Is it 'collective blame' or some other scapegoat? (1 Viewer)

This division with them gone .

Three reasons for our demise;

Lack of investment - Blame SISU
Lack of tactical nous at certain points this season - Blame Harrison & Thorn
Lack of commitment/performances on the pitch/wanting to play for the club - Blame certain players (Bell/Clingan/McSheffrey/Eastwood/McPake/ROD/Baker etc)

How you divide this blame amongst these 3 groups is down to your own perceptions of the season........

The main problem we have had this season is that our season only really started at Christmas and that for me is all 3 of LLB points!!!

What's that now 27 points in 20 games ???

Our relegation will reflect the level of investment or lack thereof in our squad. Disputes over the manager is nothing but a sideshow.

Even the smallest level of investment could have saved us. Take ALF for example... SISU could have stumped up that little bit extra to give us a fully fit goalscorer...

A total disregard for our playing squad by the owners is why we are going down. It really is that simple.

I am not convinced it is a blessing in disguise based on our history of acheivement but can see your point on this and perhaps it may be a catalyst for something to happen in terms of a takeover and a re-build ground up.

As for who is to blame....

Fans - Not enough interest in football anymore in this town good or bad. Attending home matches is too quiet for me and if I had the time I would go to all the away games instead. We should make the ground a fortress and people should take pride in why they are at the home matches and sing to create a fun atmosphere win, lose or draw that we can enjoy. It used to be about this for me at HR but sadly that is no more.

Owners - These guys need to just leave now but we know thats not going to happen just yet. Their investement and saving us is one thing but the loss of such key players vs the loss in revenue we could face in L2 is not comparible. These people have a lot to answer for and their niaeviety in running a football club is a massive part of our predicament.

Manager(s) - Too many managers, players out of position, formations, long ball .....fuck me its like we have tried everything here.

Players - Lost form of many, bad attitude of some, lack of mental toughness of the highest order not seen since WGS took us on the road.

The only person that's not to blame at the moment is Jim the gateman.

It appears that we have nearly baked the TESCO FINEST "Football cake of underacheivement" and have over the years managed to perfect the ingredients.

21 points in 19 league games in 2012.

whichever way you look at it, we average just under 1 point a game...and to expect 3 wins in 3....or 7 points from the last 3 games is, in my opinion, just asking too much from this set of players...and tactics employed.

No width/pace/natural goalscorer.

I like Alex Nimely...pace is needed in this division...but as a striker, 1 goal in 15 starts and 1 sub appearance just isn't good enough....and that goal came in his first game.....

Was hasn't Thorn started him out wide and McSheffrey down the middle...or at least tried this??

That's the lack of tactical nous I am referring to. AT has had a difficult role, no doubt, but he (and Harrison) must shoulder some of the blame.

Added to which, what gives anyone the impression that our owners will give us a decent squad to go forward with next season?

When Keogh and anyone worth buying is gone will our squad really be good enough to come straight back up?

It just feels like déjà vu hearing this. Relegation from the Premiership all over again.

GinettasStickySofa said:

Our relegation will reflect the level of investment or lack thereof in our squad. Disputes over the manager is nothing but a sideshow.

Even the smallest level of investment could have saved us. Take ALF for example... SISU could have stumped up that little bit extra to give us a fully fit goalscorer...

A total disregard for our playing squad by the owners is why we are going down. It really is that simple.

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ALF chose Reading over us....we paid Norwich as much for McDonald as Reading did for ALF.

GinettasStickySofa said:

Added to which, what gives anyone the impression that our owners will give us a decent squad to go forward with next season?

When Keogh and anyone worth buying is gone will our squad really be good enough to come straight back up?

It just feels like déjà vu hearing this. Relegation from the Premiership all over again.

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Could not agree more. Those expecting an immediate return will, I'm afraid be very dissapionted

Tonylinc said:

Could not agree more. Those expecting an immediate return will, I'm afraid be very dissapionted

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Will be? You don't actually know what's going to happen - we could be taken over and all is good, we could drift into oblivion or somewhere in between. Fucks sake at least confirm our relegation before we start the "oh god we're doomed" bullshit...

It's a forum....a place for discussion....a place to speculate....a place to give views/opinions.....sorry that you don't want to hear folk's opinions. In that case, just ignore certain threads...unless you agree with them, it seems.....

Sky Blue Sheepy said:

Will be? You don't actually know what's going to happen - we could be taken over and all is good, we could drift into oblivion or somewhere in between. Fucks sake at least confirm our relegation before we start the "oh god we're doomed" bullshit...

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True - we don't know it will not be 100 degrees tomorrow, we don't know Sky Blue Sheepy will not be the first to land on Mars - but on the balance of probability we can take a pretty good guess.

I agree, KD.

I look at what I have seen, and make my judgements from there.....however, some are more optimistic...fair play to them, but you also need to look at stats when you make your judgements...and ours are known to all.

Last week, our hope was Bristol losing today and us getting a win....or at least a point...well that hasn't happened today, so IMO the likelihood of getting out of this mess is less likely tonight than it was after the Bristol game....

My main problem (like today ) we don't go for it when we are in a position to do so!!! Thorn makes 3 changes at once ( all like for like) yes I no what happened next with Christie was unfortunate but why didn't we just try something different?? I no we have a limited squad but some times trying something different could get u 3 points! All season thorn has been the same no rash changes to tactics to win a game!! That's why we are in our current position !!

Burnley were there for the taking.

I'd swap them for Southampton on the last day.......who wouldn't?!

LeamingtonBootBoy said:

Burnley were there for the taking.

I'd swap them for Southampton on the last day.......who wouldn't?!

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Sky Blue Sheepy

LeamingtonBootBoy said:

ALF chose Reading over us....we paid Norwich as much for McDonald as Reading did for ALF.

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No - reading signed ALF on the 27th April, we could not sign anyone until we sold first, hence why we sold Turner and bought Cody on the same day (31st Aug). Had we had the money when we first made an enquiry at the beginning of August we'd have probably landed him.

Sky Blue Sheepy said:

Will be? You don't actually know what's going to happen - we could be taken over and all is good, we could drift into oblivion or somewhere in between. Fucks sake at least confirm our relegation before we start the "oh god we're doomed" bullshit...

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I did not say we are doomed. We are simply finding our natural position in the modern era of football. The days of Coventry City in the top flight have gone.

So why were we in the chase for him, if we didn't have the money?

Also, the Turner money was not received in full straight away...nor was the McDonald fee paid in full straight away.

I don't see how 3/4 days would make any difference to the deal......

Lord_Nampil said:

The main problem we have had this season is that our season only really started at Christmas and that for me is all 3 of LLB points!!!

What's that now 27 points in 20 games ???

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We lost the spine of the team over the summer and it took us 3 months to readjust.

Were heading the same way as Bradford City. There fans were with them in the prem and then gave up as they gradually declined. Unfortunately we will go down this season and it breaks my heart to say it but i just cant see us ever coming back up. More fans will not bother going and we will just slump and struggle in league 1. Im gutted, i love this club!!

LeamingtonBootBoy said:

So why were we in the chase for him, if we didn't have the money?

Also, the Turner money was not received in full straight away...nor was the McDonald fee paid in full straight away.

I don't see how 3/4 days would make any difference to the deal......

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Didn't the Rotherham chairman said he thought our owners were just trying to be seen that they were doing something?

We made an enquiry on the 2nd Aug:-

http://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/sport/89932/coventry-eye-le-fondre.aspx

The chairman stated that they turned down a derisory 'joke' offer 2 weeks or so before this article on the 24th Aug :-

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/co...ays-rotherham-united-chairman-92746-29293722/

And why would we need to sell before buying? Would you buy a house before getting the mortgage approved? The turner deal guaranteed the payments that we're due and when, this then allowed us to determine what payments we would make for Cody.

Had we put and had an offer accepted before selling Turner, and the Turner deal had fallen through then that could have caused the club a massive cash flow problem.

So we were after him....

Relegation is part of Football. If the club is well run we won't be down long.

Just take the warning from the Sheffield Clubs (and Portsmouth) spend significantly beyond your means and you will be relegated eventually. Maybe it is worth it if you get a bit of glory on the way (like Portsmouth's cup win), but be prepared for the inevitable.

By the way, if Bristol stay up they will almost certainly drop next year, they have big debts.

Jack Griffin said:

If the club is well run we won't be down long.

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And here lies the issue....:facepalm:

LeamingtonBootBoy said:

I like Alex Nimely...pace is needed in this division...but as a striker, 1 goal in 15 starts and 1 sub appearance just isn't good enough....and that goal came in his first game.....

Was hasn't Thorn started him out wide and McSheffrey down the middle...or at least tried this??

That's the lack of tactical nous I am referring to. AT has had a difficult role, no doubt, but he (and Harrison) must shoulder some of the blame.

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'Boro fans said Nimely was rubbish out wide. I love how you crticise AT for "lacking tactical nous", then talk about how he should play people out of position. You know there's only one smiley for that..:facepalm:

Lord_Nampil said:

My main problem (like today ) we don't go for it when we are in a position to do so!!! Thorn makes 3 changes at once ( all like for like) yes I no what happened next with Christie was unfortunate but why didn't we just try something different?? I no we have a limited squad but some times trying something different could get u 3 points! All season thorn has been the same no rash changes to tactics to win a game!! That's why we are in our current position !!

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When he makes changes you notice it but there again don't notice it :thinking about:

Yesterdays game was the most one sided game where I have seen us on top for a very long time. Burnley had one decent chance. It fell to a striker who knows where the back of the net is. Goal. Simple as that. We were still on top when AT made the subs. We were on top until we went down to 10 players. We had plenty of chances. None as good as Burnleys though. The subs came on. One of them scored. We were still looking good.

Who do I blame for our predicament? How far back am I allowed to go? It is not all down to SISU, but we have not been run well since they took over. Some say lack of investment. Lack of investment is not selling players and not replacing them. Lack of investment is standing still. I wish we stood still with the squad from last season. The younger players AT brought through to get us through this season could have been introduced slowly, not played too much before they were ready. How many people thought these players should have come straight in and performed well every game against seasoned pro's?

AT was at fault at the start of the season for his inexperience. Our younger players were at fault at the start of the season because of their inexperience. SISU were at fault all season for leaving us with such a poor squad.

We now have lost only 1 in the last 9. That game was lost because of the lack of depth in our squad. The reason we could well go down is the first half of the season. I am very happy with the way we are playing. We have a manager I now have faith in. We still have SISU though. What sort of squad will they leave us with for next season whatever division we are in?

So why do SISU keep selling our players or not retaining our better players? These players are on the most money. We need not to make big losses. Our income is down because the gates are down. The stay away fans have part of why SISU keep getting rid of our players. Why do the fans stay away? Recession? A little I would say, but they have had enough of the poor squad and poor results. Less money coming in = sell more players. Sell more players = more fans stay away.

List of reasons in order of impact

SISU
Inexperienced players
Inexperienced manager
Stay away fans reducing income.

Where do we go from here? Lets see what division we are in next season. We are not down. It is not going to be easy to stay up as it is out of our hands, but you can't say we are down as a fact. Saying it as a fact is an idiots call. We do not look good at the moment though. I still have faith as we are playing well considering who AT has to choose from. Then see who we are left with for next season. I can see us having to bring in more young players in next season to replace the ones we lose again.

Lord_Nampil said:

My main problem (like today ) we don't go for it when we are in a position to do so!!!

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One more. So you were not at the game then. But you are making comments as if you were. If we didn't go for the win yesterday then we never will. We went for the win from the start. The only time we were not the best side was when we went down to 10 men. What do you mean by going for it?

You must not have a clue what went on in the match yesterday or you are on the windup

A lot o blame should be shouldered by previous regimes. If they hadn't spent money on players we didnt have then we would be in a much more healthy financial state

SISU, the players and AT have also played their part along with fans who don't bother to turn up anymore.

Probably to appease the fans.

ALF was never going to come here. Reading were always going to get him.

LeamingtonBootBoy said:

So why were we in the chase for him, if we didn't have the money?

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Our possible drop to league 1 has been quite visible for the last 10+ years unfortunately. We've always struggled with money and keeping good players and have had a lot of managers and have never had great investment and when that has come it's not always been spent wisely which for a club always running on the limits shows up quite a lot.
I for one am not blaming AT, remember this is his first managers job. If i was asked to do it I would've said yes straight away but have no idea and would of no doubt relegated us a long while back :/ He had his "good league 1 squad" depleted early on and ended up with a very poor club, kind of obvious we'll then face a difficult season. He's trying to change things in games at the same time as not doing something where we get pulverised, just like poor old Doncaster yesterday.

Problems trickle down from above and as we all know Sisu have no idea about running a football club (I'm sure they regret it now, not a good way to make money) and managers have always had problems with the owners and yes, it's difficult when we don't get an average gate of 25,000 and a bit of extra success on the pitch as the money goes out quicker than it comes in.

We need new owners and to re-structure, have no hopes/plans to come up right away and just work on stability; that's one thing we've never had

torchomatic said:

Probably to appease the fans.

ALF was never going to come here. Reading were always going to get him.

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So how come we then signed Cody McDonald a few days/weeks later????

torchomatic said:

A lot o blame should be shouldered by previous regimes. If they hadn't spent money on players we didnt have then we would be in a much more healthy financial state

.

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Agreed.

Step forward Mr Joseph Reginald Elliott to shed some light on mismanagement by previous regimes....before he becomes a pivotal player in a future one.....:thinking about: