We have the money. I cannot understand all the negativity around its development. Who knows we may discover our equivalent of the class of 92.
Buying players for next season (who were clearly nowhere near good enough now) was my favourite, laughable.
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The Couhigs obviously wanted out, for whatever readon. Profit or just thinking Reading was the next best option. I’m guessing they tried shopping around, and sold the club on the ability to build an academy to the new owner. Maybe for the benefit of Kazakh football and his own political aims ( rich people in the former ussr have political aims).
The question will be, will the reasons a very rich Georgian with Kazakh links be more beneficial to the club than if someone else brought the club.
I fear, we had limited options after the Couhigs decided to give up the gig.
Time and again we have been told that development of the Academy is the priority. Getting promotion (at the moment) would not be of benefit to the Owners. It is much easier to “blood” young players in a mid/upper table League 1 side. Any young player would have to be exceptional to get minutes at Championship level so I think they would not want to go up until the Academy is up and running successfully, perhaps in five years time. This is why we have not appointed a proper manager/head coach.
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Has anyone in the club said getting promotion is not a priority? Im sure i’ve read them say its the aim.
I find the Sunderland links interesting, as thdy do have a mix of academy players, plus some good youngsters. That was their ongoing focus, and its worked out alright.
This is a peculiar one. I’m absolutely baffled by why a successful businessman like Lomtadze has massively overspent on Wycombe - no wonder Couhig snapped his hand off at £12 million for a loss making football club with no tangible assets and ground and training ground owned by others. That in itself suggests it is a toy to play with, money no object.
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I think of all the criticism laid at Dodds’s door, this is the least impressive. Would you have played Skura instead of Bradley, Taylor or Low? Would you have played Pattenden instead of Grimmer (or Fred in a back five)? Or indeed Fin Back, who looked superior in his one proper appearance. If he had and we’d still missed out on autos he’d have been castigated for a naive belief in youth. They’re both talented players but both would’ve benefitted from loans elsewhere in Jan. The fact they weren’t can’t be laid at Dodds’s door either.
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Scura was never going to play much after Anders and Sonny signed and then Caleb was allowed to return. That’s competition and life. He’s a decent young player but not seen anything to suggest he’s better than those who played (Can’t really comment on Anders). I think with Jack playing CB at times in a 3, our poor attacking return and the number of fixtures though Jasper and or Back could have played more if fit.
You’ve interpreted it as a criticism of Mike Dodds. I’m looking at it as a strategic failing. Specifically recruitment. Sonny Bradley was signed whilst Matt Bloomfield was still in charge, as a replacement for the recalled Caleb Taylor, who presumably wasn’t expected to return.
January 2025 will go down in history of the football club when its own throat was cut by those determining the strategy.
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I’m not even so concerned about the points.
My issue with Dodds’ record is that we’d score 40-41 goals a season with us failing to score in 19 of those games.
How are you going to get the town excited about the club and want to come to matches if that’s what you’re offering?
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That’s up to Mike to work out over the Summer and hopefully have a solution in place for next season.
I believe Managers should be given a chance to learn & grow.
I do not wish us to sack managers quickly.
Timescale for learning and growing can be different dependent on a number of factors, most importantly I think gut feel can be a huge factor.
My gut feel suggests he is unlikely to be a success BUT crucially my gut feel is not yet backed up by enough empirical evidence to turn me towards him being relieved of his duties now.
I suspect come the end of August, I will have a lot more certainty.
I agree, we need to score more goals and the back 5 doesn’t help with that. However, he has showed in the two games against Charlton that he is willing to move away from a back 5. When MB did this, we started scoring goals and winning games. Mike has only really done this against Stockport and Charlton.
I believe if we play 4-2-3-1 against the bottom half, we may well win more games and see more goals. However, without a crystal ball we need to wait unil August to find out.
I suspect a lot more players will leave and I do hope the attacking ones he brings in are quick and direct. If he brings in technically good players that are slow then we are doomed.
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If it was his first job then absolutely I 100% agree with you. But it’s not. And he’s now done this twice with the same impact - I put in another thread what my Sunderland supporting colleague said about his half season in charge there.
“He wasn’t very good and the football was dire tbh - we wondered at the time if it was arguments between him and Speakman (the Director of Football) - i.e. he was under his orders, but it doesn’t seem so as he’s continued in the same vein at Wycombe.”
This is why I’d like us to cut our losses and not waste this summer - and by definition - another season, because if he gets in the players to play his dirgeball on long contracts it could take years to unpick when we get a manager that wants to entertain in. As it’s clear he’s pathologically against entertaining football with all his comments being about control and not conceding and never directly mentioning our total lack of attacking threat under his leadership.
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I was of this view as well but people should be given the chance to learn and grow. Dodds may go away, reflect on his shortcomings and turn his attention to a more positive mindset and come back with an updated philosophy and beliefs.
Equally, he may not.
If DR pulls the plug now, I definitely wouldn’t be upset as I am not sure he will get there but he deserves a chance to prove us wrong. MB got given that chance by Rob and it looked almost impossible that he would achieve the success he did, so perhaps one transfer window of his own and a pre-season might be to our benefit if we stick with Mike.
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Ordinarily, totally agree. But…
…when he didn’t do that after his Sunderland debacle despite it being just about statistically the worst of any manager they’ve had (No goals, loads conceded and lost almost every game) I have zero faith he’ll reflect and change.
Nothing he’s said in interviews has given the impression that he’s worried about the lack of creativity/goals. He just goes on about being better in possession. Well, what do you mean by that, Mike?
That’s so nebulous it could be he means just never give away possession and hold on for the 0-0 until 85 mins and then hope for a set piece. As that’s what it’s been in the games that he’s been happy with the performances in.
So, unless he’s honest about how dire the football he’s got the team playing is and says directly he’s going to change it I have no faith and I don’t want to waste a summer on him just to inevitably sack him in lower mid-table in November, thus writing 2025/26 off.
After all, what he’s done in both jobs he’s had is take them to under 1 goal a game scored and to not score at all in over half of those games and then suggest that maybe that’s all they were capable of. And that’s unsatisfactory for me.
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Definitely agree that MD should be given time and a fresh slate over the summer to see if he can evolve his style to something that’s more watchable and entertaining.
Let’s not forget that none of the shitshow than was MBs leaving and the January transfer business had anything to do with him.
However, I do think the comments about “giving him a transfer window to get players he wants” is missing a point. He’s going to get players that the DR spreadsheet says are undervalued and which with the right coaching can be made saleable. MDs job is to somehow create a team out of those players - not easy.
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Crikey. Matt was clearly looking like scuppering the whole blueprint then. Trouble with a capital T.
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Sadly, based on something I have heard that Rice said to Blooms, and also something that was (apparently) said just the other day, I am not entirely convinced the club did want to go up - or at least were not too bothered if we failed to, which is flabbergasting.
However, we must realize that if that is the case, Dodds is actually due a raise for failing while looking like he was trying to succeed!
If that’s true then we are lumbered with Dodds for the foreseeable as we would be guaranteed mid table mediocrity.
Are you seriously saying we deliberately appointed a manager who wouldn’t get us promoted? What planet are you from?
So if we didn’t want to go up , why did we invest in Bradley and a dozen more players in January. Absolute rubbish.
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