If we don't win at Solihull on Tuesday...

[westyorkshiregull]

Yes he did...no way hI'm unless it's for free or cheap.

[merse btpir]

He kept the club in the Football League when all seem lost

[Southampton Gull]

I'd quite like to know what the General Manager is doing to earn his salary (twice Nicholsons). He knows the manager desperately wants a striker but has just kyboshed that idea so what exactly is he doing to help?

Easy to starve a manager of funds and let him take all the flak, then when the apathy really takes hold their job is almost done. Harrop to the rescue anyone?

[northlondongull]

I'd quite like to know what the General Manager is doing to earn his salary (twice Nicholsons). He knows the manager desperately wants a striker but has just kyboshed that idea so what exactly is he doing to help?

Easy to starve a manager of funds and let him take all the flak, then when the apathy really takes hold their job is almost done. Harrop to the rescue anyone?

I think that you have just summarised GH's plan. I am sure there will be a few £££s available when our the General Manager takes charge to save us from the brink. The issue is however that if it is true that Harrad is on £850 a week the would you trust Nicho with much more?

[merse btpir]

When Geoff Harrop's involvement with Gaming International was first flagged up on BTPIR around a year ago the board of the football club seemed to be blissfully unaware of it all and yet the chairman revels in the calling of us 'Keyboard Wankers' by Bernard Noble of the TUOSC.

Torquay United were totally unaware of it; as were his then employers Yeovil Town.

Fast forward a few months and the dimwits were beginning to realise the web into which they have been lured and got themselves into a financial entanglement they could not free themselves from.

Who are the wankers now?

[eddyh]

To be fair, if I was the general manager and Nico had blown £850 per week on Shaun bloody Harrad, I wouldn't let him sign anyone else either. If we really have wasted that sort of money then it's just another reason why this manager needs to go. We are a club that needs to get by on a low budget, that is a fact. Let's get a manager in who can do that.
The squad is horribly imbalanced and we are heading for relegation and the death of the club unless something changes quickly.

[tomogull]

I look on this thread with fascination because I was labelled 'obsessive' for consistently pointing out the bleedin' obvious that ~ for whatever reason ~ the management of Kevin Nicholson and Robbie Herrera is not working, and they need to be replaced.

It's easy to pick out a manager who is doing well without taking into account the support he is getting from the Board. You say the Solihull manager is being mentored by Keith Bertschin and the chairman is Trevor Steven. Two experienced ex-professional players who know the game. Who is mentoring Nicho? Probably Gibert the Gull if anyone.

I will also point out the bleedin obvious - TUFC is a shambles behind the scenes. As far as I can see, Nicho isn't getting any support at all - certainly not from General Manager 'Brutus' Harrap. Yes - last Saturday was an utter shambles and it's no good putting the blame on the players as Nicho did after the match. He and Herrara have to carry the can for team selection and use (or mis-use) of substitutes.

And I will still continue to label you 'obsessive' because you never miss an opportunity to stick the knife into Nicholson whenever you get the opportunity.

[brucie]

I think Nicholson can count himself lucky to still be in a job given the circumstances of our defeat on Saturday.

[SenorDingDong]

To be fair, if I was the general manager and Nico had blown £850 per week on Shaun bloody Harrad, I wouldn't let him sign anyone else either. If we really have wasted that sort of money then it's just another reason why this manager needs to go. We are a club that needs to get by on a low budget, that is a fact. Let's get a manager in who can do that.
The squad is horribly imbalanced and we are heading for relegation and the death of the club unless something changes quickly.

Well that's always been the problem with Nicho and one half of why many people including myself never wanted him appointed. He was totally inexperienced and more pertinently he didn't and still doesn't have a decent network of contacts. His recruitment basically consists of ex-team mates, youth players that upper league teams will throw at him - and he then doesn't play, and random players thrown this way by ex United players. Fitzpatrick has been the only decent loan player he has acquired. Despite playing in the Conference South, he seemingly has found no hidden gems down there (...and there are some, there's no denying that).

This is why at the time he was appointed, despite his sterling community work since, many of us said an upwardly mobile tested manager from the lower end of the Conference/National South-North should have been appointed. Someone with loads of contacts, who knows rough diamonds in the lower leagues, who knows how to operate on a wafer thin budget. There is a whole smattering of this type of manager in the three National League divisions.

Instead we got Nicho (despite the very same mistake being made with Hargreaves and putting us in this situation) and his lack of contacts results in issues like signing Harrad for £825 a week despite Harrad, at best, being more of an aging link-up striker in this latter part of his career, as our supposed solution to lacking a decent partner for Williams. Harrad is not going to put himself about and scare defenders, nor score a whole lot of goals. At least one plus point is that he's finally woken up and began playing Williams, who is regularly scoring and could have gained us a few more points had Nicholson actually played him for the first half of the season but we can't rely on Williams alone, especially when he's very much of a luxury player.

[Gloomy Gull]

Well that's always been the problem with Nicho and one half of why many people including myself never wanted him appointed. He was totally inexperienced and more pertinently he didn't and still doesn't have a decent network of contacts. His recruitment basically consists of ex-team mates, youth players that upper league teams will throw at him - and he then doesn't play, and random players thrown this way by ex United players. Fitzpatrick has been the only decent loan player he has acquired. Despite playing in the Conference South, he seemingly has found no hidden gems down there (...and there are some, there's no denying that).

This is why at the time he was appointed, despite his sterling community work since, many of us said an upwardly mobile tested manager from the lower end of the Conference/National South-North should have been appointed. Someone with loads of contacts, who knows rough diamonds in the lower leagues, who knows how to operate on a wafer thin budget. There is a whole smattering of this type of manager in the three National League divisions.

Instead we got Nicho (despite the very same mistake being made with Hargreaves and putting us in this situation) and his lack of contacts results in issues like signing Harrad for £825 a week despite Harrad, at best, being more of a link-up striker in this latter part of his career, as our supposed solution to lacking a decent partner for Williams. At least one plus point is that he's finally woken up and began playing Williams, who is regularly scoring and could have gained us a few more points had Nicholson actually played him for the first half of the season.

Bloody .

All very valid points and I was with you at the start regarding Nicholson's appointment but, sadly, without an injection of cash (and probably a fairly substantial amount to buy Nicholson out of his mate's contract) we are hamstrung and rapidly descending into relegation. It's a shame there is no system that allows managers to be "loaned" during a season !

[portugull]

If we are relegated, and I still think we will somehow survive, it will be because Ipswich Town suddenly decided 5 minutes before we signed Kieffer Moore that they wanted him. Unbelievably bad luck because he would make all the difference.

[merse btpir]

And I will still continue to label you 'obsessive' because you never miss an opportunity to stick the knife into Nicholson whenever you get the opportunity.

That's your (somewhat obsessive itself) point of view; it's a free speech forum and a growing number of contributors seem to making the same points; are they obsessive too?

[kevgull]

If we are relegated, and I still think we will somehow survive, it will be because Ipswich Town suddenly decided 5 minutes before we signed Kieffer Moore that they wanted him. Unbelievably bad luck because he would make all the difference.

Hi Portugal, think of our demise as a 500 piece relegation jigsaw puzzle.

Kieffer might just one of those pieces. The few pieces left,might soon be laid and the completed picture will be there for us all to see and ponder over.

[bixieupnorth]

what about geoff, what exactly does he do??

[lucy6lucy]

what about geoff, what exactly does he do??

It would appear to earn twice as much as the manager and tell him we don't need a striker as we have enough firepower.