We wimped out of the Checkatrade Trophy this evening. Having taken an early lead through Ahearne-Grant, we succumbed to a second-half equaliser and missed three straight penalties to go out. The stats say we had 20-odd attempts but only two on target whilst Oxford had less than half that but twice as many on target.
After the match we have Karl Robinson complaining we are expecting too much of Magennis and that he's missed other targets in Newcastle's Adam Armstrong who has gone on loan to Blackburn and Kieffer Moore who's gone to Barnsley. When asked if there is light at the end of the tunnel, his response was 'no.'
Meanwhile, the word is that Alex McLeish was there again. There may be many reasons why he might show up once but twice in a few days is suspicious. I wonder if they are talking to McLeish as a precaution in case Robinson throws the towel in? I can't see Duchatelet wasting any money sacking him but there must be a risk he walks to try to protect his reputation. At the moment his second season record is shaping up to match the first - dismal. Last season he said wait until he gets his players in. At the start of this season he said he was happy with what he had, and that was after letting Novak go at the eleventh hour. He has had a lot of injuries to contend with but we have still fallen well short and simple fact is our squad wasn't strong enough in August and we have been exposed as many predicted.
After the match we have Karl Robinson complaining we are expecting too much of Magennis and that he's missed other targets in Newcastle's Adam Armstrong who has gone on loan to Blackburn and Kieffer Moore who's gone to Barnsley. When asked if there is light at the end of the tunnel, his response was 'no.'
Meanwhile, the word is that Alex McLeish was there again. There may be many reasons why he might show up once but twice in a few days is suspicious. I wonder if they are talking to McLeish as a precaution in case Robinson throws the towel in? I can't see Duchatelet wasting any money sacking him but there must be a risk he walks to try to protect his reputation. At the moment his second season record is shaping up to match the first - dismal. Last season he said wait until he gets his players in. At the start of this season he said he was happy with what he had, and that was after letting Novak go at the eleventh hour. He has had a lot of injuries to contend with but we have still fallen well short and simple fact is our squad wasn't strong enough in August and we have been exposed as many predicted.
Wednesday 19th January - Reports in the Daily Record (Daily Ranger in Scotland) that Macleish is part of a Scottish consortium looking at taking over the club. I really can't see this for lots of reasons.
ReplyDeleteLove the changed pic at the top Dave. Why don't you think the Scottish consortium will work?
ReplyDeletePembury Addick
PA - I just can't see a Scottish consortium. There aren't that many Scots with the sort of money necessary to indulge and those who could don't fit the bill. A lot of it is 'old' money associated with land, the aristocracy or long-established Scottish family businesses which are far too conservative to get involved with the risk of professional football, in England. Most are still Scottish based and if they were interested in football, could make a bigger impression in Scotland. Sir Ian Wood (Oil) and Stewart Milne (House-builder) have been involved at Aberdeen for years. It wouldn't take a huge sum of money for them to get a regular second-place and actually challenge Celtic for a European place but their spending has been limited to running the club as a going concern. Ironically, Mohammed Al-Fayed is the only one I can think of whom has ever been involved and I think he has exhausted his interest. It's possible that Donald Muir has been asked by someone else to run the rule over Due Diligence and he has asked Macleish as an old friend who is out-of-work to look at the side and give him a considered opinion. If that's the case, I would expect Duchatelet's asset-valuation of players to come under close scrutiny.
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