Neill Collins

Apparently on the shortlist for a return back to America with a team called Phoenix Rising.

Wish it would have worked out for him as he came across a nice bloke but still have shivers when I think about some of those performances last season.

 

And we still got into the playoffs, but hey ho

 

Phoenix Rising is the club Peter Ramage, Shaun Wright-phillips & Didier Drogba used to play for mate. No idea if they're as good as they were once when they had those sort of names

 

Would have been autos if he had any tactical awareness

 

Yeah how dare he/Collins ehh, getting us to the Play offs, he should be ashamed of himself for doing that.
And seriously, I dread to think what the comments against him would have been like, if we dropped into a relegation scrap!!.

 

Hope he gets it, his kids were devastated when they had to leave the U.S.

 

Phoenix Sideways

 

Good luck to him. Was treated poory by our board and also gets a lot of unwarranted stick from the fans in my opinion. Football was a bit slow at times but we got into play offs and scored plenty of goals doing so.

 

Are you seriously defending Collins saying he should be applauded getting us in the play offs ?
He absolutely hashed automatic promotion he had no plan B from game 1, didn’t know how to use substitutes and was in a world of his own with the bile he came out with especially post match!
Should have been sacked before Christmas.

 

Not to mention the away record of a lifetime - well mine anyway

 

Good luck to the lad, he gave his best for us even if most people on here didn't agree with his playing style. Gave his all as a player and as a coach.

 

I think they might find living in the middle of a parched desert a bit of a shock after Florida!

 

I keep mentioning it we had one of the lowest budgets in the division. As for Plan B I have to disagree, apart from Ipswich we got the most amount of points from a losing position in English football - If anything his Plan A was the problem, Duff was the opposite - only gaining 2 draws from losing positions. As for automatics, Michael Duff in hindsight had a far better quality squad and a far easier ride as for me he cleverly managed to buy himself time by playing the 'we weren't good enough last season, and dont boo us' lines - fans listened. MD made a balls up in the playoff final by not starting Norwood - he had terrorised SW defence in both games and they must've rubbed their hands when they saw he was on the bench. Collins for me fell foul of the raised expectation level created by Duff whilst having players sold from him and an even worse budget than Duff. I think the reason fans didn't warm to Collins is that he never came across as personable as Duff did - and look what Duff went and did.

Let me get things straight, I much preferred Duffs more no nonsense football to Collins' football, but Collins also got the results - which is what managers are usually judged on. If you took out the Oxford & Peterborough home games - which we lost within about 4 days of each other because Kitching's baby had gone out with the bathwater and he was to blame for most of the goals- we were much the better side in pretty much every game against the top teams, so for me showed he could get them fired up. The board didnt back Collins in January when he had proven he could do the business with worse tools than his predecessor. As has been said by alot of folk, he should've stayed for the rest of the season.

Away from home we played some decent stuff at times and had the 2nd or 3rd best away record - if those form figures were swapped from away to home, then not many would've moaned - for me points are points and I dont care where we get them

No one can tell me they would prefer to be near the bottom playing sparkling football as opposed to near the top and being on the dull side - we saw how that idea panned out after big val left

 

The only reason DC has got the job is because he knows his way around the bottom 2 divisions and can work with a crap budget - we were an unpopular choice for managers before Collins, after what we did to Collins even more so

 

Suddenly thinking about it, is there an interesting conclusion to come to regarding Val and Neill?

Both were successful , one lumping it up, the other biding their time.

But people like me aren't happy with any of that.

We've got to win and look pleasing on the eye with it at the same time.

Winning football generally does look pleasing. It's hard not to make it so. But maybe these two did.

(p.s. win first, moan second)

 

I know someone who coaches a team that his kids play for. Apparently he's a lovely guy and the coaches had a match against some other local dads/coaches. He turned up and nobody told him they were meant to wear white - the only spare top was an England one; he refused to wear it and ended up swapping with someone else and then ran rings round everyone.

 

Dunno why anyone would want to manage in a league you can't get promoted from.

 

They'd still be out of South Yorkshire like **** off a shovel.

 

BFC budget last year on player wages was one of the highest in the division.

 

Premier League. ???