The Micky Adams apologist........

[Harty]

Perhaps one of the nicer things I have been called on NSC

I still believe he is the man for the job but do any of us, and I include myself in that, really know how big the job is?

I maintain that despite finishing 7th last year a lot of results did paper over the cracks, and I think that had Dean not got replaced we would be no better off than we are now, perhaps even worse.

When Micky arrived in 1999 he had a mass summer clearout, this time he couldn't do that straight away, so perhaps the squad still contains players who are not in his long term plans.

If as SuperPhil revealed on Saturday on the phone-in there are funds available in January then you may see a number of players leaving the club being replaced by permanent signings, which could change the whole situation.

I still think we can make the play-offs, it will be very hard but not impossible but even if we don't we will certainly not be anywhere near the relegation zone at the end of the season.

I think Dean's departure had as much to do with things off the field than on it, therefore anyone who thinks Micky can solve the obvious problems within the club instantly is deluding themsleves.

Then again it is a game of opinions and some people think its me that's deluded....

 

[Mendoza]

Micky Adams has had a chance to clear out and make a stamp on this squad.

So he brings back Richards, Hart and Mayo to start with, and makes TEN more signings. If that is not classed as being able to stamp your mark on a squad, then what is? So people that said he needs time to rebuild the squad, how much rebuilding can you do after 13 signings?

I think we have IMPROVED the squad with better players than last year, but we are playing worse football and getting less results.

Last year we may have payed badly, but we got results.

10 poins from 9 homes games is TERRIBLE, we got 42 points at home last season.

 

[British Bulldog]

I maintain that despite finishing 7th last year a lot of results did paper over the cracks,

The same could be said about the Man City, Leicester & Millwall results this season.

 

[Simster]

I maintain that despite finishing 7th last year a lot of results did paper over the cracks

Yes. I'm sure finishing in a far better position than expected and challenging for a play-off place all season does paper over quite a lot of cracks. In the same way that playing some shit football with clueless team selection and obtaining mostly dreadful results "papers over the crack" that everything else is actually jolly super at the club.

I think that had Dean not got replaced we would be no better off than we are now, perhaps even worse.

How the hell anyone can arrive at that conclusion is totally beyond me. It's not as if Wilkins' team was running into bad form at the end of the season. We were getting consistently better if anything.

I think Dean's departure had as much to do with things off the field than on it, therefore anyone who thinks Micky can solve the obvious problems within the club instantly is deluding themsleves.

Clearly it did - the board decided they couldn't work with him so they sort of sacked him. These things happen I suppose, but there seems to be some very lame reasoning for this. And in any case, Adams' subsequent appointment was a dreadful one.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Perhaps one of the nicer things I have been called on NSC


Then again it is a game of opinions and some people think its me that's deluded....

You really don't help yourself though. Mendoza's pretty much covered it, re. the squad.

More pertinently have been the games this year where Adams has clearly contributed to the defeat by nonsense selections, putting players out of position, or surrendering leads by sitting back, and still you'll not have a word said against him, going as far as to suggest that anyone who didn't think he was the right man was retarded.

Its hardly balanced, is it?

 

[BigGully]

Perhaps one of the nicer things I have been called on NSC

I still believe he is the man for the job but do any of us, and I include myself in that, really know how big the job is?

I maintain that despite finishing 7th last year a lot of results did paper over the cracks, and I think that had Dean not got replaced we would be no better off than we are now, perhaps even worse.

When Micky arrived in 1999 he had a mass summer clearout, this time he couldn't do that straight away, so perhaps the squad still contains players who are not in his long term plans.

If as SuperPhil revealed on Saturday on the phone-in there are funds available in January then you may see a number of players leaving the club being replaced by permanent signings, which could change the whole situation.

I still think we can make the play-offs, it will be very hard but not impossible but even if we don't we will certainly not be anywhere near the relegation zone at the end of the season.

I think Dean's departure had as much to do with things off the field than on it, therefore anyone who thinks Micky can solve the obvious problems within the club instantly is deluding themsleves.

Then again it is a game of opinions and some people think its me that's deluded....

I think your view is distorted, mainly because your initial opinion that Micky Adams would be an instant success has currently been proved wrong.

Of course it may yet be proved correct and funds will be made available probably for the board members to save face.

They have a stake in Adams and will back him as much as they possibly can, contridicting DK's statements last term of 'wage constraints' etc.

It is a great leap of faith for you to conclude that we might be worse off if DW had stayed, where the hell does that come from.

If Wilkins had access to the funds currently on offer it would be reasonable to conclude that we we might be pushing for a play off place, of course we will never know.

His mass clearout might happen, but he has brought in many of 'his own players' and they just dont seem to be performing and more worryingly dont necessarily seem great talents having a dip in form, but maybe just average players, something that you should recognise as money not well spent and therefore not great management.

I would love to know what structural damage Wilkins did last season that allows forgiveness for MA's dismal start, most good things that have happened within the club in recent years on the playing front seems to have Wilkins finger prints all over them.

We still have a generation of local youngsters that remain an integral part of the first team squad and sales of others have been instrumental in helping the club survive, I am not sure whether MA dismantling is something to celebrate.

Wilkins impact was generally positive and his 20 years as player and coach is something that shouldnt be smeared for the sake of some people saving face.

MA hasn't had to clear up a mess left by Wilkins, but more had to strive to match Wilkins progress, he has not yet done that

I am afraid you remain a MA apologist.

 

[Mendoza]

Harty, you are not as angry as Andy Naylor is in his match report in todays Argus.

Must try harder

 

[Brovion]

...

I maintain that despite finishing 7th last year a lot of results did paper over the cracks, and I think that had Dean not got replaced we would be no better off than we are now, perhaps even worse.

...

Well I maintain that if Wilkins was still here he'd have maintained the progress he made during his first FULL season in management and we'd now be AT LEAST seventh. As you say it's all about opinions and I may as well say that if McGhee was still here we'd be in the Championship, if Coppell was still here we'd be in the Premiership and if Archer and Stanley hadn't got involved we'd be the reigning World Club champions by now. It's all idle - and ultimately pointless - speculation.

However for me there is one thing that is undoubtedly true and that's the fact that the Albion doesn't feel 'different' any more. Like almost all clubs we all knew the Albions was/is strapped for cash. We also knew that unlike a lot of clubs we had the additional burden of the Falmer battle to fight. Something had to give and we probably didn't spend as much on players as people would have wanted us to. Consequently we had to rely on our own home-grown players and a home-grown manager who'd been at the club pretty much man and boy for twenty years. Yes at times both manager and team were rubbish but they were OUR rubbish; and even if I accept that cracks were papered over, the division was much weaker last year and all the wins were flukes what they achieved in this era of multi-national squads gave real pride to Sussex. Now that's all gone and we're just an ordinary third division club with an ordinary third division manager.

Just my opinion but I think as a club we've lost something - and I don't just mean a lot of matches.

And for the record whilst I was opposed to Wilkins' sacking and opposed to Adams reappointment I DON'T want him sacked.

 

[clippedgull]

Harty, you are not as angry as Andy Naylor is in his match report in todays Argus.

Must try harder

It's funny how you can see things differently when you don't have to pay to watch shit. Naylor, that's you I'm talking about.

 

[Gritt23]

we will certainly not be anywhere near the relegation zone at the end of the season.

Why? Too big to go down, too good to go down? C'mon Harty, you and I are old enough to know that sort of attitude is what sucks teams down into it, the cocky belief that we are just above all of that relegation stuff. If you believe there are significantly worse teams below us, you are including teams we have been unable to beat at home this season.

But to the rest of NSC, just to put some perspective on this, why would anyone blieve Harty is the gospel as far as making the correct assessment of a manager. Wasn't Harty offering McGhee a 10-year contract a few years ago?

We all have blind spots in life, and personally I think Hartys is in his 100% support of the current manager, every "current" manager. A "the King is dead, long live the King" atttude in someone is amirable in it's blind loyalty, but you also accept that their view is not an objective one on the subject.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

How the hell anyone can arrive at that conclusion is totally beyond me. It's not as if Wilkins' team was running into bad form at the end of the season. We were getting consistently better if anything.

Won three, drew two, lost three of the last eight. Mid-table stuff a bit like we are seeing now. And was it down to Wilkins (who by all accounts was not taking training) or the players?

We'll probably never know!

 

[vulture]

Harty, you are not as angry as Andy Naylor is in his match report in todays Argus.

Must try harder

what did he say brett?

 

[Mendoza]

what did he say brett?

Its not online yet, but he is just having a dig about the fans for slagging off Adams, and saying how bad Dean Wilkins was last season.

Cant be arsed to type it all out

Sure it will be on line soon

 

[clippedgull]

what did he say brett?

moaning about the moaners in a nutshell.

 

[Jim D]

Looking at the fixtures after Millwall there were grounds for believing that we could get another 6 or 7 points and be in the third round of the cup and the SF of the JPT by monthend. Now we're again in freefall in the league and have only a difficult trip in the JPT to look forward to.

We're playing like a team without belief in themselves and with no confidence to take chances. Players are starting to look at (and blame) each other rather than take responsibility. The 5 games remaining before Christmas - which appeared difficult enough after Millwall - are all now looking very losable. If that happens then we will be in or around the bottom 4 and every game will be a nervous scrap for survival - for the players and the fans.

I don't have an axe to grind with Adams - I thought it was a good appointment at the time - but he's got us into this mess and I'm not at all sure he can get us out. As for his fate - I expect that will be decided after these next 5 games.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Its not online yet, but he is just having a dig about the fans for slagging off Adams, and saying how bad Dean Wilkins was last season.

Cant be arsed to type it all out

Sure it will be on line soon

By Andy Naylor »

ALBION begin the campaign well, then are plagued by inconsistency before getting into their stride too late to make the play-offs.

Ring any bells? No, not last season, when the Seagulls ended up seventh under Dean Wilkins (they actually started badly).

In fact, this scenario is more applicable to the first full season of Micky Adams’ first spell in charge.

It is easy to forget Adams was not an instant success first time around. It took a while for him to make his mark.

Impatient fans who have already lost the faith the Adams catchphrase implores them to keep would do well to remember that.

They should also remove their rose-tinted spectacles and selective memories of last season. There were several games and performances at Withdean which were worse than Saturday’s average offering.

The detractors bang on relentlessly about the finishing position last time around to justify their view that the re-appointment of Adams has been one almighty mistake.

They may, or may not, eventually be proved right, but it is far too early to judge. For goodness sake, he has only been back in the job for six months, two of them out-of-season.

There will be more changes in January and, I suspect, plenty more next summer as Adams gradually moulds the squad he is after.

For the time being it includes five loan signings, all of whom were involved against Huddersfield, four from the start and Stuart Fleetwood as a substitute.

At last, after injuries, illness and unavailability, Adams, with the possible exception of the banned David Livermore, was able to select something like his strongest side.

Fat lot of good it did would be an obvious criticism, based on the result, but I defy anyone to look at Saturday’s teamsheet and believe that last season’s matchday squad was stronger.

So why did they lose? Being charitable, some players are still rusty after lay-offs of various lengths. Being hard-nosed, half of them did not perform anything like as well as we know they can.

Give Huddersfield, fresh from an eyecatching victory at Leeds, a bit of credit too. They defended admirably in a game Albion deserved something out of, if not perhaps all three points.

The crossbar intervened twice, Glenn Murray clipping it in the first half on the volley with the outside of his right foot and Bradley Johnson following suit with a free-kick from long range in the closing stages.

Then there was the small matter of a 74th-minute missed penalty, or rather a saved penalty. Nicky Forster won it, when Jonathan Worthington bundled him over, and the skipper picked himself up to take it.

Parity beckoned but Matt Glennon guessed right and foiled Johnson’s attempt to force in the rebound.

Sponsors’ man-of-the-match Kevin Thornton, not the type to be backward in coming forward, said: “Hopefully if we get another one in the next couple of games I’ll take it. As the captain it’s up to Fozzy if he wants to give it to someone else.

“I’d like to take it because I've taken them at Coventry, but if you miss a penalty you want to take the next one and make sure you score to get your confidence back up.”

Thornton, returning from tonsillitis, was also denied by the accomplished Glennon in the dying moments, the keeper stretching to push away his angled drive.

“You should win games like that but they defended really well,” said the cheeky Irish midfielder. “We were the better team and their keeper pulled off a great save from the penalty. It was one of those days when we could have had 110 chances and still not scored.

“Things can turn at any time. We just need a few wins now to get us up the table, because we have got a good enough team to do it.”

Good enough, yes, but they must break the habit of conceding softly. The goal which cost Albion the game, early in the second half, was once again avoidable.

Adams blamed a “catalogue of defensive errors”, which culminated with Andrew Whing failing to deal with Keigan Parker’s cross to the far post.

Gary Roberts knocked the ball back in for Michael Collins to convert his third goal in as many matches from close range.

Adams said: “I’m disappointed for the players more than anything. I think we were the better team and their keeper had a good day.

“I’m not going to blame Fozzy for missing the penalty. He is big and brave enough to stand up and take them but it was a frustrating day.

“The minimum we should have got out of the game was a 0-0, but once again we have shot ourselves in the foot and that’s disappointing. We will play worse than that and win.”

A much-needed win at Stockport tomorrow night will not appease Adams’ critics, who will be delighted to know Albion were seven points better off at the corresponding stage last season.

They tasted victory in only two of the next nine matches after that, which puts the whingeing into its proper perspective.
"


What a twat, Naylor is.

Yes, yes Andy, we know you and Wilkins didn't get on. blah, blah.

 

[Harty]

Why? Too big to go down, too good to go down? C'mon Harty, you and I are old enough to know that sort of attitude is what sucks teams down into it, the cocky belief that we are just above all of that relegation stuff. If you believe there are significantly worse teams below us, you are including teams we have been unable to beat at home this season.

But to the rest of NSC, just to put some perspective on this, why would anyone blieve Harty is the gospel as far as making the correct assessment of a manager. Wasn't Harty offering McGhee a 10-year contract a few years ago?

We all have blind spots in life, and personally I think Hartys is in his 100% support of the current manager, every "current" manager. A "the King is dead, long live the King" atttude in someone is amirable in it's blind loyalty, but you also accept that their view is not an objective one on the subject.

It wasn't 10 years Gritt old boy it was to secure McGhee until we got to Falmer........

Maybe a criticism that can be levelled at me is that I am over supportive of certain managers, but then again ask Barry Lloyd because it hasn't always been the case.

But you learn from your mistakes, I can remember slaughtering Baz in the fanzine re the sale of Dean Saunders to Oxford for 60k, yet I didn't know the full facts until years later.

Former chairman Dudley Sizen told me that Baz was told Deano, and the other big wage earners, had to go and if that meant them walking out of the club for nothing so be it, he actually got 60 grand more than Bedson and co were prepared to settle for, and with that money it helped to bring Messrs Nelson and Bremner to the Goldstone.

Case in point, didn't know all the facts, which is what I think is the case for us now.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

"They tasted victory in only two of the next nine matches after that, which puts the whingeing into its proper perspective. " - Andy Naylor?


As opposed to our current run of 2 wins in FOURTEEN. Yes, yes it does Andy, doesn't it?

 

[BensGrandad]

People should look at the bigger picture of this and realise that last season we were definitley not a succesful team for most of the season. If you look at the graph of our progress on statto.com you will see that after 28 games we were 17th the reason that we finished so high was because the playoffs and promotion had been decided reasonably early and clubs that werent in those groups just beat each other thus pushing us up the table. If we were to finish 12th and win the JPT which is the better season last or this.

It is apparent that the money spent on wages for Hart and Mayo hasnt stopped us signing anybody else if it did then it may be a different story.

 

[Jim D]

....If we were to finish 12th and win the JPT which is the better season last or this.

I'd take 12th and the final of the JPT - that would get us some money and brighten up the season for us. I assume that we do get a share of the receipts from the game?