Good on you Doyle

So you think mick telling Henry to reign his neck in had no effect on him and was just a coincidence that around that time was when he became so ineffective for us.

there any evidence that Mick did tell henry to reign his neck in?

If he did, I'm sure it had a big effect on the intensity of Henry's tackling, but that alone wouldn't have made him ineffective, it would have just made him a little less gung ho. We rightly wouldn't give all the credit to Mick for Henry having an amazing game because it would be the result of loads of other factors, so I don't think we can blame his ineffectiveness on one instruction either.

I think all that fuss over Henry's tackles did have an effect cause it was such an important part of his game. He is fundamentally a defensive midfield player and doesn't have the passing and shooting assets in his game although he is quite good at ball retention. I suspect McCarthy did have words with him at the time cause the media attention was getting too much, and I also believe taking the captaincy off him later was another part of taking him out of the spotlight.

But whatever you think of him as a player, he seemed to have been sidelined for totally different reasons and I think its a shame that him and Ward were tarred with the same brush as O'Hara and Johnson. Having said that I think after two relegations it was right to have a clear out and that was all part of us successfully lifting the gloom and starting again.

It would be good to hear the full story behind why ward was sidelined with the others.
Henry we can assume carried quite a bit of clout in the dressing room and if you believe what you hear, was involved in the split that ensued.
Ward? My guess is that he too was influential in those months and was a voice in all the goings on which have followed, maybe even part of the rumoured 'we won't play for stale' thing.
Whatever it was, kj was well informed and took no time dealing with it.

What on earth is this 'we wont play for Stale thing'?
2 things make it totally uncredible.

I have been in management for many years and it has never been an acceptable excuse to say the reason I failed was that the people working for me were not behind me and were not doing a good job. 100% of the time the answer from the people employing me would have said it was my job to sort it out and make it work.

To compound that, if this was really going on and Johnson, O'Hara, Henry and Ward were the people behind it, the fact that Stale was selecting all of them whenever they were available right up until the time he was sacked, is an even bigger indictment of his managerial skills than his poor results and diabolical style of football.

If Jackett was told from the beginning that these 4 players had no future at the club, then how come everyone else at the club knew they were a problem and Stale didn't?

Just a rumour I read in a few places that the players did not understand/like what stale was doing so showed little desire.
Don't shoot the messenger, I am not saying its true.

The fact is these four were pushed aside immediately, wasn't it 24 hours or something after kj's arrival, clearly something other than wages was amiss.

Maybe the rumour just stemmed from comments Doyle made about solbakken?
About he should have had more time and that some players show resistance to change and don't like new training methods......need to see the bigger picture or words to that effect.

Doyle's a good professional and would always be supportive of his employers.

But the important thing is whatever the reasons, after two relegations a clear out was necessary and we look to have every chance of getting back to the Championship. And lets worry about what happens after that next summer

Amen to that

Good article.

I've always liked Doyle.

Great Pro and always showed passion on the field. Will be good to have his influence this season around the youngsters