I know he's trying, doing his best etc etc but surely it cannot be disputed that the hate-sisu focus has kept him relatively safe from the fans anger ?
Could AT do better with more money? Perhaps. Will he go on to have a glorious career as a manager? Perhaps. But both are irrelevant to where we have been all season.
Would temper this slightly and say the financial sitaution has very much to do with our league position, not everything.
We would struggle whoever was in charge.
Not convinced we would be bottom of the table though. A relegation dogfight, but not bottom of the table and bottom three since October of last year.
Hate SISU focus?
How many SISU out threads has there been lately? How many Thorn out threads lately?
It seems to me that some fans know they can't do anything to get rid of SISU. They want change. What can they change? Managers always get sacked.
AT's motivational skills to me is his best attribute. He was part of the crazy gang. He played in a team that over achieved. We have played well considering how poor and small our squad is. We were favourites with the bookies to go down at the start of the season. About half of our fans thought we would go down this season. We lost our top goalscorer. Still, we have supporters that want him out. He has made mistakes. He is not perfect. We have teams around us with players that would walk into our team. How many of our players would walk into other teams?
I have an admission to make. Anyone remember at the start of the season where I was offering bets on us going down? I have layed a lot of money on betfair on us staying up. If we stay up I collect a decent 4 figure sum. I am sh1tting myself at the moment, but now feel a lot easier with it. Just layed some more :facepalm: We are still favourites to go down. It is us, Doncaster then Portsmouth. Forest come next at 2.08, just over evens. I have just bet on Bristol City to go down. They are 5th favourite to go down. My bets have taken them from 4.8 down to 4.3
Come on City, come on AT
I think this is spot on and something I've mentioned in the past. I do think because fans can't get SiSU out then they switch to an easier target, the manager. And NLHWCs point earlier also rings true for me. There are people on here who I'm convinced want the team to lose so they can use it to beat Thorn with it.
The post match threads after Leeds were interesting. Or should I say the lack of them compared to Black pool and other defeats. What also shocks me is the vitriol and abuse that is thrown at AT by these forum members too. You would think he was manager of another team!
A lot of people forget - conveniently - the context of our results and the circumstances Thorn is working under.
I'd have to disagree Otis. I think with the youth and inexperience we've had to field it's only because of the belief Thorn has instilled in the players that we're still in with a fighting chance.
Some say it couldn't get any worse but I can't understand that. It doesn't bear thinking the number of points we'd be on if their heads had dropped.
Isn't it strange how some of us can see it the way it is and others can't seem to comprehend the situation we are in. As in another manager would having us playing better and scoring more goals when we have a lack of goalscorers. We hopefully now are seeing the difference now we have a striker in Nimely. Not only does it give us more chance to score goals, but helps to hold our opponents back as they know we have a player that wants to run at them. They can't afford to keep just 1 or 2 players back whilst they attack us.
No, don't put words in my mouth. Said a dozen times or more on many threads, if we had another manager we would still be in a relegation dogfight. I have no doubt about that. I am convinced though that we wouldn't have been in the bottom 3 since October and 7 points adrift at the bottom by Christmas.
Yes we're bad, but not that bad.
Most people have accepted that Thorn has made mistakes that have probably cost us points.
There's the answer. No way with this team should we have been 7 or 8 points adrift at the bottom since Christmas. We are not that bad! A relegation team, yes, but a cast adrift at the bottom of the league team, no!
If you think people on here want City to lose so they can have a further go at Thorn and push him out the door then you are truly crazy in the coconut. :facepalm:
:facepalm:
So another manager would have come in, not made mistakes and got us scoring without goalscorers in our squad? Maybe, but maybe not. Would a new manager got us playing better than we have been? Would a new manager have made better subs than AT when we don't have the quality players to bring on?
You think an expereinced manager would have come in faced a team and not done his homework on the opposition to see what tactics they deploy? Seriously?
Not talking about that, I'm talking about Blackpool at home. That was the point when I said to myself this bloke doesn't know what he is doing. He clearly had not done his homework on
the oppostion and whatever way you want to dress that up that was truly, truly shocking.
In all my time of watching the City I have never ever come across anything like it.
Have you ever heard of a manager not studying and finding out how the opposition play before a game? Ever heard of a manager not knowing anything at all about a tactic that the opposition deploy every game and had done for so for many matches before?
As you said on another thread, maybe he's learning from his mistakes. Well i hope that's true. That Blackpool mistake was one of enormous proportions though. The sort of mistake that's not even schoolboy level. It's was unbelievable.
Yes managers make mistakes. Not that sort of mistake though. That shakes the foundations of your thinking as to whether the bloke is capable of doing the job at all.
Stand by my statement Yes, another manager here would still have us in a relegation struggle. Would they have made the same mistakes ... well that Blackpool one for starters, absolutely bloody not!
It just blows out of the water though that no other manager could get better results with this team.
How could the results be much worse?
As has been said til blue in the face, no-one, not one of us predicted just 5 wins out of 30 games before the season, no matter had bad we thought we were going to be. Relegation yes, but not as bad as we have been.
If you are happy that the Blackpool BBC presenter knew how Blackpool were going to play, but our own manager didn't then that's fine.
I'm sorry. I thought getting relegated with 2 teams below us was about as good as it could get. We have 2 teams below us. Portsmouth should be on the same points as us tomorrow. We could be 3 points out of the bottom 3 saturday.
I remember when we had AB as manager. One thing sticks in my mind was the amount of fans saying they would prefer passing football and relegation battle than hoofball. I suppose even AB would have done better than AT with this squad? We have had experienced managers struggle in this division every season except for when Wise dragged us from a relegation battle to 8th almost single handedly. Then we are supposed to believe that another manager would be doing better than AT with easily the worse squad we have had since going down. You say it as a fact. A fact it is not. As I have said, might be better, might be worse.
They also have games in hand over us, I think Doncaster have 2 which could mean 6 points? Once we are all level in games then it will be clearer
I think this is spot on and something I've mentioned in the past. I do think because fans can't get SiSU out then they switch to an easier target, the manager. And NLHWCs point earlier also rings true for me. There are people on here who I'm convinced want the team to lose so they can use it to beat Thorn with it.
The post match threads after Leeds were interesting. Or should I say the lack of them compared to Black pool and other defeats. What also shocks me is the vitriol and abuse that is thrown at AT by these forum members too. You would think he was manager of another team!
A lot of people forget - conveniently - the context of our results and the circumstances Thorn is working under.
Blackpool used the same tactic against us at the Ricoh and that left our fullbacks very exposed particularly Hussey who got absolutely hammered for his performance that day some. It wasnt a new, unknown or even unexpected tactic.
Another manager could do worse could do better - would certainly do it differently in some way or other - we just dont know and have no way of knowing at this moment. Saying no one could do better or that someone will do better is just an opinion not a fact.
AT makes mistakes - we all do. Wanting someone different is just an opinion as is wanting to keep him. Doesnt actually make anyone wrong or right
If you are happy that the Blackpool BBC presenter knew how Blackpool were going to play, but our own manager didn't then that's fine.
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