grandad
Sparks is a cunt Bantam
Posts: 76
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Post by grandad on Aug 1, 2023 16:09:53 GMT
Seems quite a lot of people on various social media platforms are quite underwhelmed with the recruitment and are predicting mid-table. People finally waking up. All depends on what happens Christmas time (when we are looking for a new manager) Hopefully not too far adrift to make a serious play off push or we could struggle to hit top half if not Optimism seems quite high at the moment as with any new season approaching but it can all very quickly turn sour Some even regard last season as a success some of our fans never cease to amaze me
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Post by Hobhead on Aug 1, 2023 16:22:23 GMT
Gillingham are 5/2 to be promoted versus our 3/1. I know where the better value lies there and it’s not with us.
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sedg
Due Diligence Bantam
Posts: 445
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Post by sedg on Aug 1, 2023 16:25:58 GMT
Gillingham are 5/2 to be promoted versus our 3/1. I know where the better value lies there and it’s not with us.
Who else do you fancy? Stockport look strong for me. Then you Mansfield, Wrexham, Notts who all look stronger than us. Could add Donny, MK Dons and maybe even Swindon to the list.
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Post by Hobhead on Aug 1, 2023 17:32:09 GMT
Gillingham are 5/2 to be promoted versus our 3/1. I know where the better value lies there and it’s not with us. Who else do you fancy? Stockport look strong for me. Then you Mansfield, Wrexham, Notts who all look stronger than us. Could add Donny, MK Dons and maybe even Swindon to the list.
All of those plus Hughes holding us back doesn’t bode well for our final position.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Aug 1, 2023 19:15:11 GMT
Gillingham are 5/2 to be promoted versus our 3/1. I know where the better value lies there and it’s not with us.
Who else do you fancy? Stockport look strong for me. Then you Mansfield, Wrexham, Notts who all look stronger than us. Could add Donny, MK Dons and maybe even Swindon to the list.
Stockport Gillingham Donny.... same as last years 3 that went up, all got youngish progressive ambitious managers who have recruited a team to play their way. Unlike our forever failing club and it's unambitious dinosaur who's highlight of his managerial career was getting a Stoke team spending more than any other English owned club to 9th place in the premier.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Aug 1, 2023 19:16:59 GMT
Even when Hughes leaves do you trust Sparks to bring in the right person? I don't. His ability to pick the right manager is as good as the McCanns babysitting technique
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Post by hobbes on Aug 1, 2023 19:53:57 GMT
Even when Hughes leaves do you trust Sparks to bring in the right person? I don't. His ability to pick the right manager is as good as the McCanns babysitting technique No, because he’ll do exactly as he has before - hire a guy who’s either had success before under different conditions or hire a guy because of his name. I’ve said it before, 99% of managers have a maximum of two good jobs in them. If you’re hiring a guy who’s got two clubs promoted before you can guarantee he won’t do it again. Only way to get out of this league in particular is someone young, with a philosophy and who embraces advances in the game. Rousing team talks are fucking history. It’s about methods, tactics, science, data. Marginal gains all over the place. Signing players who fit your philosophy, fucking trusting them to carry it out and take the game to the opposition. Ffs.
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Post by hobbes on Aug 1, 2023 19:59:30 GMT
“YOUVE GOT YO HAVE A GOOD FUCKING GRASP OF THE DATA TO GET THREE POINTS!”
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Post by Dick on Aug 1, 2023 20:40:52 GMT
Even when Hughes leaves do you trust Sparks to bring in the right person? I don't. His ability to pick the right manager is as good as the McCanns babysitting technique No, because he’ll do exactly as he has before - hire a guy who’s either had success before under different conditions or hire a guy because of his name. I’ve said it before, 99% of managers have a maximum of two good jobs in them. If you’re hiring a guy who’s got two clubs promoted before you can guarantee he won’t do it again. Only way to get out of this league in particular is someone young, with a philosophy and who embraces advances in the game. Rousing team talks are fucking history. It’s about methods, tactics, science, data. Marginal gains all over the place. Signing players who fit your philosophy, fucking trusting them to carry it out and take the game to the opposition. Ffs. It's amazing how we have a history of either bringing in a name that hasn't actually won anything or, as I've said many times, we've hired someome who has inexplicably delivered success in appalling conditions and expect them to deliver it again - and it has never worked. We never actually hire someone who has a record of and who wants to try to play good, modern, forward thinking football. Almost every manager we've had over the last 20+ years, in addition to being a name only or doing it on the cheap, has been a total dinosaur in their football approach and I certianly don't think we'll change that while it's the same faces in the offices at VP.
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Post by Hobhead on Aug 1, 2023 21:09:10 GMT
Gillingham are 5/2 to be promoted versus our 3/1. I know where the better value lies there and it’s not with us. Who else do you fancy? Stockport look strong for me. Then you Mansfield, Wrexham, Notts who all look stronger than us. Could add Donny, MK Dons and maybe even Swindon to the list.
Colchester are a bit of a dark horse too.
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Post by tetchyarse on Aug 2, 2023 7:54:11 GMT
Nobody in the club has the knowledge or the interest in what’s happening elsewhere in the game. They hire managers because they’ve heard of them. They hire players based on who’s in their Filofax or based on agents hawking the players to us. We hire losers and those on the way down, we never hire winners and those on the way up.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, we need to look at the National League and National League North, and maybe even the Northern Premier League, and look at who’s doing well there. See who’s up and coming, hungry for the opportunity. We’ve not done that since Hanson who- unpopular opinion- was a bloody good L2 and L1 player until Parkinson fucked him with the injuries.
But all of that involves having a proper scouting network, it involves schmoozing the non-league clubs around here, and Sparks wouldn’t know where to start. He’s too busy sucking Darragh MacAnthony’s cock at every opportunity.
Me? I’d be on the blower to Gateshead today and ask them how much it would be to take Mike Williamson off their hands.
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Post by Dick on Aug 2, 2023 9:52:07 GMT
Nobody in the club has the knowledge or the interest in what’s happening elsewhere in the game. They hire managers because they’ve heard of them. They hire players based on who’s in their Filofax or based on agents hawking the players to us. We hire losers and those on the way down, we never hire winners and those on the way up. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, we need to look at the National League and National League North, and maybe even the Northern Premier League, and look at who’s doing well there. See who’s up and coming, hungry for the opportunity. We’ve not done that since Hanson who- unpopular opinion- was a bloody good L2 and L1 player until Parkinson fucked him with the injuries. But all of that involves having a proper scouting network, it involves schmoozing the non-league clubs around here, and Sparks wouldn’t know where to start. He’s too busy sucking Darragh MacAnthony’s cock at every opportunity. Me? I’d be on the blower to Gateshead today and ask them how much it would be to take Mike Williamson off their hands. We've never had an off-field person who actually knows football and this is where a lot of it falls down. Owners, CEO, directors - anyone involved in those high level strategic and forward thinking decisions, we've never had it. David Baldwin was probably the best off-field employee who understood football to some extent but wasn't his football experience limited to our youth team or something? We've operated like a market stall selling obsolete media like CDs and VHS tapes for too long and we've taken root where we are.
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Post by hobbes on Aug 2, 2023 11:09:48 GMT
Nobody in the club has the knowledge or the interest in what’s happening elsewhere in the game. They hire managers because they’ve heard of them. They hire players based on who’s in their Filofax or based on agents hawking the players to us. We hire losers and those on the way down, we never hire winners and those on the way up. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, we need to look at the National League and National League North, and maybe even the Northern Premier League, and look at who’s doing well there. See who’s up and coming, hungry for the opportunity. We’ve not done that since Hanson who- unpopular opinion- was a bloody good L2 and L1 player until Parkinson fucked him with the injuries. But all of that involves having a proper scouting network, it involves schmoozing the non-league clubs around here, and Sparks wouldn’t know where to start. He’s too busy sucking Darragh MacAnthony’s cock at every opportunity. Me? I’d be on the blower to Gateshead today and ask them how much it would be to take Mike Williamson off their hands. We've never had an off-field person who actually knows football and this is where a lot of it falls down. Owners, CEO, directors - anyone involved in those high level strategic and forward thinking decisions, we've never had it. David Baldwin was probably the best off-field employee who understood football to some extent but wasn't his football experience limited to our youth team or something? We've operated like a market stall selling obsolete media like CDs and VHS tapes for too long and we've taken root where we are. Baldwin was in the under 19s who won the Northern Intermediate League with Lee Duxbury as captain. Don't know if he was involved in football after that. I'm sure there are people in non-league both in terms of players and off field expertise that we should be looking to. My lad got accepted on the BPA scholarship earlier this year and they've just started pre-season training. He did his trial with the current scholars in February and the standard of the session (not necessarily the players, the session) was excellent. They've got a lad Myles LaBastide who's still a scholar but has signed a pro-contract after playing and scoring for the first team this season. The lead academy coach left the club yesterday because he's now manager of Frickley who are Level 9 in the pyramid. The BPA academy has a physio, a nutritionist & all matches are filmed on those Veo type cameras where you can focus on any player at any time whie watching back, they have a weekly session analysing that weeks game. This is 16-19 year olds at college. I'm not saying either that Avenue player or coach are the answer for us, or that Bradford City don't have the same things (they surely must do) but what it shows is that in the leagues below League 2, even down to BPA academy scholars, everyone is embracing change, embracing new ways of thinking and playing the game. Those guys don't get coaching and managers jobs because they once played for Man Utd, they get them because they understand the game and know what they're doing. The guy who's just left Avenue: www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/23694835.bradford-park-avenue-see-former-thackley-boss-leave-club/Plus this is the bio of Avenue's academy Technical Director, Tom McStravick: Age: 33 Qualifications: UEFA A Licence, Bsc Hons Sports Event Management Previous Coaching / Playing Experience: Ex Leeds United Academy Coach, Ex Irish Premier League & Championship Player. Those are the kinds of backgrounds people in non-league and semi-pro football have. It therefore follows that the higher you go in non-league, eg National League and the N & S divisions, you've got coaches, managers etc who were never stars and have got where they are due to ability, knowledge and intelligence. THATS where we should look next. Apologies for the humble brag about my lad btw.
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Post by bantam147 on Aug 2, 2023 12:20:55 GMT
Success in ANY organisation, in any industry starts at the top. The person who's ultimately accountable needs a clarity of vision and single minded approach to setting a strategy and the ability to hire highly capable people to deliver that strategy.
For us, that starts with the owner. And in our case, he's literally absent. He was hoodwinked into buying a club in a sport he had no interest in or knowledge of. So the pitch is queered from the start. So who's setting the vision? Is it Sparks? Or Hughes. By their own admission, Hughes application was nearly missed because our cutting edge approach to recruitment is exactly what's been outlined above - reactive, little black book stuff. We have on one setting a strategy, it's all off the cuff and now seems to be wedded to Hughes playing style which has question marks hanging over it.
Said it for years - focus everything we do on the basis of a squad profile that's centered around early to mid 20s players, leverage the loan market properly and invest in data analytics to guide scouting.
Long story short - we're lacking what's needed for success from the very top down.
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Post by Hobhead on Aug 5, 2023 15:59:22 GMT
We might need some downward revisions here, lads. A lot depends on how long we stick with this idiot though.
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sedg
Due Diligence Bantam
Posts: 445
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Post by sedg on Aug 6, 2023 8:20:31 GMT
We'll be bottom six if Hughes stays.
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Post by Dick on Aug 6, 2023 8:36:40 GMT
We might need some downward revisions here, lads. A lot depends on how long we stick with this idiot though. I'm going to give him the first home game at least - if it's clear he's setting up at VP like last year or the same as yesterday we know which way this season's going.
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Post by Hoochy on Apr 25, 2024 12:17:34 GMT
I went for 8th/9th.
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Post by edin on Apr 25, 2024 12:28:26 GMT
same here, take a miracle for that not to happen.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Apr 25, 2024 12:44:10 GMT
My prediction is we will be around 13th 14th around November Hughes walks then we improve to around 8th or 9th. Then we get fed the same old shite from those who can't make good football decisions and everyone gets sucked in to buy season tickets on a promise again. Scarily close or totally predictable?
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