It's the clubs plan. Not the managers. Changing manager doesn't mean a change in plan like Wilson's dwindling supporters keep suggesting. In fact it's the only reason I have seen for keeping him in place. Sacking Wilson is an opportunity to carry the vision on. Just appoint the right person to deliver what we are looking for. Not one who's solution is to rip it up and start again. Go get some advice from Swansea and Southampton. Lower league clubs who had a philosophy and stuck to it regardless of change in team affairs. That's assuming we have plan. Which I'm pretty sure we don't.
Wilson and Mansford have already met with the academy from about u8 level to map out how we get the next Stones/Bree/Holgate etc.
A lot of valid points there. I suspect Danny is feeling the pressure, which is probably why he's going with the more experienced pro's at the expense of the young lads. So in that sense, he's going against the plan of developing young talent and bringing them through (if, like you say that is the plan?) And under these circumstances, I can't really blame him as I'd probably do the same. It would take a very brave manager to continue to pick inexperienced players, prone to errors in spite of inconsistent results. Of course, it could be argued that it's the experienced players who have let us down more often and on last nights showing I would be seriously questioning this strategy. So in this respect, I think you're right that the onus is on Mansford and the powers that be to make the brave decisions and appoint a manager who will stick to 'the plan' regardless. But therein lies the problem, I think we've lacked leadership and strategy for many years. We've had mixed messages season after season. "Loan players are a waste of time" followed by "we can only afford to utilise the loan market". "We need to use the academy talent" only to have the old heads brought back in as soon as we have a bad result. "We need to be self sustaining" only to constantly dip into Crynes pockets every time things go wrong. There's no consistency, no strategy, no brave leadership and I'm afraid this has pervaded throughout the club and is now evident on the pitch.
Agree with a lot of that, but I wouldn't say Danny has gone against "the plan" by bringing back the experienced pros. Developing the younger players doesn't mean playing them week in week out in spite of performances and results. In fact that could do more damage than good. The young players have contributed a lot this season and i'm sure they will contribute a lot more before the end of the season, but the Port Vale and Oldham results were ground out by the experienced pros, which is exactly what we needed at the time. Credit Danny for that. Last night however he picked the wrong team.
That's a fair point and don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating stubbornly picking youngsters and academy lads regardless of results. As with everything, there has to be balance. But last nights side was almost exclusively experienced professionals with a couple of loanees thrown in. I don't see that as a long term sustainable strategy. Someone asked the question on twitter of how many of the starting eleven will be with us next season, not a lot. And worse of all, they were absolutely terrible. Also, fair enough give young players a rest and don't rely on them game in game out but what's happened to Bailey, Berry, Abbott, Noble Lazarus etc etc. They were supposed to form the basis of our side this year, have we written them all off or are they all crap? And how does dropping Digby after a good performance then hauling him off after a bad first half away at top of the league help his development? There's a lot of mitigating factors with our performances this year and I've maintained support for Danny throughout. I’ve criticised his ‘marquee signings’ as Treacy, Lita, Bailey, Hemmings have been an abysmal waste of money but there has been enough positives from Winnall, Turnbull and Hourihane (for 20 games) to counteract that. Where I’m rapidly losing patience is with the standard of football. I can tolerate, in fact I fully expected inconsistent results and performances this season. I didn’t expect the absolute dross we’d be serving up on a regular basis. For any floating voters, last nights display was enough to put you off Oakwell for a long time.
100% agree. Last night was an opportunity for Danny to give us all a glimpse of this "work in progress". Instead of doing that he chose to stick with the team that had ground us out some much needed points. If we had gone out last night and played passing, moving football with a young team, but lost due to a mistake by a younger player I would at least be encouraged as to what is to come. Instead we are served up rubbish by players that probably don't have much future at the club. Still non the wiser as to what the long term plan actually is and with no points to show for it. Bad day at the office for Danny.
