"Its all Micky Adams fault"

[Harty]

Just got back from shopping with Mrs H, stopped off at the boozer for a beer and a long time Brighton fan accosted me at the bar and said not only are we going down but its all Micky's fault.
Even as one of his apparent 'apologists' I think that's a bit harsh, for one I can still see us getting out of this after a busy transfer window and to blame the last but one manager is stretching a point.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

I still think Mike Bailey is slightly culpable.

Brentford for a snifter

 

[theonesmith]

It's a strange decline isn't it? It could be traced to the sacking of Dean Wilkins / appointment of Micky Adams- as the quality of football played and league placing rapidly declined. It could possibly be attributed further, from us dropping out of the Championship. I do think that Adams has to shoulder a lot of the blame, but then he was hardly provided with funds to purchase decent players and had to make do with free transfers and the like. I'm starting to attribute whatever power struggle went on inside the club that has been hinted at, as perhaps the main cause. There seems to be a poor atmosphere in the club over the last few years, something that has affected even the players and fans. I'd love to know what's really gone on inside the club.

 

[burrish-gull]

Harty, its not Mickys fault, it was the fault of the club to sack Dean Wilkins, end of story. Thats the reason we are in such a mess, its set us back two years I'd say.

 

[forumwayseagull]

Lets face it we have to blame someone....

 

[hitony]

I blame Wodger........

 

[Stat Brother]

I just hope Poyet gets the sack next September, so we can struggle to the Jan '11 tranfer window, before consolidating yet another 'transitional' season.

Happy days.

 

[Scotty Mac]

if mcghee had have been given funds to improve a squad that was clearly past it and not been lumbered with signings he didnt want then we may have been slightly better off

 

[Napper]

Barry Lloyd , decay started when he came back . All familiar stuff

Lloyd Out

 

[Titanic]

It's clearly Chapman, Booker and White's fault.... oh, hang on... they are gone and we are still struggling... mmm... who can we blame now??

 

[theonesmith]

It's clearly Chapman, Booker and White's fault.... oh, hang on... they are gone and we are still struggling... mmm... who can we blame now??

The Groundsmen? Kitman?

 

[Titanic]

The Groundsmen? Kitman?

Malcolm Stuart... oh... no wait...

 

[defrocked priest]

It's clearly Chapman, Booker and White's fault.... oh, hang on... they are gone and we are still struggling... mmm... who can we blame now??

The players

 

[Jamie]

Just got back from shopping with Mrs H, stopped off at the boozer for a beer and a long time Brighton fan accosted me at the bar and said not only are we going down but its all Micky's fault.
Even as one of his apparent 'apologists' I think that's a bit harsh, for one I can still see us getting out of this after a busy transfer window and to blame the last but one manager is stretching a point.

Its not all Adams fault but he started the process of replacing a good footballing successful team with a hint of intelligence under Wilkins for typical "football men", with the pathetic practical jokes and hoofing the ball as far as they could. Adams was a disaster, but and its a big but, Slade was also given serious cash and Slade p!issed that money up the wall as well. Lets hope Poyet knows how to spend the chairman's money better than both Adams and Slade.

 

[Cheshire]

The blame culture is easy - we will never know the outcome if whatever event or person we want to blame had not happened.

However, our circumstances of the 1990's forcing us eventually into Withdean we always knew would have a negative bearing the longer we played at the ground. The fact we have survived as a club after so many years without a decent stadium is something of a miracle in itself.

Amazingly we had a good first period at Withdean, but a lack of investment due in part to the costs of playing at Withdean and the costs of fighting to get permission to build Falmer has seen us basically struggle for this latter part with just the odd blip like the play-off final year and a good half season under Dean Wilkins for that 7th finish.

Now we have a bit more investment and a proper stadium coming it will need a good manager to build the team wisely. Hopefully with time Poyet will prove to be that manager.

But for that we will have to wait and see what the next 18 months of still playing at Withdean bring?

 

[Jamie]

Sorry but the withdean factor is a red herring. It holds the club back getting punters in but the team is being built on Bloom's money not club revennue. There is a football pitch and the players can either play football or they can't - under wilkins they could, but Adams destroyed that team, and bought badly, then slade bought badly as well. Enough excuses more responsibility from the managers who built poor sides - with money to spend

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

I blame the shirt sponsor. Once we and Skint parted, the gods turned against us.

 

[KneeOn]

The blame culture is easy - we will never know the outcome if whatever event or person we want to blame had not happened.

However, our circumstances of the 1990's forcing us eventually into Withdean we always knew would have a negative bearing the longer we played at the ground. The fact we have survived as a club after so many years without a decent stadium is something of a miracle in itself.

Amazingly we had a good first period at Withdean, but a lack of investment due in part to the costs of playing at Withdean and the costs of fighting to get permission to build Falmer has seen us basically struggle for this latter part with just the odd blip like the play-off final year and a good half season under Dean Wilkins for that 7th finish.

Now we have a bit more investment and a proper stadium coming it will need a good manager to build the team wisely. Hopefully with time Poyet will prove to be that manager.

But for that we will have to wait and see what the next 18 months of still playing at Withdean bring?

Well said

 

[Blackadder]

Harty, its not Mickys fault, it was the fault of the club to sack Dean Wilkins, end of story. Thats the reason we are in such a mess, its set us back two years I'd say.

OK lets spread this out a little. Let's go back one.

What would Mark McGhee have done with the funds made available to Russell Slade?

 

[Acker79]

Damnit! I was writing a long answer then my finger slipped and I lost it all...

I don't think it's all Adams fault. But he does have to take some responsibility. As does the board, the players, Slade, Poyet, and the Fans.

The Board
The removal of Wilkins was a turning point. After relegation (partly due to the boards inability/unwillingness to back McGhee with cash) the team didn't bounce straight back. Often the relegated team is expected to dominate the lower division the next season.

The lack of dominance led to Wilkins taking over. He guided the team to a disappointing 18th.

Given a full year in charge, his first full year, he guided a team largely comprised of local youngsters the club had developed themselves to 7th place, this was in spite of the squad being ripped apart in january.

It wasn't always pretty, but it was successful. We may not have been in danger of getting to the lay offs, but of the 17 teams that didn't make the play offs, we were the best. Given the age/experience of our team, given the previous season's finish, and given it was Wilkins' first full year as first team coach, that is impressive. It wasn't always pretty, but we had the determination and fight to grind out wins.

The board interrupted this. The progression and development of the team and Wilkins as a manager was sliced down by the board for shadowy reasons.

Over the course of the following managers the board also had a certain impact. Adams has sad he didn't realise there was a power struggle going on in the boardroom. Maybe he was trying to protect his reputation, or maybe is run as manager is undermined by the board.

We have lost players who's contracts have expired and knight/the board has played hardball and we lost out. Long standing players complained that their negotiations were put off til the last minute making them feel unwanted, differences of "a tank of petrol", on year deals instead of two have led to key players choosing to go elsewhere. How much better off would we be with a board that recognised and rewarded those that achieved for us?

Adams
In comes Micky Adams.

Under his stewardship what was a promising team became a bunch of under achievers, people who couldn't reach the level of performance of the year before. A team who couldn't get over losses. A team who appeared to have lost all heart and desire, people who looked like they didn't care for the club and were just collecting a pay check.

Is that Adams's fault? Surely he has to take some blame for not being able to motivate the team? Not being able to coach them out of their bad habits.

Players
But how much responsibility can the manager take for an inability to motivate players? Players have to be compliant, the players have to want to improve. But if the man they came through the ranks under, the man they looked up to gets stabbed in the back by the club, isn't it understandable that they stop seeing the club as a family and start to see it as business, their employer?

The players are supposed to be professional footballers. Is it wrong to expect them to behave like professional sportsmen, to have the determination to be the best and strive every day to grow and improve in their chosen field? Unfortunately our players don't seem to have that drive.

Slade
He did well getting rid of some players that perhaps were unable to grow up and put the troubles of the last year behind them. Perhaps more would have gone if their contracts had expired.

But he got rid of a promising young keeper and replaced him with someone who as yet has proven to be too light weight.

He managed to motivate the team enough to survive, but given the chance to shape the squad and stamp his own signature on the club, he failed to make an impact. I believe given time and more support from the board (both the finances to bring in players and coaching staff to support or replace booker/white whatever Slade wanted, and in the form of standing by him).

He chose to build his team around players who had failed and were looking for a second chance. This was risky. Some players have done their best to take that chance, some haven't, and the team as a whole has again let a losing pattern to get them down, instead of seeing it as a challenge to rise up.

Fans
We have to accept a degree of responsibility. I'm not talking about lack of atmosphere, I'm talking about expectation, providing and indulging excuses.

We had back to back promotions, in the eighties we got to the top division and FA cup final. Some people expect us to be there. I want us to be there, I hope for us to be there, but I accept it will take time and that you will rarely see a league one team that is good enough to get to the premier league. We have to grow and develop as a team and progress up the league and it will take time. But some fans see the premier league as our primary goal now, and anything less is negative. Any sense of realism and goals in steps (i.e. primarily get a steady league one team, push up to the championship, establish ourselves there, then push up, etc) is seen as pessimism by the fans. We should be attracting premier league quality players now so we can storm the division this year, and onto the premier league in time for falmer!

This is unrealistic, and puts the players and the club under ridiculous pressure.

There's also the indulgence of excuses. We don't look for reasons things aren't working out. I'm doing it here in this post. We won't address the problems under Poyet because we only lost those games because they were top teams. We can't really judge poyet because he's got Slade's team. Give him time to bring in his own players. Give them time to gel! Sound familiar?

We said that under Slade, too. He was playing with micky's team. He needed time to make his own team. Needed time for them to gel.

Micky also needed time to build his squad. Remember the last time he was here? We struggled for a while as he built his squad, it'll happen this time, too. Just keep the faith...

Of course, it's not actually anyone's fault.

It's withdean. It's no place for football. Wait until we get a proper ground without a running track. You don't get running tracks at proper football stadiums, just ask Wembley. It's the lack off roof. I' the moaning fans. It's the cost of tickets. It's Withdean fatigue.

No, wait it's the ref, diabolical decisions, alright, it was a rough challenge, but after raking his studs down their guys leg, he got the ball!! Alright, so refs always give a keeper a freekick if he comes for a cross and doesn't collect it, and he blew his whistle long before the ball went in the net, but there is no way that goal shouldn't have stood! We should have had a penalty! Yes, we criticise Forster for diving here a lot, but that time he was really fouled, I'm sure of it!

We also ignore the team game aspect of football too often and pick on a scape goat for as long as possible. Virgo, Smith, El Abd have all been that guy. Navarro is currently a popular one. Brezovan is sneaking into that role, despite keeping two clean sheets out of four.

We refuse to criticise our team, we refuse to hold them to a high enough standard. I know, that somewhat goes against the expectations comment I made above, and the comment about moaning fans.

But there is a difference between expecting a league one team to be premier league quality and expecting our players to give their all, a difference between expecting our players to close down opponents, provide options on the attack and go out there with a desire to win.

There is a difference between moaning and calling a player out on their shortcomings. A difference between abusing a player and critiquing their performance.

We need to not avoid critiquing players for fear of being accused of moaning or abusing them.

We need to stop blindly "keeping the faith" and start demanding the team achieve what we expect and know they can.

Blaming Adams for everything falls into that last point. It is looking for excuses and absolving everyone currently involved of their own failures and faults. We need to stop doing that. What is past is past, we should learn from the past, but we shouldn't use it as an excuse for today's failure, and we shouldn't live in it.

That's enough rambling from me. Thank you if you took the time to read this. If you skimmed it, I don't blame you.