Listen, Clarke

Forget the shocking recruitment of both players and head coaches from the board. Clarke is really starting to shift the blame of him struggling. In his latest press conference, it’s about how much other team have spent, like he is preparing an excuse. The fact that some players have gone backwards while he has been here, the players look disjointed/deflated which begs the question what is he doing in training with them. Connell as captain is not working and it is effecting his performance, everybody can see. I think Clarke needed to have a word with him and use his self proclaimed man management skills. Where is this high intensity press, where is this players running through brick walls for him. Clarke is really starting to annoy me with his ‘honest’, same **** interviews. We go again.

 

Dont agree tbh, same players which were also crap last season, it's alright doing it every odd game but if they aren't consistent I would like them to move on too.

Connell didn't have a good second half of season last season although granted he struggled with his illness first half but people just go back to how he played in his first season when we had a defence of 10 million behind him.

Money, i dont like when managers go on about it but let's be real Huddersfield bought taylor and Charles for around 4 million and we loaned a kid from French second division.

Also to add there wasn't a press last season so think that's been binned off.

 

When they start rolling out the excuses, it rarely ends well.

 

Time to show what yve got Clarkey lad. Lots of rated Managers are rated because they Managed to make a Silk purse out of a sows ear...stop whinging and show us summat...

 

Excuses or the truth?

 

The majority of league 1 is as skint as us, there will always be a few teams that spend big money so it's just pure deflection to use that as an excuse.
I've backed Clarke all season but his interviews are starting to get a bit tiresome, he promises a lot but is struggling to deliver.
Tomorrow is vital for our season.

 

Just shows how much influence a good manger has look at Plymouth

 

Orient have no money but play really good attacking football under a progressive coach.

 

Having seen Wellens on the documentary about Salford City, he came across as an arsehole to be honest. A bully boy, a real throwback.

 

I think Clarke is just being authentic. He tells it like it is. I have no doubt he's doing what he thinks is best to get the results we need. He accepts responsibility when he thinks he's got something wrong. He even says that it's his job to get our inconsistent players to be consistent. I think it's the players responsibility to play to a consistently good standard. I'd give Clarke time. I'm far from happy with some of the players. I'm baffled as to why we are so inconsistent this season - but I don't think it's predominantly down to Clarke - some of those players are letting him down badly.

 

Just shows how good hindsight is and shortsighted perception can be.

Darrell Clarke 509 games 40% win percentage
Miron muslic 140 games 40% win percentage

 

Probably a bit of both. But unnecessary. You're here to coach. You knew the gig. Crack on.

 

The recruitment team have let him down too, but Clarke rightly or wrongly will be the scapegoat if things don't improve.

 

............sithi.

 

As pi ss poor as the recruitment has been, the squad is still far better than they are playing and that’s on him.

 

You say that, but they've paid a fee for 7 players this season after selling a couple of their best players in the summer and last January Windows. It's only a couple of seasons ago where we signed a handful of good players for the level in the same window, funded by the transfer of 1 or 2 better players.

I think we've shifted too much from our recruitment model of buying players, developing them then moving them on for a substantial profit. It was frustrating when we'd be doing that with 4 players every summer, though now we've gone completely the other way and don't appear to be selling anyone. It's the only way a club like ours can ever progress, like Orient are doing. The calibre of player we're recruiting has clearly declined, in line with the level of transfer fees we're receiving. Which is why I'm behind Clarke, as I think he's got both hands and one leg tied behind his back at the minute, and think we'd be comfortably top 6 if he even had the squad Collins had last season.

 

Totally disagree with this bit here.

The squad we have now is no worse than what we had under Collins. Neither were good squads but the Collins side was no better than this. Id even argue it was worse in the first half of the season last year under Collins. The defence until January under Collins was utterly abysmal

 

Sometimes things click at a certain club and it doesn't work at others.

Clarke has clearly done well at certain clubs and has had success in certain places but for me it's totally not working for him here. Players don't seem to be buying into his ways.

Look at big Val. Our side took to it superbly and we looked great, he went to West Brom and it didn't work. Munoz at Watford won promotion at a canter from championship, at Fowls it was a disaster, yet Rohl goes in and took over same squad and kept them up.

 

This is a very good post imo and I agree with most of it. The changes have coincided with the change at board level. They're trying to reduce the wage bill so that the club runs as a business at break even to reduce the need to have to fund it, the asset stripping has been and gone, it didn't work. They'll get rid of the high earners and reduce the playing staff budget to a very minimal level. Make the club more sellable. Then cash out as soon as a bid comes in that makes them a quick few quid.
What it means from a playing point of view is either relegation (under a poor manager) or if we are lucky mid table obscurity under a manager who can polish a great deal of turds

 

Really? You don't think we'd be in a better position with a natural finisher like Cole down the middle, Cadden and Williams on the wings, McAtee supporting the attack and to a lesser extent Kane giving competition to the midfield. I think Clarke has more tempo in this side than Collins did, similar to (but not as much as we did) under Duff, which would have got more out of Williams and Cadden; it's no surprise to me that Cadden is thriving in the SPL. Defensively, I'd argue we're no different, which is why it baffles me that people have been so fixated on strikers these last few weeks; we've signed just 1 centre half this season despite our frailties at the back for the last 2 years and still not adequately replaced the back 3 we had under Duff.