Is Keates Good Enough?

Maybe it’s because I’m more detached than most,I haven’t been to the match on a regular basis for years,but one of the few things that might get me interested again would be if we were relegated,and then had a good season in the 2nd Division.Maybe that would sort a few things out,a fresh start,new perspective,a new momentum,and a new optimism.I really don’t think it would do any good at all to get yet another new manager in,I say let Keates see his contract out.

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Well if that’s the plan I can guarantee you a cracking day out at Blyth away. Chips, decent temperature real ale, and the 1981 hooligan firm are all on the committee now.

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If you tell your wife you’ll be back at 11, why do you need to buy her chips upon your 10.45 return? She’s got nothing to be mad about, you were back in time?

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Small budget or not , Keates has made a right mess of this squad. Tactically he has no clue neither does he have an eye for a player.

Personally I’d take Kieron Morris over 80% of the dross on the pitch last night. And that’s saying something .

Also Osbourne and Laird , who actually signed these players?

Keates would of known very little about either , what was the justification ?because it’s these types of wasted signings that will see us go down.

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In his post match comments he said the Dons exploited the flanks because they played 5 in midfield therefore stretching the pitch…he really did say this! So why Dean did you play a narrow formation? Bloke is clueless, get rid.

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Add to that they were bottom of the league :man_shrugging:t3:

The plan last night was 100% to launch it to Cook.

I’m not having it that the reason was the players not being confident. The reason we went long was tactical. Take the blame Dean.

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We have been lacking confidence since November based on that as it’s all I’ve seen us do since then. Like you say I don’t buy it and is another reason he is clueless.

He’s just made a right mess of it all.

He was backed , bringing in Cook , Ferrier , Gordon , Scar , loans such as Jarvis , Stella signings such as Martin. Large backroom team, scouts.

I can’t remember any manager in recent history getting backed to this extent. The club are culpable no doubt about it but they have backed him.

Totally agree that Keates has made a mess, some poor tactical decisions and hasn’t been able to sort out the defence. A real shame because I desperately wanted him to succeed.

However, I would argue with the club ‘backing him’ just because he asked for things that clubs normally have, imagine such luxuries as ‘a coaching team’ and ‘scouts’.

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And so the “bashing him over anything and everything begins”.

Criticise his tactics, team selection, signings all you want, there’s literally nothing wrong with what he’s saying here. As for criticising him for talking about staying up earlier in the season, considering where we are now he was bang on the money then as well!

Same thing happened to Whitney. Things go wrong and the manager can’t say anything right in the press.

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No one is saying it’s right , but the point is you can only compare him against previous managers and what they worked with. Other clubs are irrelevant to our situation.

Whitney did a better job over his period of time with less resource.

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I don’t know where this less resources comes from.

Keates has raided Non League and underexperienced league players.

Whitney signed people like Simeon Jackson, Erhun Oztumer, Frank Moussa. Joe Edwards and tons of other signings in his first season that will be just as expensive when you factor wages in as the “fees” Keates has been allowed. Not to mention 300K for our record singing that he either didn’t know about, which is poor, or did which is even worse.

They’ve both been “backed” to the same extent. Whitney went for a few players in the hope they were quality (they weren’t on the whole). Keates has gone for quantity. That’s the only difference.

Do I think either are the man to manage this club? Not anymore. But they were both dealt the same ■■■■ hand.

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Keates has a bigger back room team , so called scouting network. In my eyes Keates has been backed.

Whitney also bought in better players in my eyes, Edwards , Dobson , Oztumer.

But hey either way you look at neither have covered themselves in glory.

I’m with el Nombre to be honest. The money spent on people like Leahy, Oztumer. Devlin, Jackson, Moussa, Edwards etc is way more than the likes of what Norman or Gordon is on.

It should be a given at any club to have a scouting system. That’s not being backed / that’s just default.

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Absolutely, its damning to the club leadership that this was not considered necessary (even in a basic sense).

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Agree to an extent , but Keates has clearly gone quantity over quality … again his error.

It’s swings and roundabouts, that shouldn’t be the choice in the first place because neither of those options are good enough to build a good League One Team, never mind one that achieves their “aim”. You need a quality full squad.

Most agree he’s a bit lost in the role at the minute and clearly his lack of experience is a major factor.

Problem is, do we accept our fate, ride it out and suffer what looks like the inevitable or will Jeff pull the lever to once again ‘save’ us?