Richard’s awol ? 18:15 - Jan 29 with 60776 views | paulhoop2 | Have heard a nasty little rumour that Taylor is awol anyone else heard this ? Jokes aside lol apparently not seen at the TG for a while? Clive can you shed any light ? | |
| | |
Richard’s awol ? on 23:13 - Jan 30 with 4038 views | connell10 |
Richard’s awol ? on 22:56 - Jan 30 by kensalriser | Good grief, never a dull moment at the Rs! Well, off the pitch anyway. I'm inclined to give Adomah a pass here. As said, he's a model pro and has kept himself as fit as he possibly could, that's why he got a contract 18 months ago at an age when most have already retired. Cifuentes wiped the slate when he arrived and everyone got another chance, some took it, some tried but weren't good enough and Taylor Richards failed miserably because he's a total waster and pisstaker. We've all known someone like that in either our personal or professional lives, probably both, but when it's in your professional life it can stick in your craw when you know you're carrying someone who can't be arsed and doesn't ever seem to suffer any consequences. |
His contract runs until 2026 .....bloody hell. | |
| AND WHEN I DREAM , I DREAM ABOUT YOU AND WHEN I SCREAM I SCREAM ABOUT YOU!!!!! | Poll: | best number 10 ever? |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 23:26 - Jan 30 with 3965 views | Ned_Kennedys |
Richard’s awol ? on 20:49 - Jan 30 by BrianMcCarthy | Well, he's just made it worse. |
No he hasn’t: you think Richards will care about it? The club would be mad to discipline him for stating the truth. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 23:34 - Jan 30 with 3936 views | Ned_Kennedys |
Richard’s awol ? on 21:58 - Jan 30 by BazzaInTheLoft | Things are shit mate, obviously, but what good is the venomous response to anything that moves (or doesn’t in this case)? It’s exhausting. You are right, that Albert Adomah criticising a player publicly should ring alarm bells but look what it’s in response to? Some anonymous account having a dig at him. I’ve seen a lot of talk about ‘not accepting x and tolerating y’ but it’s just words and it’s a fcking downer on an already miserable season and the only ones it hurts are other fans who have to read it after a defeat. And let’s be honest, some fans were doing it when we were top of the league in 2011. That shouting into the void could be put to better use in the LSA or by forming supporter groups or even throwing tennis balls on the pitch. Typing away on a forum or abusing players on Twitter is lazy and self defeating frankly. [Post edited 31 Jan 0:16]
|
We are having a disastrous season on and off the field and people are calling it out on the internet. If that’s too much for you just ignore it. Surely better on here and on social media than at games IMO. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 23:37 - Jan 30 with 3922 views | loftboy | Came off Twitter a few years ago, absolute dickheads on there, I’d buy Albert a pint if I saw him in a pub tomorrow, stop tip toeing around these prima Donna’s, they get paid more than most of us can dream of, sack the useless cúnt and see the PFA in court. | |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 23:53 - Jan 30 with 3835 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
Richard’s awol ? on 23:34 - Jan 30 by Ned_Kennedys | We are having a disastrous season on and off the field and people are calling it out on the internet. If that’s too much for you just ignore it. Surely better on here and on social media than at games IMO. |
Yeah, you’ve not really read what I’ve said. Criticism is deserved but we have people here calling for legs to be broken. I hope you can see the difference. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:06 - Jan 31 with 3764 views | ted_hendrix | For the bloody life of me what I don't understand Is why Is it such a disaster nowadays when all those Years ago when we were just as bloody dreadful, with bucket collections, with the power being switched off at the training ground and what seemed like crap players and performances what the hell Is so different today??? Back then It kind off didn't matter so much or It didn't seem too, I reckon I hate some of our players now and It was never like that back when. Excuse my language but f ucked If I know, never been so disheartened with It all. Give us a couple of wins and who knows? | |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:26 - Jan 31 with 3688 views | EalingHoop81 |
Richard’s awol ? on 22:13 - Jan 30 by Northernr | I agree with you to a certain extent. About 50% of that post. And, look, you and I sat in a wooden box in a deserted town square in Austria last June and called this season and how it would got basically play for play, right down to the date of Ainsworth's departure and his replacement. I also agree with brian, you keep this stuff in house. HOWEVER.... And it's in caps because it's a HOWEVER a million feet tall. You have had Chris Martin, who's achieved success in his career but by no means been a model pro, coming in here, and being so far and away the most professional guy in the buolding that they make him captain, and within two months he's on THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE saying the QPR players are not dedicated enough to what they're doing every day. You've now got Albert Adomah who is basically The Model Professional Footballer. An amazing role model. And he's so frustrated he's now let something slip. Whether it should be kept in house or not, whether it's exhausting to read or not, whether we should have a new LSA or not... these are side issues. This is Judean People's Front stuff. Minutiae. The most experienced players in your squad are sending distress flares up. That's the ball game. Listen to them. |
Appreciate as fans we don’t see the individuals in the training ground each day (it’s bad enough seeing them once a week on the pitch) but I’m struggling to identify who all of these other players can be or if it’s just Richards. From Jan 2022 we clearly had an issue within the squad and one day it will come out, probably on Patreon, but most of those players have now moved on. Yes Beale recruited a load of duds but equally, other than a few, they have all moved on. Of the first 11 that started on Saturday, there’s only one player I would have a concern about re attitude. Surely the Summer recruits, given the issues Gaz saw, must have had some form of assessment about their personalities and professionalism. Three of the recruits have played almost their entire careers with decent prem clubs (Begoviic, Cook, Colback). Others came through very good academies with appropriate standards. Others like Cannon and Fox don’t seem to ring any alarm bells. Re Martin’s comments last year, departures since have included Balogun, Laird , Roberts, Lowe, Stef, Dozell, Amos and Dieng, all of whom had various comments re attitude (other than Amos and Stef unless I missed something there). Surely, surely the professionalism, attitude and approach must have changed since last year? | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:51 - Jan 31 with 3651 views | Northernr |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:26 - Jan 31 by EalingHoop81 | Appreciate as fans we don’t see the individuals in the training ground each day (it’s bad enough seeing them once a week on the pitch) but I’m struggling to identify who all of these other players can be or if it’s just Richards. From Jan 2022 we clearly had an issue within the squad and one day it will come out, probably on Patreon, but most of those players have now moved on. Yes Beale recruited a load of duds but equally, other than a few, they have all moved on. Of the first 11 that started on Saturday, there’s only one player I would have a concern about re attitude. Surely the Summer recruits, given the issues Gaz saw, must have had some form of assessment about their personalities and professionalism. Three of the recruits have played almost their entire careers with decent prem clubs (Begoviic, Cook, Colback). Others came through very good academies with appropriate standards. Others like Cannon and Fox don’t seem to ring any alarm bells. Re Martin’s comments last year, departures since have included Balogun, Laird , Roberts, Lowe, Stef, Dozell, Amos and Dieng, all of whom had various comments re attitude (other than Amos and Stef unless I missed something there). Surely, surely the professionalism, attitude and approach must have changed since last year? |
And yet, like I say, you've got your most senior professional, and an absolute model pro to this point in his career, feeling compelled to say something publicly. | | | | Login to get fewer ads
Richard’s awol ? on 04:28 - Jan 31 with 3504 views | bongo_king | Reusing two points which have been made time and time again 1. Standards for the whole team are defined by the lowest bar. If that bar involves someone not bothering to turn up to work then there is a big problem for team standards as a whole. Look at it another way, how do you feel in a job when you're consistently cleaning up someone's mess and/or they don't bother to turn up? (I'm sure we've all experienced that once, even if just a temp job... I remember at least one job I did way back where the whole "culture" sunk due to a major dosser; another case more recently where I was unfortunately managing the dosser and it was a fight to keep the ship straight till we got rid of them). 2. There comes a point where there are too many bad eggs and the whole culture of the squad suffers. I think Kevin Gallen recently said on a pod that from his experience this number is 3; lets say he's right, it's pretty clear why last season was a mess. This season we can argue we have/are reducing the bad eggs. Problem is the there is still reliance on a set of players have been part of last season's no/low standards squad. Hard to turn that form around. I suspect that, just like Dickie who's gone on to do fine after the change of team, we'll find out that many (my guesses - Field, Chair, Dunne, Dykes, Paal) will show themselves to be good champ players in a different environment. It's depressing. But lets hope our new CEO has some idea how to somehow raise that lowest bar. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 08:20 - Jan 31 with 3115 views | Hunterhoop |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:26 - Jan 31 by EalingHoop81 | Appreciate as fans we don’t see the individuals in the training ground each day (it’s bad enough seeing them once a week on the pitch) but I’m struggling to identify who all of these other players can be or if it’s just Richards. From Jan 2022 we clearly had an issue within the squad and one day it will come out, probably on Patreon, but most of those players have now moved on. Yes Beale recruited a load of duds but equally, other than a few, they have all moved on. Of the first 11 that started on Saturday, there’s only one player I would have a concern about re attitude. Surely the Summer recruits, given the issues Gaz saw, must have had some form of assessment about their personalities and professionalism. Three of the recruits have played almost their entire careers with decent prem clubs (Begoviic, Cook, Colback). Others came through very good academies with appropriate standards. Others like Cannon and Fox don’t seem to ring any alarm bells. Re Martin’s comments last year, departures since have included Balogun, Laird , Roberts, Lowe, Stef, Dozell, Amos and Dieng, all of whom had various comments re attitude (other than Amos and Stef unless I missed something there). Surely, surely the professionalism, attitude and approach must have changed since last year? |
I think we may find in years to come that certain very popular players, some of our most talented players are part of the problem in the dressing room and at the training ground… Look at those who are close. Richards is clearly the one being directly called out here. But the whole “it’s worse than you think” is not just about one player. It’s an entire culture. Critchley realised it. Ainsworth realised it. I’m sure Cifuentes has realised it. They all took different approaches in trying to deal with it. Marti is playing his best players to stay up. Whatever happens he will shift some of those in the summer through choice, not just necessity, to start again. I think Dozzell going was him getting going early. The culture has been poor for a while and these things get worse and worse if untreated. I may be in the minority, but I think this began in Jan/Feb 2022. The Gray incident, the Hendricks signing and displacing of Dom Ball (a great trainer), Chair’s return from AFCON and immediate inclusion in a winning team…there were then quite a few signs for the next 6 months, and then we gave the keys to Beale who made some awful signings…and it spiralled. The only player I can recall a manager or coach praising for their work ethic/principles/behaviour, is Sam Field (Dobson said “if you had eleven Sam Field’s you’d be fine”), but from that Dunne interview with Field it’s clear he’s an introverted chap, almost a bit of a loner, who is not part of the core group. That makes me think that the core group is the problem. And that is a big problem to have when you’re losing regularly. [Post edited 31 Jan 8:22]
| | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 08:37 - Jan 31 with 3014 views | PlanetHonneywood | The trouble with QPR since Chris Wright rolled into town, is that we've been run by a succession of clowns, crooks, and charlatans; the majority of whom struck me as being largely clueless. When I say 'run' that extends from the boardroom to the boot room, and includes people employed to do the technical jobs as well. We've been rotten from the head down - save for a few seasons - for nigh on 30 years. It's created a culture that's imbued with toxicity and incompetence; where excellence in performance, both on and off the pitch, is frequently replaced by abject lethargy and error strewn decisionmaking by people paid great sums. Personallly, I'm sick and tired of players merely phoning it in, and not caring one iota. Richards is the latest in a long line of poor decisions by QPR. A failure of due diligence and frankly, football nous. Again! The club's DNA is ingrained with an unabated cancerous growth of carelessness, incompetence, and downright idiocy at times. I care not that my time following hasn't yielded many silverware winning days (althoughsome wouldbe nice); I merely ask that if QPR can't play and operate with pride, that they do so with professionalism commensurate with the large wedge they are paid. If it comes down to Chris Martin and Uncle Albert to highlight what's wrong, then so be it. They're merely telling us what we already know: QPR's overpaid and underperforming employees have and continue to bring in some right tossers. | |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 08:44 - Jan 31 with 2979 views | stevec |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:51 - Jan 31 by Northernr | And yet, like I say, you've got your most senior professional, and an absolute model pro to this point in his career, feeling compelled to say something publicly. |
I suspect Albert’s comment isn’t just related to Richard’s. I get the feeling the whole back room running of the club has taken its toll over too many years and the malaise is so deeply ingrained that even the most conscientious of players are struggling under the cloud that creates. To me, Marti is trying to pull together probably no more than 12-14 players, some mentally strong but fed up with it, some equally fed up but not so mentally strong, trying to galvanise them away from the rot surrounding them and largely praying none of them get injured. He is gradually weeding out the rubbish that should never have been allowed to fester here in the first place. The Ramsey/Les era has to be completely erased but despite their personal removals the rest of the process won’t happen overnight. What we’ve been left with, on the field, are at rock bottom. Looking at them on the floor at the end each week, we do have a bare bones of a squad that look like they care. They may not be good enough, but they’re the best we have got. These players have got to be shown that whatever’s gone before is, and will be, comprehensively cleared out. It’s refreshing that Albert, as a senior player, has put his head above the parapet. He has to be listened to, not by us, but by the club. This fiasco has to be called to account. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 08:49 - Jan 31 with 2954 views | Metallica_Hoop | The trouble is if there are a few Gríma Wormtongues in the squad, stay up or go down. How do we shift them? We can't terminate them (so to speak) as we have no funds and who is going to buy them? I've been thinking for a while something's not right with this team. (deeper than just being shit most of the time) | |
| Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:14 - Jan 31 with 2864 views | TheChef |
Richard’s awol ? on 22:17 - Jan 30 by Northernr | If it's not about Richards (it is) then you've got a way bigger problem than even I thought. |
Well there's probably at least a couple of other players who might not be giving their all for the cause. Sadly though I do think most of them are trying, but they're just not very good. | |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:15 - Jan 31 with 2861 views | Blue_Castello |
Richard’s awol ? on 00:26 - Jan 31 by EalingHoop81 | Appreciate as fans we don’t see the individuals in the training ground each day (it’s bad enough seeing them once a week on the pitch) but I’m struggling to identify who all of these other players can be or if it’s just Richards. From Jan 2022 we clearly had an issue within the squad and one day it will come out, probably on Patreon, but most of those players have now moved on. Yes Beale recruited a load of duds but equally, other than a few, they have all moved on. Of the first 11 that started on Saturday, there’s only one player I would have a concern about re attitude. Surely the Summer recruits, given the issues Gaz saw, must have had some form of assessment about their personalities and professionalism. Three of the recruits have played almost their entire careers with decent prem clubs (Begoviic, Cook, Colback). Others came through very good academies with appropriate standards. Others like Cannon and Fox don’t seem to ring any alarm bells. Re Martin’s comments last year, departures since have included Balogun, Laird , Roberts, Lowe, Stef, Dozell, Amos and Dieng, all of whom had various comments re attitude (other than Amos and Stef unless I missed something there). Surely, surely the professionalism, attitude and approach must have changed since last year? |
Good post Ealing Im also struggling with who are all these so called "bad eggs" , last season that was the case but they have moved on. Watching the game on Sunday I didn't get the impression they were not trying at all, we were outplayed by Huddersfield simple as and their tactics were better than ours, we totally lost the midfield battle which was the big problem. We all know there's an issue with Richards but continually sacking off the rest of the squad as a bad bunch seems strange, I genuinely got the impression on Sunday that they were all desperate for the win but the opposition were better than us and part of that was down to how Marti set us up to play against them, ie the Dykes experiment worked against Millwall but was a disaster on Sunday. It would be really interesting to know exactly what Albert was referring to with his comments because they can be translated in different ways, the bloke is a model professional and I'm sure his standards are ones that he expects every member of the squad to achieve. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:19 - Jan 31 with 2823 views | BrianMcCarthy | And now the debate is whether one of our players was coating off one of our players or more than one. Entirely predictable, give the nature of the tweet, and entirely avoidable. | |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:30 - Jan 31 with 2738 views | TheChef | OK so of the current squad: Richards - huge amounts of conjecture about why he's not playing, there might be a serious issue not of his making; I'm still going with innocent until proven guilty. Willock - not right mentally or physically, appears to be looking to the summer for his next move. In a relegation battle, not what you need. Colback - can't make him out. Probably realised too late what a shitshow he's got himself into, I'd say we're better when he does play but he can't/won't keep his discipline. Dozzell - now out the building but for a central midfielder would never put his body on the line. Better off without him. Chair - OK, I know. Can't fault his effort on the pitch but I don't think he trusts his team mates (which probably causes friction) and ends up trying to do too much himself. And I reckon he's a bigger voice in the changing room than most people think. The rest - as mentioned I think they're trying, but not good enough. | |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:31 - Jan 31 with 2721 views | Rangersw12 |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:19 - Jan 31 by BrianMcCarthy | And now the debate is whether one of our players was coating off one of our players or more than one. Entirely predictable, give the nature of the tweet, and entirely avoidable. |
Surely it's about time Richards has been called out though He basically been taking the piss out of the club and the fans for over a year now | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:46 - Jan 31 with 2596 views | Blue_Castello |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:30 - Jan 31 by TheChef | OK so of the current squad: Richards - huge amounts of conjecture about why he's not playing, there might be a serious issue not of his making; I'm still going with innocent until proven guilty. Willock - not right mentally or physically, appears to be looking to the summer for his next move. In a relegation battle, not what you need. Colback - can't make him out. Probably realised too late what a shitshow he's got himself into, I'd say we're better when he does play but he can't/won't keep his discipline. Dozzell - now out the building but for a central midfielder would never put his body on the line. Better off without him. Chair - OK, I know. Can't fault his effort on the pitch but I don't think he trusts his team mates (which probably causes friction) and ends up trying to do too much himself. And I reckon he's a bigger voice in the changing room than most people think. The rest - as mentioned I think they're trying, but not good enough. |
So there you go of those 5 players surely the only one coming into the so called "bad egg" category is Richards, Willock is trying but doesn't trust his hamstrings, problem is in our squad he's one of the few players who scores goals and makes assists so Marti wants him on the pitch for at least a % of the game, like you I wouldn't start him in front of Smyth but we have so few options in the squad. Colback has been very frustrating because of his discipline and injuries, he needs a run of games, Dozzell always tried but for most of us just wasn't good enough, not a defensive or attacking midfielder just somebody who recycles the ball without looking up and trying to attack, it happened but far too infrequently. Chair well for me he's the heartbeat of the team and if he's not there sadly we are struggling, it's a shame Willock has declined in form because when Chair went to the AfCON last time he took most of the games by the scruff of the neck and I think we won nearly every won while he was away. It's really difficult to go through what's left of the squad and think there's anybody not pulling their weight, we have a weak squad for the Championship and we are coming up against much stronger squads nearly every week. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:57 - Jan 31 with 2526 views | BAWHoops | When the owner is rarely in the country, the chairman is (last one and current) obviously massively checked out, there's no DOF and no CEO then why would bother giving 100%? There's fck all structure around the place. It's a massive, massive mess. It's just not a conducive environment to getting the best out of the players. If you went to work and the only person senior to you that you ever saw was your line manager then your motivation would decrease pretty sharply. They needed to completely clean house last summer. They managed to get rid of Dieng and Dickie. We still have Kakay, Dunne, JCS, Paal, Field, Chair, Willock, Dykes kicking around who have all contributed to the malaise. We are rotten. And your favourite player is part of that whether one wants to admit that or not. Last time we sunk this low we only came back because Ollie cleaned house in League 1. There's not one OOC player I would keep next season and that includes Field and Dunne | |
| http://blogandwhitehoops.wordpress.com/ |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 10:00 - Jan 31 with 2508 views | Lblock | What about the other constant...... the PE teachers and clueless off the pitch set up | |
| Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal |
| |
Richard’s awol ? on 10:05 - Jan 31 with 2473 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
Richard’s awol ? on 08:20 - Jan 31 by Hunterhoop | I think we may find in years to come that certain very popular players, some of our most talented players are part of the problem in the dressing room and at the training ground… Look at those who are close. Richards is clearly the one being directly called out here. But the whole “it’s worse than you think” is not just about one player. It’s an entire culture. Critchley realised it. Ainsworth realised it. I’m sure Cifuentes has realised it. They all took different approaches in trying to deal with it. Marti is playing his best players to stay up. Whatever happens he will shift some of those in the summer through choice, not just necessity, to start again. I think Dozzell going was him getting going early. The culture has been poor for a while and these things get worse and worse if untreated. I may be in the minority, but I think this began in Jan/Feb 2022. The Gray incident, the Hendricks signing and displacing of Dom Ball (a great trainer), Chair’s return from AFCON and immediate inclusion in a winning team…there were then quite a few signs for the next 6 months, and then we gave the keys to Beale who made some awful signings…and it spiralled. The only player I can recall a manager or coach praising for their work ethic/principles/behaviour, is Sam Field (Dobson said “if you had eleven Sam Field’s you’d be fine”), but from that Dunne interview with Field it’s clear he’s an introverted chap, almost a bit of a loner, who is not part of the core group. That makes me think that the core group is the problem. And that is a big problem to have when you’re losing regularly. [Post edited 31 Jan 8:22]
|
What was the Gray incident? I don’t remember this. | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 10:14 - Jan 31 with 2421 views | robith |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:30 - Jan 31 by TheChef | OK so of the current squad: Richards - huge amounts of conjecture about why he's not playing, there might be a serious issue not of his making; I'm still going with innocent until proven guilty. Willock - not right mentally or physically, appears to be looking to the summer for his next move. In a relegation battle, not what you need. Colback - can't make him out. Probably realised too late what a shitshow he's got himself into, I'd say we're better when he does play but he can't/won't keep his discipline. Dozzell - now out the building but for a central midfielder would never put his body on the line. Better off without him. Chair - OK, I know. Can't fault his effort on the pitch but I don't think he trusts his team mates (which probably causes friction) and ends up trying to do too much himself. And I reckon he's a bigger voice in the changing room than most people think. The rest - as mentioned I think they're trying, but not good enough. |
re: Chair's voice - I'm not ITK but know a few people who have been connected to a few people so could be rank hearsay, but I was told Chair was one of the most vocal dressing room voices undermining Critchley | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 10:18 - Jan 31 with 2339 views | actonman |
Richard’s awol ? on 09:57 - Jan 31 by BAWHoops | When the owner is rarely in the country, the chairman is (last one and current) obviously massively checked out, there's no DOF and no CEO then why would bother giving 100%? There's fck all structure around the place. It's a massive, massive mess. It's just not a conducive environment to getting the best out of the players. If you went to work and the only person senior to you that you ever saw was your line manager then your motivation would decrease pretty sharply. They needed to completely clean house last summer. They managed to get rid of Dieng and Dickie. We still have Kakay, Dunne, JCS, Paal, Field, Chair, Willock, Dykes kicking around who have all contributed to the malaise. We are rotten. And your favourite player is part of that whether one wants to admit that or not. Last time we sunk this low we only came back because Ollie cleaned house in League 1. There's not one OOC player I would keep next season and that includes Field and Dunne |
And here in lies the problem ! There is nobody looking to bring the club forward ! Nobody planning for the future and no structure whatsoever. We keeping players beyond their worth as we never have anyone else lined up to replace them so we’re left with the keeping the devil you know or signing a player who took a good throw in against us 5 years ago type of signings . I know having no money doesn’t help but we should have been building something not plastering over cracks A good fking clear out is what we need but unfortunately unless someone behind the scenes takes some responsibility and restructures the club , we will just end up in league one with another group of fking p!ss taking losers Maybe we tried and failed ? I think with lord taylucan we where just hoping for another eze type player to make a quick Few quid to keep us afloat for a bit longer | | | |
Richard’s awol ? on 10:19 - Jan 31 with 2328 views | W7Ranger |
Richard’s awol ? on 08:20 - Jan 31 by Hunterhoop | I think we may find in years to come that certain very popular players, some of our most talented players are part of the problem in the dressing room and at the training ground… Look at those who are close. Richards is clearly the one being directly called out here. But the whole “it’s worse than you think” is not just about one player. It’s an entire culture. Critchley realised it. Ainsworth realised it. I’m sure Cifuentes has realised it. They all took different approaches in trying to deal with it. Marti is playing his best players to stay up. Whatever happens he will shift some of those in the summer through choice, not just necessity, to start again. I think Dozzell going was him getting going early. The culture has been poor for a while and these things get worse and worse if untreated. I may be in the minority, but I think this began in Jan/Feb 2022. The Gray incident, the Hendricks signing and displacing of Dom Ball (a great trainer), Chair’s return from AFCON and immediate inclusion in a winning team…there were then quite a few signs for the next 6 months, and then we gave the keys to Beale who made some awful signings…and it spiralled. The only player I can recall a manager or coach praising for their work ethic/principles/behaviour, is Sam Field (Dobson said “if you had eleven Sam Field’s you’d be fine”), but from that Dunne interview with Field it’s clear he’s an introverted chap, almost a bit of a loner, who is not part of the core group. That makes me think that the core group is the problem. And that is a big problem to have when you’re losing regularly. [Post edited 31 Jan 8:22]
|
When Chair came back from AFCON in 2022, he hadn't played a game in the tournamanet, or if he did it was very limited. We were still in and around the play offs and we had Peterboro in the FA CUP. So it was the ideal opportunity for Chair to come back in (as a first teamer) to get some minutes under his belt before we kicked back on with the league campaign. Most fans were calling for this as we wanted Chair to be match fit for the run in, so it made perfect sense to play in that cup game. And if I remember rightly he came the closest to scoring with a Free Kick that hit the bar! It was just unfortunate/frustrating that for some reason we were just very poor that day. Hendrick came in and was awful. Can't remember which Keeper played that day as we had all those injuries. Was either Dieng (also just back from AFCON) or that as Sheff Wed keeper? So for me the Chair inclusion was absolutely the right decision for that game when you look at the biigger picture. [Post edited 31 Jan 10:29]
| | | |
| |