I've been a supportive bloke. I think he should have been given this summer after a crap January window. I'm now doubting myself (rare for me cos I always nail it!). However, if Clarke gets pushed there's still the issue of his replacement and there's still the issue of Sormaz. Mladen looks, on balance, to be the main weak link at the club to me but if Clarke is sacked he'll use the sacking to hide - he'll be protected. On balance again, at the moment, I'd be tempted to release Sormaz. Another managerial sacking won't solve things this season given that a replacement will be picked by.. you guessed it...Mladen. I'm not a Clarke fan btw but I suspect the worst of the evils is Mladen. That's all I'm really saying
I feel for Clarke today. He’s only got what he’s got available, and they have no spine. It doesn’t matter what he says to them, or how he shuffles them, they currently don’t have the fight in them.
If he can’t motivate them he should resign , too many players gone backwards , today was absolutely dreadful
The problem we have is we can't attract a decent manager because they won't work under the conditions of the board. We signed Rodriguez who Clarke said he doesn't know.
Why are we trying to invent the wheel...sign a manager, give him a transfer budget, let him choose players...its not rocket science
I agree. But his defence to that would be that no amount of motivation would get a tune out of such a poor crop of players. Any self-respecting manager who believed in their own ability would've walked the day after the window shut in my opinion. He knows we're the biggest job he's ever going to get, and despite being in football in 2025, I doubt he's got enough in the bank to not worry when the next opportunity will come. On balance, I'd stick it out till they fired me too.
Apart from Barrett we had 10 other pro players on the pitch with different levels of experience of league games. The fault in my view isn't so much recruitment but we had 11 players on the pitch who were not motivated,no passion and more importantly no shape or formation where not one player looked comfortable.Half time team talk and a reshuffle of formation and we we're actually worse.In my humble opinion we can attack the board ,the ceo and the DOF but we had a team out there looking for guidance,and I saw none. I've never been one for sacking managers Spackman apart but maybe its time to call it a day with Clarke followed by a statement of intent regarding next season.No wishy washy talk just plain speak on our intensions,how to fund it and how to get the train back on the track.
He doesnt appear to be organising them or giving them a plan though..... unless the plan is pass it around at the back until either the other team dies of boredom, somebody ***** up a pass and the other team get possession or we launch it to their defence so they can have another go at attacking us..... every game is the same.....
Yep, easy to say, but none of us know about his finances. He wasn’t a top player and hasn’t been a top manager, so I doubt he’s flushed with spare money to tide him over until the next job offer comes along.
I’m not suggesting he has no culpability, but with regards to motivation. What more motivation should they need than the fact that there is still all to play for, and that they get well paid for what they do? They don’t have anything else to worry about but playing football for a few hrs. Clarke can’t stop them making mistakes or being able to complete simple passes. We saw him piling into them at Charlton during a brief stoppage, but there was no reaction from them.
Got to go now. Has the recruitment been subpar? Yes absolutely. But it's on him to put out a team that's organized and knows their roles etc. he hasn't done that and we are now in March..... If he's waiting for mass investment to bring him 11 new top level players for the level to suddenly rocket us up league, he's living in cuckoo land. No manager will get a big budget to work with, they have to get the best of what he has and he's not. Don't look anything like a cohesive unit. Worse teams with smaller budgets have out played us and out classed us down to them being better coached and more organized. Stevenage at home the perfect example for one.
That makes it sound like the players are just thickos though mate. Surely they have to take some responsibility for themselves as professionals? It’s a shared responsibility for me.
I agree with some of your points but the coach instructs his plays on tactics formation who to mark etc and I saw none of that today.
13 of the 15 players involved today were signed by the club to play for us so we haven't been reduced to fielding an academy team. Recruitment has been terrible but I do think we should be more organised and tougher to beat.
You've got a lot of seasons on the clock Brian, can you ever remember us being so unpredictable in a league where we are competitive? I really believe we've got a core of players that can have us in the playoffs but we just haven't recruited well enough to strengthen around them. Wycombe, Stockport and Charlton were no better than us recently yet we contrived to beat ourselves.
I think you’re giving pros far too much leeway. Even in Sunday morning football, you can work out who you’re marking. Problem is there is too much Sunday morning play, like the touch from Connell following Roberts throw, which had us caught on the break, or Rodrigues poor finish straight at the keeper and Okeeffe daft lay giving a foul away when we had already got the corner. We’re just not very good, and I’m not sure a change of manager would remedy that.