Saint Greavsie...?

[brucie]

So its nothing to do with Hargreaves then - he is the manager for **** sake. Get a grip. He picks the team - he included waste of space Stevens and played him. He left Downes out (a leader who has got to be in the team). He won't play O'Connor at right back when he is three full backs in Tonge/Cruise/Nico who are all useless.
He signed Stevens - useless.
He signed Rudge - what was the point in that.
He signed O'Brien - useless. Should have gone after Marquis
He signed Cooper - permanently injured although he hasn't stepped on the pitch yet.
He plays Hawley who is useless
He signed Wilkinson - who appears almost useless.
But none of this is his fault?

[AustrianAndyGull]

All Greavsie is doing is sticking players in there and hoping they do the business. Ok so it's not a sound management strategy but Knill did it for several months to mask his atrocious signings who were failing so I don't see why Chris should be any different. It is too late for tinkering with systems and formations and seeing if player X can gel with player Y. It isn't too late to get us playing like if we were in a cup tie, no frills blood and thunder, high tempo pressing (ala Chesterfield away when we looked the part) and when we get the breaks hopefully we can create chances. It's not difficult and yes, Chris has to shoulder some of the responsibility for whatever reason not being able to reproduce this game plan at home. After all, you don't need any coaching badges to get 11 players up for a game of football but he is just trying his best to add new faces and seeing if they work. We just have to hope that they do. I happen to think that Wilkinson has looked our most likely scorer in these last two games and alongside the right kind of player can do well for us. Hawley for all is hard work and knock downs isn't dangerous and even the knock downs and hold up play is wasted because we have nobody alongside willing to run on to them or break from midfield so I can understand why you think he shouldn't be playing. Stockley and O'Brien look worse than pub players I agree and I haven't seen Rudge or Cooper to comment. Stevens is not a great player we know that but he is better than a lot of what we have which is a sad indictment in itself but I'm not writing him off again. He is what he is and he could get a couple of goals which is more than anyone else and it could make all the difference in the end. Chris doesn't appear to know what he is doing IMO but it is totally understandable. If you or I were the manager then what is to say that our approaches would yield anything better? In the case of Knill then this doesn't apply because that man was just so completely bizarre and clueless that an untrained orang-utan could have done better.

There are a few obvious things obvious to most people that Chris is clearly getting wrong but he has to work things out for himself and this experience will stand him in good stead for next season should we end up going down. Not least that you can't just chuck in new player after new player and hope for the best neglecting the basics of hard work, passion, desire, teamwork, vibrancy and togetherness.

He has 15 games to save us and if he does then I'm sure you will be first in the queue to say what a superb job he has done. After all, he is the manager, he picks the team so he must have known what he was doing after all and you were wrong. We'll wait and see.

[gullno4]

I admire the optimism from some of you that still think we can stay up! but honestly, I think that a lot you need to realise that we truly are ****, and there is no chance that this current squad can consistently win games of football, we need to win 3 more games than Wycombe at the very least. how on earth are we gonna do that with this set of players?

[AustrianAndyGull]

I'm holding on to the fact that I was totally convinced that we were down last season yet we stayed up. In a weird way I think we are in a worse predicament now than then but it's not done with yet so let's keep going yes?

[gullno4]

we're a lot worse off than last season!

[hector]

So its nothing to do with Hargreaves then - he is the manager for f*** sake. Get a grip. He picks the team - he included waste of space Stevens and played him. He left Downes out (a leader who has got to be in the team). He won't play O'Connor at right back when he is three full backs in Tonge/Cruise/Nico who are all useless.
He signed Stevens - useless.
He signed Rudge - what was the point in that.
He signed O'Brien - useless. Should have gone after Marquis
He signed Cooper - permanently injured although he hasn't stepped on the pitch yet.
He plays Hawley who is useless
He signed Wilkinson - who appears almost useless.
But none of this is his fault?

For goodness sake - the bloke has been a manager for about 5 weeks. Give him a break. It is not his fault that we are in the bottom two.He has been left the dross that Knill signed and he has no budget to sign anyone decent. His main mistake in my view is not playing Downes but other than that, I really don't see what else he could do.

[Colorado Gull]

It's a bit of everything, it doesn't seem to be working anywhere. The board can hardly get the blame, with Thea Bristow's money this club would be withering and dying, probably already dead and buried. I agree that we lack a certain person on the board with some footballing experience (a la Colin Lee) but Thea and the board are doing what they can. They sacked the clueless Knill, the brought in a 'fan favourite' as manager to try and boost the morale of the fans and the players. The board have given Hargreaves the chance to bring in players that he thinks will benefit the side.

That comes nicely onto my next point, because the blame cannot ALL be on Hargreaves, but he has to have something to do with it, he's the manager! For some reason it just hasn't worked recently. The players he has brought in have been poor, the side he puts out is not correct and not good enough, he doesn't seem to know what to do when the side he puts out is not working and he hasn't been able to boost the players and get them going. It all seems very bleak, why has it all gone wrong since the Wimbledon and Portsmouth game?

Now the players, they need blame as well surely? They are crap at the moment, simple as that. They look like they couldn't give two hoots about this football club and it is depressing. They come out onto the pitch every game and every fan has no faith in them whatsoever. They need to pull their finger out, because it's disgusting to see them perform like they don't even care when they are getting paid for it!

[frenchgull]

The reason that some blame must be atribulated to Mr Hargreaves is that he wanted the job and takes the money for the job.I thought he could motivate being a Torquay ex player but it seems there is more to it than being one of the boys.In fairness we are so short on expierence,both in the board,management and playing staff,no creative players and no goalscorers so all in all a right mess.

[taunton_gull]

They need guidance from a football person like Colin Lee.

Colin got us Paul Buckle and we haven't done well since.

They have to take their responsibility for the mess too.

Most disagree with me and I'm sure there will be comments.

There is some truth in this IMO. I've never doubted the motives of most on the board however if you look at the circumstances of the appointments of Martin Ling (turned up and 'wowed' Simon Baker on the last day of interviews), Alan Knill (appointed on the back of limping over the finish line without a thorough interview process) and now Chris Hargreaves (fans favourite, given a long term deal on the basis that relegation is a very real possibility instead of opting for a 'firefighter' until the end of the season) - I feel all of this along with the lack of a clear strategy of where the football team should be has contributed to the mess we now find ourselves in. The board have tried to move us forward off the field - most notably with the addition of Bristow's Bench but the irony is this has caused more damage to the future of the football club. Things were very different when the consortium took over and without doubt there was a hell of a lot more money about, but there was also a clear plan - build a team to get us back to where we belong. I can't help but feel a lack of direction since has led to huge sums being squandered. We have stagnated, the lessons of history were not learnt and once again the fans have to fear for the future because of it.

[stefano]

They need guidance from a football person like Colin Lee.

Colin got us Paul Buckle and we haven't done well since.

They have to take their responsibility for the mess too.

Most disagree with me and I'm sure there will be comments.

Colin also got us Mo Camara. I suppose nobody's perfect!

[wivelgull]

The trouble has ALWAYS been that the lessons of history are never learnt. So, given that, one mould at least must be broken: get a decent, experienced centre-forward in! It'll pay off in the long run. And another thought has struck me - haven't we expanded the youth coaching staff? What happens to them if - sorry, when - we go down?

[Neal]

I think there is truth in all of the above actually. The whole club is to blame (and in some respect the fans too). There is mediocrity or uselessness throughout the club. Actually I sort of exonerate Thea, she has put the money in but its not her fault she hasnt done anything like this before, and running a league football club has been the downfall of many so called successfull businessmen.

Ive hought of it many times, If I won the lottery how would I perform if I bought the club, how would I choose a new manager, not sure I would want all that crap to be honest. Because these guys probably interview great, say all the right things and then appoint them and they are crap. Unless you sign a roookie (which we have done and hope for the best) most other managers have records that have failures there.

It seems like a lottery to me.

If i won the euro millions I think I would put the money up, appoint a colin lee figure and p8ss of to the Caribean. If i won the UK lottery....... Not enough, probably become a director and pay me subscription and oh yes p8ss off to the Caribean

[wivelgull]

Blimey, Bateson! I haven't thought of him in a long, long time. Bad as things are now, they were surely worse in his era.

[CP Gull]

Ladies and Gentlemen, those present tonight witnessed the first miracle since the return of Jesus.

Namely, the return of Billy Bodin to action just hours after he was declared likely to be out injured for another 2 or 3 weeks! This is exactly the sort of stuff, saints are made of!

Let's hope Greavsie is saving his biggest and best miracle to the end of the season!