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Troj has made a good point here - even though he may have made it with tongue in cheek.

Irrespective of who the manager is after Saturday, the club needs to take a long hard look at itself to ascertain why this season was so poor and to put measures in place to prevent a similar situation from happening again next season.

This has been debated over and over I know, but what was the catalyst for the start of our poor form? Was it Lingy's illness? Was it caused by the board not giving Martin funds to strengthen the team? Or is there something else that's been going on behind closed doors?

Steve

Southampton Gull wrote:
He has a contract so there isn't much the Club can do about it other than welcome him back. As for it being his team well yes it is but he identified that it wasn't strong enough but wasn't allowed to bring in the targets he wanted. Knill came in and was afforded that luxury.

Martin Lings record of bringing in players is very good. Sure people can throw in exceptions but even Fergie has bought a few lemons in his time, Taibi anyone?

Olejnik, Saah, Downes, Howe, even Jarvis a player condemned by many previously has shown he does have ability at this level. Bodin splits opinion but is a junior international and will prove his detractors wrong. Add Cruise and Leadbitter and it's obvious he has an eye for talent. Give the guy a chance to tweak the squad and see how things progress. He has already shown that he can succeed at this level if given the tools.

I'm not really debating about the qualities or otherwise of Martin Ling. It is a shame that he went ill but I just think that because he is - rightly or wrongly - tainted by this season and the style of football his teams play, keeping Martin Ling is not going to get people rushing out to renew their season tickets; it's not going to encourage more people to watch (in fact the opposite) and it will take only one or two games before people really turn as so many just do not want him back. Whatever we think of his qualities as a manager, it just is not going to work because he is set up to fail. It is not like a new manager coming in. It's the return of one that lots of people wanted to see the back of anyway, so he will be returning to more negativity then he left. I can't see that this will help his recovery either.

As for his contract - every manager who gets the sack has a contract.

hector wrote: As for his contract - every manager who gets the sack has a contract.

You make some fair points, but you can only sack a manager within the terms of the contract. This will not include being off sick for a few months. I suspect the Board are between a rock and a hard place, balancing out the contract, the law, the interests of the club and fans and the need to be fair to Martin. I don't envy them this one.

This is getting boring now, as I said before he will be back next week

supergulls wrote:This is getting boring now, as I said before he will be back next week

What you mean is, he told you he will be back next week.

Maybe the club have other ideas?

The comments in the Herald certainly don't point to a simple return of Lingy.

im praying every night for it not to be true

What you mean is, he told you he will be back next week.

Maybe the club have other ideas?

The comments in the Herald certainly don't point to a simple return of Lingy.[/quote]

I was the one that started this thread, I can guarentee Martin will be back next week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22294041
Whether he remains in post for the long haul is another matter but he will be back.

supergulls wrote: I was the one that started this thread, I can guarentee Martin will be back next week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22294041
Whether he remains in post for the long haul is another matter but he will be back.

So in other words, he's coming in next week to discuss things with the club and not necessarily to resume his duties as you implied?

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in the same camp as Matt where Martin is concerned but I'm not sure the situation is a clear cut as your earlier posts indicated.

Ok !!

If I tell you it's Friday the 26th April 2013 tomorrow will you believe me ?

Trojan 67 I strongly disagree that all aspects of it need to be forensically examined. It has been far from a normal season by any stretch of the imagination. I don't believe the situation we find ourselves in is a fair reflection of the state of the club or the team.
One problem we had early on was the amount of 85mins+ goals we were conceding, it would be interesting to know how many points we lost because of this. However, this was still post February and still post Lingy's absence, still within touching distance of playoffs. Then came Lingy's absence.
Did Taylor make the right decisions and utilise the squad during those ten traumatic games?... no. Did the club make the right choice by appointing Knill?... yes.
If you take a look across the whole season, the team and squad has generally stayed the same. Some may argue Lingy was restricted with regards to bringing players in, however, the performance I watched at Morecambe on Saturday (despite the win) was a far cry from the confident displays away at Barnet (despite the loss) and Wimbledon earlier on in the season.
I doubt, though welcomed, the impact of Labadie or Chapel would have been required had Ling had guided us through February and into March. Perhaps the art of leaking late goals would have been tweaked by then.
We know the team we have can compete, we know the club appointed a good manger in Knill. I believe it's been an accumulation of small remediable issues, which has led us to where we are this season, therefore by no means can it justify a forensic examination of all aspects.

You've got Soccerbase and the BBC, work it out for us all and report back, won't take you more than 10 minutes.

We don't need an examination, what caused us problems was Martin leaving, we were doing just fine until then.

Matt.

Well said Matt.

And well said Matt.

Love football.. Love the Gulls.. Love Ling..!!

(No offence intended to Alan Knill who has done an excellent job; would be quite happy to keep Juan if Lingy were not the manager. But he is and that's that.)

Sorry to break up this thread (that doesn't seem to be going anywhere) but I've just read ......
There are 3 football League teams with swear words in there names...
1. Arsenal
2. Scun*ho*pe and
3. Fuc*ing Exeter Sh*t

Made oi larf!