Where have all the Thorn lover's gone (4 Viewers)

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Pompey's admin was totally deserved so I don't buy people saying that some how means the other clubs 'didn't deserve' to stay up through running themselves better. We threw away nearly 30 points from in front last season (in fact may have been more)-does a team totally out of its depth do that? If the team was that bad it'd be getting tonked every week regardless of the manager.

Click to expand...

I never said their admin was undeserved.

Donny didn't get tanked every game.

There were a lot of things AT did wrong, but, who's to say other managers wouldn't make similar mistakes? We dropped many points from winning positions, that was bad, a ridiculous amount in the last 15m, I blame the fitness on AT, I feel, he felt we didn't need fitness as we'd pass our way to victory. No point dwelling on last year, we're in L1 and IMO, relegation was a blessing in disguise, as we had t rebuild and get rid of 'deadwood' which we have (Clingan etc.) and we've brought in some good players, championship quality.

IMO, if we got promoted, I think a CB, LB, RM/LM and maybe a back up striker to do ok in the Championship*

To me, selling Juke killed any chance of survival.

*if we keep Bailey and McG. If we got promoted, I'd like to see Blair signed permanently, can't see him breaking into their 1st team.

SkyBlue_Taylor said:

Wasn't you an AT defender until recently? I rest my case.

Hindsight is brilliant, I don't think many managers would've wanted to manage us last season, this yea we were more attractive to manage in a way A) great L1 squad B) great rep if you do well with CCFC this season (revival etc.)

Click to expand...

I still feel AT should have been given a chance, i was making your point

Oh and I do like robins as well, last time i checked that is allowed

SkyBlue_Taylor said:

I never said their admin was undeserved.

Donny didn't get tanked every game.

There were a lot of things AT did wrong, but, who's to say other managers wouldn't make similar mistakes? We dropped many points from winning positions, that was bad, a ridiculous amount in the last 15m, I blame the fitness on AT, I feel, he felt we didn't need fitness as we'd pass our way to victory. No point dwelling on last year, we're in L1 and IMO, relegation was a blessing in disguise, as we had t rebuild and get rid of 'deadwood' which we have (Clingan etc.) and we've brought in some good players, championship quality.

IMO, if we got promoted, I think a CB, LB, RM/LM and maybe a back up striker to do ok in the Championship*

To me, selling Juke killed any chance of survival.

*if we keep Bailey and McG. If we got promoted, I'd like to see Blair signed permanently, can't see him breaking into their 1st team.

Click to expand...

Would we have surrendered 30 points under a manager who wasn't so darn clueless? Unlikely. Agree that the point is moot now but also fair to make-that muppet and the failure to dismiss him got us relegated and also has seriously dented our chances of getting back up.

dongonzalos said:

I still feel AT should have been given a chance, i was making your point

Click to expand...

I was relieved when he was sacked tbh, I thought he should've got sacked at the end of the season, when he was staying on I gave him chance, and I was frustrated to see us drop 3 straight leads, and only play well for periods, team was 'gelling' as they say, but it wasn't good enough.

The board acted decisively and I appreciate that, they also brought in the right man, I don't believe he was 2nd choice IMO, people forget this decisions and only concentrate on the bad e.g. rent issues etc. I thought, if it meant getting the right man (which it has so far) waiting those 5 games was worth it! Shaw should've done a LOT better, at least a couple of draws, a win or 2. But waiting for MR was worth it.

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Pompey's admin was totally deserved so I don't buy people saying that some how means the other clubs 'didn't deserve' to stay up through running themselves better. We threw away nearly 30 points from in front last season (in fact may have been more)-does a team totally out of its depth do that? If the team was that bad it'd be getting tonked every week regardless of the manager.

Click to expand...

Our major problem last year was our inability to score, we scored less than anyone else in the league and averaged less than a goal per game. Although we threw away a lot of leads a lot of that was down to our inability to score the crucial second goal to kill off a game. Overall defensively we weren't too bad, 6 teams conceded more than us.

I believe a proper manager would have improved us but I'm not convinced Robins would have kept us up, mainly due to the fact that I don't think Deleui would have backed him in the transfer market. We may have managed to survive until the final game of the season though rather than being relegated with a couple of games to go.

Our strikers apart from Juke were very poor - Eastwood and Platt are now plying their trade in League Two, Cody and ROD can't get n our side now we're in league one and Nimely is festering in Man City reserves.

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Would we have surrendered 30 points under a manager who wasn't so darn clueless? Unlikely. Agree that the point is moot now but also fair to make-that muppet and the failure to dismiss him got us relegated and also has seriously dented our chances of getting back up.

Click to expand...

I would label him a failure - for sure.

I feel Shaw made a massive dent in our hopes of promotion as the effects of that regime made it difficult for MR to start with, hence his post match comments v Carlisle. I feel the draws v Yeovil and Sheff U weren't too bad, Yeovil got off to a flyer, and Sheff U are favourites (I feel we're better than them tbh, they don't have a good enough striker ) to win the league, however, Bury was embarrassing and I feel that, rightly was the straw that broke the canals back as that was 3 draws, from 3 winning positions!

stupot07 said:

Our major problem last year was our inability to score, we scored less than anyone else in the league and averaged less than a goal per game. Although we threw away a lot of leads a lot of that was down to our inability to score the crucial second goal to kill off a game. Overall defensively we weren't too bad, 6 teams conceded more than us.

I believe a proper manager would have improved us but I'm not convinced Robins would have kept us up, mainly due to the fact that I don't think Deleui would have backed him in the transfer market. We may have managed to survive until the final game of the season though rather than being relegated with a couple of games to go.

Our strikers apart from Juke were very poor - Eastwood and Platt are now plying their trade in League Two, Cody and ROD can't get n our side now we're in league one and Nimely is festering in Man City reserves.

Click to expand...

Good, disciplined teams can hold on to tight leads though Stu-but even then, they don't set up in damage limitation mode every week. Doing that coupled with a part-time fitness coach it is no wonder we folded so regularly late on. Agree that some of the players were especially poor and that backing was minimal-but I'd still argue that a better manager would've secured Champs status. Would they have kept it this season as well? Don't think so.

No torch robins is a proven manager,thorn was a cheap option,it must of been great for sisu when clapping seals like you were comparing him to sillett so they could give him the job.

SkyBlue_Taylor said:

I would label him a failure - for sure.

I feel Shaw made a massive dent in our hopes of promotion as the effects of that regime made it difficult for MR to start with, hence his post match comments v Carlisle. I feel the draws v Yeovil and Sheff U weren't too bad, Yeovil got off to a flyer, and Sheff U are favourites (I feel we're better than them tbh, they don't have a good enough striker ) to win the league, however, Bury was embarrassing and I feel that, rightly was the straw that broke the canals back as that was 3 draws, from 3 winning positions!

Click to expand...

A lot of people made a lot out of those 3 games-a futile exercise really as teams are still getting into their swing at that point. Shaw I don't think should be judged too harshly-the man who brought him to the club was sacked within barely any time of him arriving and he was handed a caretaker role he wasn't suited for.

Can't we all just move on

At the end of the day, he probably should have been sacked last Christmas after the awful start. He wasn't and he was kept on, we then started to build a build a bit of momentum at least at home and in the second half of the season were doing ok until the Bristol game. So any sacking in the second half of the season like late Ferbruary/early March would have done more disruption than good at the time.

Then again he should have been sacked in the summer but again he wasn't and he was supported with 9 new signings, so then to sack him after 3 games was odd. It was a major cock up to back a manager they clearly didn't have confidence in

A lot of the criticism was justified but also a lot was unfair and I also didn't agree with a lot of the snide remarks, yea ok I accept some people did make bizarre statements about how he will come and save us from relegation this year again but this is coming from the poster who believes King should play for England and wants the club to go out of business so I would take any of his comments with a pinch of salt

Lets all just be happy we are winning games at the moment shall we

All the Thorn lovers will never come on here with anything sensible, he was ridiculous as a manager and all the people who were giving stick to the likes of me well over a year ago at his confirmed inability to manage have tried to back pedal.

I said it over a year ago he will never make a manager above non league ( yes go on check my posts). i think the reason that this keeps coming back was the blind foolishness of some on here ( akin to Hitler in his final days of being in the bunker) that THorn was thee man and he was our saviour which those who saw he was completely and utterly out of his depth can understand ( no doubt the same people that play Football manager and think it is very real)

AT was a cheers easy Sky Blues lets have some money and ' ILL BE YA MANAGER' and fair play to him he must have had a fair bit of cash out of it, he was good at that.

He will never ever be a manager.................................... good scout though ?

I wasn't comparing him to Sillett. Never have. And I think you will find that most fans wanted him appointed. Oh, apart from wise old you, of course.

valiant15 said:

No torch robins is a proven manager,thorn was a cheap option,it must of been great for sisu when clapping seals like you were comparing him to sillett so they could give him the job.

Click to expand...

Brighton Sky Blue said:

Good, disciplined teams can hold on to tight leads though Stu-but even then, they don't set up in damage limitation mode every week. Doing that coupled with a part-time fitness coach it is no wonder we folded so regularly late on. Agree that some of the players were especially poor and that backing was minimal-but I'd still argue that a better manager would've secured Champs status. Would they have kept it this season as well? Don't think so.

Click to expand...

I know what your saying Brighton and this is no defense of Thorn, he should have gone at the end of last season but I don't think we had the players to play that disciplined way, not with such inexperienced players as Christie, Thomas, and bigi playing first team football for the first time, as well as hussey, gardner, nimely and Norwood.

Robins has done amazing with this squad compared to what it was, however as people keep pointing out this is one of the top 3 highest wage bills so should be playing at this level. Last season we had one of the lowest wages bills in the championship, it will be interesting to see how low it actually was when the next lot of accounts come out.

stupot07 said:

I know what your saying Brighton and this is no defense of Thorn, he should have gone at the end of last season but I don't think we had the players to play that disciplined way, not with such inexperienced players as Christie, Thomas, and bigi playing first team football for the first time, as well as hussey, gardner, nimely and Norwood.

Robins has done amazing with this squad compared to what it was, however as people keep pointing out this is one of the top 3 highest wage bills so should be playing at this level. Last season we had one of the lowest wages bills in the championship, it will be interesting to see how low it actually was when the next lot of accounts come out.

Click to expand...

That's a fair point Stu-I think Dulieu definitely should be shouldering the blame for what happened in the summer of 2011. I'm definitely not saying a new manager would've had us anything above the bottom half-it would still have been a difficult ask, but I'm confident we'd have stayed up with a (not even that much) better man in charge.

Brighton Sky Blue said:

A lot of people made a lot out of those 3 games-a futile exercise really as teams are still getting into their swing at that point. Shaw I don't think should be judged too harshly-the man who brought him to the club was sacked within barely any time of him arriving and he was handed a caretaker role he wasn't suited for.

Click to expand...

The fact remains, he lost 3 winnable games, 4th v Tranmere I wasn't surprised to lose. I thought his squad selection was a sick joke. Kilbane LM!? Brown on the pitch!? Elliott? Losing 4-1 to Shrewesbury... More out of his depth than Thorn, when he moved from the diamond to 4-4-2 was it for me.

SkyBlue_Taylor said:

The fact remains, he lost 3 winnable games, 4th v Tranmere I wasn't surprised to lose. I thought his squad selection was a sick joke. Kilbane LM!? Brown on the pitch!? Elliott? Losing 4-1 to Shrewesbury... More out of his depth than Thorn, when he moved from the diamond to 4-4-2 was it for me.

Click to expand...

He was never brought in to manage though, SBT. The club's dallying over an appointment was probably just as big a contributing factor as it was pretty clear that Shaw was never really in serious contention.