Critchley gone

Knee jerk appointment in my opinion, one to attempt to sway the fans in the right direction. I sincerely hope it works for him and us but considering our whole appointment/recruitment policy, I have a bad feeling about this one. Good luck Gareth.

 

I would expect it to be a different style.

Not sure it would be "Route One", this seems to now be considered any football where the defenders don't have 50 touches before a slightly forward pass.

Trying to get the ball into the oppositions half might not be a bad concept!

 

You should put your name into the hat…..I’d sign you up as manager

 

I do wonder whether, with all that's happened this season, we'll all be sceptical about the next appointment, whoever it is.

It's going to be a tough ask for anyone.

 

You were going to be part of my medical staff

 

As long as I get free cake, I’m your man

 

Mercenary swine

 

Short and likes cake … ‘are you Mick Beale in disguise, are you Mick Beale in disguise’.

 

Is Ainsworth confirmed now?

 

In the head of every true fan he is

 

Wycombe have won their last 5 games and 8 from their last 10 so he's in good form.
Really hope it works out well for us and he get those lazy loan losers to play ..

 

https://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/1167819366?-294:802

 

One of the best posts I’ve read.
Some people obsessed with the concept of multiple touches. It is and always has been a combination of both. If you watch Citeh or Liverpool they are not adverse to launching it forward multiple times in a game. You must have pace up front to play this which we don’t have.

interestingly, we now play all our football in front of the opposition defence. We don’t stretch defences any more. We don’t get in behind teams and we are seriously lacking in wide players or wing backs etc overlapping out wide. We play a big man up front but never produce quality from out wide for him. He ends up playing with his back to goal.
I for one would welcome a more direct approach

 

Well, I trust WLS on these things, so looks like GA is pretty much a done deal. I'm sure we all wish him the very best, not just because if he does well the club does well, but because of the connection he has with the club and the fans. He'll certainly start with more credit in the bank than most.

I confess that the appointment, for me, does lead me to ponder bigger questions about the running of the club. I've been fairly positive about the work that Ferdinand & Hoos have done in recent years - cutting the wage bill massively while shifting us from a bottom half championship club to a top half club, with a decent style of play in the last four years, and delivering the new training ground. I certainly wouldn't have got rid of Warbs but I have sympathy with the fact that Beale was a good appointment and they were shafted by him. I even see the logic in appointing Critchely, even though that didn't work out. GA appears - on the surface at least - to be a step away from the style of play we were trying to instil, which we've built the squad around. So have we changed our philosophy? Is this going to necessitate wholesale squad change? Is this short-termism and next season will sort itself out when it comes?

Who knows. A colleague at work is very involved at Wycombe, and I think may have even been very involved when the fans owned the clubs. His take on GA is pretty positive:

"He’s superb at building esprit de corps and making discarded players excellent. He will not tolerate sulkers and prima donnas. Dobbo his coach is super and a set piece specialist. Teams are robust and do play direct but can play football when required. Gareth’s mantra is “possession doesn’t win games, goals do” We are rather good at wining these days with 45% possession and Olympic level time wasting. His biggest weakness is reluctance to make subs early."

[Edit - I do have some questions about Les' role and the consistency of signings / academy development, so I'm not uncritical about his role, but perhaps that's for a different thread...]

 

‘Olympic level time wasting’
In the last 4 seasons of decentish attempts to play football we have always had nightmare runs where the team just gives up. Whoever chooses the coach might have thought that the intellectual (I know in football an oxymoron) coaches with loads of badges and trendy ideas can’t stop players digging a lovely big grave at some point of every season, wouldn’t it be nice if we could avoid this occasionally. I for one am ****ing sick of it.

I wasn’t following the Rs too closely when Ainsworth was around, he’s not a cult figure for me, his history is pretty unimportant (though not a negative). Whatever ‘style’ he has played with Wycombe has been dictated by the resources available, not necessarily his preferences. But he’s done a decent job there, hopefully he can do the same with us.

 

Yeah, confess that whatever reservations I have about playing style, I can't wait for someone who won't put up with any BS or anyone hiding. Ainsworth is absolutely a cult hero for me - that side that got us promoted from Division Two (L1) are the side that really got me to fall in love with QPR.

 

I had a laugh at that line too....but is Olympic level as good as Preston level? They're the gold medal standard to aim for

 

Its a long time since I've seen us doing any timewasting, its only done by teams that are winning

 

It’s not time wasting you numpties - it’s called ‘game management’