Can we put the pitch-forks away now?


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Oh, so is there a clause in Defoes contract that says he can only play 20 mins per match? Or are you implying that one of the most professional and hard working players in our recent history won’t be able to ever regain match fitness again?

I mean it seems like you’ve now conceded that they both play the same position, so it must be one of the above two ideas that means you think he can’t play as our striker if Stewart gets injured.
Well I dont believe Defoe can play 90mins as our main striker if you're asking the question.
 
Speakman has done an awful job we have a completely unbalanced squad look further away from promotion than ever. Until KLD comes out and says what involvement the previous owners in my opinion still involved owners have to do with the day to day running of the club. I have zero trust in him never answers any questions. There are hard questions that need to be answered!
No you’re putting words in my mouth. Somebody said he didn’t get a backup for Stewart, I asked what position they thought Defoe was signed to play in.
Be lucky to get 20 minute cameos out of Defoe we have no back up if Rosco goes down injured or as at the moment just needing a rest so the club failed to bring a back up or another centre half despite letting one go on deadline day.
 
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Now or ever again?
Now and possibly not this season. There was a reason Rangers only played him for 9mins this season and only had 2 starts since Dec 20. Which goes back to your original post about Speakman not identifying match fit players to come in and hit the ground running.
Also perhaps selling a centre back on deadline day and not replacing him.....His actions and those of the scouting team have directly impacted the fortunes of the team over the last 4-5 weeks. Add in the youth players we've been relying on are knackered and more senior players picking up knocks it's been an absolute shit show to muck up the position we were challenging for auto promotion.
 
Please elaborate, gip. Speakman is neither manager of the team nor is he on the pitch? Contingencies have actualized potential weaknesses, but it could be argued that had we been a bit luckier with injuries, we wouldn't have been as stretched as we've been for a while. We've simply been unlucky. Being in L1, with a decent but still limited budget, forces one to make tough choices and take risks in recruiting new players.

I’ve found excuses for the club since the day we dropped into this division.
5 years in this division will be scandalous in terms of the resource the owners have had. Total failure, where the club has been dragged down to the owners level. Started by Donald and Methven, whilst the strategy has since improved
enormously it will still be failure to miss promotion and no excuse. Two players is all it would have took. We are the Man City of this league and should have our pick of the best players. Fair play rules or not we have the biggest revenue by a mile.
How many players will we have in the league one team of the season? I would say 2. It should be at least 4.
This is why Speakman is being held accountable.Hes hidden behind the manager whilst doing value for money transfer dealings. There is a place for that but when it came to the crunch we had to buy relatively big to ensure we got promoted. He had to buy another top striker and centre half of the calibre of Stewart and Pritchard, that’s all it would have took to walk the league.
 
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Although it is "never the fans fault", there is one lesson we can learn here.

In previous visits to Wembley, we partied in Trafalgar Square the night before, and were largely muted with bad heads on the day.

If we get to Wembley, could we ease off the night before, give it the full-throated support on the day, and paint Trafalgar Square red and white after we've won ?

Pssst...it’s not us who have to play the next day.
 
I've been as frustrated as anyone else lately with the departure of Johnson, the team's form and the prospect of another season in this division. I do think with the new manager and with rumours of additional investment, it is now the right time to park any frustrations until the summer and get behind the team in the meantime. We can still do something this season.
 
This place has been a pure lynch-mob for weeks now, it’s horrible to read and enough is enough already.

The way everyone has turned on Speakman and KLD so quickly is crazy.

Speakman is human, humans make mistakes. Much in the same way Jermaine Defoe won’t score with every shot he takes, Speakman won’t get every move he makes right either.

Overall I’d say he’s done a good job here. Under his stewardship we have swapped McFadzeon for Cirkin, Pritchard for Maguire, Stewart for Wyke, we got a replacement for Burge which I didn’t personally think was necessary but each to their own, the new signing Clark looks class and Matete looks decent. In fact almost every player we have signed seems to be an improvement on the player they have replaced. The club seems to have a structure now with a good scouting networks, and on the whole the football has been a lot more enjoyable to watch than under Jurassic Parkinson and Jack Ross.

Alright he’s fucked up letting too many defenders go at once, and something has definitely happened behind the scenes with Lee Johnson being sacked. But be honest now, were any of you that are calling for Speakman head now, not calling for Johnson’s head before he was sacked?

I kind of understood it when peoples knives were out for Stewart, but wanting KLD and Speakman out baffles me.

I just think we need to move away from the toxic atmosphere and try to support our team. Mistakes have happened, that’s life, dust yourself off and go again.

Anyway, come at me bed-wetters :lol:

Unless we're top of the league and winning every week, sadly the pitchforks are always out for some.
 
Unless we're top of the league and winning every week, sadly the pitchforks are always out for some.
Absolute horseshit 💩
We've never been top and winning every week since we've been in this league (4seasons)
There's hardly been a pitchfork in sight.
What there has been is record attendances and incredible backing for a club that is under achieving.

So you can stick your pitchforks where the sun don't shine.
 
No because i didn’t see it. I’ve had a million notifications tonight so I’ve no doubt missed some peoples responses.

I disagree that in most organisations one bad day would cause for the CEO to lose their job.

And the implication that we sign players solely on data is not true. From day one they have maintained that data allows them to cast the net wide and look at more players, it allows them to narrow down the search and focus on players of interest, but that they then they look at the human criteria such as leadership and personality before making a decision. So I disagree, it’s not “cold hard facts” it’s conjecture at best. that or lies.

Lots of people are jumping on the bet wetter comment, I thought it was pretty obvious that I used that tongue in cheek. My original point is that I don’t feel it’s right to constantly search to scapegoat one singular person. It hasn’t worked well for us over the last decade as we have been in continual decline and I stand by my original postin that regard.

I’m upset that we are losing and the manner in which we are losing. I think everyone is and everyone has every right to be. I don’t think we should constantly looking for a new head on a pike though, it does nobody any good.

What an absolute bullshit response. From this response alone you’ve made it clear, you have no basis for your “arguments” and simply wanted to go on the wind up, or bury your head in the sand and be an Uber fan for likes.

You’ve picked up on 2 half points made. Did I say he should have been sacked? Nope, however the point was if a business had there worst performing day in there history, there’d rightly be huge questions and heads could role.

It was a huge contributing factor to us sacking Johnson. So that shows the magnitude of it. FACT. Are you telling me after a performance like that and a season like this his boss doesn’t also need to be questioned? Bullshit of course he does.

None of what I said is conjecture, again it’s fact. Where is the leadership from the data that allows us to see out games when it gets tough, where is the heart and leadership when we are losing games 6-0, 5-1, 4-0 etc.

For what we may have gained in technical ability and overall performance on the pitch, we’ve lost that fight and have a squad that is short in numbers in key areas. We lack so much that’s needed in this league.

If we put last seasons team against the team that played Bolton, I honestly don’t know who would win. Granted our current squad is better technically and on paper, but does it have the mental capacity and nous in this league. The way Chris Macguire tore through, for me showed it doesn’t and I wouldn’t be confident.
Absolute horseshit 💩
We've never been top and winning every week since we've been in this league (4seasons)
There's hardly been a pitchfork in sight.
What there has been is record attendances and incredible backing for a club that is under achieving.

So you can stick your pitchforks where the sun don't shine.

Absolutely 100% bang on. As a club we should be competing for autos. The fans turn up in numbers and don’t expect to be pissing the league, it’s an absolute myth.

However being embarrassed as much as we have this year, not knowing who owns what in the club, and spending 5 years in league one, while not looking likely for promotion. Is 100% cause for questions.
 
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This place has been a pure lynch-mob for weeks now, it’s horrible to read and enough is enough already.

The way everyone has turned on Speakman and KLD so quickly is crazy.

Speakman is human, humans make mistakes. Much in the same way Jermaine Defoe won’t score with every shot he takes, Speakman won’t get every move he makes right either.

Overall I’d say he’s done a good job here. Under his stewardship we have swapped McFadzeon for Cirkin, Pritchard for Maguire, Stewart for Wyke, we got a replacement for Burge which I didn’t personally think was necessary but each to their own, the new signing Clark looks class and Matete looks decent. In fact almost every player we have signed seems to be an improvement on the player they have replaced. The club seems to have a structure now with a good scouting networks, and on the whole the football has been a lot more enjoyable to watch than under Jurassic Parkinson and Jack Ross.

Alright he’s fucked up letting too many defenders go at once, and something has definitely happened behind the scenes with Lee Johnson being sacked. But be honest now, were any of you that are calling for Speakman head now, not calling for Johnson’s head before he was sacked?

I kind of understood it when peoples knives were out for Stewart, but wanting KLD and Speakman out baffles me.

I just think we need to move away from the toxic atmosphere and try to support our team. Mistakes have happened, that’s life, dust yourself off and go again.

Anyway, come at me bed-wetters :lol:
Yes- let’s ban free-speech and say only happy things! I don’t want to hear anyone so much as sigh if we go behind again this season. We must accept everything the club serves up for our own good; we are the luckiest fans alive.
 
Ah it’s the fans fault we’re staring at a fifth season in league one straight in the face. The fans fault it took so long to appoint a manager that was already out of work whilst getting beat off Doncaster and Cheltenham the leagues whipping boys. There’s nothing wrong with demanding better than we are currently getting, nothing at all. Accepting mediocrity is part of the reason we are in league 1.
 
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Not everyone is going to agree.
Many of you have seen the highs and the lows and everything in between. You all know how big your club is. The fanbase is still exceptional and begs for a better overall stance in the higher echelons of the leagues.

Being in league one is not acceptable to most, if not all but it's where you are at this present time and it's no surprise the owners are going to take some stick for that remaining to be so.
Patience only wears so thin before it disintegrates and becomes more toxic.

The biggest problem is accepting where you are now as a club because once you do that it basically sucks the life out of your club in terms of ever thinking on the bigger scale again.

Your owners came in promising a rise up and back to where your club belongs, basically. They didn't take over to tell you they would have you battling for league one playoff's and the odd sniff at reaching for the league one title for a while, so it's only natural you expect your club to rise back to at least to be a force in the championship before re-gearing up for an assault to get back to where you really belong.

Your owners need to make sure they do everything in their power to make it happen but do it responsibly. Let's hope this is the turnaround that edges you forward but, like I said, if you accept run of the mill you'll keep getting it so there's no issue with letting your hierarchy know that you demand better from them for the reward of your continued support.
 
No, until we look like getting promotion the pitchforks will be out for everyone and understandably so.
I guess the logical question to ask is if as you say we have replaced half the squad with better why are we in a worse position than last season?
Football isn’t an individual game and we have a horrendously unbalanced squad in lots of different ways that’s on the sporting director seemingly.
 
No, until we look like getting promotion the pitchforks will be out for everyone and understandably so.
I guess the logical question to ask is if as you say we have replaced half the squad with better why are we in a worse position than last season?
Football isn’t an individual game and we have a horrendously unbalanced squad in lots of different ways that’s on the sporting director seemingly.

I have actually been making the same point since the summer about the squad balance, but not many listened to me then. So I agree that it’s incredibly frustrating.

However, I look at your first sentence and I can’t help but feel the likes of MK Dons, Wycombe and Plymouth will be licking their lips at such a prospect. The fans have made their point this month, it sounds as if the board are listening and I think it’s critical we reserve judgement for now, and give Alex Neil our full support. We can revisit in the summer if progress hasn’t been made.
 
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