The madness of blaming Neil Adams

[ruthers1 0]

If he is guilty of anything at all it''s thinking he could do the job. For that he joins the same exclusive club as Bryan Gunn. I''ve no doubt they both did their very best in the job.

Put yourselves in Adam''s shoes. On the first Monday he calls a team meeting and thirty seconds in Bassong stands up and says "Neil Adams, never heard of you" and walks out of the room taking another player with him.

What would you do? You wouldn''t play him either if he embarrassed you in that fashion in front of the squad you''re trying to impress upon and influence.

No, David McNally and the Board take full responsibility if we fail to go up this season for their utter incompetence in appointing Adams and failing to recognise his shortcomings quickly enough. As for Bassong going to Watford that shouldn''t have been sanctioned by them either but was a commercial decision to save a lot of money on a guy not even warming the bench and hindsight is a wonderful thing guys.

[lake district canary 4,830]

What Adams brought us after the difficult Hughton reign was positivity.   That if anything is his greatest legacy. We needed a truly positive vibe at the start of this season - and we got it.  That should not be underestimated.  Yes, ultimately he proved not up to the task, but that positive start he gave us was something that another manager coming in - a Malky or a Lennon - may not have been able to do and we might have had a season like Cardiff or Fulham. Instead we had a good start, a difficult mid-season and a truly excellent end to the season with a fantastic up and coming young manager.  And we''re still in the hunt for promotion. So what''s the problem?  

[Canary Wundaboy 1,423]

If we don''t go up this season there won''t be any scrutiny on the manager. It will all be on the CEO and the board for the disastrous decision to appoint Neil Adams as our manager past the last day of last season. Alex Neil has shown what this squad can do with proper management, the cheap option was taken when getting back to the Premiership demanded getting the best option.

[93vintage 16]

Two things really grind with a lot of fans that I talk to. One, the amount of time we had from Adams'' initial appointment (6th April) until the start of the next season. Two, the fact that we were told that we had searched round Europe when we almost certainy hadn''t.We seemed to rush the appointment (made on 22nd May) instead of spending more time looking for someone better qualified, perhaps with Adams remaining as caretaker in the meantime. It would have been better to have appointed someone decent at a later date instead of someone poor because you feel you absolutely have to have someone in place permanently before the transfer window shuts. There wasn''t a huge job to do transfer-wise which would have perhaps necessitated a permanent appointment. Rushing to give the full time job to Adams ultimately hurt us more than any problems associated with not having a permanent boss during the close season.If we looked around Europe we might well have found a suitable candidate within a reasonable timeframe, but it seems that the board don''t have the structures in place to enable this. Because we lack this ability we have a smaller pool to pick from. If it really was the case that nobody better than Adams was available then that''s all the more reason to look further afield than Britain. Watford got it right. Whether Jokanović was their 3rd, 6th or 10th choice, he proved to be a fair bit better than Adams (who I don''t think made their shortlist at all).

[Hector Prune 0]

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP if we fail this to go up its McNallys ultimate fault and he needs to go.

If you take out Paul Lamberts amazing performance during the double promotion and that was down purely to Lambert and his team McNally has been nothing but bad for the club. It staggers me why people still stick up for him. It was a bit like the end of the Hughton era there will still people supporting him even when it was obvious he didn''t have a clue

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

The fact that we''ve got 83 points despite having the terrible October/November that we did when we won 2 in 12?....is a source of frustration.

It really does show what we knew all along....we DO have the best squad in this league and had we have had a proper manager from the start be it Alex Neil (or any other capable manager)....we really would have been looking at close to 100 points this season.....and all the other clubs would now be fighting over the one remaining promotion spot.

The players just needed a firm hand and strong direction at the start of this season....our board failed to deliver a manager to do that.

Alex Neil has done a great job amassing the points he has since coming here but ultimately ,the damage that was already done and the game of catchup we were playing meant that the margin for error was so slight that one slip was always going to cost us.

[chicken 0]

Watford isn''t the best example. They are one of the clubs who have had a bit of a scatter gun approach to appointments. Yes it has worked out for them in the end, but then that would be like saying the same for us.If Adams is guilty of anything - and I will get slated for this - it is listening to the fans too much IMHO.He is a forward thinking man and wanted us to focus on attacking football. The attractive and entertaining football that the fans had demanded for at least a season prior to him coming in at the end of last season. To be fair to him, he did deliver that, he assembled the best strikers we have had at the club in terms of choice for as long as I can remember more or less. He also got the team forward more, rather than defensive as we had seen before.Where he did stumble is that when it didn''t work the team did not seem well drilled enough to adapt, to be able to mix it up enough and at times it appeared we persevered with something for the right reasons, but with the wrong results.But that is all it was. People are looking for an excuse because we are on a high and they don''t want to blame Alex Neil. Neither do I. It''s not Adams or Neil that we should be looking at but the players.We could have surged up the table if we had beaten Wigan - the pressure got to us and we did not perform. We could have been higher up the table with a result against Middlesborough but we were found short. We could have beaten Rotherham and again we came up short.We just have to accept that this season, as things stand, under either manager - we just haven''t been good enough to gain an automatic promotion spot. That''s football.

[Newton 0]

Adams like Gunn before him is not to blame

Both did there best

But - to any rational fan neither had enough experience or were good enough at the outset

The Board and owners shoulder 100% of the blame if we are not promoted

All 7 of them need to consider there posts - stop feeding us with cr@p

Now is the time for the Stowmarket 2 who no longer fund this club to look to sell up to someone who is prepared to invest

We need a change sooner rather than later

[Hector Prune 0]

Newton it is clear whole sale changes need to happen in the summer

[Herman 11,136]

[quote user="Hector Prune "]I agree wholeheartedly with the OP if we fail this to go up its McNallys ultimate fault and he needs to go.

If you take out Paul Lamberts amazing performance during the double promotion and that was down purely to Lambert and his team McNally has been nothing but bad for the club. It staggers me why people still stick up for him. It was a bit like the end of the Hughton era there will still people supporting him even when it was obvious he didn''t have a clue[/quote]If you take out the sacking of Gunn, the appointment of Lambert,two promotions, the first season of Hughton, clearing the debt and making us financially viable, the appointment of Neil and a guaranteed play-off place then I happily agree with you.

[Ray 111]

Looking at our league perfromance under NA month by month makes interesting reading;

August, played 5, won 3, drew 1, lost 1.

Sept, played 5, won 3, drew 1, lost 1.

October, played 5, won 1 drew 3, lost 1.

November, played 4, won 0, drew 1, lost 3.

December, played 5, won 3, drew 1 lost 1.

It appears, for whatever reason, he had got us back on track, i.e the December performance (his last) was the same as his first two months, when we were top if I recall correctly.

Funny ol'' game, funny ol'' game!

[Highland Canary 78]

Phelan''s influence provided a steadying influence that''s all.

[canary_1902 0]

[quote user="Canary Wundaboy"]If we don''t go up this season there won''t be any scrutiny on the manager. It will all be on the CEO and the board for the disastrous decision to appoint Neil Adams as our manager past the last day of last season. Alex Neil has shown what this squad can do with proper management, the cheap option was taken when getting back to the Premiership demanded getting the best option.[/quote]

Spot on.

[93vintage 16]

Players are low down my ''blame list'' except to say that sometimes one or two are worthy of blame for not trying too hard or being committed to the club. But ultimately the board are at the top of the pyramid when it comes to where the buck stops. It''s their responsibility to hire and fire and run the whole operation.Poor players are often a symptom of board problems, ie poor finances, a poor footballing setup, poor player recruitment or a poor managerial appointment. It''s easier to blame players collectively or make scapegoats out of individuals when it''s actually the board who''re ultimately at fault.With Adams it''s more obviously the board who are to blame for giving him the job than his fault for taking the job or the players'' fault for performing poorly. The board''s errors are more glaring, made worse when they tried (and failed) to convince people that they had looked around Europe when they clearly hadn''t. It was a sort of tacit admission that they''d got it wrong and they left themselves open to ridicule by implicitly stating that Adams was the best that they could find in the whole of Europe.Perhaps under different circumstances Adams would have been a reasonable choice as caretaker in the absence of anyone better. But in the absence of experience, especially in a post-relegation situation, he wasn''t a reasonable choice as a permanent manager.

[Ray 111]

Highland,

Quite possibly, but either way the ''management team, appeared to have got us back on track, then very quickly they both went. Guess we will never know what went on behind closed doors, who was making what decisions, etc. But let''s hope it all leads back to the prem.

[93vintage 16]

[quote user="Herman "][quote user="Hector Prune "]I agree wholeheartedly with the OP if we fail this to go up its McNallys ultimate fault and he needs to go.

If you take out Paul Lamberts amazing performance during the double promotion and that was down purely to Lambert and his team McNally has been nothing but bad for the club. It staggers me why people still stick up for him. It was a bit like the end of the Hughton era there will still people supporting him even when it was obvious he didn''t have a clue[/quote]If you take out the sacking of Gunn, the appointment of Lambert,two promotions, the first season of Hughton, clearing the debt and making us financially viable, the appointment of Neil and a guaranteed play-off place then I happily agree with you.[/quote]I don''t understand your idea that Hughton''s first season meant that his appointment was a good one. That''s a bit like saying that the first year of taking heroin was brilliant at getting you through the pain of divorce, but failing to mention the second year when you ended up losing your job and becoming homeless.

[Hector Prune 0]

He wasn''t qualified for the job screwed up the caretaker role but despite that hapless McNally appointed him. Who is to blame it isn''t a hard one

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 606]

Providing The team from down the A140 don''t go up, then I for one would be happy with another year in the Championship, to give AN another season to build the team he wants and get our defence sorted out. Then we can go up automatically and stand a better chance of staying up.

[Herman 11,136]

[quote user="93vintage"][quote user="Herman "][quote user="Hector Prune "]I agree wholeheartedly with the OP if we fail this to go up its McNallys ultimate fault and he needs to go.

If you take out Paul Lamberts amazing performance during the double promotion and that was down purely to Lambert and his team McNally has been nothing but bad for the club. It staggers me why people still stick up for him. It was a bit like the end of the Hughton era there will still people supporting him even when it was obvious he didn''t have a clue[/quote]If you take out the sacking of Gunn, the appointment of Lambert,two promotions, the first season of Hughton, clearing the debt and making us financially viable, the appointment of Neil and a guaranteed play-off place then I happily agree with you.[/quote]I don''t understand your idea that Hughton''s first season meant that his appointment was a good one. That''s a bit like saying that the first year of taking heroin was brilliant at getting you through the pain of divorce, but failing to mention the second year when you ended up losing your job and becoming homeless.[/quote]His appointment was ok. Not a mind-blowing wow appointment, but good enough for a club like us at the time. His record was good with a very good Newcastle side while his record with Brum was excellent with a weakening squad. Those with a brilliant level of hindsight (yet again) are trying to rewrite history by saying it was a poor appointment.

[Highland Canary 78]

It was the failure to replace Hughton and his management team at Christmas that was the egregious error not his original appointment. That his approach was diametrically opposed to Lambert''s only became apparent when the last vestiges of the attacking belief Lambert seemed to instil in his players seemed to evaporate or were coached out of the team. In hindsight a more attack minded manager - we would have been hard pressed to find one less - was needed to replace Lambert. However, as has been widely discussed, hindsight is not needed to understand that Hughton should have been replaced sooner nor that Adams'' regime was doomed to failure from the outset.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

the biggest irony of course is the way Lambert ended up at Villa, he may have become as defensive minded here as Hughton was?!?

[Highland Canary 78]

He did indeed GJL. I think it''s fair to suggest at Lambert''s departure we needed to adopt a somewhat less cavalier approach but not a total reversal of strategy.

[Herman 11,136]

That''s what I mean about hindsight. Hughton wasn''t as defensive a minded bore for Brum and Newcastle and that is why i presume the club went for him. He wasn''t as exciting or gung-ho as Lambert but he wasn''t as dull as he''s turned out to be. A steadying type manager that the club needed to build with.

[Highland Canary 78]

I agree Herman. Prima facie Hughton looked to be a reasonable appointment. It was the failure to act on his replacement where no hindsight is needed.

[Hector Prune 0]

The point was he wasn''t. Adams was even more hopeless.

McNally can''t escape responsibility for his failures. We won''t progress whilst he is in charge it''s as simple as that

[nutty nigel 7,902]

So let''s look at the club in May 2009. Then came McNally. Let''s look at the club now.....

I can see where you''re coming from, we''ll never progress while he''s in charge...