Speakman



Probably to early to judge.
To turn this football club round after over 60 years of failure is an enormous task and the systems and philosophy he’ll need to put in will take time.
His problem along with all the hierarchy is the short term, namely this season.
If we get off to a bad start and are struggling on the field for a 4th consecutive season in this league them obviously the fans patience is wearing thin and who can blame us.
It’s a question then of can they ride it out and hold their nerve when the shit inevitably hits the fan.
Anyway if we win games and get promoted then Speakman’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.
 
riffraff said:
Didn’t take Smithy, or Reidy or Stokoeey a year. They were managing the bloody team anarl. Time my arse. That’s hoyed in to give them an excuse for failure. We’d still be waiting now for McMenemy to produce if we were stupid enough to fall for the auld time excuse bullshit.
If they can’t start showing a definite improvement within a few weeks they nivver will. End of.
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This.
 
mediaclee said:
Regardless of anything else, I would like to hear an explanation at some point from Speakman/Johnson as to what happened with the ‘list’ - ie, were the key targets unavailable / stupidly prices / over ambitious etc. That particular line fed us all serious belief. Not that it’s particularly failed at all, but it just gave the expectation that it would be quick(er) business as we had already identified the targets, and didn’t need to waste any time on that front.
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I think we'd all like that but the problem could be if we have failed to land key targets because of cost, availability etc. actually spelling that out could demotivate 2nd, 3rd choice the players we have secured
 
You can only judge by where things are right now, and right now you'd have to say he's failing on a number of counts. The fact that the season starts in a fortnight and we've not replaced the players we perfectly correctly got shot of, let alone dramatically improving in any position, is a worry. Doesn't mean he can't turn it around, but if we're purely looking at whether we are currently where we would have intended to be, that clearly isn't the case.
 
I think he talks shite, all this crap about how we had "two lists" depending on what division we were in and here we are, 2 weeks from the season starting with the worst SAFC squad in living memory. We don't even have a full back on the books, it's an embarrassing situation.
 
He was an academy manager who produced 1 very good prospect and a couple of decent prospects .where has he gained the experience to plan a strategy for a club , to develop a playing style , sign players to fit that into that policy and to employ a coach who will follow his plans. There are not many in the UK who have been successful in implementing that policy . His big problem as we all know is time ! The majority of fans don’t have a lot of confidence in Johnson , if things start of badly has he got the temperament to withstand the pressure , Remember how Roy Keane looked in his last few weeks at the club and I would think he has a stronger mentality than Speakman.
 
gipetto said:
Needs time.
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Great if the season is going to be delayed. Less good if it isn’t.

There was an obvious preferred outcome (the establishment of a squad of sufficient quality and quantity*) and an equally obvious deadline (a couple of weeks ahead of the beginning of the new season to permit new signings to bed in)

*I would have thought 80%-85% of the final squad would be assembled by this point. So allowing for the reality that up to 2-3 players might be brought in between the now and the closing of the transfer window, he is probably just about ‘on schedule’
 
I'm not convinced with any of the hierarchy yet. Speakman hasn't delivered anything tangible and I've seen very little in terms of evolution in the clubs modus operandi. In fact, I'm concerned about the lack of change and the continued presence of the hangers on.

How much of that is down to Speakman I'm not sure, but I'm not taken in by articulate blokes in expensive suits promising trendy new strategies any more.
 
DannyFTM said:
Would be nice if things moved faster but so many of his predecessors would have flapped and gave Power, Wyke, Scowen etc more money to stay ... the decisions on the retained list gave me the confidence to be quite relaxed on this transfer window, I think we will have a strong squad when the window shuts.
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I'm wanting you to be right on this one mate..... Something had to change
 
TradingPlaces said:
I think he talks shite, all this crap about how we had "two lists" depending on what division we were in and here we are, 2 weeks from the season starting with the worst SAFC squad in living memory. We don't even have a full back on the books, it's an embarrassing situation.
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Perhaps the targets we're after takes a bit more time than just snapping them all up within 5 minutes. The business can only really be judged once the window is closed. There's absolutely nothing to suggest we didn't have targets based on our division.
TexasMackem said:
I'm not convinced with any of the hierarchy yet. Speakman hasn't delivered anything tangible and I've seen very little in terms of evolution in the clubs modus operandi. In fact, I'm concerned about the lack of change and the continued presence of the hangers on.

How much of that is down to Speakman I'm not sure, but I'm not taken in by articulate blokes in expensive suits promising trendy new strategies any more.
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Which hangers on?
 
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TradingPlaces said:
I think he talks shite, all this crap about how we had "two lists" depending on what division we were in and here we are, 2 weeks from the season starting with the worst SAFC squad in living memory. We don't even have a full back on the books, it's an embarrassing situation.
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Having spent 110 of his 242 senior appearances playing for us, and therefore at RB barring 6 or 7, I think the club view Luke Onion as a full back.
 

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