TyldesleyLatic

If I remember rightly, the original reason why the pitch used to cut up at this time of year was coz the sub-soil drainage stuff had been compacted to closely & wasn’t allowing rain water to drain off
As such it was sitting in the soil & some sort of mossy/virus thing was killing the roots of the grass
So Whelco spent £500k digging it all up & putting the drainage shale in correctly
Last season (after the work was carried out) we had heavy rains all over winter but the pitch was fine
This season we have only had a problem after the persistant sub zero temperatures which has meant the undersoil heating has been running constantly.
Think I posted on here the other week in a similar thread that i was told by a mate of mine who used to work on the groundstaff at Bolton that if you do this it softens up the pitch & leads it to start cutting up as our present pitch is doing. Sure I read on the BBC website the other day Motherwell’s groundsman blaming prolonged use of the undersoil heating for the state of their pitch, so it could well be that combined with the heavy use it is now getting when it is in that condition

“Now correct me here if i’m wrong, but haven’t Sunderland filled the away end at the DW at every visit?”

Gonna have to correct you there Arky coz no they haven’t
If I’m honest I can’t remember every away following they’ve brought since we both got promoted (although obviously they weren’t aroudn in the 06/07 season) but I know for the first season we were both in the top flight their following was about 1000-1300
That one sticks in my mind coz it was only 4 or 5 months after they filled the east stand for that midweek game in the championship & they’d been banging on about “true supporters” & all that jazz!!

With all due respect the only person I’ve ever heard say you need 3 transfer windows to get your own players in is Bobby
Also you mention another manager would only wanna play hoof ball & that we have aload of players who can’t play that way.
In response to that:
a) who says another manager would wanna play “hoof ball”
b) the players we have don’t seem to be capable of Bobby’s way at all

At the end of the day & IMO he doesn’t seem like he’s up to the job. Whether sacking him is the right answer or not I don’t know but I’ve seen nowt so far that convinces me that he’ll either be a success in this division or that he would be the right man to get us back up if we were relegated

IMO he is only being given so much slack by certain sections of Latics fans coz of his “legend” status as a player. If we’d appointed Megson in teh summer & were exactly where we are today with exactly the same players & playing exactly the same way then people would be screaming blue murder to get rid of him

“yes he probably needs someone with premier league coaching experience to help him”

that comment to me says that you’re saying that you don’t think he’s good enough, that you don’t think the men he has brought in to assist him (and who he said were the men he needed to enable him to do his job well) are good enough and that he needs somebody brought in alongside him to tell him what he needs to do

If that’s the case then to be frank he isn’t up to the job (not that I’m saying that it was I necessarily believe) & should be sacked as you’re creating as ridiculous a situation as when Middlesbrough brought in Venables to “assist” Bryan Robson when he was making a hash of things coz Gibson couldn’t bring himself to either get rid of a man he liked or admit that the bloke he liked wasn’t up to the job

In answer to your 2 questions:
1) off the top of my head no I can’t, but I know there have been numerous clubs who have sacked a manager when they were in relegation trouble & their season has been saved. Long term success I couldn’t say
2) The Canvey Island loss was in November by the February Jewell had turned things around. IMO (and without seeing how the team shapes up with our 2 deadline day signings) far from impoving things the performances seem to be deteriorating

“Remember, Jewell was given time when he had to cull a god awful squad. Roberto’s had about 6 months!”

To be fair, what actually happened was that by around this time in his first season Jewell had started to turn things around & Latics form in the back end of the season was promotion/play off form & he was able to carry that on into the next season by cutting off the deadwood & bringing in a few more of his own players
So far Bobby doesn’t seem (IMO) to be turning things around although some of our new signings may yet be the catalyst for that
In Bobby’s defence though, Jewell didn’t have to deal with the transfer window & he was operating at a lower level of football where our financial clout spoke volumes

“Why cant we get somebody in to help him instead of having those useless friend jones and barrow supporting him”

Here’s a couple of reasons why not:
1) If the chairman, director of football or whoever decides that he needs someone in to help him then they are as good as admitting they don’t think he’s up to the job. That would undermine him somet chronic & to be frank you’d be better of just sacking him than have that scenario
2) the “useless friends Jones & barrow” are exactly who Martinez asked Whelan to bring in for him. To bring someobody else in would be for Whelan & co to be saying “those 2 blokes are crap, therefore we think your judgement is crap” & again it undermines him

A friend of mine who used to work on the ground staff at Bolton says that if you leave undersoil heating on for too long/continually, then you run the risk of it making the pitch boggy

Seeing as how teh club issued a statement when the Villa game was called off saying it had been on continuously for however long, this might be a contributing factor