: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:46 pm
af wrote:
These are not rhetorical questions. They are very real ones that the club will have to face if it takes the action that pretty much everyone on here save me, Duckman and I think FA (feel free to clarify, folks) want them to take. I think the chances of us happening on another Brian Smith to turn the club around are pretty remote. I suspect we're more likely to end up with another Ron Willey. Maybe I was part of the Negative Tendency all along.
OK, as requested, to clarify:
Based on what we know (as opposed to what people guess or assume or want to believe) I defo do not want the club to lose Macca. I believe what he has done and been doing on the youth and academy development, and trying to build a production line for the future pretty well from scratch (after the near fatal situation the current regime inherited) is vital - the history books will record that fact. I'm sure that particular role must be ongoing, regardless of whatever else happens.
But, there is clearly something very very wrong with this team. I don't think a single poster on here could deny that (even Tiger Beer
) Whether its trouble in t'camp a la early 2005 or 1998, or lack of commitment, or lack of discipline, or poor coaching, or what - maybe some combination - is unclear. But something is very very badly wrong, and it has GOT to be sorted. I am sure we don't need to tell you that, Mr Hood? This season is surely gone, barring a miracle of biblical proportions - and the implications of that financially and otherwise will no doubt haunt us now for some time. So we MUST get this sorted for next season. The apparent loss of form of and rumours about players like Burgess don't just happen for nothing, surely?
I do not for one minute think you can blame the coaching staff for everything - that's the usual easy option for fans of any club anywhere. Its the players screw up on the park or don't look like they are at the races, after all. But equally, they must be far from blameless - no such thing as bad soldiers, just bad officers and all that?
In the absence of a bit more honesty from the club and its officials about what is wrong (and there may well be good reasons why this has to be so) it is inevitable that the finger will point to the coaching staff for at least part of the blame.
With that in mind, I would be ecstatic if the club could secure the services of an experienced, proven and TOUGH coach to come and try and sort out the shambles we see on the field, for the time being at least. Maybe taking some of the load of Macca at least for now. I suspect that with the necessary very lean structure at the club nowdays, Macca has too many responsibilities. I SUSPECT he is not tough enough with the players - and he certainly seems reluctant to drop under-performers - but maybe there are reasons why he can't be? Maybe we have more injuries than we are admitting to (like in 1998)? Maybe Macca IS out of his depth? Maybe we all know jack shît about what really goes on...?
And its all very well for folk to argue that the Bulls must be an attractive proposition to any prospective experienced coach, but why? No sugar daddy; no spare funds (and very tight on what we have); no new stadium (yet) and a track record of failed schemes; major player turnover before next season, much of which will finalise before any new guy can get his hands on things so it could be a couple of years before he can say its "his" squad; ongoing emnity with the Leeds club; collapsing fan base - if you choose to list all the negatives and pass by any positives then its hardly attractive, is it?
Why would an experienced guy risk his reputation and set himself up for a load of grief by coming here? For the challenge? Maybe, but he still has to feed his family. For the money, then? That would be the money we are rather short of then, especially with collapsing gates and any settlement to incumbent staff. Not that the economic realities cut much ice with many people angry with the situation - and, lets be fair, understandably so.
And please don't expect Macca to just walk without any compo - he has HIS family to feed in a very very uncertain profession. He won't have the luxury of just chucking his job in - and I challenge pretty well anyone on here to say they would do differently?
But remember please what Hood said at the Fans' Forum, in response to (my) question about the financial implications of falling gates - not worried about the profitability, but more worried about the cash flow. You don't go bust because you are not making profits; you go bust because you run out of cash. This board inherited a dreadful cash prognosis, and the history books will record how they saved the club and (hopefully) set it on a more sustainable (if unpalatable) financial footing - in my opinion. But all the options I see on here involve expending cash we don't have
before we see corresponding cash inflows. How will that work, then?
Can folk on here explain how, as a household, they would find a way of spending a load of cash up front if they had no savings and no appreciable overdraft or other borrowing facilities? Cos that's what you are asking of the club. Anyone got an answer to that? There IS a way, of course - you sell some family silver or cut your expenditure even more - in this case, expenditure on players. It wouldn't be the first time. But what would folk say if or when we saw best players being sold and cheaper replacements? We had a "selling club" thread recently, did we not? Or, of course, you come into an inheritance from a rich relative. Which is basically what happened at clubs like Saints, Wire, Wigan, Hudds, Salford...but where are OUR rich rellies?
Regulars know I have been pedalling this argument for ages. Some, like one unpleasant guy recently, choose to accuse me of forcing my views on others as being the only acceptable view. That's nonsense - if you don't like what I say, don't read it - or better, improve on what I say with better arguments - that stand up financially as well as operationally. I hope there
are better arguments, I really do, cos the conclusions I reach from my own arguments thoroughly depress me. I'm desperately hoping some of you guys
do have some practicable answers or, more to the point, that the club does. Cos, short of a rich benefactor chucking a load of cash in, or some miraculous improvement on the park, I don't.
But I stress - it is very hard to comment objectively without knowing what is really going on behind the scenes - which I suspect is as always rather more than we are aware of.
But hey, what do I know and what do any of us know?
