Match Day Thread Town v Charlton

Roy Keane falls into this category too. Ambitious managers get short shrift, whilst the ones that don’t rock the boat prosper.

 

Keane was employed for publicity reasons.
Roy had nothing to complain about, he inherited a decent squad and had money to spend.

 

Another week gone by and another week failing to beat an in-form, “big name” club. We won’t achieve promotion by failing to get results against the better teams in the division. We were lucky with a relatively easy start to the season (similar to last year) and now, once again, we’re coming up short against good teams. As a club, we’re treading water in a sport full of swimmers. Over the last three years, this has been one of the most gutless, disappointing, and miserable teams to follow.

As others have mentioned before, this is the ultimately the fault of Marcus Evans. The buck stops with him. Under his ownership, we have declined. We have gone from possible Premier League hopefuls to a mid-table third division side. Under Evans, we have had as many top half finishes as bottom half finishes, and I generously include last season’s 11th place League One finish. He has systematically cut the club’s budget so that our facilities are poor and tired-looking, the pitch is awful, the academy struggles to produce, players are getting injured on a weekly basis, and the standard of football has regressed. Oh, and we’ve been relegated. On his watch, our debt has ballooned from approximately £32 million in 2007 to over £100 million. All owed to his company, to which we pay interest. I take the point the game has changed over the last decade and a half, where he went from a genuinely rich owner to a middleweight (in terms of net worth). But we’ve gone from a family-friendly, positive club that routinely punches above its weight to a small-time club, which does things on the cheap and thinks staying in the Championship counts as overachieving.

The worst aspect of Evans’ tenure has been the decisions though. A record of terrible management choices (with the exception of McCarthy, who he ultimately showed too much faith in). No experienced Director of Football. A club philosophy written on the back of a cigarette packet and never actually followed. No investment or pride in his team.

I don’t have a comment on the match today, because I couldn’t find the motivation to shell out £10 to watch what I thought would be another routine defeat against half decent opposition. The club should be thankful supporters have not been allowed in the ground, because they would be rightly booed off the pitch.

 

Couple of points from your otherwise good post, Nuggets -

We did have some so called easier games at the start of the season but we also had more players fit to take the field to compete in those matches. It was also the start of the season and before most teams had settled into a rhythm so we could have got favourable results against any other team during those opening weeks. It's so easy to roll out the 'we haven't beaten a top team in ages' line but the circumstances lately have made that difficult, you need your best players available to go up against the better teams.

Also, we don't pay interest on the debt to Evans anymore, that stopped a few years ago if I'm correct.

 

Keane certainly didn't want to manage Ipswich.

He came here for the money and the promise of cash to spend. It wasn't long before he was whining about not being able to get players because of Ipswich's location and the inability of the likes of Simon Clegg and Evans to get the right deals done during the transfer window.

 

The “not beating top teams” doesn’t just refer to this season though, it applies to the last three years. For me, that’s not misfortune, it’s a consistent pattern and an inherent inability or psychological block. I take the point about injuries, but it’s a factor in all squads. Although we do seem to suffer by them more frequently, and that stems from something lacking behind the scenes because injuries have affected this squad for years. Whether it’s the quality of player we bring in or the sports science behind the scenes, my thinking is it’s a toxic combination of both. Either way, we seem incapable of breaking down good teams and making chances, as well as putting together an effective and consistent defence. A lot of goals at this level seem to be scored by opponents capitalising on massive mistakes. Through the likes of Nsiala and Chambers, we do have a habit of gifting opportunities to teams which the “better” in-form teams punish more effectively.

As for the interest clarification, thanks for the correction! A shame it took him a decade to stop profiting from it though.

 

The performances at the start of the season albeit against lesser opposition were very good and encouraging, the injuries have been seriously added to since and as I've said earlier the disappointment for me isn't necessarily the past couple of results because the inexperience of the team we've been able to put out has made it an uphill task it's more the lack of flexibility in how we are set up and how we play. Just because it worked well at the start of the season doesn't mean that formula will continue. Lambert like ME has seemed to flip from one extreme to another very quickly i.e. last season no style probably overly pragmatic, chopping and changing all the time, this season an obsession with playing it on the floor out from the back and not willing to change at all!!

 

Complaints about his character and interpersonal skills are wholly justified but this perception that he came to Town as a gold digger is utterly baffling.

 

I tend to agree BigAl, and there are several excellent models out there of clubs, like Pompey down the road from me on south coast, that have been re-fashioned from the grass roots committed supporters upwards. Community based projects have the capcity, if well structured with good experienced leadership to channel all the passion, energy, goodwill, family feel of a small club, that can revitlaise things, and put back that pride. And supporters have a real stake and say in how the Club is run.

We have all wondered when Evans will walk away and with how much of a loss, and if he is using Town's woeful finances to underpin his Tax regime. It might be well worth considering the matter. I for one will be happy to spread to word, I have friends and allies who know Sheepshanks and the Cobbold family.