Why would you though? I’m genuinely interested and baffled. His management of games is non existent and has been all season and there is absolutely no sign of him learning, as today again proves. As you say, Wrexham fans said the same as well so it’s not just a recent thing. So why trust him to have us challenging for the league two playoffs next season?
I wouldn’t I would sack him today and give the job to MOC until the end of the season
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I would because clubs who change their manager every year tend to spiral downwards with budget being spent of numerous members of sacked staff (we’re still paying Whitney and Sharps).
I also think I’ve seen enough since him and Martin came together to suggest they’d give it a decent crack. We were superb in the main today and only an iffy decision and a cats whisker from beating a very good third division team.
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I still struggle to blame Keates in all honesty, because it was always going to happen in the end.
Fourth division in budget, in set up, in mindset, in the boardroom. Our luck was always going to run out - it was only down to a small miracle that it didn’t happen last year and that it hasn’t happened a couple of times over the last decade.
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I agree and the bigger issue is that the longer we hold a position in L1 with our approach the more it self justifies to JB that he is right in his approach
I absolutely don’t want us to go down but I cant help but feel it’s necessary for that leach to realise footballing wise we are now funded at lower league levels and his outdated, financially self motivated strategy is ultimately destined to reap what it sows…
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For me, it shows how much the soul of this football club has been crushed when fans say Deano has been backed. The money spent on a few none league gambles is peanuts next to the cost of a genuine experienced league one player. How many of our players were genuine league one experienced players not recovering from a wretched injury before they joined us? Edwards? Chambers?
We have a league 2 budget, a squad assembled from non league/league 2 and we’re going backwards every season. We were allowed to reinvest with the Bakayoko transfer but not Bradshaw, Rico. Wow.
Is Keates good enough? He’s inexperienced and bang average at best. But changing the manager is the equivalent of shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.
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Absolute nail on head there.
While football as a professional business moves forward at rapid rate we are standing still. So desperate for any green shoots of hope we think we are still competing by doing what we always have - bringing in non-league players, crocked has-beens and unproven kids. The combined wages of these would not even secure one proven, league one player.
Yes he has been backed as much as any other manager - but the game as a whole is not the same and it’s leaving us behind.
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Set the team up perfectly and had no reason to change it 
People are upset we didn’t beat a team nobody expected us too because we started well. Sums up his reign to be honest.
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He did have reason to change it. The players gave their all and some were definitely tiring in the last 20-25 mins. Decent players on the bench too.
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Who? Cook who didn’t fit the way we were playing. Ferrier who was brought on at about the right time. Edwards? Why?
Keates is very poor and out of his depth
But he is all that we can afford
It’s a shame because the only difference between Barnsley and ourselves was that they had a decent manager who made changes to give them the freshness to compete stronger towards the end.
I try to fathom keates thinking for example is he holding for the draw and thinks 3 subs means 90 seconds added on?
Why wouldn’t you freshen it up with your leading scorer on the bench ? If anything what would that do mentally to their defenders bring your leading scorer on? Or bring some pace on in oteh or ferrier to force the opposition to think twice about pushing on.
The crowd behind the goal were shouting for a sub begging for one - so does he see it as a weakness if he gives in to the crowd?
The pressure on the remaining home games is massive and I can see it getting really nasty with keates and it wouldn’t surprise me if mom doesn’t remove himself from the situation
Keates should have gone after Coventry away
Bonser out
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Radio 5 described us as a ‘stable’ club today. Sky thought we were robbed of 3 Pts.
Keates was good enough for 70mins today, but it was clear we needed to change things then and he didn’t.
Bonser is the problem and has been for a decade+ We are a lower fourth division team in all but league status & next year Keates will do us a job to get us to 15th in Div4!
Missed opportunities today on & off the pitch.
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Those players proved today that they are good enough to match one of the best sides in the division. If they could pull out a performance like that just 1 in 3 games we would not be where we are. So is it the players who aren’t up to the job or is it the manager who can’t consistently get the best out of the players.
I’m afraid to say I think it is the latter
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Bit of both I think. We’ve become desensitised to how lacking in experience and leadership this team is. Is it so surprising that they lost confidence in their abilty to play and started lumping the ball to Cook? Our inconsistency over the last 3 seasons is down to the fact we are unable or unwilling to sign fit and experienced league one players that have learnt how to keep calm and grind out results.
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The big issue for me is how many players Keates has signed and he doesn’t actually play & that he has not fundamentally rebuilt the team that nearly went down last year. That may be his fault, may be the budgets fault, but ultimately that’s the issue.
I may be mistaken but only 2 of today’s 11 were signed in January. 7 of today’s 11 were in Whitney’s teams that nearly got us relegated.
Squad in the main isn’t good enough, manager probably isn’t good enough and the board definitely isn’t good enough.
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Excellent post mate sums it up.
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Today has proven that Dean Keates is not good enough. You can all pretend that because of his status as a player that he will magically be a good manager but the cold hold fact is, he does not have a clue.
He gave into fan pressure today when there was no need. I’m not too sure why fans were calling for a sub but they did. As manager, be strong. He was weak. He gave in and made the worst substitution imaginable.
It was clear to see to my five Stella deep eyes that our midfield would be overrun if one went off and we had to make sure our midfield before all else was doing its job. It was. Yet he took one off and replaced it with a forward. Even Whitney wouldn’t have done that. The players didn’t lose today. Dean Keates lost today. Is he learning? Is he ■■■■.
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His in game management is nowhere near good enough for league 1 and that will be one of the biggest factors in relegation.
Now today was a very good performance on the whole so I don’t really want to criticise too much. However at 70 minutes the teams energy levels inevitably dipped a fair bit.
Now at that point with a good display would it not make a decent bit of sense to being on your 15 goal leading scorer? How about a box to box midfielder to provide more energy for the last quarter?
Nothing just like in so many games this season.
Even at the end I didn’t really undertstand Ferrier being chosen as seemingly the sub to close out the point.
Look at the goal. Ball was loose on halfway line with chance of one final counter attack but either Dobson or Kinsella couldn’t quite reach the 50/50 ball due to understandbly being knackered. Maybe a fresh Joe Edwards would’ve.
Anyway play goes on and then despite having 10 men behind the ball you have Devlin totally switching off and ball watching and their left winger darts in to cross for the winner. Again if Edwards was on he might’ve had the nous to position himself close to the RB and snuff that out.
Bringing on Cookie with 30 seconds left was an insult. Reactive management but far far too late in the day.
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Following the sacking of Scunthorpe’s Stuart McCall and now Chris Powell from Southend we are the only club in the bottom 7 to still have the same manager who started the season.
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I can kind of understand why he didn’t change it Saturday, after all we were on top and creating chance after chance.
For me it was poor finishing that cost us and not Keates.
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