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MellowYellow wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 19:47 "the onus is on the players" Blimely! two games in and Ower's already washing his hands of the shambles.

nickbrod wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 19:59 Hang on. Owers has inherited an unfit for purpose squad of players who are under contract. What can he do? Or will GI agree to pay up those contracts in order to get rid?

nickbrod wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 19:59 Hang on. Owers has inherited an unfit for purpose squad of players who are under contract. What can he do? Or will GI agree to pay up those contracts in order to get rid?

Southampton Gull wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 13:54 He fulfilled what was requested of him 2 seasons running on a meagre budget. Fitness levels of players is hardly something you're qualified to comment on and pass off as fact and classing him as a poor manager is failing to recognise the qualities he undoubtedly possesses. He managed us at the worst period of our modern history, there are many reasons for that just as there are many reasons why it's unfair to label him the way some have done. Nobody can honestly say how good or bad a manager he is based on his time here, only time will tell us the answer to that one.

Gulliball wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 06:24 So you're pleased with a situation in which we deliberately gave a manager a budget that ran to 15 contracted players, sacked him after 4 games, waited another 6 to appoint a manager and then left the new manager starting in September well adrift of safety with the rest of the budget? If the situation you described is true then they should have sacked Nicholson last April, done the 'proper process' of a manager search in the off season and given the new manager the whole budget, a squad of his own players, the larger pool of summer players to choose from, a full pre-season to gel them to his style and a whole season of 46 games to get us into the highest position they can.

The latter would undoubtedly be better for the club. The former is only really better if you really dislike Kevin Nicholson. Personally I don't believe Kevin Nicholson left any poisoned chalice behind - he was an employee who worked with the resources he was given. When he had good players he got them playing well and moving onto league clubs, and when he had some money he was able to sign some good players. At no time in his tenure was there a professional football club behind the scenes to allow him to do anything else from firefight from one crisis to the next.

Football fans are fickle though, and a team losing matches generates anger, as we've seen in recent years. We're now a divided fanbase, struggling on the field and have a scapegoat, presumably for the next two years, that for anything that happens it can be blamed on Nicholson, his 4 games in charge and 'his players'. How quickly it has changed from that "keeping our eye on the ball" thread this summer, back when it was GI that was the biggest threat to our future and we had to stay vigilant or their long term plan would succeed. It was perhaps good advice, given how little it took for the magicians to get eyes fixed on the puff of smoke and not on where the magic is really happening.

Southampton Gull wrote: 23 Sep 2017, 13:19 No, what is tiresome is the continued berating of someone who was trying to do his job against a backdrop of continued threats and interference, not help.

It isn't a case of him doing no wrong, it's a case of stating facts in the face of continued unfair criticism. If anyone doubts that his budget was still poor for a full time club then so be it, no skin off my nose what they choose to believe.

tomogull wrote: 24 Sep 2017, 11:00 Good posts, Dave. It's good to have a balanced perspective on here - thanks for that. I have not posted much on here recently because I have become sick to death of - as Gulliball pointed out - almost every thread being tainted by the poisonous bile against Kevin Nicholson re-gurgitated time and time again by that obnoxious keyboard football manager who I suspect has never even managed a Sunday League pub side. Certainly if he insults people in real life as he insults Forum members from behind a keyboard, he would never gain respect of any players. Do you know what gets me? There are posters on here who are so naive that they actually think because he posts in bold, he must know what he's talking about! Well let me tell you - most of his posts are cr*p.

For what it's worth, my firm opinion is that against all the odds, in spite of the the mess and lack of support from those running/ruining our club, Kevin Nicholson kept us in the National League during two traumatic seasons. I thank him, and the players who supported him, for that. Personally, I think being dismissed was the best thing that could have happened to Kev and his family. He has got away from what must surely be the worst run football club down to National South & North level and beyond, and he can now look for a management post where the club is properly run and he will get support from the Board.

To those already knocking Gary Owers and Martin Kuhl - we haven't had the new manager 'bounce' that we hoped for, but they have to be given time to organise the team into their way of playing. Once that first win comes along, I think they will come along like buses - one after the other. But 9 points adrift is already a hell of a lot to pull back.

Southampton Gull wrote: 24 Sep 2017, 10:52 But when you shop at the local food bank you're going to have to select from mainly bruised apples......