Sacking him would be previous - and pointless

He’s won four, drawn three and lost three, I think?

I don’t think it should even be up for debate based on those results. However, I appreciate that it’s not purely the results themselves that are most worrying for fans. So I do get the debate. And, having sacked a coach after 45 games sitting in the play-offs, the club has kind of opened itself up to it.

I think the next four league games, ending with Rotherham will tell us a lot more.

 

Its a conundrum. If its getting to the stage where people are thinking Clarke isn't good enough surely the logic is that he should be sacked. Then again, has he had enough time?If he's not then he should be backed. However, if nothing improves we can look back and say he should have been sacked earlier. There's no 'right' answer. only a judgement call at this moment in time. There's also the problem of finding someone else who a) wants the job and b) would actually be better than Clarke when Clarke has only had 10 games himself. We are continually changing managers so do we now tell each new one they have 10 games and if the performances and/or league position are deemed poor they'll be sacked? What bloke in their right mind would want the job? Then we get a new bloke in which costs money and decide he's not good enough either....
Ultimately its the job of the board to get the right coach in. It's also incumbent on them to back him with good recruitment. So on that one we could argue that its mainly the board's fault so shouldn't we tell them to bog off? Trouble with that is that they're putting money in to keep the club afloat and there is nobody waiting in the wings to buy the club anyway. So we're stuck with an incompetent board who are bad at recruiting players and good managers......
If Clarke is sacked will an incompetent board get a better bloke in? I dunno. I also dunno what the answer is. I thought the board would be learning and making things better but I'm not sure they are at the moment. So, in a nutshell I dont know what the short-term answer is. I would seriously suggest to the board they consider sacking Clarke in 3/4 games time if things still look bleak but as I've stated above that knee-jerk response may do no good anyway.... Its grim at the moment on several levels.

 

Clarkes body language says it all at the side of the pitch, he doesn't know what to do, clueless

 

Once you start throwing players under bus week in week the players then lose faith in the manager. When watching game the look like the dont know what the should be doing

 

If we did sack Clarke how long would it take them to get in a replacement a few months if what happened previously is owt to go by and would they be any better.

 

When the last Clarke left, someone already at the club took us into captures (Hunter) what about someone with the same surname initial do it again ( Hourihane)

 

People will just stop coming to Oakwell which will prompt the board into action

 

Defo right when you say the next 4 games or so will tell us more, if it continues to go tits up then I reckon Hourihane be in charge b4 Xmas

 

Hourihane will be in by Chrritmas.

 

I can see that happening but also worry that his hero status will be destroyed if he isn’t successful which would be a crying shame.

 

Is Chrritmas when all those nasty creatures crawl out of the woodwork when it gets icy and dark?

Is that the time when Hourihane gets the coach's job?

That would end up being another horror show.

 

we have to give him time -the squad needs time- also how many coaches do we have- he needs to put his foot down and demand that the teach what he wants bound to be conflict of interest too many indians imho-mdfield is shocking why!!! how many times sis we give ball away when outside our penalty area and the midfield are still learning their trade

 

I talked to my workmate today who is a Wednesday fan. He said that they sacked their manager after 10 games last season and replaced him with Danny Rohl.
He said that if they hadn't done that when they did they would have been relegated. So it's never too early to get shut especially when it's obvious the manager is out of his depth.

 

Why on earth would Hourihane be the answer to our Head Coach problems?? Genuinely why is it even spoke about.

 

The answer is - because the ownership are highly media and fan sensitive and they make decisions that take into account not only what's best but also what pleases and appeases.

Hence Collins goes one game before the playoffs. And Roberts and Hourihane come in because they were once good for us, but maybe aren't the same now.

Thus is Hourihane spoken of as the next coach, rather than the next sub off the bench.

 

Well all I can say is if that happens then the club deserves to sink into League 2.

 

If we're not going to sack him then we need to acknowledge some hard truths and rebuild properly. If we're accepting today that we don't have the quality for automatic promotion, and will struggle to reach the playoffs then we need to work out the plan going forward.

Clarke needs to stop making excuses about not knowing his best eleven or formation and decide quickly what that is. I don't think we have the personnel to play with wingbacks, they offer nothing defensively and aren't functioning as attacking outlets. Play with a back four. Gent, Roberts, Pines, Lofthouse. If they're ****, let them be ****. Coach them into being better than ****. If Lofthouse doesn't look up to it then prioritise a proper right-back in January and let them settle into the defence.

We then play either 4-1-2-1-2 with Connell behind Benson and Phillips, and DKD behind Watters and Humphreys. This gets our best players on the pitch. If you want an option to play wider you play Jalo and Cotter on the wings, either in a 4-5-1 or perhaps a 4-4-2. Let them play and train in these formations repeatedly.

The biggest issue right now is our players repeatedly make poor decisions going forward. They run into trouble, they dwell on the ball, they don't choose the right pass. The only way they are going to get better is by playing and training together. It shouldn't be surprising, we lost 6 first-team regulars, but ten games in we should at least have an idea of what we want to build towards, and I don't think Clarke does right now.

 

I'd be totally behind a change of manager, never been convinced he was the right man, the performances so far, even though results haven't been disastrous, have done nothing to change my mind. It's been worse to watch than last season's Collins ball, and that takes some doing.

Hourihane though, as he even got all the relevant badges yet?

 

Clarke's not the source of the problem but equally he's not convinced me he's offering much in the way of solutions.

We'll see after another 10 games I guess.