grifty

19 years  6th April 2005.

38 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

How do you know he was very cheap.

I doubt the loan of a £1.5 million recruit was VERY cheap.

Sorry, cheaper than buying him was I meant.

5 minutes ago, numbeast said:

But what does it tell us about our recruitment team? We have wasted money on someone who very rarely played. It doesn’t fill me with optimism for the upcoming window. If we are to get an upgrade in the form of a striker the continent is where the best value will be found, but do we have any scouting there at all?

I be happy to be proved wrong, but they need to do better than Medube. With the football season over bring on the rumours of silly season.

It shows our recruitment team took a gamble on a loan signing, which would have been very cheap, on a Scottish under 21 International that came through the Man City ranks. "skilful forward with blistering pace", Mebude is renowned for his goalscoring ability, and was named (Man City) academy player's player of the year for the 2021–22 season".

I think that would be enough to be interested to see if he's any good. He's obviously not showed enough in training to warranty many/any appearances so we'll send him back to Belgium now.

They are doing better than Medube - Knight & Dickie for starters, probably our 2 best/most consistent player this year.

If you expect every signing to be perfect, you are going to be very disappointed.

4 hours ago, spudski said:

What's worth considering is how many players are leaving, and how long it took on the grass to get his methods ingrained. 

During that period we dropped many points. We have also had an easier run of games recently.

Any new players will have to go through the same process, and there is always a chance they won't be a good fit. 

In that period, we are likely to repeat dropping points.

To get any chance of top 6 we have to hit the ground running. 

To be fair Manning came in and had to ingrain his methodologies and play style onto players signed for Pearsons style.

Its understandable that can take a number of matches/training to click.

The players we sign in the summer should be fits for Mannings style so while still may take a little bedding in to get used to team mates etc I would expect them to be ready quicker.

20 hours ago, Ziderarmy said:

Did he win? 

I can’t remember if I’m honest, this was a good 8 years ago

I used to sit next to a lad at work who was addicted to gambling.

I once saw him apply for a £1k Wonga loan at 10am and put it all on a women’s handball match in the Nigerian second division!

6 minutes ago, Selred said:

This would worry me. Under Pearson I'm confident 80% of our signings would of been good. Under Manning, not so sure.

Mebude, never plays.

TGH, signed but doesn't feature as much now.

Twine, expensive to remain mid table.

I understand. You could say Mebude was a loan to view if he's any good. He's not, so nothing lost. TGH was signed on loan under Pearson no? He's been injured a bit and Knight Williams/James has been in form so no need to break them up but provides good competition/cover at worst.

Twine is another loan to see if he's good enough. If he really enjoys his loan that could knock a few grand a week off any wages demands. Fee yes would be expensive.

It will be an interesting summer with regards to transfer targets!

25 minutes ago, Selred said:

Overall under Manning are we going in the right direction? Taking in his full period, no. Are we pretty static? Yes.

I think this is a fair point.

I wasn't much of a fan of Pearson post sorting out the terrible situation he was in when joining where he did fantastic to steady the ship and begin rebuilding. I found his interviews a bit boring and there was just something about the way he spoke to people I wasn't keen on. Manning as a different interview technique but is equally as boring!

I think Pearson should have been given more time and support and in terms of the football being played, we've gone from a counter attack at pace team to a probe the opposition until there is space team. Personally I prefer the second style of football.

Ultimately the change from Pearson to Manning hasn't changed results and we've had a sort of change in playing style.

If however, SL, JL, BT, etc didn't get on with Pearson for whatever reason, surely they would have been less inclined to financially support him with players, etc whereas if they like & support Manning they will give him what he wants/needs ala LJ? This last bit isn't in anything in relation to what you said @Selred just my lunchtime ramblings!

7 hours ago, pillred said:

I'm just saying, I before E except after C ( well that's what I was taught: laugh:).

There is a science to that rule...

I wasn't a fan of Max but over the last 10 games or so he massively improved in the areas I thought he was lacking in to the point it was detrimental to us.

He takes much more time with his kicking from at least 10 a game going out of play to only 1 if that.

There seems to be a bit more cohesion with the centre backs pulling wide, centre mid dropping deep and wing backs staying wide meaning he's got 5/6 options. Because of those options the opposition don't press him and he can take his time to focus on a good connection and direction.

Great improvement.

25 minutes ago, phantom said:

As much as I hate those magic letters VAR, they must see the play acting in what they are watching

Time to give the powers to bring action against those who play act

The best thing would be to project the footage onto the giant screen to humiliate them at the time, otherwise it can easily be shared after the game to explain why they have been punished

I think part of the problem is that the replays VAR use and then if an on-field check is made are always in super slow motion where everything looks like a foul or contact.

18 minutes ago, The Original OTIB said:

See other posts about players. Nothing more to say from me. Not sure why you somewhat randomly pluck QPR to make your case but there you go. All hypothetical in any case. All opinions of one sort or another.

Because you said lower championship, probably lower relegation so I chose QPR as they fit that. 

5 hours ago, The Original OTIB said:

On what basis? Where would you place them then?

Rangers got the Round of 16 in the Europa League last year losing out to an odd goal to Benfica.

You reckon QPR would have done the same?

3 hours ago, mozo said:

So a guaranteed mystery injury to keep Bird out of the first half of the season...

Don't forget all the posters who has said Bird wants to backtrack out of the deal and the deal is going to be cancelled.

My thoughts are a ‘clever’ player like Twine will need longer to get on the same wave length as the players around him.

We’ve seen a few misplaced passes and a collision with Tommy, so he’s got 8/9 games to show some promise.

35 minutes ago, Crackers Corner said:

I disagree earlier in the season his kicking was a liability, as @Silvio Dantesaid his decision making wasn't great either. We seem to have a solid option in max now that I personally didn't see earlier in the season. His distribution is way better than it was. And as you mention not perfect it's no worse than most of the rest of the championship keepers.

He seems to be being ‘safer’ with his kicking and taking a bit more time for the longer balls to the wings (Pring or Tanner/McCrorie).

I think it also helps having a settled centre back pairing who are both comfortable on the ball and always looking for it. They seem to split wide which then allows James to come short so Max has plenty of options now.

13 hours ago, The Original OTIB said:

For balance, why not start one laying out in detail why he should not be sacked. Just a thought.

Why should I start a topic for something I don’t agree with?

It's about time someone started a thread to discuss whether Manning should be sacked or not.

I'm amazed no-one has started one before!

1 minute ago, BS3 Ark at Ee said:

They used Cotts to get them promoted then the second he questioned the board he was gone(when they were interfering in transfer negotiations) and Lee Johnson a championship novice coach brought in. Pearson was brought in to sort out our financial mess and use the Academy players on a limited budget. Once he sorted out the mess and started to question the people above him he was suddenly sacked and another novice championship coach brought in! 

Ah ok, that's a different message to your original one, but this I agree with.

11 hours ago, BS3 Ark at Ee said:

When it comes to football they like managers who speak their language….complete nonsense! Straight talking guys like Cotterill and Pearson who tell it how it is and don’t suck up to the hierarchy don’t last long! 

That just isn't true?

Cotts was in charge for 3 years 1 month

Nige was in charge for 2 years 8 months

LJ was in charge for 4 years 5 months

LM (so far) has been in charge for 4 months.

Straight talking guys like Cotterill and Pearson who tell it how it is and don't suck up to the hierarchy have been in charge for 5 years 9 months where as LJ & LM have been in charge for 4 years 9 months.

LM needs to be in charge for another year for the board to give these types of managers exactly the same amount of time.

49 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Think Tanners back but the point stands. These next 9 games aren’t exactly a free hit because of how poor we’ve been overall under Liam, but I think the worst of all worlds would be not treating it as an “extended pre season” and doing things like giving players such as JKL minutes.

I’d imagine fans would be far more forgiving of a poor result/performance if it happened when “experimenting” as opposed to ploughing the furrow we are at the moment.

No they won't.

 No-one should be immune from criticism, but everyone should be immune from personal insults and jibes. Unfortunately there’s a few on here who can only do the latter.

5 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Imagine if we appointed a manager who had never managed before. OTIB meltdown!

and given him 5 years to get his style implemented...

Bump to the top to give it some more attention. 

Referees been good at letting the game play and not falling for Swindon’s diving.