It was Clarke’s choice to get rid of virtually the entire first team squad he inherited. He gave free transfers to Chris Dunn, Jon Guthrie, Luke Leahy, Joe Edwards, Isaiah Osbourne, Zeli Ismail and Kieron Morris; and allowed Nicky Devlin, George Dobson, Morgan Ferrier and Andy Cook to go to other clubs.
Who would win in a contest between that eleven and the side we put out today? Even with only one specialist centre half I would put my money on the leavers from last year.
And that’s the irony, somehow the players who were often touted as the worst to ever wear the shirt are now seen as the favourable option to the current bunch of muppets. Tragic
When he left BristolRovers he said he was let down by the clubs wage policy.The *playing* staff wage expenditure was 5.3 million. Walsalls total wage bill was 3.7 million.Why did he come tlo Walsall?
In any case when Clarke came he did not have to listen to the moans of fans. He should have made his own cool assessment about each player on the books and made his own choice about which players in the squad were better than the potential recruits he could bring in. He chose to get rid of everyone, but that was his choice. As for the players who were keen to get away, it was his job to sell himself to them. Instead he chose to have the attitude that anyone who is looking at other offers should be told to go. That was his choice.
As I said on another thread this defence of Clarke “He had nothing to start with” is nonsense. It is like a person who had murdered his parents insisting that the court should have pity on him because he is an orphan.
By the end of last season that entire squad was toxic. There was no choice but to get rid.
Can you imagine if we’d took them into this season and as soon as any mistakes were made fans would have been on their back and the likes of Leahy would have given it back. It would have snowballed and despite those players being technically better I could see us being in a worse position due to their attitude.
There were players I would of liked us to keep hold of but there was always fans that will shoot players down for what ever reasons and they let those players know in no uncertain terms. The whole hostile atmosphere caused by the poor performances made players want to go in the end .
Some players we would jump at keeping , Cook for example, not everyones cup of tea but how we are missing his goals this season (2 yesterday by the way )
Problem is Steve, it is starting to happen again. Booing, singling out players for criticism
“Should never wear the shirt again” etc.
It was always thus, however, these days, instead of a few blokes discussing it in their local, it’s splattered all over social media (ugh, hate that term).
Some of those players were rubbish but some are clearly better than their replacements. Obviously relative salary levels will come into it, but in the “utility midfielder who can also do a job at right back” category, nobody can think Liddle is better than Edwards. We’re now trying to play 4-4-2 despite the squad containing barely anyone who can play as a winger - Keiron Morris would be the first name on the team sheet if he were still here.
Last year’s squad didn’t underperform - it wasn’t good enough and we were deservedly relegated - so I can understand wanting to overhaul it. Somehow contriving to craft one that’s even worse is some achievement. And the “give it time” argument would carry some weight if we were showing signs of improvement - I would say we’re actually looking worse as the season goes on. We started off looking reasonably solid at the back but like we wouldn’t score a goal if we played all night, to now looking like we could concede at any moment and also looking like we wouldn’t score a goal if we played all night. Our little good run a few games ago was largely thanks to a couple of freak goal of the season candidates from a central defender and that masked the ongoing decline.
Would you not want clinical striker…Attitudes can me managed…Agree tho he had run his course here but letting people like him and not replacing him with another key target man was a huge blow
DC might be many things, but he’s not a quitter. He’s been in this situation many times during his career and knows how to get out of it.I think a lot of players he signed were not his first or second choice targets, hence the lack of quality we’re now witnessing.
The rumors of him resigning are utter rubbish.
And this is exactly the point I tried to make on the Cheltenham thread but people pay their money so they can boo if they want right?
But when we get the same toxic atmosphere as last season it will be everyone else’s fault but theirs.
The bad results keep going on and on , but the last thing we want is exactly what happened last year with most turning against the team we all support , YES everyone knows the wheels have come off , and the players and the manager know they aren’t performing , they know it themselves when they have played ■■■■ , it doesn’t need us lot giving them pelters, …they need encouraging .
They know they aren’t performing and probably expect the boo boys , even though you don’t want to when they perform like this week in week out your emotions get the better of you , but really is it helping … I think not , but it’s the knee jerk reaction we all have being there and paying our money to watch them under perform , , they need our support until better quality can be shipped in
Bristol Rovers were a stable league 1 team for many years, then hit really poor few seasons and he took over when they were in non league. Restored them to league 1 within two years.
Can do similar here although it’s very unlikely to be this season.
If he leaves, would he go down to non league or would he just wait for perhaps the Mansfield job to come up given he’s from there.
That’s the thing to consider, once as a manager you’re percieved to be on the way down the decent job offers tend to dry up.
Wasn’t so long ago Steve Tilson was a very promising young manager at Southend. Last job was managing Basildon ladies 4 years ago. Neil Redfern was managing Leeds in 15/16 season, last season at Liverpool women.
Yeah Leahy needed to go really, for his own good. To a lesser extent Ismail who completely disappeared in the run in when his creativity was needed most and probably Cook given his disagreement with fans at Accrington. His penalty box instinct has been badly missed this season.
Some of the others like Osbourne and Guthrie were obvious releases.
I can’t remember too many wanting rid of Edwards, just doubt whether the injury had finished him off but this season is showing he just needed more time to get up to speed.
Think Dobson’s more forward thinking football brain has been missed aswell although he was never going to turn down Sunderland lets be honest.
Kieron Morris wasn’t even here for the toxic second half of the season, he was too busy helping a club get promoted from league 2.
