This will divide supporter opinion but I believe it was the first step needed to affect the real change we have to see. Sandgaard dithered over Bowyer and left it too late with Adkins last year. Jackson's bounce earned him the job until the end of the season but the last few months have been painful to watch. Unable to get two performances in-a-row and stuck with a 3-5-2 formation that everyone else could see wasn't helping us win games. Bottom-line for me was that he couldn't motivate these players from one week to the next and his comments after Saturday's game set alarm bells ringing. There will be voices saying he 'wasn't given enough time' but he has been here for years was assistant to Bowyer and Adkins.
I am pleased Sandgaard has acted so swiftly and am surprised at the same time that he has been bold enough to do it. I thought he would maintain the status quo with Jackson who was clearly angling for more modest player change going forward. The new manager will be another risk but one worth taking in my mind given the anticipated squad rebuilding. I have been having nightmares of watching the same football in October, with the same formation and a side with the same core of players getting the same results. This club has to be competing for promotion next season or it will suffer a major downgrade next season in terms of the supporter base and our diminishing profile in London (if we haven't already).
Sandgaard now needs to back his decision by supporting the new manager in the transfer market. We need to be much closer to what champions Wigan did in the transfer market last Summer. If he does that and we don't make it, at least we can say he tried everything.
All very well sacking JJ. But who will come in? I fear it will be either some manager whose had twenty jobs and little success. Or some no-mark we've never heard of.
ReplyDeleteI have a very uncomfortable feeling about how this will pan out.
Spot on. I too feared more of the same next season. Brave decision by Sandgaard.
ReplyDeleteSo, Sandgaard is going ahead with a recruitment campaign without having a manager in place....isn't that a bit like trying to run a restaurant without having a chef in the kitchen??? It looks like a recipe for disaster to me - by all means start searching for players but he needs the input from his new manager before any signings are made, surely?
ReplyDeleteHave to disagree with you Dave but I can only see this ending in tears as we drop down to the fourth tier next season for the first time in our long history....
It looks to me like we have another meglamaniac foreign owner who thinks he knows how to run a football league club but really doesn't have a clue.
RIP CAFC.
Anon - I don't like the idea of the manager not having the biggest say in which players arrive and which depart. However, this may just be Sandgaard making the point that the club has a wider management team, some of whom's job is to assess players for potential transfer and that doesn't stop just because the manager has left. Some of the biggest clubs operate this model successfully eg Man City. If we are bringing in better players there is a reasonable case that the manager can get them performing together, especially so in the lower divisions where better players stand out more clearly.
DeleteI would expect a manager to be appointed within the next two to three weeks if not sooner, and obviously they need to have a fair say over recruitment. This has been the worst season in living memory and I am pleased Sandgaard is being bold and trying to change that. Given the budget and his relative wealth, I can't see us being in serious relegation trouble if we managed 13th this season with a badly misfiring squad. He may well prove to be a meglomaniac without a clue. If this proves to be the case, I suspect he will cash in his chips rather than continue to haemorrage money.
DeleteThat's obviously the risk we take Daggs and it could go wrong but I have less confidence that Jackson can turn it around next season and then we would be looking at another wasted year and having to take the risk of a new manager anyway.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if JJ had been given the opportunity to select his own transfers in, things could have worked out.
ReplyDeleteI admire the decisive and brave way this change has been made. If it all works out TS will be a hero. However I feel there are many ways it could go wrong, everything will have to go completely right. I am fearful but hoping for the best. PS.
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