did we chuck the baby out with the bathwater?
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I think that's a little unfair. He has come into a decent WBA team and has them performing well above expectations. Not only in defence but in attack. He is going to make an excellent manager (he has all the credentials and is highly rated by every manager he has worked with) and in the future I can see him taking on a team such as Spurs / Arsenal or maybe even United or us one day.
With Clarke you need to look at all of his very successful coaching CV and not just his WBA work.
Too many people think having a Latin name or an illustrious playing history is necessary to become a top manager.
It may be unfair, time will tell ... but he was given a very solid team, that was already performing at a very good level last year. Everyone last year was going on and on about Pardew and Newcastle - look at them this year. Let's see how he does over a period of time before anointing him as a potential coach for the big teams in this country.
We needed to rebuild though. That is a given.
We're doing it the correct way aswell now, and hopefully it will pay off sooner rather than later.
WBA are playing some good footie, like they did last year aswell, and are flying in the league.
Will it last? Doubtful.
We shouldnt judge Rodgers after 13 games, and neither should we declare Clarke as some wondermanager after the same amount of games.
I would have liked Clarke to stay on as AM, but that didnt happen. Happy for him that WBA are doing well at the minute. But I wouldnt swap him with Rodgers regardless.
We're doing it the correct way aswell now, and hopefully it will pay off sooner rather than later.
WBA are playing some good footie, like they did last year aswell, and are flying in the league.
Will it last? Doubtful.
We shouldnt judge Rodgers after 13 games, and neither should we declare Clarke as some wondermanager after the same amount of games.
I would have liked Clarke to stay on as AM, but that didnt happen. Happy for him that WBA are doing well at the minute. But I wouldnt swap him with Rodgers regardless.
I see this the exact opposite way round. Rodgers has been a manager already and - Reading aside - a successful one, and strikes me as someone who's used to being in such a role. Steve Clarke on the other hand has only ever been a coach before, and doesn't come across to me as a strong character at all - if anything he seems a little apologetic in interviews. He's made an excellent start and for his sake I hope that continues, but I'll be leaving it a while (as I will with Rodgers TBF) before I form any hard and fast views on him.
Agreed.
I wouldn't be nailing him down for any lifetime achievement awards in management just yet. I hope he does well but he's proven nothing yet; when WBA go through some troubles then we'll see what he's like.
That said, he certainly talks sense in interviews and has a knack for getting to the point of the question very quickly. I think he's got a very good football mind - whether he can communicate that well with players in different settings as well as handle all the other managerial factors is another question entirely.
Sorry, but it WASN'T a given. We needed to improve the squad. We didn't HAVE to completely rebuild, though. It doesn't matter how many times some now claim masses of people looked at the team last season and decided the only option was to rip it up and start again, it won't become true.
Let's not try and make out that even half of what went is quality, because it was far from it. Our biggest mistake was letting both Maxi and Kuyt go, I know they both wanted it but if we could have kept 1 till January we wouldn't have been hurting as much on the striker front. They're the only 2 though, the rest....
Charlie Adam - Mediocre CM, not suddenly any better because he's bailed Stoke out for a couple of weeks.
Jay Spearing - Not bad CM, we're swimming in them though
Andy Carroll - We're hardly missing his 'goals' yet
Craig Bellamy - Sorry to say his head is truly fucked, will never be the same player.
Alberto Aquilani - Please
Dirk Kuyt - A loss
Maxi Rodriguez - A loss
Fabio Aurelio - Made of glass, not a problem position anyway.
So 2 players out of all the shite we shipped. The problem was not rebuilding, it was not having the dosh to do a better job of it in one go.http://www.thisisanfield.com/players/aurelio
Charlie Adam - Mediocre CM, not suddenly any better because he's bailed Stoke out for a couple of weeks.
Jay Spearing - Not bad CM, we're swimming in them though
Andy Carroll - We're hardly missing his 'goals' yet
Craig Bellamy - Sorry to say his head is truly fucked, will never be the same player.
Alberto Aquilani - Please
Dirk Kuyt - A loss
Maxi Rodriguez - A loss
Fabio Aurelio - Made of glass, not a problem position anyway.
So 2 players out of all the shite we shipped. The problem was not rebuilding, it was not having the dosh to do a better job of it in one go.http://www.thisisanfield.com/players/aurelio
We've sold Aurelio, Kuyt, Aqua, Bellamy, Maxi, Adam and loaned Carroll out.
5 of those players were underperforming. The two players Rosgers wanted to keep; Bellamy had personal issues and wanted to leave and Maxi wanted to return home to Argentina.
What should have been done differently?
We've lowered the average age of the squad, sold high earning underperformers and bought young talented players ( Borini and Allen).
It was neccessary mate, as we didnt get a return on the pitch from our bloated wage bill at all.
Once Downing, Carroll (permanently) and Cole are gone, we'll be in an even better state to push on.
Ross has been bang on the money when it comes to this.
5 of those players were underperforming. The two players Rosgers wanted to keep; Bellamy had personal issues and wanted to leave and Maxi wanted to return home to Argentina.
What should have been done differently?
We've lowered the average age of the squad, sold high earning underperformers and bought young talented players ( Borini and Allen).
It was neccessary mate, as we didnt get a return on the pitch from our bloated wage bill at all.
Once Downing, Carroll (permanently) and Cole are gone, we'll be in an even better state to push on.
Ross has been bang on the money when it comes to this.
And we've just hired his sports psychologist!
It was obviously Peters fault that Bellamy split up with his wife, which again has fucked up his past seasons.
What would you have done mate? Sold/bought?
Yes.
Great answer. We would have been a much better team with that approach.
Look, it's Sunday morning, I'm not in the mood to write a detailed account of every move I'd have wanted. I would have replaced the outgoing players and looked to get Suarez support. I wouldn't have disguised pragmatism as bold commitment and I wouldn't have pretended the team was some kind of QPR-style shambles that could only be redeemed after three or four years of rebuilding.
I think you're being a bit harsh Macca. We might not have needed a complete rebuilding job but the team had come to the end of a cycle really and the players that were bought in to sort us out did the opposite.
We needed players up front, out wide and in the middle - if that doesn't signal the need for a rebuilding job, what does?
We needed players up front, out wide and in the middle - if that doesn't signal the need for a rebuilding job, what does?
It's all a pointless discussion anyway.
You can have it in May and it might mean something then.
regards
You can have it in May and it might mean something then.
regards
Creep. That's why you've been so eager to discuss it all now, then!
I always wanted Clarke to stay as a number 2, and I think we could have kept him if FSG had decided they wanted him. Anyone who has worked with Clarke raves about his training regimes. I think he and BR together might have formed a strong partnership.
Doc succinctly put - as the op that was the point I was trying to make
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