Update from Doug O'Kane

Oh dear, didn’t expect much friday but expecting even less now looks like we’ve messed up big time with trying to bring someone in.

 

Well at least we had a plan when we sacked Collins.

I mean it would be silly to sack a bloke on a whim without having a replacement lined up immediately at such a vital time of the season.

We wouldn't do that.

 

Looking more inept as each day passes.

I've got my tickets for Friday before anyone asks, and I've renewed. Not better fan, just don't know any better!

 

We don't know that. All the Thalhammer stories came from Alan Nixon's tombola, only backed up by an alleged whatsapp/facebook exchange with someone on here. Whether they were right or wrong to bin off Collins, I'm not sure they ever had a replacement lined up. Personally, I doubt any manager would touch it at this stage; there'll be a few waiting to see where we end up come May 8th/18th, but none of them would want a failed playoff campaign as the first achievement of their first couple of weeks in charge. I think it will be and always has been the case that Devaney will see the team through the playoffs.

 

Got mine too and really want to feel positive about the game but just can’t see anything changing

 

Why would we announce anyone before Friday? Imagine the disruption that would cause. What are they going to do in 3 days, or even 3 weeks (considering the final) that neither Devaney or Collins could in 9 months with the same group of players.

I'd imagine we're going through the usual process, and I wouldn't expect anyone to be announced before the play-offs are done and dusted.

 

Any sort of positive, good feeling around the club is slowly fading away.

 

Just the latest in a catalogue of mess ups to happen under the watch of the current board.

 

God help us then. More of the same. It was a ridiculous decision to get rid of Collins so late on. If they really wanted to do it then it should have been done 4 weeks before it was.

 

Yeah let’s not rock the boat while we’re on this great run and playing so well

 

Which is why we shouldn't have sacked him.

1 - We've had to pay him off. There may have been extra cost sacking him before the summer.

2 - If we fail in the playoffs we could have made a decision based upon the aims at the start of the season. If the Board took a view that this was a failure, then they could have let Collins go and recruited a replacement to get us promotion next season.

3 - If we went up, then we could make a decision based on next season. We could have decided to keep Collins based on pre season expectation. Or, if we decided we didn't like Collins' approach, we could have recruited a replacement early in the Summer based on an expectation of staying in the Championship - this may be a different bloke to whom we could have attracted had we stayed in League One.

Or, we could panic and let him go with no plan. Not even a short term tubthumping appointment to try to get us over the line.

"Here you are Disco, you may as well have a go mate"

 

But you're missing the point.

Whoever you put in charge on Friday are essentially going to be working off whatever Devaney, Stead and whoever has been at the club all season has been working with. Of course there could be the minor change, but it's still the same squad. We aren't going to suddenly become defensively resolute because someone different has had 2 days on the training pitch with the squad.

The decision to sack him with 1 game to go really has given some people false hope.

 

Different timing in the season, obviously, but that's exactly what we did when Heckingbottom replaced Lee Johnson in a caretaker role, and then we ultimately appointed him full-time without adding anyone new to backfill the old role.

Sometimes it's better to remove a negative influence, and I think that's what Collins had become, arguably within the squad group and most definitely within the relationship with supporters.

It's debateable whether Devaney is the right person to be put in charge, particularly in light of how little of a change he ultimately made on Saturday, but I doubt we'll reach the stage of open revolt where fans are singing that his football is **** to him in the dugout.

 

100%

 

Hecky inherited a side on a good run of form though as well.

 

The point is though that the club hierarchy believed that Collins was not getting the best from those players. So of course they and some of the fan base believe that a different approach could yield better results.

awful timing on the sacking unless they had someone ready to start the next day they were confident could make that transition but it’s about what we have gone to expect.

 

The timing has to be brought into the question, I understand they perhaps gave him the benefit of doubt to try and turn things around but with 1 league game left seems crazy unless it wasn't purely based on results alone.

Makes this part of Mladen's statement even more crazy.

"However, with a crucial season conclusion ahead of us, we feel that now is the right time to make a change"

 

Martin will do us proud, av a bit of faith, he'll pull it off, then we'll foook him off, Barnsley F,C, we love em, and the way they do business.

 

Your first five words are key here - it's that simple.

It's madness to change at this stage of the season - unless we've got the ghost of Brian Clough to get us over the line.