[Archived] The Flight To Total Mediocrity( On A Good Day!)

[TBTF]

Promotion is the only real way out of this mess. Or so we are led to believe .

Well I just spent a little while reflecting on where we are as a club and how we are shaping up to fulfil that lofty ambition.

When you have scrolled down and analysed these ramblings , if you are of the opinion (Chaddy excluded)that this is an appropriate launchpad to the PL then ......

Owners- 6000 miles away, never attend and by all accounts the bling boy has been told that his play thing is costing too much and must now be reined in.Responsible for massive debts built up with jack all to show for it. 1/10

Board- no marks who say next to nothing and couldn't lead a pub crawl.Robert "the mute" Coar and a totally silent director of comms. Utterly pathetic. 1/10

Manager and Coaching Staff - cheap , under qualified in house production tactically inept.Those touch line huddles and whisperings give me the creeps. Despite the biggest squad and biggest payroll we have been in the top 6 for an hour. Not good enough.People say he has an eye for a player? Well he has signed 35 of them so law of averages etc etc yes good money made on two recently arguably 3 if you include Rhodes. But would some body please tell me who the other absolute gems are ? I will take Conway for the purposes of this argument but not Marshall.The recent influx is a joke , merely scrambling round for names/ bodies from anywhere with no visible logic. We suddenly now have an awful lot of bed blockers. Guthrie maybe and possibly Koita though I have a sneaking feeling he will flatter to deceive over the medium term. The rest appear pointless. 2/10

Scouting system- pathetic and must have relatives in Cardiff and Reading and a mate at the port of Calais.

1/10

Academy- more in house appointees but really what or who is coming through? Lenihan and OSullivan look miles away from a regular first team spot and worse than that if they do play we will clearly struggle. OSullivan should have made it by now. But this thing is costing £4million a year to run , so what is going on?

Playing Squad- an absolute mish mash of jobsworths assembled on the cheap .We have about 12 midfielders in name , one striker who looks capable of scoring and a back four that's as porous as it was when GB took over. Good job he is defensive minded or I dread to think how many we might concede.A litany of pointless signings without any plan as to what we are trying to do.

The accounts said we had 270 people working at this Club.is there anyone who is above average at what they do in a position of influence?

No wonder Gav on here amongst others is having heart attacks about matters affecting the club and how it's being run. But still the bullsh1t keeps coming in the LT and over the airwaves. We're trying ever so hard, having a right good go, pick ourselves up and go again , blah blah.

So this is the basis upon which we are all asked to believe that the vital promotion campaign is being structured.Jesus H Christ!

It's rotten from owners down at pretty much every level, though I am pretty sure there are some decent enough foot soldiers in the ranks who are tearing their hair out.

So what is it that makes us all blindly think that we are knackered without Venkys? Maybe we are in the short term but we definitely will be in the medium term if they are still around and grinding us into the dust.

We might all have our opinions and argue like hell on here but 5 more years being run like this and there will be nothing left to argue about.

Bury , Rochdale, Oldham please can we come and join your peer group?

Time that the Trust with its 10,000 membership started to make some noise on behalf of its members and I say that purely because they were the ones set up for that purpose and are arguably the biggest mouthpiece.

[JHRover]

Fundamentally the structure of the club is still not what it should be.

Lets leave Bowyer's abilities as a manager to one side for the moment. He has been discussed relentlessly on here. My view is that he has done a good job in difficult conditions and unless we are in the bottom third this season then he should be allowed to continue in the role.

One problem we have is that Bowyer is too powerful. Venkys idea of a 'manager' appears to consist of one man who manages the whole club on their behalf. No doubt this is partly down to the plan of Steve Kean who invited them to leave it all to him, but whatever the reason for it, the manager of the club appears to dictate the entire football side of the operation.

Bowyer therefore seemingly has the final say on players, coaches and scouts. As a result, 2 years into his tenure and all the players are his, all the coaching staff are his appointments, even through to the academy levels.

But I don't think that it should be wholly the manager's job to do this. Academy staff should be dealt with separately with the Head of Academy reporting to a Director of Football or Football Committee.

What we really need is a Director of Football who works for Venkys, reports to Venkys, and has the authority to do what he deems necessary to achieve success. If this means chopping and changing managers or coaches so be it. If this means dragging the manager or players in for a meeting so be it.

But the problem is that other than Bowyer there is nobody responsible for the football side of the club (the most important part of the club).

As for the 'Board' of Directors (if they even qualify as such), their role seems to be purely administrative and financial. It appears that Shaw's only remit as 'Managing Director' is to reduce losses and apply some sort of cost-cutting to the club, and to sign off transfers when instructed to do so. He can't talk about football because it isn't his job.

So on the one hand we have footballing interests - e.g. trying to be as successful as possible and assemble as strong a team as possible - yet on the other we have a managing director who is only being judged on a balance sheet. It is in Shaw's best interests to sell anyone of value and slash the wage bill. It is in Bowyer's best interests as a manager to spend money and keep his best players. The two roles are at odds with one another.

Its a ridiculous set up. Shaw is supposedly the most powerful individual at the club, yet his power does not extend to the football side of the club. As a result Bowyer is responsible for it all. It is simply too much at a club of this size for one man to oversee everything. Bowyer, or whoever is manager/head coach, should be limited in his duties to the first team, and should have other people on the same level of authority, who assist with recruitment, analysis, dealing with the owners.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

With an apocalyptic tenure under Coco and the dark lord, you'd like to think the Loons (who we keep being told are successful business people) would have come to their senses, particularly bearing in mind the Berg affair, and realised that they need a solid and dependable "middle man" to oversee their investment.

I can't quite get my head around why they seem prepared to bankroll such a holed ship. It's now, if it wasn't before, frankly embarrassing every close season being told that we are pushing for promotion! We will be nowhere near the play offs, let alone automatic promotion with this squad.

We can see it, with a few exceptions, so what are they being fed? A bevy of yes men feeding drivel is not helping the club. GB is a steady captain, but he's going down with the ship.

Last night was frankly dross. Another low point when we didn't think we could limbo any lower. Tinker man shown at his very worst.

Until a tried football man is given a proper job, with a proper title, with proper power to change things we will at best tread the water into which we are drawn/drowning.

We on here go round in circles. Pune's arrogance knows no bounds.

Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose!

[DE.]

What we really need is a Director of Football who works for Venkys, reports to Venkys, and has the authority to do what he deems necessary to achieve success. If this means chopping and changing managers or coaches so be it. If this means dragging the manager or players in for a meeting so be it.

Last time they tried that we got Shebby Singh. I'd rather just stick with Bowyer by himself.

[Husky]

Promotion is the only real way out of this mess. Or so we are led to believe .

Well I just spent a little while reflecting on where we are as a club and how we are shaping up to fulfil that lofty ambition.

When you have scrolled down and analysed these ramblings , if you are of the opinion (Chaddy excluded)that this is an appropriate launchpad to the PL then ......

Owners- 6000 miles away, never attend and by all accounts the bling boy has been told that his play thing is costing too much and must now be reined in.Responsible for massive debts built up with jack all to show for it. 1/10

Board- no marks who say next to nothing and couldn't lead a pub crawl.Robert "the mute" Coar and a totally silent director of comms. Utterly pathetic. 1/10

Manager and Coaching Staff - cheap , under qualified in house production tactically inept.Those touch line huddles and whisperings give me the creeps. Despite the biggest squad and biggest payroll we have been in the top 6 for an hour. Not good enough.People say he has an eye for a player? Well he has signed 35 of them so law of averages etc etc yes good money made on two recently arguably 3 if you include Rhodes. But would some body please tell me who the other absolute gems are ? I will take Conway for the purposes of this argument but not Marshall.The recent influx is a joke , merely scrambling round for names/ bodies from anywhere with no visible logic. We suddenly now have an awful lot of bed blockers. Guthrie maybe and possibly Koita though I have a sneaking feeling he will flatter to deceive over the medium term. The rest appear pointless. 2/10

Scouting system- pathetic and must have relatives in Cardiff and Reading and a mate at the port of Calais.

1/10

Academy- more in house appointees but really what or who is coming through? Lenihan and OSullivan look miles away from a regular first team spot and worse than that if they do play we will clearly struggle. OSullivan should have made it by now. But this thing is costing £4million a year to run , so what is going on?

Playing Squad- an absolute mish mash of jobsworths assembled on the cheap .We have about 12 midfielders in name , one striker who looks capable of scoring and a back four that's as porous as it was when GB took over. Good job he is defensive minded or I dread to think how many we might concede.A litany of pointless signings without any plan as to what we are trying to do.

The accounts said we had 270 people working at this Club.is there anyone who is above average at what they do in a position of influence?

No wonder Gav on here amongst others is having heart attacks about matters affecting the club and how it's being run. But still the bullsh1t keeps coming in the LT and over the airwaves. We're trying ever so hard, having a right good go, pick ourselves up and go again , blah blah.

So this is the basis upon which we are all asked to believe that the vital promotion campaign is being structured.Jesus H Christ!

It's rotten from owners down at pretty much every level, though I am pretty sure there are some decent enough foot soldiers in the ranks who are tearing their hair out.

So what is it that makes us all blindly think that we are knackered without Venkys? Maybe we are in the short term but we definitely will be in the medium term if they are still around and grinding us into the dust.

We might all have our opinions and argue like hell on here but 5 more years being run like this and there will be nothing left to argue about.

Bury , Rochdale, Oldham please can we come and join your peer group?

Time that the Trust with its 10,000 membership started to make some noise on behalf of its members and I say that purely because they were the ones set up for that purpose and are arguably the biggest mouthpiece.

I think you missed out the Fitness and Conditioning team.

Or is that because they appear totally non-existent?

[TBTF]

I think you missed out the Fitness and Conditioning team.

Or is that because they appear totally non-existent?

Sorry mate , you are correct on both counts!!

[47er]

Whenever a team is promoted, there is always a core of four or five who are capable of performing in the higher league.

Have we got even one?

We are farther away from promotion than we were before Jack bought the club

[ABBEY]

All is well and we should be worshipping the V's ...

Ask RTID

[K-Hod]

Abbey you're over-reacting, that's genuinely NOTHING like anything anyone has said.

[ABBEY]

Laugh at the dingle is

[K-Hod]

I'd suggest you re-read his posts again, he's asking for a change of tactic, not to change our faith!

[ABBEY]

I have read it and he suggests I change clubs .. He's a venky worshipping super fan

[K-Hod]

I have read it and he suggests I change clubs .. He's a venky worshipping super fan

I think he gave a list of options, and that was one. Again, we'll have to agree to disagree, I don't want to fall out with people.