Performances got worse from last season or just scoring less?

[Dbantx]

After Windass talking about missing Nicky Summerbeee it got me thinking about the above. I can think of lots of home games last season where the performances were poor but the thing that saved the games from being a potential snore fest was that we had a good crosser to ping in the balls for the strikers to get on the end of…which more often than not resulted in at least 2 goals scored. Even the Bristol City + Brentford home games where we put four goals past them were both were both scrappy games and if we had only taken one of our chances in each could be considered very average.

To be fair, and I may get blasted for this but I have some sympathy for Todd. He is trying to get the side to play football, we made some good moves yesterday and I think if he was handed a good squad with good players it would work. Which brings me to the point that Todd doesn’t have a f*cking clue when it comes to signing players, he never has done, and never will do.

I think Julian has woke up to this and written this season off and next season will persevere with Todd but monitor his transfer activity VERY carefully and investigate each and every one of his targets before allowing him to sign them. We can see evidence of this in the January transfer window, Julian Rhodes repeatedly said that ‘We are looking to strengthen the squad but I will only allow it to happen if it’s the right player’....he's still saying it now. In the past Rhodes seems to have let Todd go off willy nilly signing his targets, Todd said ‘I want him’ and Rhodes commenced negotiations without a second thought. A very much Rhodesesque non-interference policy.

I think this season will prove to be a learning curve for Julian and rather than sack Todd in the summer costing him wads of cash in compensation, he will opt to restrict Todds freedom in the transfer market, let Todd name his preferred targets and then rout out all the journeyman and players with attitude problems to avoid anymore Petta’s. I.E Taking less gambles on players with sordid and troublesome pasts.

I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that although I would rejoice if Todd was sacked tomorrow, it clearly isn’t going to happen. Rhodes in his program notes said they are developing an exciting and unusual season ticket policy next year to encourage people to renew.

He’re I go, sticking me’neck out….What if, instead of the problem being we have a title winning team with a sh*t manager as some claim, we have an average/poor team with an average manager…all because the manager doesn’t sign the right players.

There are no teams in this league this year that play good football, teams like Luton who have played their way out of this league are sitting comfortably in the Championship. If Todd is allowed to run wild in the summer signing who he wants then we’ll be relegation fodder…but if the signals are correct and Julian is planning on being much more careful in the transfer market then Todd could be handed a team that can actually play football and we would do a Luton.

The will Is there to do it, but goddamit Todd is crap at signing players.

[Dbantx]

On the subject of nobody playing good football in this division i think if Hudders go up they will do a Sheffield Wednesday and struggle. Hell i think anyone who goes up this season will struggle.

[baldbantam]

2 points:

1 The biggest single mistake Todd made was in letting Summerbee go and not replacing him with a similar type player. That one decision has had the biggest effect on our season and made the difference between challenging for the play offs and looking over our shoulders at relegation.

2 I have no confidence whatsoever in the ability of Julian Rhodes to decide on transfer targets. What on earth would suggest he has the necessary experience to decide who is suitable? When Chairmen pick teams they are universally condemned for it, and this would be much the same.

[Dr Wisey]

I'll go along with BB statements.

I see no way forward with Todd at the helm whatever happens.

Can anyone see a rush for season ticket renewals unless the discount is very tempting ?

[Dbantx]

'What on earth would suggest he has the necessary experience to decide who is suitable?'


In that case nothing would suggest that us fans have the experience to decide who is suitable, yet plenty of people saw Petta as a disaster waiting to happen as soon as we signed him.

All it would have taken was a quick look through a few Darlington message boards to reveal what would happen. IMO in most cases a sure way to tell whether a signing will be good or not is to look at the opinions of the fans of his previous club. Petta was never particularly liked whichever club he was at, Holloway was not rated by Wimbledon fans and even Sunderland fans said he became very dodgy. Russell Howarth was considered very dodgy and unsure whilst in goal by Tranmere fans.

IMO 50% of rubbish transfers could be averted by just scouring through the football message boards of their previous clubs to see what their fans think about them.

I don't want Rhodes to pick the team, just to use a bit of common sense, if a player has been booted out of every club he's played for or dropped because of disciplinery problems repeatedly it doesnt take a genius to work out what will happen when he signs for you're club. All he has to do is say 'I'm sorry you're not having him Colin, the mans a git'.

People say that the fans have a bad perspective of how good or bad players are because we only see the 90 minutes on the field and do not how they perform in training. That the manager sees more and knows more about his players. I somewhat disagree, their performance in matches is all that matters, the fans have a relatively unbiased view of the players. We don't know them, we're not friends with them, personal relationships with the players don't give us rose tinted spectacles when watching them play. If a player plays badly we have no hesitation in saying he's played rubbish.

Everybody knows that Ben Muirhead is never going to become consistently good, but when you are mates with the lad like the coaching staff are and see him performing in training it gives them that glimmer of hope that he might one day fulfill is potential. If Ben Muirhead ever fulfills his potential i'll eat my hat.

If in the summer Rhodes tells Todd that he can't sign certain targets of his because they have had a string of failures and an 'im not bothered im just here to collect my wage' reputation then its a very good thing.