In 2017 Paul Heckingbottom left the club after losing half a team, his assistant manager and the CEO. Regardless of how fans viewed his departure it can't be denied that he was left isolated covering different roles but unable to bring in players he wanted. Forward two years and Stendel finds himself in almost the same position. The only change is that we now play in the third division due to the new owners appointment of Morais. Stendel will eventually be poached and if we fail to get promoted the excuse for next season will be that players will not sign for a third division club. On the football side of things the plan is strictly adhered to and the inflexibility prevents the signing of an experienced midfielder to help the younger players, someone with the nous of Little, McHale, Sheridan or Redfern. A player like this could be made captain, Stendel's general on the field instead of the timid Davies. How many times have we seen the captain speak to the referee regarding dubious decisions, at present opposition managers know how to operate the rules as shown by Shrewsbury and Oxford. The gates this season have been holding up well but failure to gain promotion will have consequences next year. It's time for the the stategy to be relaxed a little to help the football side of things instead of the financial side.
I think things are different. Also who says Stendel wants the strategy to change? He signed up on the basis that this was our plan and he seems to be performing well within it.
Heckingbottom left for £30,000 a week for Leeds & his assistant for taking a back handed. Plus players wanted to leave for bigger wages..
If your goalkeeper is captain then FA rules allow you to have a vice-captain who handles issues on the field if needed as you describe. Our vice-captain is Kieffer Moore. Also the captain's job is a lot more than just managing the 90 minutes on a matchday. Lots of responsibilities off the pitch too. We didn't have anyone to step in and cover the CEO last time. We have Paul Conway this time and a much greater support network if needed through an actual board (something in 2017 fans were complaining we didn't have).
I'm a huge fan of 'the plan' - it's the thing that stops my club from ever going the way of Wendy, Villa, Pompey etc etc.... But I do think as success arrives, so should a raising of the bar for the club. Live well within our means - absolutely - but set targets a little higher. Carry on signing promising youngsters, but maybe from parent clubs a bit further up the pyramid.
You do know we are 3rd in the league on a run that could see us break into the top 2 in the next few weeks? All the doom and gloom of your post forgets the last time we came down and struggled with a poor overpaid squad that wasn't good enough to go up. This time due to the plan and strength of our young squad we have a real base of getting back up at the first attempt and building into the championship. It's not perfect by any means but we are financially sound and more than competative on the pitch which is a long way from the day at middlesborough under Wilson when we came down paying an arm and a leg on loans who didn't give a damn.
And the owners appointed Moraise that got us relegated "No Heckingbottom also had a very big hand in getting us relegated"
Hecky left in 2018 not 2017 and I think if Moraise hadn't been involved and we had had a different manager/coach we wouldn't gone down.
I’m not so sure he did tbh I’m not sticking up for him by any means but let’s put some perspective on the situation . He got us within sight of playoffs with a team he had taken to Wembley twice . Almost all the influential players that did that was sold in the January window . In the summer He was given a mandate to work with that was mostly to buy or take from the academy young players , That is an awesome task imo even slotting them in to an existing team is a challenge let alone build a new team of them to challenge in a very demanding league. He left us, I don’t know the reasons but have heard all the rumours but when he left we weren’t certain relegation fodder by any means imo there were at least four worse teams than us at that time . In comes Morais and god knows what’s happening the team are all over the shop only when they have a seperate players meeting to discuss their own tactics allegedly doe the team show any signs of a fight . What happened that January affected us all imo , with hindsight the board should have acted straight after promo but with past experiences of signing in a hurry players not good/ committed enough were reluctant and it burned them . It was a series of events not one person imo
Y Yes I know that BMW but pointed out in my post that when he had a good team he was successful and when he had to build a new one with the boards criteria of inexpensive players he was found wanting . As I said not sticking up for him by any means but he wasn’t the sole reason we went down it was a sequence of events.
