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Redders Right Foot

Maybe not lost the dressing room.

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Russ seems to have come out and his comments seem to be backing the manager. whether he is talking for the entire team or not? I don''t know.

@NorwichCityFC 4m

Russ Martin: "The bottom line is we were nowhere near good enough. Nothing''s gone right for us." #NCFC

‏@NorwichCityFC 1m

Russ Martin: "It''s up to us players to take responsibility for that performance. We are very disappointed." #NCFC

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Given the circumstances I thought Russ Martin gave a heartfelt, meaningful and apposite interview and was obviously suffering himself.  Whatever people think of his performance today, he is a consummate professional and has a massive affection for the club.

 

Why is it when we have performed dismally it is Russ who stands up to be counted.  Against Luton last year Snoddy was man of the match but it was Russ who gave the interview in the Gunn Club, Snoddy couldn''t handle it and again today he stood alone, this man has balls.

 

The real question is, why was Russ called upon today, where was the team captain, it was the team who let us and themselves down, so where was he.

 

Make Russ Team Captain now, he cares, he''s come up through the leagues with us and he may be the man who can re-motivate the dressing room.

 

This requires the Manager (or possibly the board) to make a bold decision, but if Seb has the club at heart he will accept it, if he throws his toys out of the pram that sends it own message.  

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Russell Martin said basically what anyone else would say in his position because, as it stands, Chris Hughton is picking the team next week. It''s very unlikely he''d come out saying "We''re all a bit f*cked off with the manager to be honest".

 

He was on the pitch today, you don''t need to have the armband to be a leader. He wasn''t able to lift us any more than Bassong was.

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Nutty,

 

Yes he is Club Captain, however the role of Club Captain is completely different to Team Captain, the management obviously felt there was a better on field captain and this was an on field (well loosely speaking) performance about which the manager and team captain should speak, I assume Seb bottled it, which leaves me to have concerns over his leadership abilities, his abilities to stand up and be counted as the leader of the team.  I also wonder what the other players think about the fact their captain stood aside when the going got tough and I wonder how they view the man that took the reins?.

 

GJP, my point was that he did it very well and it certainly sounded genuine, but the rub is anyone else did not say it, when perhaps they should have done, it was Russ that said it and no you don''t need an armband to be a leader but when there is a man on the pitch with the armband he is the leader and the expression too many chiefs and not enough Indians comes to mind.

 

My last point is that if the changing room needs motivating, re-uniting, etc. he is the man most likely.  

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I''m not sure that too many chiefs and not enough indians is the case with us - rather that on the field we have got absolutely no leadership whatsoever. Holt, regardless of his footballing ability, would have been fuming today. He would have been running his socks off, flying into tackles, leading by example, and trying to at least get a reaction from the rest of the squad. Nobody was anywhere near doing tht today.

As for the losing the dressing room remarks, I don''t think he has. Let''s not forget that our performances over the last few games have actually been reasonably decent, whilst lacking in ability in the final third and containing one or two too many lapses at the back - but we haven''t looked like a team on the brink of mutiny. Today they weren''t motivated or ''wound up'' as much as they should have been, perhaps, but that isn''t the same thing as the players not respecting the manager.

I''m not sure who else you would want out doing the interviews. I doubt the media have got the time to speak to loads of players and when every word that players say is scrutinised so much nowadays, it makes sense to try and keep them out of the media spotlight as much as possible.

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I think the only references to CH "Losing the dressing room" have been made by the usual suspects on here. I''m happy for somebody to prove me wrong and link to a mainstream publication making the claim. The last three or four performances would certainly indicate that no such situation had arisen.

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[quote user="Ray"]

 

GJP, my point was that he did it very well and it certainly sounded genuine, but the rub is anyone else did not say it, when perhaps they should have done, it was Russ that said it and no you don''t need an armband to be a leader but when there is a man on the pitch with the armband he is the leader and the expression too many chiefs and not enough Indians comes to mind.

 

My last point is that if the changing room needs motivating, re-uniting, etc. he is the man most likely.  

[/quote]

Yup, was no surprise they sent out Martin. He always speaks well and they couldn''t risk letting someone less articulate or less careful with their words coming out and say something to make a bad situation worse.

 

I don''t think anybody is going to get that dressing room going again under this manager. Players want to enjoy their football and quite clearly Hughton''s approach and tactics suck the fun out of it.

 

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What else could he say. As for Hughtons comments - we''ve heard it all before - you got rid of the heart of the team moaning they weren''t technically good enough, and brought in a bunch of mercenaries that are likely to cost you your job.

We need battlers - not bottlers!

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The management team has either lost the changing room and the team therefore are ignoring instructions or, alternatively, the instructions to the team are ''sit back, don''t press and hope'', I''m not clear as to which of those options is preferable.

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[quote user=" Zak Davros"]

I think the only references to CH "Losing the dressing room" have been made by the usual suspects on here. I''m happy for somebody to prove me wrong and link to a mainstream publication making the claim.

[/quote]

 

I''ve seen several posters who have been 100% behind Hughton up until yesterday questioning whether he''s lost the dressing room, based purely on yesterday''s display.

 

I don''t think he''s lost the dressing room in the Roeder/Di Canio sense of losing the dressing room, the players may not have lost faith in the manager at all, but it does seem that they''ve lost faith in themselves. Yesterday''s performance was totally void of belief.

 

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[quote user="Citizen Journalist Foghorn"]How often do players come out in the press and criticise the manager. Never.[/quote]

 

Only when they''ve left that manager.

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Quite so, CJF. It''s impssible for anyone on here to say whether he has"lost the dressing room" as, if for no other reason, nobody from the playing staff ever comes out in public and says as such.

So, as nobody on here has a direct connection to what goes on at Colney etc (in spite of what some may have us believe) we have to go with what we hear on telly, radio, twitter the press etc.

So, really making hypothetical pronouncements on here on specific matters such as this is a bit pointless.

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CJF,

 

Of course they wouldn''t, they would send a delegation to the Board (Sunderland) and make that public!

 

My point wasn''t that he did or didn''t criticise the manager, the point was, why him and not the Team Captain who was the leader on the pitch.  Russ had the balls to come out and face the interview and I want a Team Captain who has balls.  I was also impressed how well he handle it and how well he came across given the circumstances.

 

If it was that bad in the dressing room I suspect our players would/could do a Sunderland however I am also of the firm belief asking Seb to step down to Vice Captain and making Russ Martin Team Captain, allowing him to lead unequivocally, may make a difference to the attitude of our players and we may see more passion from them. 

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