Clarkey Out

Need to get out on the training pitch was the other sound bite.

He says this every week yet we see no improvement, given his coaching badges you would think you would see something.

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He needs to based on the football we play, it’s completely clueless.

I have no idea what our footballing identity is???

Players not good enough end of. No quality at all. All bang average

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Not to worry. Sinclair will be back in next game, running about with a beard n that.

It’s called “Project Football”, unfortunately only Clarke is schooled in this, the rest of us, including the players are left scratching our heads!

Laughing Stock?

Not many I’d keep tbh out of this lot. Scarr. Bates, Norman, Roberts. That’s about it

Of course pandemic complicates things but I remember everyone saying there was no chance Keates would be sacked before season ended and he went 6 games before the end (probably too late in the end).

Was also expected O’Driscoll would limp on to end of season but that didn’t happen either.

Both under Bonser who given his way of operating would be expected to care less about promotion/relegation than what you’d expect from LP.

There is always a tipping result when a team is underachieving compared to pre season expectations. Probably if team was bottom 6 then this would be it but suspect DC will be given a few more weeks. No response in the two tough away games in next 10 games and you start entering one game from the sack period I think as then you’re looking at 3 wins from a third of the season.

It is a tough schedule.

This must be the first week in the season when team has a full week to prepare for a Saturday game.

Simply has to be a response next week as Cheltenham away was last live match I went to and it was a gulf last season and they’re good again this year.

The darkest days under hibbitt we were only in this league for 2 seasons. Walsall are historically a league 1 club. Players are crap because they are all cheap and no other club wants them.

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Yeah I remember the stagnation in league 1 and some actively wanting to go down and be a big fish in league 2.

Only good if you get out of league in two seasons as you say.

Any more and you’re probably two bad managerial appointments away from non league and follow path of Orient, Chesterfield, Tranmere, Notts County and now Southend who were all league 1 stalwarts just 6 years. All comparable clubs.

I thought last season would be the cleansing season of getting rid of the losing mentality so little shocked how bad this season is turning out to be with lack of wins and goals.

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The thing is Clarke probably wants to go

Living away from family

At a club with no chance of ambition due to rent constraints

Not had an opportunity to forge any type of relationship with fans

Small attendances

Got all sorts of coaching ideas designed for a champions league size club but left to practice on a lower end league 2 outfit

Would still get shortlisted by clubs with more financial backing based on his record pre Walsall

I’m sure we are just a low end port in the covid storm for clarke

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Clarke
White
Sinclair
Kinsella
Nolan
Guthrie

May as well pay them off in my view

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Don’t think he’d get much. There’s a reason he came to a League Two club and it’s definitely not because we have a big budget for him to work with.

He’s failed massively here. His next job would be a Stevenage or someone else just as desperate, clinging onto League Two survival.

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That’s a good idea actually. I’m surprised we haven’t tried it before.

Five seasons including the one when King Chris took us up.

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He’s coming off the back of being sacked by Bristol Rovers and now this.

He won’t be in demand.

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But he has badges.

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Utter dross come on Mr ambitious pragmatist do something about it.

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As PT put so eloquently in the match thread, we actually started this season at a distinct advantage over the majority of this division, in terms of squad stability.

The only plausible mitigatory factor would be the injury to Gordon, if Gordon weren’t being deployed outside of his best/natural position before his injury. The answer to this has been to shoehorn the last player Clarke paid a fee for into a position where Clarke himself said he had previously done the lad a disservice by shoehorning him into, because the second to last player Clarke paid a fee for to play there isn’t good enough. There’s a sentence that will make as much sense after 5 pints of Bathams as the decision not to adequately balance the squad does when sober.

Perpetual long balls to Adebayo, our best footballer being played out of his best position for at least half of every game, penalty misses (and conceding a ton of them), defensive howlers, the most persistently shocking set piece delivery I’ve ever seen in league football, chopping and changing formation 46 times in the same game, a midfield lynchpin that can’t play very often, continually asking Scarr to make any kind of forward “pass”… I’m sick of the lot of it.

It’s Clarke’s job to sort at least half of these things out- the thing that makes this all even more frustrating is that this division is so desperately poor, you could probably still get out of it while retaining two or three of the aforementioned flaws.

I’m afraid all of the above consigns Darrell Clarke to the list of managers who were at the right club at the right time once in their career, and got themselves another job or two off the back of it, but were never going to recapture that lightning in a bottle.

All that said, I won’t criticise Pomlett one iota for not pulling the trigger, with circumstances being what they are. The continued existence of Walsall Football Club takes priority over all other footballing matters.

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