I think you get the point I was making…but if people want to fill the thread with individual examples of past signings I should have had prior knowledge of I am willing to respond to them all.
Yes, I had heard of Gareth Ainsworth.
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There’s supposedly rules to stop that kind of stuff. I think some of the charges against Man City involve that kind of shenanigans. But of course, if you’re rich enough to have the best lawyers, you can probably get away with it.
You are probably not wrong but I think it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest that’s all it is .
So quickly the horse had bolted.
The riddler .
I think I there’s some truth in this. But there are some counter points.
Firstly, Gaz absolutely excelled in this area so it probably isn’t an entirely fair comparison. I think you’re absolutely right that Gaz was probably better able to motivate players to do the running through brick walls stuff. But, as you rightly say, there are a lot of things that make a good manager and MD doesn’t necessarily need to have that exact same level of motivational skill to get a tune out of the team.
Secondly, I think Gaz’s ability to motivate was partly a reflection of the recruitment and budget. We had limited funds and deliberately recruited players based on attitude as much as ability. That meant we had a squad who probably knew they were punching above their weight and were receptive to the idea that they’d need to scrap for every ball and work harder than other teams to bridge the gap. If you recruit a group of players with a higher ability ceiling I think that’s much harder to do. A player like Matt Bloomfield, for example, will have known he wasn’t at the same ability level as many players in his position in Lg1 or the Championship, but that he could make up for it through work rate and determination (which he did brilliantly). But it did contribute to him picking up lots of injuries along the way. If you’re capable of playing at a higher level (as we hope many of the new young players are) you’re less inclined to throw yourself into challenges that carry a high injury risk.
Thirdly, young players often benefit from a calm head more than a motivator. It isn’t always the case, but I think most young players are naturally motivated by the need to carve out a career for themselves. They can benefit from a calming influence - someone like Cillian Phillips probably needed to be told to do a bit less sprinting around chasing hopeless balls and work instead on thinking more clearly about how he could contribute to the team most effectively.
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Some reasoned points here I think . Lets not get into a mind set where we think we have a team of fairies though . I didn’t really see a lack of steel angainst Bradford , more a lack of nouce in the first half . This will natrually improve as the team starts to gel . I think tenchnically gifted players can also play with tenacity . Maybe I missed it but I didn’t really see players holding back or lacking in work rate . There were no bone crunching tackles of a Scowenesque nature . Is this what Dodds means by steel ?
Valid points although I would say the last few games of last season we seemed to get bullied off the ball too many times and this isn’t what we’re used to watching Wycombe. That said I am giving MD the benefit and am coming at this season with a clean slate, am hoping for promotion like I do every season. I do however want to see more “steel” ie not seeing us getting physically bettered when going in for headers and 50/50 balls.
Open mind and looking forward to seeing us get a little revenge on Stockport Saturday for the 1-3 we saw at AP in May of this year. COYB.
Many of us here on the forum are of a certain age and probably grew up in the ‘tough love’ school of motivation. So this style appeals.
Whilst no Brian Clough or John Sitton , Gaz was a bridge back to that era so could drive players to perform above and beyond - which again appeals to us oldies.
That doesn’t chime with the current, post covid, generation of young players. They know their own minds, are not intimidated by ‘authority’ , so responding best to a communication amongst equals model.
Doddy is probably best equipped to nurture this environment.
It’s not our world anymore and we would do well to acknowledge that and try to adapt.
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The above re coach Doddy vs old skool management was probably more of a ‘message to self’ than an admonition of any fellow posters.
But they were different times. Had lunch with an old school chum recently who reminded me of an incident I had completely forgotten, it was of so little consequence and every day.
For anyone who attended John Hampden back in the day the name Alan ‘Rocky’ Bisset PE mater and chief school ‘enforcer’ will still evoke an ice chill of memory. True to his moniker a rock hard ex Army PT a perfectly balanced little Welsh man - chip on both shoulders- he was terrifying.
One day in assembly (remember when schools had those!) my mate was called out to the front of the school by Rocky and made the ‘school boy error’ of attempting to enter into a debate with him over appropriate hair length. Rocky cut the ‘discussion’ short by grabbing the lad by the hair and bashing his head against the edge of the stage and telling him to get out of his sight!
No further action ensued. Different times. Try explaining that to your grandchildren.
ps: “kids don’t know they are born” said the Boomer filling his day posting on a fan site😏
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This was about the figure my Leicester insider contact mentioned to me yesterday…. Much less than some of the figures we’ve seen talked about which was why I omitted it.
I reckon some business going on with Leicester hence why the Swansea bids were rejected.
I’ll take Vardy and a few £m for Kone…
(The Vardy comment is a joke btw, but I do wonder if there is some horse trading going on with them).
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3m up front suddenly seems paltry doesn’t it.
But those adds on will have to be fairly attainable and no doubt a big sell on clause.
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If that’s the figure he ends up going for, I’m happy to be the first to say “I wish we’d accepted the £7m from Luton last year. Given the way the second half of the season panned out, we lost £4m for almost no return”.
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Trying to not read much into it, but Gmac and Kone put some cryptic social media posts out this week - and Gmac isn’t shy of those!
If you have a 10% sell on clause and he is sold for £60m in three years time then £3m plus this is not too bad at all.
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I believe there was no £7m offer from Luton - the £7m was once you added up all the add ons.
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