This is now probably the best squad we have had

fcblackpool said:
Having read the debate all that I would add is to ask this- Would MA have had a better chance of doing better result wise with this squad?

I defy anyone to answer 'no' and take themselves seriously.
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Think the difference is, a lot of managers would have done better over the first half of this season with the squad we’ve got, as proven by the season before.

If the board deemed Blackpools position to be purely down to our squad then they wouldn’t have sacked him. I’d say they’re in a better position to judge on morale etc, factors that are deeper than the players available.
 
fcblackpool said:
The question wasn't about the individual but whether this squad now gives him a better chance.

Whether MA could do sufficiently better is now just stupid debate, we'll never know. He'd have had a chance though.
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We need a motivator

Someone to fire them up. Convince them they are good enough to beat anybody in the league

McCarthy took lowly Ireland to 14 in the fifa world rankings . He took Ireland to last 16 of the World Cup . He’s got two clubs promoted to the Premier League . He was able to get Cardiff to 8 th when they were hanging around the bottom of the Championship

He’s been there seen it done it .

When he speaks the players will listen . He will fill them with confidence that they can achieve because he has the CV that shows his teams have done it .

MA a decent guy and a good coach but he cannot speak to the players with the authority McCarthy can because he hasn’t been there seen it done it

McCarthy will make our players believe in themselves that they are good enough to get us out of the mire

He is the right man for the job at this moment in time . MA is not .
 
fcblackpool said:
The question wasn't about the individual but whether this squad now gives him a better chance.

Whether MA could do sufficiently better is now just stupid debate, we'll never know. He'd have had a chance though.
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As things stand I’m not sure… Trybull is so far un-tryed, Goode has replaced Marv and we’ve lost a CH cover in Williams, Lyon’s looks OK, but we did have Gabriel previously… Bowler & Rogers … Well we know what a fully fit (mentally and physically) Bowler can bring, but where is he at right now? plus he did start the season with us. Rogers ??? Who knows…

We’ve lost Corbeanu, Fiorini is injured Bridcut also injured (all of whom contributed for Apples)…

I’d like to think we have a marginally better squad now, but as I’ve said how much extra would a duffer like Appleton have got out of them, I’m not so sure.
 
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Tangerine_Dream said:
Think the difference is, a lot of managers would have done better over the first half of this season with the squad we’ve got, as proven by the season before.

If the board deemed Blackpools position to be purely down to our squad then they wouldn’t have sacked him. I’d say they’re in a better position to judge on morale etc, factors that are deeper than the players available.
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It's a failure on the board not the manager they have just sacked
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
It's a failure on the board not the manager they have just sacked
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It’s more a failure of the Manager IMO…

He has basically over-sold himself and yet immediately started talking our chances down from day 1.

As I’ve already said, he’s clearly been an issue for players coming in. Brannagan was obviously put off by him for a start off (a few words with the mood hoover and who wouldn’t be)

We’re well shut 👍
 
I tell you what I think will be interesting on Saturday and that is who is in goal.
I'm pretty sure Steve Banks' opinion on this will be the decisive one so if Grimmy does start that proves to me Appy has been over-ruling Steve.
IMO of course
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
It’s more a failure of the Manager IMO…

He has basically over-sold himself and yet immediately started talking our chances down from day 1.

As I’ve already said, he’s clearly been an issue for players coming in. Brannagan was obviously put off by him for a start off (a few words with the mood hoover and who wouldn’t be)

We’re well shut 👍
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Basically
Clearly
And obviously

Hat trick 👌
 
Appleton is hardly a tough act to follow . I think McCarthy could have done a better job with what assets Appleton had .
Like Phil says he has a few better players at his disposal and will definitely need to get them prepared for a battle . I don't think it will be pretty for one minute but if we are still in the championship in May who cares . At least we won't be drip fed bullshit excuses and told how good every other championship club are.
 
Insider said:
I think???? there might be a Barnsley connection between the two of them.
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O’Donnell was a Barnsley youth player in the early 2000s. You sure that’s strong enough to go stretch to having the boards ear!?

It could be true, but is this just another Mansford conspiracy? He was brought in with Appleton because he’d worked with him or known him for 16 years.

He’s only 36, so yes whilst it’s strange he didn’t go as well for being brought in with rotten apple. I’d think the club have seen a. Talented young coach and thought, let’s keep him in and see what he can do.
 
Thatseasider said:
O’Donnell was a Barnsley youth player in the early 2000s. You sure that’s strong enough to go stretch to having the boards ear!?

It could be true, but is this just another Mansford conspiracy? He was brought in with Appleton because he’d worked with him or known him for 16 years.

He’s only 36, so yes whilst it’s strange he didn’t go as well for being brought in with rotten apple. I’d think the club have seen a. Talented young coach and thought, let’s keep him in and see what he can do.
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He's actually 42
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
He's actually 42
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I had a look and found that on Transfermarkt.

but looked at a few other things and found this article from when he joined Lincoln.

www.weareimps.com

O'DONNELL: WE WANT TO TAKE THE CLUB FORWARD

Richard O’Donnell is delighted to have been appointed First Team Development Coach at Lincoln City following a lengthy spell with Hull City.
www.weareimps.com www.weareimps.com

He was 34 according to them in 2020 so he’s 36/37 now.

Transfermarkt guess at an awful lot of stuff, it didn’t take a lot for me to find this. Unless there’s something I’m missing here. And please point it out if I am, I can’t see a clear history between Mansford and O’Donnell. There might be but their paths career wise never really cross. There’s no information to say, oh they knew each other there and then. They might know each other privately, couldn’t tell you that.

The fact he knew Appleton for 16/18 years suggest he came in purely to work with him then something happened to keep him on after they were sacked. Maybe the players loved him, he came across well in interviews, training sessions were particularly good etc.

I need to see something that actually suggest he might have the boards ear, which is an incredible stretch and if it’s true is fairly awful that a coach runs the rule over the board.
 
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I think MM was first contacted a few days after Appleton was sacked so i doubt MM influenced the initial decision to retain O'Donnell when MA and Kerslake left.

I guess the club felt some continuity was necessary as a handover thing at least and that O'Donnell was the one to keep, which could have been for various reasons. It was either him or Kerslake. Could have been feedback from players, or lower cost, or just because he was less senior and therefore less implicated in Appleton's failure.

MM I'd imagine had a choice to keep him on or not and was happy for him to stay. Useful cos he knows the players and what's happened since last summer.
 
Tangerine_Dream said:
Think the difference is, a lot of managers would have done better over the first half of this season with the squad we’ve got, as proven by the season before.

If the board deemed Blackpools position to be purely down to our squad then they wouldn’t have sacked him. I’d say they’re in a better position to judge on morale etc, factors that are deeper than the players available.
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It was proven at all as Critchley had a different squad of players to play

Keogh, Sterling, Wintle and Bowler for a start

Also Keshi and Gabriel who have both been unavailable due to no fault of Appleton
 
We've signed Bowler, Rogers, Lyons, Trybull and Goode in January, and MA never had time to use any of them. So any MA vs MM debate from here on in will be a bit pointless because you can't ever compare how they each would've done with the same players available.
The board decided after the Watford game that they would be more confident of MM escaping relegation with these new players than MA, and that's something I agree with. But we'll never know how MA would've done with them.
To be honest, the board made a total mess in summer both with player recruitment and manager recruitment, and to their credit they've corrected both this month. Whether it's too late or not time will tell, but I'm pleased they weren't just happy to sit on their hands and hope for the best.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
It was proven at all as Critchley had a different squad of players to play

Keogh, Sterling, Wintle and Bowler for a start

Also Keshi and Gabriel who have both been unavailable due to no fault of Appleton
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Keshi and Gabriel had long spells out last season.

Other than Lyon’s, I don’t seem to remember being linked with any other right backs, maybe Appleton was happy with what he had there?

Poveda was a replacement for Bowler and Wintle went back to Cardiff in January.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, unless you’ve been in the boardrooms, you don’t know what positions MA tried to push for and was let down (probably centre mid aside as the Brannagan saga was so public) - although ultimately I wouldn’t say he was let down, just Oxford deciding to pay through the nose to keep him.
 
Tangerine_Dream said:
Keshi and Gabriel had long spells out last season.

Other than Lyon’s, I don’t seem to remember being linked with any other right backs, maybe Appleton was happy with what he had there?

Poveda was a replacement for Bowler and Wintle went back to Cardiff in January.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, unless you’ve been in the boardrooms, you don’t know what positions MA tried to push for and was let down (probably centre mid aside as the Brannagan saga was so public) - although ultimately I wouldn’t say he was let down, just Oxford deciding to pay through the nose to keep him.
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Yeah I think that's fair enough however the fact that we have signed 5 players in January probably also proves the point that the summer window was wank
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Yeah I think that's fair enough however the fact that we have signed 5 players in January probably also proves the point that the summer window was wank
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Or it proves that players didn’t want to sign to play for a wank manager.😉

Let’s also not forget that these 5 are essentially shuffling the deck and mostly loan signings.

Bridcut & Trybull (are arguably not dissimilar)

The Lyons deal was done in the summer..

Goode, Rogers, Bowler all loans with Williams, Wright & Corbeanu out.

So that’s actually 1 permanent signing in January who replaces the permanent signing that was a mate of Appleton’s and lasted about 3 games.
 
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There's no doubt Critchley had better players - players he knew from his U23 days and having a sound knowledge of promising players. We've lacked that a bit since he left and recruitment of poor loans has cost us.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Yeah I think that's fair enough however the fact that we have signed 5 players in January probably also proves the point that the summer window was wank
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I think it’s also a reaction to the fact the board clearly don’t want us to go down and are trying to arm us with the best possible tools they can in order to stay up.

That includes getting rid of MA.
 
BFC_53 said:
We've signed Bowler, Rogers, Lyons, Trybull and Goode in January, and MA never had time to use any of them. So any MA vs MM debate from here on in will be a bit pointless because you can't ever compare how they each would've done with the same players available.
The board decided after the Watford game that they would be more confident of MM escaping relegation with these new players than MA, and that's something I agree with. But we'll never know how MA would've done with them.
To be honest, the board made a total mess in summer both with player recruitment and manager recruitment, and to their credit they've corrected both this month. Whether it's too late or not time will tell, but I'm pleased they weren't just happy to sit on their hands and hope for the best.
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A very sensible appraisal of the whole situation for me is that BFC53. And I agree that it is good to see that mistakes have been addressed quickly and substantially.
 
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