• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

Speakman gone


Ferryhill Exile said:
Bloke on Wise Men Say podcast really doesn’t seem too fond of him :lol:
Would love to know what that’s all about.

I’ve been one of KS’s biggest critics at times but it honestly sounds personal with this fella.
Click to expand...
They've always been the same, constantly sniping at the way he talks. Hes made them look like total mugs tbh. They kicked right off wanting alex Neil to have full control and sack Speakman.
 
CostadelRoker said:
I don’t think people realise how much of coup it was in a promoted side getting Ghisolfi… said at the time, he was the most important signing we made after promotion.

No way could Speakman have attracted or dealt with the agents of the players we signed to convince them to join a newly promoted side.
Click to expand...

That’s why I think “follow Sunderland” after promotion just can’t be done.
Ferryhill Exile said:
Bloke on Wise Men Say podcast really doesn’t seem too fond of him :lol:
Would love to know what that’s all about.

I’ve been one of KS’s biggest critics at times but it honestly sounds personal with this fella.
Click to expand...

It’s already started to happen on this thread about Ghisolfi
 
Last edited:
Wearside4eva said:
I’ve had a bad feeling for a few weeks now that things aren’t ok behind the scenes at the club. The feel good factor seems to be slipping away at present?
Click to expand...
The username checks out in line with the content of this post - thick as mince

Stick to Facebook m8
Guinness Guzzler said:
I don't think there's anything in the "immediate effect" bit tbh. January window is done so the focus will obviously turn to planning for the summer. He's seen out the majority of what he'd do in 25/26 so there's no point agreeing a long notice period or anything. The club don't need it because they've got Ghisolfi in already, speakman doesn't need it because he wouldn't have much to do. So likely made sense to pay him off so he can leave now and the immediate effect bit is just making sure there's no ambiguity. He's stepped away now, Ghisolfi will be doing all the summer planning, so players and agents can be confident when approached that there aren't any conflicting interests. When Ghisolfi came in they likely always hoped to have this season with the two of them as a smooth transition and now, with January done and survival virtually assured, it's a good time to part ways
Click to expand...
Far too sensible and measured post!
 
Last edited:
Provider said:
I'll get taken apart for this I know but IMO he gets far too much credit for where we are now.

He came in and made some good signings early on, Pritchard, Hume, Clarke, Stewart etc but overall his business in the transfer market was very very questionable. Despite claims of a "data driven approach" it was instead lots of punts on young, inexperienced players, refusing to budge from that when it was clear we needed experience. After signing Dan Ballard permanently we went about 18 months hardly signing a player who positively impacted the first team. We're still saddled with a number of the sub standard players he signed who wouldn't even be good enough if we were still in the Championship.

There were two transfer windows when Mowbray was crying out for strikers and he responds with Geldhart, Ekwah and Anderson and then Hemir, Burstow, Ruysn and Mayenda.

Despite claims of implementing a philosophy of style of play throughout the club and lists of the next potential Head Coach, he bounced around from Lee Johnson to Alex Neil to Tony Mowbray to Michael Beale. Coaches who have very little similarities. It cumulated in the Mike Dodds debacle where I'm convinced it was an audition for the permanent job and we ended up with either the worst or second worst form in 2024.

Let's not forget that in that close season there was a poll on here where over 90% of voters wanted him out.

This followed with the shambolic managerial search in the summer of 2024 where we were seemingly turned down by our top 4/5 targets and if you read between the lines it seems like KLD has stepped in and found us RLB (via the same agent who managed many of the players at the time and French journalist Julien Laurens saying on 5Live that Reggie is only here because of Kyril).

This was the turning point as Reggie was the main reason for us going up last season IMO, immediately coming in and taking virtually the same squad of players to the top of the league and at the same time.

The summer of 2024 also saw a change in KLD's mindset to give more control to the Head Coach as we saw players such as Isidor and later on Le Fee coming in who have strong links to RLB and he was also free to not play some of the punts who he didn't think was good enough. IMO this was down to Speakman's performance the previous year.

It's no coincidence to me that as soon as we got promotion to the Premier League, KLD got a new man in and phased Speakman out in just over 6 months.
Click to expand...
I slightly disagree with the first sentence, he was integral you cant deny that(regardless of the demands of beyond the scene) which became apparent at the actions at Borussia Dortmund recently. I cant equally disagree with your latter paragraphs. It's just ruthless I know, but it's the same ruthlessness' that finds us on the beach in early February, and I won't lie, every Mackem would have bit your hand off for such a scenario in August.
 
ivanthereasonable said:
Bollocks. We earned what we got.

Where was the luck ?

I understand you being reluctant to credit an individual too much, but we weren't lucky beat Coventry at their place.

Tommy Watson and Myenda scored two wonderful goals.
Click to expand...

You tell me that it wouldn't have been easy for us to lose to Sheffield? We were nearly 2 down.

That final was the toss of a coin!

I still say he did an amazing job but his legacy has resulted in two Premier league starters a huge number of players who will make a profit on but championship quality at best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top