TyldesleyLatic

I have to admit that I couldn’t help but laugh at the section in the original post which praised Bobby for getting rid of the “deadwood” & then swfitly followed it by criticism of 4 specific players – 3 of whom were signed by Bobby & were drafted in to become replacements for this deadwood!!!

What I find with Bobby is that he talks alot of sense when it comes to football & his aims. The problem he is having is transferring those ideas into something workable on the football pitch. The fact that he’s either taking so long to learn from his mistakes or is just not learning from them at all indicates to me that we’ll be waiting a hell of a long time for him to get it right (if he ever does)

As for do we want a manager in who doesn’t understand the club like Bobby does – to be honest I couldn’t care less as long as he produces a team that plays entertaining football & who has the ability to adapt his ideas as the needs arise

I’d also disagree with Griff’s statement that good players can adapt to any system & so it indicates we have poor players (brought about by our lack of fund). Some players have particular skills which enable them to play some systems better than others – Rodallega, Boselli & Di Santo may well all be able to bang in 30 goals a season playing in a 2 or 3 man forward line (or they may not!!) but stick em up front on their own & they struggle
No-one denies someone like Gary Lineker wasn’t a good striker but if you’d stuck him up front on his own he’d have struggled coz he didn’t have the attributes needed for that position

i think there’s a half-decent team struggling to come out at Latics – I just don’t think that Bobby is the man to get that out of them

Here’s something to think about….the one up front system, well, it’s not Bobby’s. No really it’s not. Other teams play it – in fact most successful team play it. So you see, it does work, it’s just that it isn’t working for first team at present.[/quote]

i think you’ll find Standish that most of us are aware that a system of playing 1 up front can work

At Latics however we have seen 18 months of it not working, our manager persisting in fitting square pegs in round holes, him try approx 5 different centre forwards in the lone striker role – none of whom have the attributes to play that role, and a complete inflexibility to change his system during a game when it quite clearly isn’t working

To be honest it has got absolutely feck all to do with you if someone claims to be a Latics fan but doesn’t make it to games any more. They don’t owe you any explanation whatsoever

I went on Saturday (I forgotten how cold you could get watching at the ground) but don’t go anywhere near as much as I used to & after 23 years of watchign Latics hoem & away I owe you or anybody else no explanation of why that is the case

However, it was noticeable from when I used to be a season ticket holder how much the crowds have dropped when you’re in the ground as opposed to seeing it on the telly.

I’ve seen it on here & in fanzines that its all the JCL’s who have jumped ship & good riddance but I don’t think that’s the case at all. I used to sit in the West Stand but when I’ve been back for the odd game over the last couple of seasons have always sat in ES2 & the west stand looked more or less the same in terms of population than it did back in my years in there and I’ve always taken the West Stand to be the home of the more longer term supporter.
On Saturday it looked deserted & unless these people are randomly dotted around the south & east stands that to me indicates that far from all the lost support being JCL’s, there’s been a drift away from regular match going by long term hardcore supporters – just using myself & my mates as an example, there used to be 5 of us going home & away to as many games as possible. Over the last 5 years that has drifted down to none of us going regularly for a variety of reasons

If these longer term, previously “hardcore” supporters are drifting away then it can’t just be dismissed as rats deserting a sinking ship (not that I especially think we’re sinking) as, again taking my group of mates as an example some had been going since entry to the football league & others are looking at 20 years of following Latics and we’ve seen far worse in terms of performances than we’re getting at the moment but nothing that took our passion for following the club in the flesh away as it has done over the last few years

On the subject of fans confronting players on the pitch & Stoke I remember that young lads feeble attack on the Stoke keeper (Gavin Ward I think) as he was taking a goal kick

I know the young lad was a bit pished but a more feeble slap & kick I’ve yet to see

Judging from the way the same keeper floored another pitch invader at Bristol Rovers a few years later that lad’s lucky he didn’t get more than a criminal record for his troubles

I look forward to seeing the standard of football played in the 50 degrees celsius heat of Qatar in late June

To be honest i couldn’t give a rats @r$e whether England got the World Cup or not but for the bid to only get 2 votes (including the one from the British rep on the FIFA board) when FIFA’s own report had described it as technically the best bid on the table was farcical

I heard on BBC Breakfast News this morning that Sepp Blatter sent a last minute memo round to all the 22 board members which ran along the lines of “Remember the evil british media”

The sight of the FA, politicians & royalty apologising because our press had the audacity to question the integrity of some FIFA officials was nauseating

He’s alreay extended that “give me 3 transfer windows” line & in a post match interview the other week it had changed to “in 2 years time this we are goign to be reaping the benefits of what I’m doing now”

I make that 7 transfer windows & counting

I’d agree – which was probably why I found Alex Ferguson’s post match comments the other week that we’re “a very aggressive side” completely baffling