Two options this summer...

Lytham_fy8

Lytham_fy8

Well-known member
1. Replace the recruitment team and overhaul the whole system, we currently have a squad of players the manager doesn't seem to want, there's clearly a disconnect between him and them.

2. Replace the manager, pay the compensation, presumably effecting the budget resulting in sticking plasters next season again. We also couldn't land any actual managerial targets when Critchley left last time so we went for Appleton who presumably was walking past or something. Sadler didn't give it Dobbie last time so no idea why it would be any different this time.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
1. Replace the recruitment team and overhaul the whole system, we currently have a squad of players the manager doesn't seem to want, there's clearly a disconnect between him and them.

2. Replace the manager, pay the compensation, presumably effecting the budget resulting in sticking plasters next season again. We also couldn't land any actual managerial targets when Critchley left last time so we went for Appleton who presumably was walking past or something. Sadler didn't give it Dobbie last time so no idea why it would be any different this time.
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No brainier for me, get rid of Critchley who has also obviously lost a large proportion of the support and bring in a manager who plays a simple system that the players we have can play to
 
Martonmosser said:
No brainier for me, get rid of Critchley who has also obviously lost a large proportion of the support and bring in a manager who plays a simple system that the players we have can play to
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Fair enough, send the loans back though and do we have a squad to challenge?
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
1. Replace the recruitment team and overhaul the whole system, we currently have a squad of players the manager doesn't seem to want, there's clearly a disconnect between him and them.

2. Replace the manager, pay the compensation, presumably effecting the budget resulting in sticking plasters next season again. We also couldn't land any actual managerial targets when Critchley left last time so we went for Appleton who presumably was walking past or something. Sadler didn't give it Dobbie last time so no idea why it would be any different this time.
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The recruitment team has been changed in the last 12 months so hopefully they have targets who have been identified and groundwork already done in recruiting them for next season.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
1. Replace the recruitment team and overhaul the whole system, we currently have a squad of players the manager doesn't seem to want, there's clearly a disconnect between him and them.

2. Replace the manager, pay the compensation, presumably effecting the budget resulting in sticking plasters next season again. We also couldn't land any actual managerial targets when Critchley left last time so we went for Appleton who presumably was walking past or something. Sadler didn't give it Dobbie last time so no idea why it would be any different this time.
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Regarding the recruitment team, I don’t think there will be a player here that NC hasn’t agreed to.

It’ll probably work that he tells them he needs a player for a position, they’ll come back to him with a few options and they’ll go for whoever they can get. How far they get down the options is the key to it but there won’t be anyone he hasn’t agreed to knowing budget constraints etc.

January was an interesting one.

We let Dale and Thompson go but got Coulson. Don’t see much difference in any of them bar for Dale being better offensively.

Dougall left and in came Byers.

We let Apter go out on loan. NC will have approved all of these 💯

Compare it to other teams going for promotion and we didn’t do much £££.

We did make a bid for that Joe Low who was at the back for Wycombe though…
 
Colin Calderwood seemed to have a big effect when he came in with Critchley mk1, a quality number 2 might help.
It may be Critch looks at this season and learns from it for next as he’s still a relatively inexperienced manager.
However, when you look at Skubala and Wellens and the jobs they’ve done, it makes Critchley look very staid and set in his ways already.
He’ll stay and I reckon we’ll have a similar season until he’s asked to leave.
 
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Really wanted it to work for NC but it's No 2 for me.. He's too stubborn to change the system..No plan B, Alot of our players don't suit this system..Why sell Owen Dale? Because he can't play LWB?? Well neither can Connolly or CJ..Surely it would be better to change the system to suit the players we have??. Hardly ever playing Andy Lyons aswell? Another strange one..
 
Junior_BentsPlatformShoes said:
Colin Calderwood seemed to have a big effect when he came in with Critchley mk1, a quality number 2 might help.
It may be Critch looks at this season and learns from it for next as he’s still a relatively inexperienced manager.
However, when you look at Skubala and Wellens and the jobs they’ve done, it makes Critchley look very staid and set in his ways already.
He’ll stay and I reckon we’ll have a similar season until he’s asked to leave.
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This maybe be abit nerdy / blinkered but looking at say Lincoln & Orient their back room is full of ex players & most are (well names are) recognisable. I’ll hold my hand up & say I’ve never heard of Skubala at Lincoln but his back room team includes Landon Donovan & Chris Cohen (both vastly experienced ex footballers). Orient have a host of ex players on the staff (Mark Devlin, Martin Ling, Paul Terry etc).
Who do we have ? Steve Banks - no disrespect to Banksy but imagine outside of Blackpool he is a who ?
If Critchley wasn’t as stubborn, as he comes across, & would be prepared to take on board some additional help in the shape of a couple of experienced ex players then that’s my choice of option.
 
the biggest disconnect and it's growing rapidly is between the fans and the manager/team/club. Putting it bluntly Critchley has killed a lot of the love and passion that the fans have for all things BFC.

Sadler needs to recognise this because it can't carry on as it is as it will only become more toxic. You can't even say it's a knee jerk re-action as it's been pretty much all season with absolutely no sign of improvement.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
Sadler didn't give it Dobbie last time so no idea why it would be any different this time
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And that’s the rub. I think he doesn’t learn from his mistakes and the reason he will stick with Critchley far far longer than necessary is to try to be proven right. The smart thing would be to appoint Dobbie and get things back on track with a candidate the fans will nearly all be behind.
 
If Sadler wants to keep Critchley as manager the Cambridge & Fleetwood games will be important, if it isn’t 2 wins the s—- could hit the fan.
After that give it to Dobbie for the rest of the season.
Carlisle away first game.
 
Sadler won't be keen to go through the manager search malarkey again. He's not comfortable with it and had his fingers burned several times in rapid succession.

He can't say he doesn't want to reach the Championship, to his customers.

He has stabilised the club after a very rocky few years when the club's future was very uncertain. The alternatives all looked pretty iffy.

We will do well to compete consistently well with the teams above us in the pyramid with our budget and fanbase. We are close to our natural league position on those stats.

I just wish we could all accept where we are and then start to enjoy it. And that means the club looking to provide entertainment, and the fans being realistic with their expectations of where we should be and who we should be beating every week.
 
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20togo said:
the biggest disconnect and it's growing rapidly is between the fans and the manager/team/club. Putting it bluntly Critchley has killed a lot of the love and passion that the fans have for all things BFC.

Sadler needs to recognise this because it can't carry on as it is as it will only become more toxic. You can't even say it's a knee jerk re-action as it's been pretty much all season with absolutely no sign of improvement.
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And there is the frustration of it all. You could see and hear the lift in the crowd yesterday for the 10 fruitless minutes near the end when we actually tried to be enterprising. We almost scored with our three worthwhile efforts on goal and it felt like being at a football match for a change instead of a possession based training session. We should be going at teams like that from the off, not knocking it round in increasingly hopeless patterns within our own half.
 
voyeur said:
Sadler won't be keen to go through the manager search malarkey again. He's not comfortable with it and had his fingers burned several times in rapid succession.

He can't say he doesn't want to reach the Championship, to his customers.

He has stabilised the club after a very rocky few years when the club's future was very uncertain. The alternatives all looked pretty iffy.

We will do well to compete consistently well with the teams above us in the pyramid with our budget and fanbase. We are close to our natural league position on those stats.

I just wish we could all accept where we are and then start to enjoy it. And that means the club looking to provide entertainment, and the fans being realistic with their expectations of where we should be and we should be beating every week.
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Simon Sadler said he wants Championship football and that we have a top six budget in this division. He also said he wants exciting football.

So the realistic expectations from the fans should be exciting football, a top six finish and pushing to get back into the Championship. None of this looks even close to achieving under our current coaching staff.

I don't expect us to win every game, but I do expect to be entertained and as a minimum try and win the game. We set up not to lose, I want us to set up to win and if we do lose then so be it, at least we tried. I'm sick of listening about how good the opposition is, I want to hear how good we are.
 
voyeur said:
Sadler won't be keen to go through the manager search malarkey again. He's not comfortable with it and had his fingers burned several times in rapid succession.

He can't say he doesn't want to reach the Championship, to his customers.

He has stabilised the club after a very rocky few years when the club's future was very uncertain. The alternatives all looked pretty iffy.

We will do well to compete consistently well with the teams above us in the pyramid with our budget and fanbase. We are close to our natural league position on those stats.

I just wish we could all accept where we are and then start to enjoy it. And that means the club looking to provide entertainment, and the fans being realistic with their expectations of where we should be and we should be beating every week.
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Luton?
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
I've got one option in my head...

We need Fleetwood to beat us as that would really accelerate the sacking.
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I think if Cambridge beat us or maybe even another lacklustre draw on Saturday then my guess is Critch won't be in charge for the Fleetwood game ...
 
One thing I'd think Sadler was good at is knowing when to hold and when to fold. He should be able to read signals weak and strong. He supported the manager whole hearted a few weeks ago with his comments but don't expect that to hold going forward. Trust in Simon.
 
Glassman said:
I think if Cambridge beat us or maybe even another lacklustre draw on Saturday then my guess is Critch won't be in charge for the Fleetwood game ...
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If Sadler sacked Critchley after saying a few weeks ago that “If he doesn’t get us promoted this season, he will have to do it next season” he would look a complete fool. Critchley,I am sorry to say, is going nowhere.
 
Will SS be happy with less revenue next season ? Coz that’s what’s gonna happen . If he’s thinking get a new man in ,get a buzz and season tickets fly out I couldn’t blame him whatever he’s said before !
 
Mark_GT said:
And there is the frustration of it all. You could see and hear the lift in the crowd yesterday for the 10 fruitless minutes near the end when we actually tried to be enterprising. We almost scored with our three worthwhile efforts on goal and it felt like being at a football match for a change instead of a possession based training session. We should be going at teams like that from the off, not knocking it round in increasingly hopeless patterns within our own half.
Click to expand...

This is it. It's like we've been watching something that is all about 'the bigger picture' but the 'bigger picture' is no more evident now than it was at the start of the year.

We press ok and look confused when teams sit back or get physical. That was as evident in week 1 as it is now. We've had so many games where we appear to be engaged in some kind of philosophy of Critchball exercise that hasn't seemed to pay off.

It's like staring at a magic eye picture and not understanding what it is your trying to see watching this team half the time.

I'm not seeing young players, I'm not seeing improving patterns of play. I'm not seeing greater coherence and building of partnerships. It's just the same sort of stuff every other game. It's not *worst team ever* level, there's some mental hyperbole sometimes, but it's just bland, slow, lacking urgency, hope that Kaddy pulls a trick or two out and if he doesn't then shrug... fine margins, quality in both boxes... shape... Inandoutofpossession...
 
td53 said:
This is it. It's like we've been watching something that is all about 'the bigger picture' but the 'bigger picture' is no more evident now than it was at the start of the year.

We press ok and look confused when teams sit back or get physical. That was as evident in week 1 as it is now. We've had so many games where we appear to be engaged in some kind of philosophy of Critchball exercise that hasn't seemed to pay off.

It's like staring at a magic eye picture and not understanding what it is your trying to see watching this team half the time.

I'm not seeing young players, I'm not seeing improving patterns of play. I'm not seeing greater coherence and building of partnerships. It's just the same sort of stuff every other game. It's not *worst team ever* level, there's some mental hyperbole sometimes, but it's just bland, slow, lacking urgency, hope that Kaddy pulls a trick or two out and if he doesn't then shrug... fine margins, quality in both boxes... shape... Inandoutofpossession...
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Good summary but it's worse than bland IMO. It's deadly boring, ineffective, passionless, lacking any guile or footballing intelligence. The players look void of any confidence, the movement is minimal and the passing standard atrocious. I find it hard to understand how it can be this poor when you train with the same players week in, week out.
 
Albert Ross said:
Luton?
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Yes it happens once in a while when a club gets everything right over a period of time. Everything falls on nto place. A lot of clubs are trying to do that and it rarely happens, and they'll be relegated this season probably.
 
voyeur said:
Yes it happens once in a while when a club gets everything right over a period of time. Everything falls on nto place. A lot of clubs are trying to do that and it rarely happens, and they'll be relegated this season probably.
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Quite correct. But it shows, as we did, when as you say, everything falls into place it can be done. The first requirement however is the can do attitude from the manager, I wouldn’t want him back, but Ollie was the epitome of that attitude. Critchley is the antithesis of that attitude. If he spent as much time bigging up our players as he does the opposition, we might get somewhere.
 
The Merry Stripes said:
Simon Sadler said he wants Championship football and that we have a top six budget in this division. He also said he wants exciting football.

So the realistic expectations from the fans should be exciting football, a top six finish and pushing to get back into the Championship. None of this looks even close to achieving under our current coaching staff.

I don't expect us to win every game, but I do expect to be entertained and as a minimum try and win the game. We set up not to lose, I want us to set up to win and if we do lose then so be it, at least we tried. I'm sick of listening about how good the opposition is, I want to hear how good we are.
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That’s exactly where I am, save for my Ditch the Critch stance as he’s not capable of delivering it IMO.
 
td53 said:
This is it. It's like we've been watching something that is all about 'the bigger picture' but the 'bigger picture' is no more evident now than it was at the start of the year.

We press ok and look confused when teams sit back or get physical. That was as evident in week 1 as it is now. We've had so many games where we appear to be engaged in some kind of philosophy of Critchball exercise that hasn't seemed to pay off.

It's like staring at a magic eye picture and not understanding what it is your trying to see watching this team half the time.

I'm not seeing young players, I'm not seeing improving patterns of play. I'm not seeing greater coherence and building of partnerships. It's just the same sort of stuff every other game. It's not *worst team ever* level, there's some mental hyperbole sometimes, but it's just bland, slow, lacking urgency, hope that Kaddy pulls a trick or two out and if he doesn't then shrug... fine margins, quality in both boxes... shape... Inandoutofpossession...
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It’s about as thrilling as Karl Oystons sportswear collection
 
voyeur said:
Yes it happens once in a while when a club gets everything right over a period of time. Everything falls on nto place. A lot of clubs are trying to do that and it rarely happens, and they'll be relegated this season probably.
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It’s better to have tried and failed than never try at all though…which is where we look to be at. No BFC fan in my lifetime is likely to see us back in the premier league for even one season, and no right thinking BFC fan would have it anything other than a long shot aspiration… but I damn well expect us to be playing to win in league one.
 
I know I keep harking on about it, but from a pure technical level and patterns of play our biggest failure to create chances is in the crossing positions.

In the past we had wingers who were happy to come inside and then overlapping fullbacks happy to get to the bye line. So imagine Bowler drifts inside (opportunity to shoot) or Gabriel, Sterling etc overlapped so the ball out wide was on too. Keshi or Embleton cutting inside with Husband overlapping.
Or winger pulls out wide and stops, turns towards our goalkeeper and rolls it back to Gabriel to whip in the cross.


This formation now assumes the same, however now it expects Gabriel/Coulson to overlap but if he has to turn backwards the person behind is a centre back (Casey or Pennington). That seems fundamentally flawed to me?
It would be fine when Hubby is left CB but on the right it just expects too much of a Div 1 Centre back.
 
clappers said:
It’s better to have tried and failed than never try at all though…which is where we look to be at. No BFC fan in my lifetime is likely to see us back in the premier league for even one season, and no right thinking BFC fan would have it anything other than a long shot aspiration… but I damn well expect us to be playing to win in league one.
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Everyone expects us to be playing to win, whatever league we are in. Stating the obvious I think.
 
Albert Ross said:
If Sadler sacked Critchley after saying a few weeks ago that “If he doesn’t get us promoted this season, he will have to do it next season” he would look a complete fool. Critchley,I am sorry to say, is going nowhere.
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It remains better to admit and correct error than compound foolishness by doing nothing.

The owner's decision to fire Appleton showed readiness to concede his mistake.

But Sadler's next two coach appointments restored the failure begun in Grayson's hire.

Critchley's retention for more dross would undermine plans for a new training ground and stand.
 
20togo said:
the biggest disconnect and it's growing rapidly is between the fans and the manager/team/club. Putting it bluntly Critchley has killed a lot of the love and passion that the fans have for all things BFC.

Sadler needs to recognise this because it can't carry on as it is as it will only become more toxic. You can't even say it's a knee jerk re-action as it's been pretty much all season with absolutely no sign of improvement.
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The discontent is growing as well, first time he’s had sections of the north booing him. Another poor home performance and that will grow into a crescendo.
 
td53 said:
This is it. It's like we've been watching something that is all about 'the bigger picture' but the 'bigger picture' is no more evident now than it was at the start of the year.

We press ok and look confused when teams sit back or get physical. That was as evident in week 1 as it is now. We've had so many games where we appear to be engaged in some kind of philosophy of Critchball exercise that hasn't seemed to pay off.

It's like staring at a magic eye picture and not understanding what it is your trying to see watching this team half the time.

I'm not seeing young players, I'm not seeing improving patterns of play. I'm not seeing greater coherence and building of partnerships. It's just the same sort of stuff every other game. It's not *worst team ever* level, there's some mental hyperbole sometimes, but it's just bland, slow, lacking urgency, hope that Kaddy pulls a trick or two out and if he doesn't then shrug... fine margins, quality in both boxes... shape... Inandoutofpossession...
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Yup, there is no bigger picture this season. The picture is what we see, players caught in an endless loop of recycling possession, midfield heading battles and firing mishit crosses at defenders' heads. I did one bang on full time yesterday and missed the reception given to Mystic Critch. Tickets for the Fast Show live in Liverpool were offering some hope of Bank Holiday redemption. A bit of Coughing Bob Fleming, Dave Angel and Unlucky Alf later and all was right in the world.... until 3pm next Saturday, that is 😗
 
Mark_GT said:
Yup, there is no bigger picture this season. The picture is what we see, players caught in an endless loop of recycling possession, midfield heading battles and firing mishit crosses at defenders' heads. I did one bang on full time yesterday and missed the reception given to Mystic Critch. Tickets for the Fast Show live in Liverpool were offering some hope of Bank Holiday redemption. A bit of Coughing Bob Fleming, Dave Angel and Unlucky Alf later and all was right in the world.... until 3pm next Saturday, that is 😗
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Blimey, you’d have to interpret that for an old geezer like me.
 
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