Is Rick Waghorn clutching at straws?

[Ken Aries 0]

Have you seen his piece in tonight''s Evening News? His theory is that what helped the successful team of the 2003 - 2004 season towards the 1st Division Championship, was the fact that most of that team were married. This in his view contributed to a more stable, settled side. Apparently most members of the current team are unmarried. Sounds like hogwash to me - but who knows?

[Northern Canary 0]

hmmmm thats an interesting theory. I suppose it could play a part in it, but i think the team that got promoted had been built up over 3 years. Not many changes had been made and there was a solid team. They got on with each other and the team spirit were excellent. All of them had houses and sometimes families in the area. This season we dont, hughes, etuhu, colin, louis jean, thorne, jarrett, marney, robinson and more are all settling in and have not gotten to know the team, + most of them are rubbish anyway.
              That is why i dont think Worthy can make us bounce back up, he doesnt assemble great teams quickly as we have seen the last two seasons. He needs a few seasons to build up a solid squad with confidence. He could do it again, but with the team we have another manager could take us up this year

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

look at what marriage did to Harry Kewell.

Has he thought that perhaps its because the players are not as good??

because we have no right hand side and loads of worthy cloggers

because we lack creativity - i mean it took Hucks and McVeigh to come on at the weekend to get the goals

[Syteanric 1]

i dont think its got much to do with if they are married or not....

 I agree, its waghorn not having anything decent to write about..

jas :)

[Jerzy Krukowski 5]

He probably is clutching at straws, and not for the first time. Mind

you it''s a bit like those who claim to have heard Worthy out chanting

at Crewe.....

[Mark .Y. 351]

Brian Clough was a great believer in it though and you can see the point. Although it is of course a bit of a generalisation it is surely much better to have domestically settled players who are likely to be spending their evenings in with their families rather than out drinking heavily with the lads.

Mark .Y.

 

[shropshire canary 0]

A balanced outlook on life, sense of priority and maybe a greater understanding of commitment are likely to be qualities acquired in a family breadwinner role rather than as a lone wolf.

That said I think that the ability to get a group of individuals to gel is what''s really in question here, and that comes down to creating an atmosphere and (although I hate the word in an organisational sense) culture. There are many of these, and plentty of positive ones that can work in different situations and with different groups of people. Good managers are able to change their style (as appropriate - never in total) in order to bring in the group at hand, in which case the family thing shouldn''t be the b all and end all of it.

I wonder how the management (and players) might define the culture at City these days - and how it might compare with that which one could get such a good feel of from Iwan''s autobiography?

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

I find it unbeleivable that Rick has written this tripe - And he is a sports reporter.....  Why does he not write a report about the current inability for the squad to score goals, or the inabilityt of the club to sign a right midfielder

[Rossi 0]

I have a great respect for the way that rick writes, but i think he''s choosen the wrong side of the fence to sit. Some will say that he''s been neutral over the worthy saga, but at the time, to say nothing was to agree with the status quo.

To answer the question - yes he is clutching at straws. To compare the Munich team to today is ludicrous, just look how our values towards marriage have changed, how our transfer system has changed, (Bosman) and how our player imports  have rocketed. The world has become ''smaller'' and players much more mobile between continents, especially with agents. What i think Rick is looking for is a correlation between stability and success. Where Rick missed the point was when he choose to go down the marriage route instead of looking at the things Nigel has choosen. For example we all know we started the season low on numbers and required emergency loans that have no roots or special pride towrds the club. There are also factors such as home grown players and how we do not seem to link our academy with the end result of first team appearances. Stability is also linked to players that are able to play week in week out without suspensions and injuries. Without going down the too tired route, there is also the theory that no-one has disproved, that links the training regime to injuries. Lastly, of course, is the factor that we bought a player who is not used to playing more than once a week, nor looks likely without a massive dip in form (Colin)

To single out marriage is the sort of thing i would have expected failed tory leader to say.

 

[John Boubepo 0]

Good point Rick, at least someone is looking for some answers, the team

clearly arn''t a settled team and although the reasons are many, that''s

probably one of them.

[lucky green trainers 0]

I think this a cry for help.  Obviously Waghorn would clearly like

to write some serious stuff about city, but he daren''t rock the boat.

He''ll be blaming the colour of the strip next week