Really? I think Jim Smith and Arthur Cox did a wee bit better than the wee feller.

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 58 minutes ago
Really? I think Jim Smith and Arthur Cox did a wee bit better than the wee feller.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That reminds me....

There’s a circus in the town, in the town
Robert Maxwell is a clown, is a clown
And Arthur Cox has got f*ckin pox
Cos Derby County’s going down, going down

comment by 🇬🇧 ThE ReVoLuTiOn Is HeRe 🇬🇧 (U22182)
posted 1 day, 13 hours ago
Crap predictive text - so I’ll copy and redo the mistakes - so meant to say....

That’s not true at all Red

I, like almost every other supporter was shocked and disgusted at out capitulation last season...I never mentioned anything about wanting him sacked until a couple of games ago - of course there were those that thought he should have been axed at the end of last season, but I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt

As this season has gone in, it’s become apparent, he really hasn’t changed much and that he’s making the same mistakes over and over again - I believe it was only a couple of games ago that I actually said something about getting rid of him

I’ve criticised him, as have you, and many others - that comes part and parcel with the job

But i think I only called for him to be binned when it became apparent after the Cardiff and then Huddersfield and now Bristol City games, that he still doesn’t seem to have learned anything

So please don’t start making stuff up about me demanding him to be ‘binned unconditionally for about 3 months’ cos I don’t think that is true at all
----------------------------------------------------------------------
REV, I apologise if my perception of your posting history is not supported by the reality and I believe you when you say it doesn’t.

Yes of course I have criticised Sabri in the past but I strongly I believe it would not help to replace him now. The biggest reason for our lack of success has been the absence of a long term strategy to get the club into the Premier League. When Fawaz bought the club he said he had five year plan, but if he did it was very soon abandoned. Since then the owner has demand instant promotion and sacked the manager when it wasn’t delivered. The biggest villains all this time have been those responsible for player recruitment and retention. From Morgan to Cash we have had to sell our best players to stave off administration, winding up orders, and FFP and replace those sold with dross.

The academy is doing a brilliant job bringing through good young talent but we are unable to hang on to them long enough to develop the team because the next manager wants to buy more players. If SL goes It is only a matter of time before we have to sell Worrall and Mighten to fund the next spending spree.

The current window has brought us good signings in Arter, Freeman, and Taylor. Ioannou, and McKenna look promising but the rest I think we could have managed without.

So, REV, that is my apology. We will continue to disagree on Sabri, but I acknowledge he is on a knife edge.

Red. You make excellent points above all of which hit the nail on the head - I posted a few comments with similar questions over the past couple of weeks - that of the ownership and their responsibility in this whole fiasco

The whole recruiting has been a shambles, with no real plan put in place - even Sabri’s appointment was one of we need to be in the PL in 2 years or you’re gone! - I mean WTF??

The pressure was on him from the off, but he knew that, and acknowledged they were the terms in which he took the post

There are no foundations in the club at all - even the recruiting of players over the past 12 months have mostly been panic buys to get us from A to B - which has failed...I mean can you imagine if we actually made it to the PL with this rag-tag squad of players - seriously do you think they’re good enough???

We are living from one quick fix to another

And until that changes, the circus which we’ve observed over the past 20 years will continue to roll on

I’m almost getting to the point for the first time in 45 years, where I really don’t care anymore - and I mean, really don’t care

The money/business/greed has totally killed the game I once loved and lived for

We (and I mean our beloved Clubs) are just rats in a laboratory, whilst the testing, and experiments continue to take place in the hope of attaining the next ‘eureka moment’ whilst we just have to wait and suffer the the torture and decimation of all we have loved and supported

The answer?

There isn’t one, so we just have to put up with the the dross, the lack of vision, the apathy and the chopping and changing of managers and players, until one day, we get lucky - it’s like waiting for our lottery numbers to come in - one day, they will, but it will only be through luck...rather than any skill or long term planning the way things have gone over the past 20 years, it’s very debatable as to whether it’ll happen again in my lifetime

Red - if he was told from the off he had 5-10 years to build a team and take the club forward, then we would have seen half the players arrive that have - he knows he’s on a short term contract to get us to the PL ASAP and his buying and approach are testimony to that

And he’s probably sold out his soul in order to try and achieve what’s been asked of him?

then we WOULDN’T have seen half the players arrive that have ...*

And my calling for him to be sacked of late, is purely because I (along with many others) have bought into this crap running of our Club

and it’s shameful that we’ve been allowed to become so short-sighted

I agree with most of that, except I think we do have the foundations in place to a large extent. As I said the academy is doing excellent work. I think we have a good chairman but of course he has to answer to the owner. The commercial side seems OK. But most of all we have a very good fan base.

But it is glaringly obvious that the recruitment is dragging the club down. A team which missed out on the playoffs by one goal should only need tweaking to go one better this season. I thought we needed three players who would be starters not just squad players to make the difference - a left footed CB. a creative midfielder, and a goalscorer. (Plus replacements for any of the first eleven who left). The priority should have been to get rid of the deadwood; we still need to get rid of at least a dozen players, and not just by loaning them out. But it will take time because those players will be happy to stay and pick up inflated wages..