Management options

[Admiral]

I'm a daily reader of the forum but have hardly posted in the last year or so. As much as Nicho can be blamed for what's happened, I genuinely think there are SOME good players in the squad. I blame the Fat Cat in charge of all this - I understand the importance of 'getting it right' but we've just lost 3 games since Nicho's dismissal, 0 from 9, now surely we could have approached this with a bit more urgency with some sort of back-up plan. It seems GI & Harrop have just accepted we won't pick up a point until someone's in charge, now to me that's bad business. I'm just waiting patiently for the 5 year plan, everything will be alright..

[Gloomy Gull]

One of the things that KN spoke about was the experience he had signed. He made a big point in his lament on BBC of how he had persuaded these 'experienced players' to buy into what he wanted to do.

Whether or not people felt these were decent signings or the journeymen they appear to be, does not excuse the role of the manager who recruited them. A big thing was made of 'character first, ability second' so if the character of these players is such that ability has been overlooked, then the meek surrender, in the last three games and also the games Nicholson was in charge, do not really sit well with the hype KN, himself, promoted about this squad.

The one point only came against 9 men and since then it has been dreadful, with Nicholson and without. Is anyone really deluded enough to think that had he remained, the outcomes of the games against Guiesley, Solihull and Woking would have been any different. By all accounts the performance at Guiseley was the best of the season but that is how low we sunk under Nicholson's reign, in even in defeat to park teams, people were starting to take solace. We have had managers in the past who have - in the context of the division they were in - built successful teams on budgets far lower than their counterparts (O'Riordan in 94 and Hodges in 98 spring to mind) and whilst they contained players we couldn't afford now, that was in a division higher.

There was a cult of personality surrounding KN that was largely because of his passion for the club, the extraordinary lengths he went to, to harness positive relationships with the community but nothing to do with his management of the team because had he been anyone else, then fans would have hounded him out of the club during his first season of management.

The nonsense of the constant reference to 'Great Escape Mk1 and Great Escape MK2' in the post-sack interviews, as if these are achievements that rank with play-offs and promotions, is an affront to supporters watching their club dwindle and struggle in the depths of this bloody awful division. Those were self-inflicted. The team dropped like a stone when he first took over from Paul Cox and likewise, last season, the team he built fell into the relegation trap door and surrendered meekly to teams with 10 men, to teams with no goaly and the performances, regardless of the charlatans who own our club, were sackable.

That is a bloody !

Despite all the efforts to deflect any blame from being levied at Nicholson and calls to "get off his back" he is NOT blameless.

"I was the cheap option" .....YOU Nicholson must have presented yourself as the "cheap option", but I presume that you didn't present it as "I am cheap, inexperienced and therefore I am unlikely to be able to provide any success, but remember my Unique Selling Point is I don't cost much" did you? I am sure you bigged up your abilities and helped persuade that the "cheap option" would be able to succeed. I am not blaming you for embellishing your talent at interview and harnessing that to a financial incentive that made you the most attractive option to a Board that had very limited resource, but having persuaded your prospective employer that you could do the job ....you have to be able to do the bloody job or you get sacked for your deficiencies.

Don't whine when you get found out.

If he was so sure of his ability to manage successfully why, when it has been suggested he did not get the budget he was promised/Harrop has interfered with team selection and player recruitment/he was asked to take an amendment to his contract in favour of additional budget, did he not leave? Surely a man with such undoubted management talent and technical skill would have found another position easily at any point in this period...especially if he was prepared to work as a "cheap option"....strange that he "chose" to stay and fight it out at a club that was not fulfilling his expectations.

Whilst the previous and current Boards have not covered themselves in glory during this debacle, the performances on the pitch are Nicholson's fault and he should be a man, shoulder that responsibility and admit he wasn't as good as he believed he was.

All very well saying Herrera is no better - he can only be as good as the dross that Nicholson left him to work with and the tactics that Nicholson was using on the pitch. He cannot be expected to lift and transform a team that has had no direction and is at rock bottom confidence in 2/3 games, especially when he was number 2 to the guy who got us to this point and would have been schooled in the Nicholson style.

As I said at the very start he should never have been given the job, he was never up to it and I will be astonished if he gets any significant footballing managerial position in the foreseeable future.

[arcadia]

There are no excuses for Nicho he had a near decent side at the end of the season which was most probably why he kept his job. He kept the wrong players Williams should have been a priority as after teaming up with Keating was a key player. Goals are important as it takes pressure off of the defense if there was more money in the budget it was wasted. We lost a couple due to location but they were not as important as Williams. If Davis was fit when he sign it's a bit of bad luck but it's not all bad luck. Confidence has got to be restored and the new manager has his work cut out.

We are a complete shambles at the moment as even the CE has no idea what the next move is, who will want the job. Who has the contacts to fill the gaps in the squad?

[SBP]

If anybody thinks that just by bringing in a manger everything is going to be ok are kidding themselves. We are at present about 6 players short. Our present coaching and fitness levels are a disgrace. Any prospective manger interested is going to run a mile if he looks at whats on offer and what they are taking on.
There are so many things wrong at TUFC right through the core of our club.
Want i want to know is exactly what Harrop and Hedges do everyday because i cannot see a positive thing that either of them have done.

[budegull1954]

I was one of those people who were prepared to give GI a certain amount of time to show that they had the best interests of the club at heart. However they have now shown their hand, and what a useless hand it is too. Merse points out that neither Osborne or Rich have been seen at recent matches - a bloody disgrace for owners of our club. There is a superb article in today's Times newspaper, mainly about the awful ownership of Arsenal by Stanley Kroenke (written by the always-readable Henry Winter). But there is a short section about what constitutes good ownership and I quote: 'Good owners listen. Tony Bloom travels with Brighton & Hove Albion fans and was in the away section at Vicarage Road on Saturday, sharing the emotions and thoughts of the faithful. Stoke City's Peter Coates cares. So does Crystal Palace's Steve Parish. Dean Hoyle goes on long cycle rides to raise funds and awareness for Huddersfield Town's life-changing community initiatives, specifically local school breakfast clubs. Hoyle's children work in the club shop during holidays. Huddersfield folk matter to them.' Somehow I don;t think Torquay 'folk' matter in the slightest to Osborne and Rich - hence the deafening silence on the OS. Even good old Dave Thomas doesn't seem to know what the heck is going on.

[Yorkieandy]

Apparently Dazgull has confirmed the new boss is indeed Ronnie Moore. Well at least he did on sunday on THE POOLIE BUNKER the Hartlepool forum.

Spill the beans Daz. Do you know for a fact or do you like making stuff up in your head and misleading others into believing it's fact?

It's one of the two so has Moore got the gig then or what?

It seems our plight is also noticed by the Chesterfield fans up here on their Bobs Board forum. I've been saying for years they are the next Torquay / York and they seem to think so too.

When a club is run with a cancer then it destroys it eventually. As you lot will find out soon enough.

[Jacket8]

Any chance of the new manager being announced anytime soon?

[arrywithanh]

Apparently Dazgull has confirmed the new boss is indeed Ronnie Moore. Well at least he did on sunday on THE POOLIE BUNKER the Hartlepool forum.

Spill the beans Daz. Do you know for a fact or do you like making stuff up in your head and misleading others into believing it's fact?

It's one of the two so has Moore got the gig then or what?

It seems our plight is also noticed by the Chesterfield fans up here on their Bobs Board forum. I've been saying for years they are the next Torquay / York and they seem to think so too.

When a club is run with a cancer then it destroys it eventually. As you lot will find out soon enough.

It will be Ronnie Moore, or at least it was until he watched the two games at the weekend, perhaps scared him off. At least he should demand some money to sort this team out.

[MellowYellow]

There are no excuses for Nicho he had a near decent side at the end of the season which was most probably why he kept his job. He kept the wrong players Williams should have been a priority as after teaming up with Keating was a key player.

Maybe Nicho wanted to keep Williams and others. Were his hand tied? Contracts were put on the table for Williams, Rowe-Turner and the like but on lesser terms than their previous contracts. Was that of Nicho making or Harrops? It certainly was not GI's as they are still looking up the dictionary to find the definition of 'footballer'.

I'm not defending Nicho, if as he says some things were 'naughty' and others just plain 'not fair' then he should have shouted it out loud and clear and walked instead of waiting to be pushed, which he appeared to know was coming.

[westyorkshiregull]

I'm not so sure about if ronnie moore is going to be manager...would he uproot from the north ??? Poss just doing some kind of in house scouting over weekend...

It's all i think to say ...

[arcadia]

Maybe Nicho wanted to keep Williams and others. Were his hand tied? Contracts were put on the table for Williams, Rowe-Turner and the like but on lesser terms than their previous contracts. Was that of Nicho making or Harrops? It certainly was not GI's as they are still looking up the dictionary to find the definition of 'footballer'.

I'm not defending Nicho, if as he says some things were 'naughty' and others just plain 'not fair' then he should have shouted it out loud and clear and walked instead of waiting to be pushed, which he appeared to know was coming.

If Nicho had a bigger budget why would he offer less to his most valuable asset. He seemed to have a problem with him he needed to Mellow.

[arrywithanh]

According to Williams himself, he basically was NEVER offered a contract, in fact he was told at best to expect a reduced offer, no wonder why he f**ked off...

Cheers Nico...

[arrywithanh]

I'm not so sure about if ronnie moore is going to be manager...would he uproot from the north ??? Poss just doing some kind of in house scouting over weekend...

It's all i think to say ...

All I know is that I was informed that the new manager was present in the stands Saturday, although if he watched the same game perhaps he doesn't want the job anymore...

[westyorkshiregull]

To be fair it be a great job for someone to turn around a rot..anyone that can turn around this would be hero...

[wivelgull]

But the whole business is taking rather a long time, isn't it?