Here’s a thought.
The new board take over. They look at the side, look at where they are, look at performances and come to a conclusion. They decide that, rightly or wrongly, the squad Phil Parkinson has assembled is good enough, if it plays a certain form of football, to reach the fringes of the play off places. It does however, get pulled apart when put up against other serious promotion contenders, and isn’t a viable long-term option.
There follows some bad results, accompanied by talk of dressing room discontent. Parkinson gets the sack.
Now, I’ll break off for a minute here. I thought that was a poor decision. It was the players who had the lack of talent and application. The players who bottled it when the going got tough and the players who didn’t have the guts to stick up for the shirt they were wearing. But, that’s modern football. You can’t replace a whole group of useless players as cheaply as you can replace a manager, so the bloke in the suit becomes the fall-guy.
Thereafter, Chris Powell gets appointed. He looks at the squad. He makes clear, and it is made clear by the board, that he is part of a long-term plan. That plan involves, on the one side, building the club’s finances up carefully, and on the other, re-building the squad. The board deal with the former, Powell deals with the latter.
He wants them to play a certain way – he wants them to pass the ball, to use some intelligence, to work hard, to show some pride and to remember who pays their wages. He looks at Brighton and suggests we could learn something. The old way was good enough to edge into the Play Off places, but if we want to get promoted, he decides, we need to play in a different style.
Then he takes training a few times, and realises that some of them are worse than he feared. They can’t do the basics. They are all at sea when it comes to passing and moving. And, on top of that, there are a few who are delusional about their talents. A Polish striker who went back to Poland because he wanted to further his chances of playing in Euro 2012? That wasn’t a joke – that’s what he said. Delusional.
And some of them see the writing on the wall. They can’t do what’s being asked of them, so they speak to their agents, have a think and make a decision. Sod running themselves into the ground, bugger trying to learn a new skill for a laugh and forget taking any of the blame, they’ll just sit it out, collect the money and move on at the end of the year. Highlights DVDs of them are already being made, I’m sure, by agents with deft editing skills who honestly believe they can polish a turd.
And as a manager, what do you do? Do you ditch the long-term plan after two months, because a bunch of players who will be gone at the end of the season have held you to ransom? Do you let the players win? Is that what Ferguson, Clough, Robson, Ramsey or any of the greats would have done? Is that strong management?
Or do you stare them down, appeal to their sense of professionalism, and let them know that, whether they like it or not, this is how this team plays from now on. This is how it’s going to be. If you can’t make the grade, sorry, this isn’t the club for you. If you don’t want to try, then I won’t pick you.
Remember the board’s thinking - because we’re in a hole, the recovery plan needs to be comprehensive. Let’s not try and create a bad, long-ball playing side out of what we’ve got, if it probably won’t be good enough to get promoted, and it’ll have to be completely re-built if we are. Let’s build a side that can play the sort of football that does get you promoted – even if it takes a while. Let’s show the manager that we back the thought of doing things that way, by giving him a three and a half year contract.
In a nutshell, let’s build a proper side, which can play proper football. Let’s not make do with bad players, claiming a living for under-performing. Let’s chop out the dead wood and let the manager do things his way, the way he outlined to the board he wanted to when he was appointed.
So, in turn, let’s us, the fans, not all jump on board the same phrases – “He’s written this season off”. He hasn’t, clearly, but he’s written off the long ball, not good enough to get us promoted football we used to play, and been given the scope to build a squad that can play football which might get us up, and which won’t have to be hugely added-to if that happens.
And let’s remember who the enemies are. The enemies aren’t the manager, who has a vision and a belief, who has been backed by the board and let down by some of his players.
The enemies are the people who talk a good game during the week, shout about themselves when a microphone appears, and then go missing for a couple of hours every Saturday afternoon. |The enemies are the players who are either too stupid, too inept or too cowardly, whether physically or mentally, to reward the fans with the effort their wages demand.
This is a bad, bad time for this football club. But it’s not because of the manager. It’s because he inherited a squad which wasn’t good enough to get promotion, and wasn’t good enough to play the sort of football which would. And it became clear to those who weren’t good enough that their time was up, so they chucked it in and made it clear they couldn’t be bothered.
They’re the villains. Not Chris Powell.
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Comments
Fair comment BTW.
exactly and even with no manager they would be doing better or with seths goat
and SCP is surely better than nothing
which makes me think that these are c**** playing for us who are just going thru the motions rather than putting it in cos their old mate parky isn't here
You what nolly?
Well that all sounds very pat; but as you are in the know I'll take your word for it.
Just how many members of the squad have "chucked it in" as you say?
Are they still being picked and if so why?
If the quitters have been sidelined, as they should be, why are we seeing no appreciable change in attitude and effort?
If the quitters are in the majority are we to resign ourselves to this crud for the rest of the season on the basis that we blame the players and not the manager?
Does the manager carry so little authority that cannot effect performances at all>
Sorry, I realise that I'm being very cynical and a tad disbelieving, but I don't mean to be rude
I hope we can turn the corner and get at least a point on Tuesday.
Didn't hear a thing old bean. You'll have to speak up a bit.
Can we all cast our memories back to sheff wed & notts county at home. Both game we won........both games we were arsehole lucky to win.
Swindon and brighton at home, we didn't look as though we had a plan A let alone a plan B.
I like parky - I just think his time had run out.
When Powell took over he stated that there would be highs and low and most people agreed....well, we are having a low.
Let's judge him next November
Most of these players must have had it easy under parky and do not like the new regime.....I say tough, get gone!
This ties in with what a senior player told me last week about the struggle for some with the type of football CP wants to play, but what I don't see is the underperforming players in question being dropped from the squad? If your comments are on the mark then CP should drop them for the rest of the season as they'll only create more problems by sticking around. I don't think anything has been helped by the constant discussion of the impending player cull and even though you'd hope players would be professional, it's obvious that guys who know they're about to be out of contract are not going to stretch themselves for their soon to be ex employers.
Worner: up and coming keeper from non-League keeper - where's he gonna go if Charlton aren't good enough for him? Gravesend?
Jenkinson: the one bright spot of Powell's reign
Fry: has given 100% in every game I've seen despite being out of position - if CP doesn't like him he can send him back
Dailly: lack of effort? Dare you to say that to his face
Llera: out of contract in the summer thus a possible suspect if a move home beckons (but again seemingly one of the prouder players)
Parrett: Powell's signing
Semedo: Like Llera, out of contract but he's everyone's hero right, for his 100% approach?
Wagstaff: Local lad with a year left on his contract and never knowingly accused of lack of effort before - again with respect, if he doesnt fancy it at Charlton where's he gonna go? Arsenal have already got Walcott for that role
McCormack: Useless for sure, but like Francis with one year left on his contract - if he's not trying why does he still get picked? He wont get better money elsewhere so what incentive would he have to burn his bridges at Charlton?
Nouble: Powell's signing
Wright- Phillips: Powell's signing
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And here's a few more :
Racon: ok point taken
Benson: Seems plausible that he's fallen out but again where's he gonna go to match his current deal at 31?
Fortune: plausible too, but his career is basically over if so - strange logic to stop trying
Anyinsah: seems a Powell favourite when fit
Eccleston: again plausible but maybe the Board might want to ask why they signed him without a manager
So presumably the 95% of managers who get off to more impressive start with their new clubs are just fortunate they didn't have such a bolshy squad to deal with?
Evolution not revolution we were told. Within a training session or two he should have known that these guys were not good enough to play that way. An experienced manager would have continued with the style of play that was effective, tried to make some signings to improve the squad both in the window and since, bided his time and made big changes in the summer.
We've gone from winning 4 games, to creating chances in 4 but being let down by errors, to hardly creating anything in our last four. Thats some decline and the players are not the only ones to blame for this.
I don't want Powell sacked now, or in the summer, I want him to do well and I want him to get his chance to build a team. He needs to do something quickly to restore the faith and hope that his appointment engendered otherwise the end of this season is going to be a similar millstone round his neck that the end of the Championship season proved to be for Parky
Yep they're shit.But no shitter than any other squad that's managed to climb out of the pit of this league.
And also why didn't they show a little bit more ambition in the transfer market?It was clear to everyone we needed a keeper,a back four and a couple of playmakers.
Luck. We were lucky to win those games, our performances in them weren't great and it was just that the opponents played worse than us.
In fairness we were very poor in those games apart from 20 mins v Posh.
In the long term, yes I would love to see Brighton style slick moves and beautiful play, but in the short term it is doing far more harm than good trying to do that- crowd's discontent, players don't seem entirely happy, results certainly not suggesting it's worth perserverance.
Powell needs to swallow his pride and admit his style as it is just won't work right now. As the old saying goes: 'insanity is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.'
As Imnot Athletic says above, if it's clear they are not good enough to play a certain way, then it shouldn't have been - or be - persisted with.
And not all of the perceived weak links in the team, who have still been picked, are out of contract at the end of the season.
I didn't think Parky was going to get us promoted, and really want Powell to succeed, but the most frustrating thing was that the second and third spots were probably more there for the taking this season than they will next.
Fantastic quote, which could equally apply to all of us fans at the moment :0)
On the last day of the 2010 season we were actually in the automatic promotion spot for a short while, when he got the heave-ho we were just three points off second place so he wasn't that bad a manager...
When Powell came in he has tried to change things to way, fair enough, he's the manager, that's his prerogative, but it soon became obvious that the players, for whatever reason, be it unwillingness, inability or just too thick, they have been unable to adjust and results have suffered as a consequence...
Surely relegation is unthinkable this season but next season it could become a sad reality, I'd like to see Powell swallow his pride and finish the season by allowing the players to play to the system and strengths that Parky signed them for...
If next season Powell wants to dismantle this team and build a new one to his own specifications then so be it but how we finish this season is more important at the moment, if only for the fans sake...
Mick says that our catostrophic loss of form was caused by players being content to just "sit it out" knowing theyll be off at the end of the season.
If this is true, then why were we playing with spirit and fight in the early days of Powell? Only since the losses mounted has the spirit died.
Our catostrophic loss of form pre-dates the players giving up