I think his job is on the line. And if we lose both games this week he will definitely be gone by Sunday.
5 Likes
Fascinating. And youâre far fromn the only one, @Midlander. Iâve spoken to fans at the last two matches who were clearly of that view.
After Doddsâs interview, does he deserve the term bedwetter?
1 Like
Well he left us to go get QPR relegated and is now a manager in div 2 so thatâs that .
1 Like
Youâll need to refer to the expert @ericplant
Given Queens Park Rangers were last relegated in 2013, accusations youâre trolling are going to be increasingly difficult to refute.
4 Likes
It was tiresome enough reading your anti Ainsworth rhetoric on facebook, we donât need it on here as well.
6 Likes
Ainsworth did an amazing job with us through passion, commitment drive and personality but was that his level ,ie. League 1 and League 2. When he went to QPR , was it step to far, where you need more tactical nouse , ability to handle more elite athletes with big egos etc. Not surprised heâs doing well at Gillingham.
3 Likes
He very nearly kept us up
3 Likes
In fairness to him Rob Couhig spent about ÂŁ2.50 and waited 10 games to do it. GA may well have kept us up but for that.
1 Like
Not that the management group havenât made some bad decisions, but hiring Mike Dodds, whose one big skill seems to be improving young players over time, and firing him 5 games after a summer of huge overhaul, would be an insanely strange thing to do.
4 Likes
Mike Dodds barmy army
If that really is Mike Dodds key skill, then the problem with that would be the hiring not the firing. His job isnât to be part of the academy or to develop young prospects, itâs to win football matches.
2 Likes
For us, yes. However, if that was all the current ownership group cared about then they wouldnât have been so keen for Bloomfield to leave.
I think, as long as weâre not making tits of ourselves, the owners will be fine with League 1 whilst the coach improves players which then in turn move us up the league.
Now, this is based on just a simple hunch, as why would you hire Dodds, an extremely well rated youth development coach, but has never been a proper head coach before, if you wanted instant success?
But, maybe starting the season like this with a dreadful keeper passing error going viral, is making us look tittish enough
I think he wouldâve been hired because he wouldâve talked up his man-management skills, liberally dropping in the word Bellingham, talked about his favoured style being control at the back and fast progression through the thirds through technically gifted players, and suggested he was part of a fresh generation of data-driven coaches coming through, rather than through the traditional route of ex players with preconceived ideas.
I can imagine that all sounded attractive to Dan Rice and the panel, who had previously been burnt with at least one coach pulling out after being offered the job. They may have decided there wasnât enough time for much due diligence, not least talking to those up in Sunderland who might have been more balanced in their assessment of his skill set.
Itâs all moot. Dan Rice has the budget and the trigger finger to dispatch Mike quickly if he judges him not to be getting value from the investments the club has made on players. Iâm relatively confident he and Tom Stockwell will have spent part of the summer assessing what other young coaches are around should they need to pull that trigger with Mike - those also wedded to data, youth development, playing attractive football - but perhaps with more leadership and communications skills.
3 Likes
I think the âNo right back debacleâ against Stockport may have concerned TOG, as much as it bemused fans and players alike.
And is he likely to come up with another tactical catastrophe ?
He just comes across as a player developer and not some one who has the managerial nous to accumulate points, let alone do it whilst entertaining the supporters.
1 Like
Donât forget he managed to make Kone worse.
2 Likes
I think the tactical switch did make Kone worse, but his form was also massively impacted by injury and transfer talk
1 Like
Graham Potter will be available in a few weeks.
This is the question, indeed. Why would you hire a youth coach whoâs only experience of first team management was to take a side comfortably in the top half of their division almost to relegation while failing to score in well over half their games?
That was the question most people were asking when he was appointed.
1 Like