I am sorry but much as i loved Keates as a player he can not cut it as a Manager. Saturday was typical of a Keates team, three passes out from the keeper then hoofball to Cook. No midfield whatsoever.
We only looked better when he bought Dobson on with ten minutes left. I know Dobson has not been himself lately, probably carrying an injury, but he should have started.
Our midfield on Saturday was a joke, Devlin and Osbourne were useless and yet Kinsella could not even make the bench? Jarvis did not receive a pass all match, Osbourne was knackered by half time and Devlin ran around like a headless chicken.
Keates has now assembled a squad of 22 players which will only serve to confuse his team selection.
Midfield four should surely be Dobson, Jarvis, Edwards and Ismael which gives us some creativity and much needed width. Kinsella from the bench when needed.
The defence was no better with no help from our midfield. I despair at the hoofball we are serving up, its going to be a long hard Winter and I hope we don’t have to go to Shrewsbury looking for points in our last match.
He does seem out of his depth and despite the obvious affection we all have for him, it’s not fair to watch him fail when something can be done about it (whether that be bringing in an experienced coach to help I’m not sure…)
He’s caused a problem for himself in some respects because he’s bought in so many so-called coaches, they will probably have to ship some out to get a decent one in to help…
I keep hearing about bringing someone with experience to help him - but he has to want that, otherwise it’s a wast of time and money. On the evidence so far, I think he may be too stubborn to accept the help.
Given that he has gone out and signed a number of players that Whitney did we should ring Jon up and give him the Assistant role 
You just, but how we could do with Whitney right now in his original role as performance coach. The success of Smith was very much due to the team of O’Kelly, Whitney and cutler that he had supporting him.
Definitely. My jest was more about how I keep reading and hearing about how Keates should be judged on his own team despite him resigning Fitzwater, Laird, Osborne, Ismail and Ginnelly, all players previously signed by Whitney. I get the whole Devlin, Leahy and Guthrie argument to an extent, but Dobson and Edwards would be high on people’s want list. Therefore in any given game, and especially now after the January window, the team will be more Keates than Whitney.