murray sided with the players and le Guen was sacked. The players at Palmerston (and elsewhere, of course) are full-time professional footballers. Football and the training that goes with it is their work: football pays their wages. Most of you will work a forty hour week or thereabouts so why shouldn't footballers? Andy Murray's training regime would put most footballers to shame. Indeed, Andy Murray's "warm down" after games is probably more rigorous than a footballer's training. Chris Hoy trained until he literally fell off his training bicycle through exhaustion. Can any of you imagine any footballer training to anywhere near that level of intensity? Nor can I. It is said that practice makes perfect so perhaps a bit more practice would not go amiss. 1) Is Skelton good enough to manage in the Championship? It is probably too early to make a judgement. I would suggest that, while Skelton is no better than most managers, he is no worse either. Few managers have the ability to be innovative: they tend to train players in the same way that they were trained. In other words, most managers simply perpetuate failure. When I was young perceived wisdom was that, unbelievable as this may now seem, players should train without a ball because that made them "hungry for the ball" on a Saturday. This was an absurd theory, of course, but despite all the home nations being given a footballing lesson in the 1950s by a ball playing Hungarian team that view persisted in Scotland until the 1960s when along came a certain Jock Stein. He realised that the way to train for football was to practice ball skills with a ball: and few of you will need reminding how successful he was as a manager.
It is inevitable that Gavin Skelton will be sacked in due course (or move on by mutual agreement, as it is so often put) and it is inevitable that Queens will appoint another manager from the "failure-go-round" who will carry on in a broadly similar manner. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

[Cresswell]

Obviously, Skelton's removal had happened faster than even I imagined.

[JRSLEFTPEG]

I can always rely on you to cheer me up Cresswell when I am a little down in the dumps. You have an almost unique way !

[jardi]

Thank you Cresswell for pointing out the failure of Scottish football, - and yes we will continue to replicate it ad nauseum.