I'm not overly enamoured with DC but I agree with the concensus on here that he has been dealt a cack hand and should maybe be given more than a full season to stamp his mark. Difficult to do in the days of demands of instant success. If I was going to cull anyone, based on evidence of poor performance it would be Flatman and Stormaz. And if they are reading this - I fully get your commitment and long hours ........ it's just that you don't seem to quite cut the mustard.
A player whose primary and most utilised position would be either LM or RM with the *potential* to play LW or RW respectively. EDIT - we always seem to get these "versatile" players who can play (allegedly) in numerous positions. Just seems to be an approach of getting Jack of all trades and masters of none. It's clearly not working.
You need to go above those 2 as well, they do what they are told, JAQ, Neerav, James and Jeanne, it's time for them to find a buyer and go do something else that doesn't involve making a real mess of running a football club.
Jean is a token figure around the club. James isn't involved at all, but I get that he retains his financial interest. I think Neervav is a good guy, but his failing is that he just believes everything is rosy in the garden and has trust in those he installed. I fully believe a man of his means, with his intelligence and obvious business acumen, would make some tough decisions IF HE SPENT A COUPLE OF WEEKS OR MORE AT THE ACTUAL CLUB.
Why? He did well for us behind closed doors, until fans were allowed back then we lost the play offs. Since then he's had a number of clubs and done nothing. He's been dining off that one good season ever since.
Because I want to see some intensity from our players. I know the football wasn't pretty but at least there was a clear identity of what we were trying to do. We had bang average players playing out of their skins for the club week in week out. We would press the life out of teams, no matter who they were. I'd have Val over Clarke any day of the week. Who would be your choice?
And with the current track record, I would suggest it would be. Whoever is in charge of recruitment/appointing footballing staff is the most important position at the club IMO.
Sacking him now doesn’t solve the problem. The next man would have less resources, more constraints, and it would be most likely that some would be calling for them to be sacked as well, come the end of season.
My choice would be to stick with Clarke because it's the boars not him who's to blame. Our academy staff should have some blame as well for giving him zero first team regulars. I question how bad our academy strikers must be for Clarke to think Cosgrove is better to have on the bench than them.
And to stick Lofthouse upfront. Being saying it for ages, the academy needs to close because all it's doing is drain the club's resources. It's producing nothing for the first team.
I'm torn; I don't want him sacked, but he has to improve quickly. However bad the pool of players he has to pick from, he has to do better with his selections (stop with the favorites and ignoring others), substitutions (try something different for a change) and giving the U21s a chance (can't be worse than putting a striker on the bench you have no plan to use). I just want to look forward to watching a game again, as over the past few weeks it has become a duty, not a pleasure.
So you would put all those players he had as bang average. They were in the most a level above what we now have. I think I'm right in who I'm saying. Walton Collins Mowett. Solbaur Helik Brittan Moore Woodrow Dike Kitchen Styles James Williams. Chaplin Brown.