Evangelos Marinakis And Co

[Strawberry Avenger]

For me it all comes down to sticking with a decent manager.

In our position it would certainly make things a lot easier, but it is easier said than done, & also requires hiring the right manager in the first place.

I know, because I've heard it first hand, that the biggest regret was the loss of Warburton, I know he's not popular with some, but the club liked him & would have liked to have found a way to make that work, but the position became untenable after his DoF walked out mid argument over CB's & with no DoF it meant change was required.

Karanka was awful & a massive mistake & had to go, if he hadn't walked he'd have had to have been pushed, as it was going to sink the club, we were coming up to a match where we didn't even have 11 round pegs for the game, changes needed to be made & Karanka was midsulk/strike so the situation had to come to a head.

O'Neill, probably the best manager we've had here for a decade didn't work out & his position became untenable, & we did try to stick by Sabri, but I think we can all agree that things had gone south there by the end.

So it may be just me on here (oh and Sniff) who still has faith in EM that he has learnt quite a few lessons about the Championship and he is actually changing his strategy to one that will be successful.

The proof of that is in the pudding, his pocketbook will certainly have felt the damage, so he will have learned lessons, & is implementing change, but is it the right change, & is it enough?

Only time will answer that, this summer will either be a summer of change, or a little to close to the same old same old & rinse & repeat.

& all that adds to the frustration of the season, because it means we're spending a year, unable to attend matches, watching a S**t team, play S**t football, in a S**t position in the league knowing all we can do is sit & wait to see how many lessons have been learned, what difference the changes will make & where we'll be next year.

An engaging read, Knocker, as your posts tend to provoke food for thought.  I find myself agreeing for the most part on your assessments and quizzical posts on the dilemma of change.

I wish we'd given Warburton or O'Neil more time.  (18 months was hardly a long time to try out the experiment.)

It's very interesting that many of the changes happened 'mid-stream.'

Warburton/Aitor didn't complete the season.  O'Neil barely completed a half season.  (At least Warburton had a pre-season.  O'Neil didn't and had to cop the heat without the Summer window and a pre-season.  So you have a manager 'trying things' in the middle of a season and results can vary.)

Familiar?

Hughton.  No pre-season.  No Summer transfers.  Picking up the mess of a previous manager who'd already brought in his 14 players with no pre-season to speak of.  What could go wrong, eh?

Trying to pin this season on Hughton?  Would be misplaced.  A form of denial that's see Forest walk in the desert for the last 20 years.

Given Hughton quality players.  He'll get you there.  Warburton is showing that he doesn't go down without a fight at QPR and sticks to his footballing principles.  (Though, ironically, many didn't like his toothless tippy tappy football when he was here.  'What's the point if you don't win?' etc.). Club legend O'Neil had the measure of the Championship and opponents and saw through many pretenders when he was here.  But that wasn't enough for some.  A few months to sort out the carnage Aitor had left.)

Whether he fits Forest's footballing principles? Well, that's down to the boss man at Forest. I guess Mari just wants us there so we can cop some big money. Hughton plays with two wingers, a no.10 and a striker. He wasn't in charge of recruitment for those positions in the Summer. And the 'band aid' January signings show the direction Hughton would like to go in. Forest got closer and pressed harder to attack 2nd half. But it doesn't matter about positions, you still have to have good quality players to beat a side like Norwich who have simply recruited better and with a team that's been well 'drilled' for three years. Maybe the irony of that fixture last night shouldn't be lost on the people running Forest and the decisions they made. And they should be accountable for the last years. For the appointments and recruitment made.

Meanwhile, Norwich had a plan, a good manager and stuck with it.  They justifiably played Forest off the park 1st half last night.

SA.