Careful wishing required

[dave.woodhall]

Stacy Murphy talks about mid-season changes.

https://heroesandvillains.info/2021/11/01/careful-wishing-required/

[martin o`who??]

Stacy Murphy talks about mid-season changes.

https://heroesandvillains.info/2021/11/01/careful-wishing-required/

Food for thought but there is an air of inevitability about all this - that air may be denser still by Saturday morning I fear.

[Rory]

Good article, thanks Dave. Worth it for the picture of Saint Brian and the old Muller shirts alone. Like an injection of feel-good for a child of the 90s.

[Sexual Ealing]

I'm not sure that the piece, as thorough as it is, serves as too much of a warning. Most of the changes yielded better results, at least in the short-term. Not that I'm salivating for Dean to be canned, though it feels inevitable now.

[Nunkin1965]

It certainly brought back some memories if nothing else.
I remember celebrating wildly after Carlos Gils spectacular effort against Leicester only to see him immediately subbed and a 2-0 lead evaporate before my very eyes!

[sickbeggar]

Good take on the situation. Fact is we've been in this situation plenty of times over the years. People have  genuinely wanted this or that manager gone, and backed a new guy to the hilt only to see long term improvement evaporate after initial promise. In fact since MON left in a huff, the only manager who's given us genuine progress is...…..Smith.

[RamboandBruno]

Interesting article and a good reminder of the past. Ive been advocate of Dean on this forum for the last couple of years and he has without doubt been our best coach/manager since the early days of MON. But there does feel an inevitability to Friday now. Its not just the losses but what seems from the outside looking in, a growing disharmony and ill discipline amongst the players as well as confused tactics. I do feel a genuine sadness about all this.

[Duncan Shaw]

Interesting article and a good reminder of the past. Ive been advocate of Dean on this forum for the last couple of years and he has without doubt been our best coach/manager since the early days of MON. But there does feel an inevitability to Friday now. Its not just the losses but what seems from the outside looking in, a growing disharmony and ill discipline amongst the players as well as confused tactics. I do feel a genuine sadness about all this.

I'm feeling exactly the same, it just feels like it's all unravelling and I would be gutted for that to happen to him.  There also seems to be a social media blackout at the moment too, the players aren't posting.  You'd normally see Mings rallying after a defeat, or McGinn, but nothing.

[passport1]

The players probably already know he's  toast. That's why prolonging  the decision makes matters worse.

[RichardBatchelor]

Totally against firing Smith - it's four bad games. If that becomes ten, I'll listen. There's no reason why it has to.

[rob_bridge]

Remember talking to a couple of scousers in the May 1995 game in Firkin at the old Poly. Liverpool had won the League Cup and qualified for Europe looked like they had the makings of a good team and they said that they were already on the beach.

[Risso]

Totally against firing Smith - it's four bad games. If that becomes ten, I'll listen. There's no reason why it has to.

It's not just 4 games. We've played 10 games, and have 10 points. The football is horrendous, and we're conceding just about two goals a game on average. He's averaged just over a point a game in 2021, and now looks like dragging us into a relegation scrap. It's not good enough on multiple levels, and it's time for him to go.

[rob_bridge]

Strangely, the two defeats in those nine games were against relegated Bolton and Charlton.
=======

Pedant alert - Barnsley not Charlton

[sickbeggar]

If he goes, it will be the Wolves game that will have done for him. That was a shocking result with the manner in which it happened. Gonna take a long time for people to put that behind them. Don't think he'd be under that much pressure otherwise.

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah we managed to somehow lose to Charlton who finished the game with an outfield player in goal a different season.