Loan Manager

[Tumbleweed 106]

I''m fed up with Worthy. Have been for a while now. Got lucky for promotion- more to do with Hux than inspired coaching.

Patently obvious that despite spending record amounts of this club''s precious money he can''t put a credible team together. Promotion season we got regularly stuffed in midfield but that attack got us out of jail.

So there''s a "No Excuse Zone" sign hanging outside the dressing room. Well there was in August. Probably gone now as we''ve had every excuse under the sun so far.

Trouble is we''ve got a good squad. In fact a very good squad. Players who can play, dominate, score goals, defend and put in incisive passes.

But they look like headless chickens. Its like Gordon Ramsay throwing in some random ingredients from his kitchen and expecting to serve a gourmet meal. Won''t happen.

It won''t change either. There''s no evidence to suggest that he has learnt anything. Can''t motivate them, get them organised, sort out some tactics (even one tactic would be nice), play in the right positions, mark, pass, stand up, make a run or two, tackle an opponent. We haven''t done this since, well quite a long time now.

Question is, can''t we loan in a manager? Leave Worthy to assemble a great squad and then get some guy who knows his stuff to create a team. Put Worthy in his office, making calls. Keep him from Colney, our own Center Parcs. I don''t know who, don''t know who is on the market. But we need someone, fast. Its slipping away, a self perpetuating spiral of mediocrity. Its creator can''t halt it and won''t halt it. Empty words from a spent force.

Change is tough. Change is frightening. Change is needed. Like some better grammar really.

[gazzathegreat 0]

Excellent stuff Tumbelweed, may I say, and god what would happen to football if loan managers really happened?

Who should we have over Christmas, our traditional bad time?  And at the end of the season, when all is to be won or lost?

Worthy''s pathetic piece in the paper today really got me seeing red and it is all so unncessary.  We are not a club in dire straits, we have talented players - we have a great fan base, a nice ground and a board who genuinely seem to want success.  Ah but ........

We have a manager who just doesn''t move on, who just keeps coming out with the same old quotes and the same old tactics and game plans.  The players are not responding to him, or so he says, yet he is the manager, so who are they supposed to respond to?

Some of us have seen it for ages, some of us don''t want to, some of us are in despair and some of us just clling to hoping that things will only get better, not worse - if there is a worse than going into a derby match in these conditions.  I really hope that things will change and Worthy is able to sort out things out, but that is a big hope and realistically I think he will go, when depends on the board and the consequences of buying out his contract.

[Canary Poirot 1]

"Trouble is we''ve got a good squad. In fact a very good squad. Players who can play, dominate, score goals, defend and put in incisive passes."

Tumbleweed, maybe our squad isn''t as good as we all think it is? When I used to play football, I very rarely took any notice of the manager - I just went out and played my own game. The manager can''t control the players. They''ve been playing the game for years. If they can''t pass the ball, it''s because they''re underperforming or they somehow made it as a pro even when they can''t pass the ball.  We can talk about systems etc, but the simple fact is players are underperforming.

 

[nobbyg 0]

All good points but DON''T take anything away from Worthy for the promotion season.  To say he got lucky is nonsense.  Luck over 46 games, 4,140 minutes....I don''t think so.

 

I had a look last night and Hucks went ten games without scoring during his loan spell.  We won three in a row over christmas without him.

The reason we got promoted was because we got 94 points, we had the best defence in the league, the three loan players in Septmeber turned us after an average start, Leon and Matty joined at the right time, Kevin Cooper was great for the last few months, we had belief and confidence and the crowd were loving it and so supportive.

 

I am beginning to travel the road of worry that you lot are already miles down but to start taking away Worthy''s promotion season achievments is SO unfair.

[Tumbleweed 106]

Thank you for your kind words gazza. I had had a gin and tonic or two when I made that post so I''m glad it wasn''t too slurred!!

Poirot- Agree with what you say but the job of the manager and the coaching staff is to make sure those skills are honed and up to the standard of the very best in this country and blend all those talents together to create an effective combined unit thinking with one brain.

My best example is home grown. Mike Walker took a  bunch of decent but unexceptional individuals and created a team which posed a genuine challenge for the title and got into Europe (if it happened now they would have been in the Champs League).

We are a long way from being a team. We look worse as a team than we do on paper. Conclusion is that Worthy is not doing his job. Its time to go, fresh eyes, fresh ideas, reinvigorate this place. All things come to an end at some stage.

[Putney Canary 0]

I have seen rubbish posted on these boards but the line that annoys me the most is that we were lucky to get promoted 2 seasons ago. You don''t get automatic promotion and win the league by such a gap by being lucky. We played some excellent football to end up as Champions, it is one of our club''s best achievements ever, and you say we didn''t earn it on merit but through luck. Unbelievable.

Yes there are problems now, but 2 seasons ago we were flying high and we should remember that with pride.

[ZLF 335]

[quote]Thank you for your kind words gazza. I had had a gin and tonic or two when I made that post so I''m glad it wasn''t too slurred!! Poirot- Agree with what you say but the job of the manager and the coac...[/quote]

1st couple of posts for a while tumbleweed  - and crackers they are indeed. 

Your comments about the team are spot on, a talented squad and a good looking side but shockingly poor as a team  - and its the leadership that creates the team side of things - includig the club captain.

Not many managers turn this type of decline around and with a lack of any idea of how to halt it time has just about runout for the irishman.

OTBC

[0King Juan of SpainddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

I''ve had the same ''lucky'' thoughts about Worthy but I can''t make my mind up...

Perhaps we should accept that Worthy might simply be a limited manager. He''s proven, over the last season and a bit, to not have that extra something when it really gets tough...

[Fat Barman 0]

Just a minor gripe, Tumbleweed. I also get annoyed when Worthy writes in the papers, or is quoted. I get annoyed at the people who moan about what''s being said, or how he says it.

The guy wasn''t employed for his way with words. If the way he talks to the papers sounds the same all the time, with favourite phrases popping out left, right and centre, that has NO bearing on his ability to manage the team.
I get called on to do magazine and radio interviews two, or three times a year. Every time I see a journalist my mind goes into a minor panic and I find myself repeating what I said to the last journo - I''ve been doing it for 5 or 6 years now and you could copy the first interview and use it today!

Nevertheless, I am good at my job and can intelligently discuss all aspects of it with anybody, except a journalist. That makes me a little more tolerant of others who appear to suffer in the same way. Maybe I''m wrong, but I sense a kindred spirit in these matters whenever I read ''Worthy''s Words''.

He''s not above criticism (Dropping WLY Paul, for example), but I''m not ready to chuck him out yet when his teams have vrtually been picked for him by injury/suspension so far this season.

[ZLF 335]

[quote]I have seen rubbish posted on these boards but the line that annoys me the most is that we were lucky to get promoted 2 seasons ago. You don''t get automatic promotion and win the league by such a gap ...[/quote]

Putney - in some ways I agree with you and in some ways I dont.   No team normally gets lucky over 39 games - however.. 

in that champs winning season worthys close season transfer dealing were again woeful and he declared himself happy that the club would progress.

7 games in we had been knocked out of the worthless cup by northampton and were conceeding goals faster than any city side for something like 5 years, and this was with a defence of Eddy, Drury, Malky & Flem.  At that stage of teh season two of thegames had been against teams who subsequently got relegated - Bradford and Wimbledon - so it was not teh quality of the sides we played against that plasterd us.   We were a poor side again and teh defencive frailities we see today have their roots dating back to then.

After the Forest horror show worthy used the two weeks well and brought in hux - after thatt he story is well documented.  However it was Hux signing that hid how shambolic the defence was even then as teams focuses not on attacking us but defending a rampant hux.  Clean sheets followed,confidence soared and promoton was secured despite some dodgy performances. On the back of that loan we signed leon and svenson and our opponents came to defend rather than attack..    Hux was the best defensive signing worthy will ever make.  add in some luck with injuries and suspension we were lucky to outperform that season.   

Unfortunately this has all masked the inadequacies at the back which led to an unhealthy evaluation of our defensive ability that was brutally exposed by better teams last year.  Managers in this league have watched these frailities, learnt from them and are continuing to expose them this season.

Worthy is paying the price for neglecting the defensive structure of his side at the expense of adopting a predictable attacking strategy - hux and ashton.  It worked for him when signing leon, sven, crouch and hux and he seems stuck in the mentality that loan signings and a bulk of forwards will get us out of his muddle; that is lazy managing at its worst. Lightening does not strike twice and he could be about to pay the ultimate price.

OTBC

[Tumbleweed 106]

I''ve been away for a bit- first day back at work yesterday which explains the G&Ts!! Zipper your post on the "lucky" promotion season is just so accurate (and far better than my rather glib throwaway line). I often wondered how on earth we were at the top, enjoyed it of course, but the number of games we genuinely controlled throughout were few and far between.

I really worry about team morale and confidence, what effect would a two defeats in the next two games have? It''s driving me back to the Bombay Sapphire.............

[Putney Canary 0]

I would argue that our defence was working much better as a unit that season, we conceeded less goals than anyone else in the league. We had some luck for sure, especially with injuries, but you don''t win a league purely by being lucky (any more than you can get relegated purely through bad luck). Often our performances were much better in the 2nd half than the first, but we won the league on merit. Yes the whole team improved after we loaned Hucks, and well done Worthy for getting him.

I''m all for constructive debate, but I just don''t buy this lucky to be champions line one bit. Sure criticise the issues we have today, and some of them have been around for a while, but inventing issues for 2 years ago isn''t going to help.

[FatMan Fat 0]

One of the reasons why we played better as a defensive unit in the promotion year was Malky. He was our natural leader and organiser, he gave us physical strength and height.

I remember at the time that he was kicked out, and he was kicked out, that over the complete season Malky was awarded more "points" by our local journalists, who see every game, than any other outfield defender. Worthington saw fit to discard Malky and he has never been fully replaced.

It is decisions such as this that have been at the root of my not rating Worthington as a manager, he seems to make decisions without working out the consequences. Add to that his seeming inability to "coach" an improvement in the side, or indeed individual players, throw in some of his selection decisions, mix in his questionable transfer record and top it off with his record over the last 40 odd games and perhaps you will see why I am not a fan of his. The final elements are his completely uninspiring interviews be they on the TV, radio or in the press.

A leader should inspire, guide and rule - Worthington just doesn''t do it for me.

[Putney Canary 0]

Fatman - if you want to be down on Worthy for selling Malky, thats your opinion, I can understand it and whilst I may not agree, I will defend your right to post it (our defence has not been organised at all since he left, after all). It is however a different kettle of fish to arguing that we only got promoted because we were lucky, which for me has no basis in fact whatsoever and as such I have no time for it.

What I''m saying is lets debate the actual issues (and lack of leadership in our defence is but one) and not make up new issues!

[Tumbleweed 106]

I think the "Malky" issue as described by Fatman is actually very cogent and more of a factor than many realise. In my view its not so much about Malky''s ability as a defender, it is his abilities as a figurehead, captain and fighter. In him and Iwan we had two talismanic figures which gave that promotion side confidence, organisation, attitude and togetherness.

I always felt that the decision to let them both go at the same time was a huge mistake. It ripped the guts from the side and left it leaderless. I bet Malky (even if he had spent most of the time on the bench) and Iwan would not have let Damien Francis behave on the pitch as he did either.

Good teams need strong leaders. Look at what happened to the English rugby team when Martin Johnson retired, look at the improvement in spirit in the cricket side under Michael Vaughan, consider Arsenal''s current malaise in the absence of Patrick Viera and Manchester United with a firing Roy Keane, the ineptitude of the GB&I Lions in the summer with no leader at all.

Nigel should have recognised this and he destroyed the balance in the squad by letting them go. Malky was not in there just for defensive ability (and goodness knows he must have been better than Flem last year anyway), he brought so much more to us.

BTW Putney, I don''t give a stuff about whether we were lucky that year either- that was a glib throwaway line tangental to the main point.

[FatMan Fat 0]

Ah, Tumbleweed, how I have missed you