Cleverley Out?

I don’t think TC needs to take any credit for that

 

I think most of us knew a bad run was incoming and that we had rode our luck far too many times this season. It was inevitable that our league position would eventually correct it's self.

I think TC has done a remarkable job considering this squad is awful and perhaps the worst it's been since the early days of the Pozzo era.

Unfortunately for TC he'll end up getting the chop early next season when we lose Baah and Chak in Jan/summer and fail to replace them.

New ownership or money from promotion is desperately required, otherwise we'll be in League One in the next 5 years.

 

People said we would be in League One at various stages over the last couple of seasons.

I’m as sceptical as anyone - but we are, and have been for a long time irrespective of finances, comfortably clear of being in relegation danger in this league.

 

True, but I think it owner continually sells players and only invests in the type of players we have this summer (ie absolute bargain budget, no real reinvestment) then eventually there will be a season when it all comes to a head and we start poorly and struggle to recover.

This season we had the emergence of Baah, Vata and Pollock, and the reborn Louza and steps forward of Chakvetadze to cover all holes (all of those credit to owner/Cleverley/coaching team of course it doesn’t happen by accident). I could still foresee a year when none of that happens and we just bring in unmotivated duds to add to deadwood we can’t shift.

One thing against my argument is that the last 5 years there always seems to be 3 or 4 really really poor teams in the championship each season without fail which might save us anyway!

 

With the Yank and Hollywood money behind Brum and Wrexham, I wouldn't bank on that being the case next season!

 

Football is all about money now. Even the other challenger at the top, Wycombe, are being bankrolled.

 

The jewel of Kazakhstan!

 

Can easily see us drift into mid-table and then sleepwalk into relegation next season like we did under Gracia and the rest in 2019-20

 

Football has always been about money. Note that when we were bought by multi millionaire Elton John our performances and league position accelerated upwards.

 

Not to the extent it is now. It’s far more polarised. You think Wimbledon, Oxford, Oldham, Notts Co could survive in the prem now ?

 

Pozzo makes a load of duff signings I agree, but they aren't all bad. All those mentioned in the snippet above should be considered good signings and good investments that will generate meaningful transfer fees in future. At the time they signed they could quite easily have been labelled as bargain basement - a young lad from Rochdale who came with loads of agent hype but no substance, a kid from Celtic who has barely played senior football, a defender from L2 Grimsby, nobody had heard of Chak before he came here...

I'm well aware we could all list hundreds of duff signings over recent years, but there have always been enough diamonds in the dirt for things to be fine. Arguing that in the end there will be no diamonds in the dirt is as feasible as arguing there will suddenly be a flurry of diamonds and we will walk the league.

 

We have the same points at roughly the same stage as last season, played one game less, without probably our best 3 players in Hoedt, Asprilla and Kone. Cleverley is doing just fine, not great, not awful. We have a squad without about 6 at most top half players.

Bachmann is a pound shop version of Pickford.
We have full backs outside of Morris who isn’t championship standard over 20+ games
CBs that are too slow to play as a pair and as a 3 get beat by balls into the box regularly.
Louza as really the only technically sufficient midfielder. TBD perhaps but he’s made of dust.
Chak and Baah are good. Vata has promise.
Bayo is bayo. Laughable footballer but somehow will score 15 while still miss 15 absolute sitters.

The rest of the squad isn’t worth discussing. They are just mid table fodder at best, will have good games and be unfathomably poor the next. Thats what we are as a club sadly for now.

"The champ being poor this season'. It’s poor every season outside of 3-5 teams, in reality. For me, it comes down to can your team concentrate enough to not gift goals away, because the other team will gift you a chance at some point.

We also have players like Ince, Ogbonna, Sissoko, Sema, Bachmann on massively over indexed salaries for their ability and impact. There's pragmatically £6-7m salary, circa a third of our budget on a fifth of our squad who don't deliver.

 

Do you think a non clueless manager would have us further up the league?

 

And we haven't got a competent captain to organise this rabble

 

I don’t think there have been that many ‘duff’ signings, but it’s just that the ones that were duff were so unspeakably duff that it makes it seem like they were greater in numbers. We’ve had great signings, some forgettable, some who never really got going for one reason or another or never settled in, and the rest more or less ‘did a job’ and that was it.

 

Fat lady clearing her throat over the next week or so perhaps.

 

Is this a hint to something you’ve been told or a gut feeling?

 

More of the latter. Tiny sprinkling of the former.

 

Interesting. I think it would be harsh at this point - he’s surely fulfilled the brief so far.

 

Lose to Cardiff and Derby and then fail to beat Prestion and it wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

I’d say he needs a win (and possibly a draw) from the next couple of games or else he’s in real trouble I’d say.

3-4 games takes us to the end of the window so you have to consider that.

That dreadful Christmas form certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed.

 

Agreed. But he’s not a total yes man - and a run of terrible results will always have someone like that in trouble. As bad form leads to meetings - and TC won’t just say the right thing to keep his job I doubt.

Gino won’t like that.

 

I'd be very dissapointed if Cleverley went before he could see out the season. The recent run of games aren't great but every team suffer patches of poor form and Cleverley has overall made a good fist of a harnessing young, exciting but raw talents with a team that's not got good enough quality in all positions both at the front and the back to truly consider the play-offs a realistic target as it stands.

He does have issues with playing some players who haven't warranted their previously unquestionable status in the team but that's also because the squad quality isn't there to replace them. And he also has take the responsibility for wanting Jebbison and Sissoko while chopping and changing the system too often, leaving the team looking confused but he's more than earnt the right and time to turn this around and hope the club don't pull the trigger for a while yet.

It's telling how the fans both at home and away aren't getting on Cleverley's back during this spell (Apart from the occasional "Sort it out!" From the LGT where I am) and speaks towards wanting to get behind him than wanting further changed and upheaval. That is going to transmit to the players.

 

You’re just reminding me that Pozzo may go quiet for months on end, but he’s still a loathsome, arrogant prik with his hands on a gun. It’s taken me a while, but I was starting to feel some kind of love for my club again. The sackings, and talk of sackings, are just reminders of what a tool he is.

 

Surely, he has to be given to the end of the season at least. Only a psychopathic owner would pull the trigger, even with a few more losses.

 

Going by the pro TC chants from our fans tonight I imagine the backlash would be quite fierce if TC is sacked this season and quite rightly so.

I see the squad and TC as a work in progress, TC himself and the younger players need 2 or 3 seasons to develop. Obviously if things go south badly next season then attitudes will change but I think we are going in the right direction at the moment and we have to expect the ups and downs.

The big question is does Pozzo see the bigger picture or does he honestly (and quite stupidly) think we should be higher up the league than mid table?

 

Have to say, despite my on-record thoughts on TC as not being anywhere near as overly impressed/hopeful/convinced of his eventual ascension as a top coach (delete as appropriate) from what he has actually shown us and achieved to date as many others here, if he was to be sacked any time in the near future it would genuinely affirm both Gino's sheer, terrifying, malevolent madness, and confirm once and for all that we actually will be experiencing the exact same Groundhog Day season every year until he somehow manages to fucck right off.

 

That's basically my position too. TC's doing some odd things at times but it's doing us little harm along the way so why not let him and see if he learns by experience?

Could seriously see sacking him leading to the squad completely stopping trying. And that could still leave us in relegation danger.

 

A) the fans are behind TC in a way that we’ve never been behind a manager since Zola.
B) the players haven’t down tools like they did for almost every previous manager. Most of them are just s£&t

 

As always Pozzo will just look at the results of the last 6-8 games and ignore everything before that and the quality of the squad he’s made available.
I think our position is better than the quality of the squad warrants but that is partly down to luck (see xG table) and the trend is definitely downwards. If we don’t win any of the next 3-4 games I wouldn’t be surprised to see him replaced.