Sandgaard comes across as an egotist and definitely hands on. His decisions have not gone well so far, in fact his one success was in rescuing us from East Street investments. He knows less about English football than the average owner and they usually know bugger all. I think this will end in tears and not only will we have Roland demanding the money he squandered but some shit guitarist claiming the same
Following a review of TS actions, comments and outcomes, whether back room, training, structure, team or recruitment I concede from his history he is clearly capable of running a business, but his music is awful and when it comes to managing this club and the subject of football generally he clearly knows less about it than my cat.
You're cat is probably a better guitarist too.
Actually, IMHO, he’s what you’d call reasonably accomplished. Not great but quite acceptable by amateur standards.
find me a club that isn't doing data driven signings, it's rampant from the top of the Premier League through to the bottom of the National League. The idea that we're going to go back to a system from the past is for the birds, regardless of who owns us
I hear you, and I’ve heard it from loads of pros on podcasts. However the human element hasn’t gone away either. I’m not comfortable with the idea that in England, at this level, the manager is no,longer the key person shaping the team. We’re not Real Madrid or PSG.
Sandgaard comes across as an egotist and definitely hands on. His decisions have not gone well so far, in fact his one success was in rescuing us from East Street investments. He knows less about English football than the average owner and they usually know bugger all. I think this will end in tears and not only will we have Roland demanding the money he squandered but some shit guitarist claiming the same
Following a review of TS actions, comments and outcomes, whether back room, training, structure, team or recruitment I concede from his history he is clearly capable of running a business, but his music is awful and when it comes to managing this club and the subject of football generally he clearly knows less about it than my cat.
You're cat is probably a better guitarist too.
Actually, IMHO, he’s what you’d call reasonably accomplished. Not great but acceptable by amateur standards.
My only hope is that he is a good businessman and as such once he realised that the team would not make 8th place he commenced recruiting Jackson's replacement, in which case a new manager should arrive within a week and can commence preparation for next season, if not.........?
Sandgaard's already said this: “We have potential managers out of jobs and others who could be convinced to come here. It depends who we talk to. The process could be relatively short or we might go very close up to pre-season.”
So almost certainly not within a week, and it could well be that we are without a manager/head coach for the bulk of the period where we should be recruiting players. Even if we have suddenly resolved the recruitment issues that lead to us starting last season with an absolutely dreadful squad, and are now able to identify the calibre of player required to get us out of this pub division (I've no reason to think we have, but talking hypothetically) - how do we expect to lure any of our targets to Charlton, when we'll be competing with Derby, Ipswich, Pompey, Sunderland and whoever else for the same player?
Let's say, for argument's sake, that us and Derby both have bids accepted for the Morecambe forward, Cole Stockton. Wayne Rooney will be telling Stockton how integral he will be to Derby's plans, how highly he rates him, the style of football he intends to play and how Stockton fits into that. Who's going to do that for us? And how do they expect to convince the player that we're a better option than Derby?
But both players and managers (at CAFC and beyond) likely to be on holiday in the very immediate short term I suspect. So as long as it is resolved within say 3 weeks it should not need to be a problem. Most under contract / being paid until end June I think.
Better to do it now then after several weeks of a new season.
I’m sorry but top8 wasn’t impossible and that’s not the reason why he was sacked regardless. It’s because of the play style and the teams we lost to, who had far worst squads than us on paper. Are we forgetting that we had a terrible drop off where in 14 games he managed 3 wins, 2 draws and 9 losses? Can’t be an excuse about the squad there either cause prior to that we beat the table toppers Plymouth and beat Sunderland. He had a new manager bounce, plain and simple and then was found out when the momentum was gone.
After we beat Pompey I believe Sheffield Wednesday were 7-9 points ahead of us. They finished on 85 and us 59. We definitely could have got into the top 8. Not that it matters cause ultimately we never played good football and it wasn’t gonna change next season regardless. I see a lot of posts about a stubborn owner, I see a stubborn manager who had the opportunity to land the job but insisted on a formation even when a side like Morecambe were playing us off the park at home
Yes we could have reached the top 8, but it wasn't realistic. It's not just about Jackson's style, he essentially started with a points deduction with a bang average squad. 13th was overachieving, but we weren't 13th in the table from the point Jackson took charge.
I've got no problem with people thinking Jackson was right to be let go, but to expect him to finish top 8 from the position we were in when he took charge is pretty ludicrous.
Surely, JJ wasn't expected to finish top 8 from when he took charge? Surely, his permanent contract was signed when he was appointed full time, which was just before xmas. When JJ was appointed full time I am told we were 11th.
Bit late to this as I’ve been up a mountain. This is terrible news. We need continuity. This will be the fourth manager under Sandgaard. I’m sorry but I’m really starting to dislike the bloke. My guess is he puts a puppet in and starts picking the team himself.
find me a club that isn't doing data driven signings, it's rampant from the top of the Premier League through to the bottom of the National League. The idea that we're going to go back to a system from the past is for the birds, regardless of who owns us
I hear you, and I’ve heard it from loads of pros on podcasts. However the human element hasn’t gone away either. I’m not comfortable with the idea that in England, at this level, the manager is no,longer the key person shaping the team. We’re not Real Madrid or PSG.
I agree. Data about players is something, but so is the human element of selecting a team, having a low down on the opposition, preparation for a match, motivating players, and crucially in game management. I don’t see how data can work here.
People keep mentioning 8th place. It has no relevance as was not his "target", it was one of the multiple place increments listed to agree different amounts of compensation owed to JJ if TS wanted to fire him, he was contracted for next season regardless of where we finished. If we had ended 8th it would have cost TS more money to fire JJ than finishing 13th for example.
People keep mentioning 8th place. It has no relevance as was not his "target", it was one of the multiple place increments listed to agree different amounts of compensation owed to JJ if TS wanted to fire him, he was contracted for next season regardless of where we finished. If we had ended 8th it would have cost TS more money to fire JJ than finishing 13th for example.
To me this does have me assuming that TS only saw Jackson has a caretaker until the end of the season, no matter where he finished.
Just had incentives for Jackson to 'perform' better for more pay at the end of the year.
People keep mentioning 8th place. It has no relevance as was not his "target", it was one of the multiple place increments listed to agree different amounts of compensation owed to JJ if TS wanted to fire him, he was contracted for next season regardless of where we finished. If we had ended 8th it would have cost TS more money to fire JJ than finishing 13th for example.
To me this does have me assuming that TS only saw Jackson has a caretaker until the end of the season, no matter where he finished.
Just had incentives for Jackson to 'perform' better for more pay at the end of the year.
If we had performed better on the pitch TS wouldn't have sacked JJ, that is the long and short of it.
So having had a chance to reflect I’d say it’s probably tilted towards the majority who reluctantly think it’s the right decision.
What has surprised me though is the strength of feeling of the minority. I can’t tell whether it’s mainly due to the like & respect of Jacko as a man, or by being anti-Sandgaard, but some of it seems to me very OTT.
Going to be an interesting summer. I was very un hopeful about the season ahead so will be interesting how we look back and reflect on this.
Football fans are incredibly fickle. Burnley fans were screaming blue murder at their owners three weeks ago.
I definitely fall in the minority in that I felt Jackson had earned the right to stay and influence how we shaped the squad moving forward.
The primary reason for this, is that although I've seen a lot of bad Charlton squads, most of them lacked effort rather than quality. This, hands down, is the worst team ability wise, I have witnessed in a Charlton shirt. Jackson's win percentage with that context is actually very impressive, and I don't believe that any manager being linked with us betters that with the players we have.
The second reason, is Sangaard. I'm not anti-Sangaard and I believe he is different from Roland in that he has good intentions. Where he is the same as Roland is sheer stubbornness and inability to change.
To think that it would be OK to not have a manager up to pre-season and not think this will impact recruitment is naive borderline stupid. To suggest we will be more successful if we play a high press game is bizarre, given his recruitment approach has led to signings of Aneke, Stockley, Kirk and Fraser. All of whom don't suit this.
Our issues are not manager driven. I said the same with Bowyer, Adkins and Jackson. Without substantial change in approach from TS we will just rinse and repeat next season unfortunately.
As a fanbase we rarely seem to agree about a lot of things. What I would say is that there are some very good posts on here. @aliwibble post, coupled with the most recent Standard article for me perfectly crystalises my current view on the matter. I don't think JJ was the man to take us up, but his sacking is extremely harsh and very poorly executed by Sandgaard who 24 hours earlier called him a club legend on the podcast.
The statements made by Sandgaard detailed above on this page by @Phil show a very real understanding of English League 1 football, or indeed football in general. I fear for us, I really do. I absolutely love the club, probably too much, but the events of the last 24 hours are really ,really hard to digest, understand and take.
I agree with a lot of this, I have mentioned that this camel can only take a few more straws.
However regarding the bold bit, we do not know the in depth details of JJ's sacking/release. He can be defined as both a club legend still and not good enough to take us forward YET.
If it's true though that a Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink sized straw is inbound, I think I will have to concede that the man has lost it.
I already conceded that he is increasingly getting worse at listening to knowledgeable people.
Since Jacko got the job full time we've averaged 1.22 points per game. Extrapolated over a season that has us finishing on 56 points, which would have been good for 15th/16th this season.
Obviously his period in temporary charge was much better (over 2 points per game), but is there any proof that was anything more than a new manager bounce? I guess your answer to that comes down to how much you like Jacko, but looking at the cold hard data there is nothing to suggest he is the man to get us promoted next season. Of course a good transfer window could have done wonders, but equally there's the chance that it doesn't and the club are left looking for a new manager outside of a transfer window with a squad built to play an ineffective formation/style.
It's a bold move by TS. He will have felt he wasn't decisive last autumn, and that directly led to him having to give Jacko the job despite clearly not being convinced. If he'd have acted sooner he could have got away with a temporary deal to the end of the season, but the longer the good run went on the harder it was to do anything other than make him permanent.
The January window can then be seen in a different light. With the injuries we had and the drop in form the play-offs became almost unattainable. The options then were a) go all out for the play-offs, spending more than you want (January is a terrible time to do business) and handing that cheque book to a manager you don't necessarily trust, or b) keep your powder dry, accept this season was almost certain to end in a mid-table finish, spend just enough to ensure safety and give yourself 4-5 months to really take stock and decide what to do the following season.
TS obviously took option B, and I would hope factored in the possibility that Jacko would/could get the results to convince TS he was the man to take us up next year. 1.22 points per game would only have confirmed TS' original hesitancy and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start looking for a replacement quite some time ago.
It is a bit shocking to me how quickly people compare Sandgaard to Duchatelet. Roland was the worst thing that could have possibly happened to our club. He didn't care, was adamant his way of doing things was the only way, but to the aggressive exclusion of the fans. He actively worked against fans, posting statements against them, ignoring absolutely all input from others, briefing against 'disgruntled ex-employees', allowing his CEO to employ people to physically assault fans with no reprimand and holding the club to the ransom of his big idea. He hired random blokes from the Belgian third division and wanted to bring in some guy who played indoor football to manage the club. I think because it was a while ago and we had Southall and then another bloke whose name I genuinely can't remember and refuse to Google people have forgotten just how desperate things were. The prick even still owns our home and won't give it back. He sold us on to an obvious pack of crooks because as far as he was concerned he either got the money for the asset off them or he didn't; if the stuff around it burned to the ground he didn't give a single one, The Valley and Sparrows lane were still good land he could make use of.
Sandgaard has an ego and thinks his way is best, and he does make a concerningly large amount of first draft cock ups but we regularly do see recalibration of his choices and we have real engagement from our owner. It's not some remote nutcase in another country never appearing and remaining silent unless it's to complain about us, nor is it some charlatan sweeping through Crossbars to applause while siphoning all the cash out of the club. On Sunday Sandgaard, who lives in Colorado, presented medals to a team of 16-18 year old girls at The Valley because they won the Reserve South Central league title. He did this at a women's match with an attendance of 710. He does genuinely care, he's just got a lot to learn and a lip that he could do with buttoning. I'll take that every single day over an owner who would deliberately, actively destroy the club if it meant he got the chance to show that his brain is biggest.
Sandgaard is not above scrutiny and him saving the club is credit that he has received and is now in the past, but please don't call him Roland mk II because he doesn't fancy watching us hoof the ball out of play for the 37th time that half while Morecambe run rings around us. For the first time since 2014 we have an owner that actually wants us to do well, it's not perfect but Jesus, it's not Roland.
Well we've gone from "blowing the league away" to "playoffs being the worst case scenario."
He's getting better but still not quite there...
Just wish TS would shut up about what we are GOING to do.
The expression is "under promise, over deliver" not the other way around, as has been the case so far under his regime.
And the worst case scenario is relegation, not play-offs.
TS has had two attempts at the play-offs so far and missed out both times.
There were a lot of things wrong when Sandgaard took over and he's slowly corrected some of them, off the pitch at least.
I like that he's ambitious and is aiming high with Cat 1 etc (and I couldn't give a toss about the guitar or sunglasses) but you brag about your successes when you've achieved them, not before.
For all the good and important commercial successes everything, rightly or wrongly, at a professional football club will be seen through the prism of the men's first team results.
TS should have enough self-reflection to realise that if the managers (Atkins, Jackson) and directors (Roddy) you appointed fail within a few short months either they were poor appointments, which is your fault, or they weren't given the tools to do the job, which is also your fault.
Making mistakes is inevitable, not learning from them is unforgivable.
My initial instinct was that the new manager was already lined up. Surely you don't go in a short summer off season without a boss?
My fear is that Jackson's sacking was a knee-jerk reaction to the Ipswich debacle and were now scrabbling around for a replacement or even worse, think we can have a successful recruitment without a number one in place when we know the first question players and agents will ask is "who's in charge?" You can bet other clubs after the same players will be dropping that into conversation.
Appoint someone this week or next who is a decent coach and leader and is happy with the recruitment model, buy a whole new defence and some more quality elsewhere and yes, play-offs MIGHT be achieved, it should certainly be the target but we can and have done a lot worse.
I really don’t see the logic of attempting to measure JJ’s performance and draw conclusions, by separating out the points per game by pre and post permanent contract.
New manager bounce? I am not sure I can find it but I think some data people have proved its a myth. Certainly it failed us in the cases of Les Reed, Dowie, Slade, to name a few, and Riga’s two go’s are an interesting one.
Jacko or the players suddenly behaved differently after he was appointed? Come on. How about a more bleedin obvious reason for the apparent drop-off: his appointment heralded the now customary biblical epidemic of injuries, which did for him, as they did for Bowyer.
Any stats expert will tell you that the more data points you have, the sounder the conclusions you make from them. Whatever else we conclude about Jacko, you should at least judge him on the entirety of his short time in charge. Blimey, he’s earned the right to that much from us.
Well we've gone from "blowing the league away" to "playoffs being the worst case scenario."
He's getting better but still not quite there...
Just wish TS would shut up about what we are GOING to do.
The expression is "under promise, over deliver" not the other way around, as has been the case so far under his regime.
And the worst case scenario is relegation, not play-offs.
TS has had two attempts at the play-offs so far and missed out both times.
There were a lot of things wrong when Sandgaard took over and he's slowly corrected some of them, off the pitch at least.
I like that he's ambitious and is aiming high with Cat 1 etc (and I couldn't give a toss about the guitar or sunglasses) but you brag about your successes when you've achieved them, not before.
For all the good and important commercial successes everything, rightly or wrongly, at a professional football club will be seen through the prism of the men's first team results.
TS should have enough self-reflection to realise that if the managers (Atkins, Jackson) and directors (Roddy) you appointed fail within a few short months either they were poor appointments, which is your fault, or they weren't given the tools to do the job, which is also your fault.
Making mistakes is inevitable, not learning from them is unforgivable.
My initial instinct was that the new manager was already lined up. Surely you don't go in a short summer off season without a boss?
My fear is that Jackson's sacking was a knee-jerk reaction to the Ipswich debacle and were now scrabbling around for a replacement or even worse, think we can have a successful recruitment without a number one in place when we know the first question players and agents will ask is "who's in charge?" You can bet other clubs after the same players will be dropping that into conversation.
Appoint someone this week or next who is a decent coach and leader and is happy with the recruitment model, buy a whole new defence and some more quality elsewhere and yes, play-offs MIGHT be achieved, it should certainly be the target but we can and have done a lot worse.
I really don’t see the logic of attempting to measure JJ’s performance and draw conclusions, by separating out the points per game by pre and post permanent contract.
New manager bounce? I am not sure I can find it but I think some data people have proved its a myth. Certainly it failed us in the cases of Les Reed, Dowie, Slade, to name a few, and Riga’s two go’s are an interesting one.
Jacko or the players suddenly behaved differently after he was appointed? Come on. How about a more bleedin obvious reason for the apparent drop-off: his appointment heralded the now customary biblical epidemic of injuries, which did for him, as they did for Bowyer.
Any stats expert will tell you that the more data points you have, the sounder the conclusions you make from them. Whatever else we conclude about Jacko, you should at least judge him on the entirety of his short time in charge. Blimey, he’s earned the right to that much from us.
The players definitely stopped trying as hard once JJ was appointed. Before that they were all giving 100%, chasing everything and pressing the opposition. This stopped almost immediately and whilst they were still trying they weren't as committed as before. Whether this was down to relaxing that JJ had got the job, or whether they weren't fit enough to continue is open to conjecture.
Since Jacko got the job full time we've averaged 1.22 points per game. Extrapolated over a season that has us finishing on 56 points, which would have been good for 15th/16th this season.
Obviously his period in temporary charge was much better (over 2 points per game), but is there any proof that was anything more than a new manager bounce? I guess your answer to that comes down to how much you like Jacko, but looking at the cold hard data there is nothing to suggest he is the man to get us promoted next season. Of course a good transfer window could have done wonders, but equally there's the chance that it doesn't and the club are left looking for a new manager outside of a transfer window with a squad built to play an ineffective formation/style.
It's a bold move by TS. He will have felt he wasn't decisive last autumn, and that directly led to him having to give Jacko the job despite clearly not being convinced. If he'd have acted sooner he could have got away with a temporary deal to the end of the season, but the longer the good run went on the harder it was to do anything other than make him permanent.
The January window can then be seen in a different light. With the injuries we had and the drop in form the play-offs became almost unattainable. The options then were a) go all out for the play-offs, spending more than you want (January is a terrible time to do business) and handing that cheque book to a manager you don't necessarily trust, or b) keep your powder dry, accept this season was almost certain to end in a mid-table finish, spend just enough to ensure safety and give yourself 4-5 months to really take stock and decide what to do the following season.
TS obviously took option B, and I would hope factored in the possibility that Jacko would/could get the results to convince TS he was the man to take us up next year. 1.22 points per game would only have confirmed TS' original hesitancy and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start looking for a replacement quite some time ago.
I've never subscribed to the 'new manager bounce' - it's a bit of a myth as Ben McAleer from WhoScored concludes below.
"The 'bounce' that comes when a new manager is appointed is often because things cannot get any worse. An uptick is almost inevitable. The bounce is an illusion and the new manager is the beneficiary"
If we had sacked Jacko in March and gone on to win six of the last 10 under Euell, would that have been reasoned away by a new manager bounce too? Why did we have two spells of awful form followed by two spells of promotion form this season and only one can be explained by a new manager bounce? What delivered the second turn around?
The ultimate conclusion to draw here is that Jackson isn't a messiah that can turn average players into world beaters and that the form may well have turned around under Adkins anyway, meaning he is probably better than we gave him credit. But neither of them were able to turn this squad into a team that is going to consistently deliver promotion form.
Since Jacko got the job full time we've averaged 1.22 points per game. Extrapolated over a season that has us finishing on 56 points, which would have been good for 15th/16th this season.
Obviously his period in temporary charge was much better (over 2 points per game), but is there any proof that was anything more than a new manager bounce? I guess your answer to that comes down to how much you like Jacko, but looking at the cold hard data there is nothing to suggest he is the man to get us promoted next season. Of course a good transfer window could have done wonders, but equally there's the chance that it doesn't and the club are left looking for a new manager outside of a transfer window with a squad built to play an ineffective formation/style.
It's a bold move by TS. He will have felt he wasn't decisive last autumn, and that directly led to him having to give Jacko the job despite clearly not being convinced. If he'd have acted sooner he could have got away with a temporary deal to the end of the season, but the longer the good run went on the harder it was to do anything other than make him permanent.
The January window can then be seen in a different light. With the injuries we had and the drop in form the play-offs became almost unattainable. The options then were a) go all out for the play-offs, spending more than you want (January is a terrible time to do business) and handing that cheque book to a manager you don't necessarily trust, or b) keep your powder dry, accept this season was almost certain to end in a mid-table finish, spend just enough to ensure safety and give yourself 4-5 months to really take stock and decide what to do the following season.
TS obviously took option B, and I would hope factored in the possibility that Jacko would/could get the results to convince TS he was the man to take us up next year. 1.22 points per game would only have confirmed TS' original hesitancy and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start looking for a replacement quite some time ago.
I've never subscribed to the 'new manager bounce' - it's a bit of a myth as Ben McAleer from WhoScored concludes below.
"The 'bounce' that comes when a new manager is appointed is often because things cannot get any worse. An uptick is almost inevitable. The bounce is an illusion and the new manager is the beneficiary"
If we had sacked Jacko in March and gone on to win six of the last 10 under Euell, would that have been reasoned away by a new manager bounce too? Why did we have two spells of awful form followed by two spells of promotion form this season and only one can be explained by a new manager bounce? What delivered the second turn around?
The ultimate conclusion to draw here is that Jackson isn't a messiah that can turn average players into world beaters and that the form may well have turned around under Adkins anyway, meaning he is probably better than we gave him credit. But neither of them were able to turn this squad into a team that is going to consistently deliver promotion form.
Sometimes you have to use your eyes instead of stats. The style of play and effort from the players while he was caretaker was completely different to once he was permanent. A world away in fact.
We picked up some wins in a purple patch towards the end not from good team performances, but from individuals doing something good. It was abysmal football, even with everyone fit.
Find the witch-hunt of TS really strange from some on here. The RD comparisons are just baffling.
There are some very significant differences, massively in TS’s favour, but you can’t deny the similarities. The clueless amateur with a big ego who thinks he knows best.
Since Jacko got the job full time we've averaged 1.22 points per game. Extrapolated over a season that has us finishing on 56 points, which would have been good for 15th/16th this season.
Obviously his period in temporary charge was much better (over 2 points per game), but is there any proof that was anything more than a new manager bounce? I guess your answer to that comes down to how much you like Jacko, but looking at the cold hard data there is nothing to suggest he is the man to get us promoted next season. Of course a good transfer window could have done wonders, but equally there's the chance that it doesn't and the club are left looking for a new manager outside of a transfer window with a squad built to play an ineffective formation/style.
It's a bold move by TS. He will have felt he wasn't decisive last autumn, and that directly led to him having to give Jacko the job despite clearly not being convinced. If he'd have acted sooner he could have got away with a temporary deal to the end of the season, but the longer the good run went on the harder it was to do anything other than make him permanent.
The January window can then be seen in a different light. With the injuries we had and the drop in form the play-offs became almost unattainable. The options then were a) go all out for the play-offs, spending more than you want (January is a terrible time to do business) and handing that cheque book to a manager you don't necessarily trust, or b) keep your powder dry, accept this season was almost certain to end in a mid-table finish, spend just enough to ensure safety and give yourself 4-5 months to really take stock and decide what to do the following season.
TS obviously took option B, and I would hope factored in the possibility that Jacko would/could get the results to convince TS he was the man to take us up next year. 1.22 points per game would only have confirmed TS' original hesitancy and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start looking for a replacement quite some time ago.
I've never subscribed to the 'new manager bounce' - it's a bit of a myth as Ben McAleer from WhoScored concludes below.
"The 'bounce' that comes when a new manager is appointed is often because things cannot get any worse. An uptick is almost inevitable. The bounce is an illusion and the new manager is the beneficiary"
If we had sacked Jacko in March and gone on to win six of the last 10 under Euell, would that have been reasoned away by a new manager bounce too? Why did we have two spells of awful form followed by two spells of promotion form this season and only one can be explained by a new manager bounce? What delivered the second turn around?
The ultimate conclusion to draw here is that Jackson isn't a messiah that can turn average players into world beaters and that the form may well have turned around under Adkins anyway, meaning he is probably better than we gave him credit. But neither of them were able to turn this squad into a team that is going to consistently deliver promotion form.
Surely that proves that new manager bounce is a thing! Not because the new manager is a managerial genius, but rather because it motivates the players to work harder for a few weeks, and perhaps more importantly when a team is struggling, can given the players a short term confidence boost to hear a new voice.
If you have terrible players, a new manager won't change anything, but if you have underperforming players and a manager maybe struggling with the pressure, it can work for a short period to "raise" the team back to its true level. I doubt Mike Jackson is a managerial genius, but he's clearly delivered a short term bounce at Burnley
Comments
Not great but quite acceptable by amateur standards.
He's getting better but still not quite there...
Better to do it now then after several weeks of a new season.
Surely, his permanent contract was signed when he was appointed full time, which was just before xmas.
When JJ was appointed full time I am told we were 11th.
Data about players is something, but so is the human element of selecting a team, having a low down on the opposition, preparation for a match, motivating players, and crucially in game management.
I don’t see how data can work here.
Remember Jackson himself signed the contract after a while of negotiating with TS.
Just had incentives for Jackson to 'perform' better for more pay at the end of the year.
Jackson's managerial record with our players was better than JFH's with a team that wasn't thrown together with cable ties and gaffer tape.
Burton
This season 16th
Last season 16th
Season before 12th
season before 9th
The primary reason for this, is that although I've seen a lot of bad Charlton squads, most of them lacked effort rather than quality. This, hands down, is the worst team ability wise, I have witnessed in a Charlton shirt. Jackson's win percentage with that context is actually very impressive, and I don't believe that any manager being linked with us betters that with the players we have.
The second reason, is Sangaard. I'm not anti-Sangaard and I believe he is different from Roland in that he has good intentions. Where he is the same as Roland is sheer stubbornness and inability to change.
To think that it would be OK to not have a manager up to pre-season and not think this will impact recruitment is naive borderline stupid. To suggest we will be more successful if we play a high press game is bizarre, given his recruitment approach has led to signings of Aneke, Stockley, Kirk and Fraser. All of whom don't suit this.
Our issues are not manager driven. I said the same with Bowyer, Adkins and Jackson. Without substantial change in approach from TS we will just rinse and repeat next season unfortunately.
However regarding the bold bit, we do not know the in depth details of JJ's sacking/release. He can be defined as both a club legend still and not good enough to take us forward YET.
If it's true though that a Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink sized straw is inbound, I think I will have to concede that the man has lost it.
I already conceded that he is increasingly getting worse at listening to knowledgeable people.
Obviously his period in temporary charge was much better (over 2 points per game), but is there any proof that was anything more than a new manager bounce? I guess your answer to that comes down to how much you like Jacko, but looking at the cold hard data there is nothing to suggest he is the man to get us promoted next season. Of course a good transfer window could have done wonders, but equally there's the chance that it doesn't and the club are left looking for a new manager outside of a transfer window with a squad built to play an ineffective formation/style.
It's a bold move by TS. He will have felt he wasn't decisive last autumn, and that directly led to him having to give Jacko the job despite clearly not being convinced. If he'd have acted sooner he could have got away with a temporary deal to the end of the season, but the longer the good run went on the harder it was to do anything other than make him permanent.
The January window can then be seen in a different light. With the injuries we had and the drop in form the play-offs became almost unattainable. The options then were a) go all out for the play-offs, spending more than you want (January is a terrible time to do business) and handing that cheque book to a manager you don't necessarily trust, or b) keep your powder dry, accept this season was almost certain to end in a mid-table finish, spend just enough to ensure safety and give yourself 4-5 months to really take stock and decide what to do the following season.
TS obviously took option B, and I would hope factored in the possibility that Jacko would/could get the results to convince TS he was the man to take us up next year. 1.22 points per game would only have confirmed TS' original hesitancy and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start looking for a replacement quite some time ago.
Have you looked at the Burton squad? I bet their budget was a fraction of what we spent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021–22_Burton_Albion_F.C._season
The expression is "under promise, over deliver" not the other way around, as has been the case so far under his regime.
And the worst case scenario is relegation, not play-offs.
TS has had two attempts at the play-offs so far and missed out both times.
There were a lot of things wrong when Sandgaard took over and he's slowly corrected some of them, off the pitch at least.
I like that he's ambitious and is aiming high with Cat 1 etc (and I couldn't give a toss about the guitar or sunglasses) but you brag about your successes when you've achieved them, not before.
For all the good and important commercial successes everything, rightly or wrongly, at a professional football club will be seen through the prism of the men's first team results.
TS should have enough self-reflection to realise that if the managers (Atkins, Jackson) and directors (Roddy) you appointed fail within a few short months either they were poor appointments, which is your fault, or they weren't given the tools to do the job, which is also your fault.
Making mistakes is inevitable, not learning from them is unforgivable.
My initial instinct was that the new manager was already lined up. Surely you don't go in a short summer off season without a boss?
My fear is that Jackson's sacking was a knee-jerk reaction to the Ipswich debacle and were now scrabbling around for a replacement or even worse, think we can have a successful recruitment without a number one in place when we know the first question players and agents will ask is "who's in charge?" You can bet other clubs after the same players will be dropping that into conversation.
Appoint someone this week or next who is a decent coach and leader and is happy with the recruitment model, buy a whole new defence and some more quality elsewhere and yes, play-offs MIGHT be achieved, it should certainly be the target but we can and have done a lot worse.
New manager bounce? I am not sure I can find it but I think some data people have proved its a myth. Certainly it failed us in the cases of Les Reed, Dowie, Slade, to name a few, and Riga’s two go’s are an interesting one.
How about a more bleedin obvious reason for the apparent drop-off: his appointment heralded the now customary biblical epidemic of injuries, which did for him, as they did for Bowyer.
Before that they were all giving 100%, chasing everything and pressing the opposition.
This stopped almost immediately and whilst they were still trying they weren't as committed as before.
Whether this was down to relaxing that JJ had got the job, or whether they weren't fit enough to continue is open to conjecture.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2021/nov/25/investigating-new-manager-bounce-premier-league
"The 'bounce' that comes when a new manager is appointed is often because things cannot get any worse. An uptick is almost inevitable. The bounce is an illusion and the new manager is the beneficiary"
If we had sacked Jacko in March and gone on to win six of the last 10 under Euell, would that have been reasoned away by a new manager bounce too? Why did we have two spells of awful form followed by two spells of promotion form this season and only one can be explained by a new manager bounce? What delivered the second turn around?
The ultimate conclusion to draw here is that Jackson isn't a messiah that can turn average players into world beaters and that the form may well have turned around under Adkins anyway, meaning he is probably better than we gave him credit. But neither of them were able to turn this squad into a team that is going to consistently deliver promotion form.
We picked up some wins in a purple patch towards the end not from good team performances, but from individuals doing something good. It was abysmal football, even with everyone fit.
If you have terrible players, a new manager won't change anything, but if you have underperforming players and a manager maybe struggling with the pressure, it can work for a short period to "raise" the team back to its true level. I doubt Mike Jackson is a managerial genius, but he's clearly delivered a short term bounce at Burnley