Wilkins Versus McGhee

[army ali]

Yes, I am - with great interest

And all these comments say the same thing. I'm happy that we are a midtable team, that we are winning some games in a lower league than the one we were in last season. Oh, and beating cup opponents a few leagues down from us. Lowered expectations, bravo

I'm happy that you're happy

Sorry I took so long at getting back to you, I know how much you have enjoyed this tennis match and i did not want to disappoint!

A wonderful quote above, I must applaud

Oh how we Albion fans love getting behind one another, (excuse the phrase, i am a giver not a taker) and fighting fronts together.

I look forward to the next....................

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

You should shoot yourself with cop outs like that.

It may be true, however the side Mcghee did gain from Coppell was a lot better than the current one.

 

[London Irish]

And Dean Wikins reacts when a player is isolated by changing formation or bringing on a sub to play in front of the beleaguered left back.

Have to say I missed that against Tranmere and Donny but I want to believe you.

 

[London Irish]

It may be true, however the side Mcghee did gain from Coppell was a lot better than the current one.

Older and more experienced certainly, in terms of raw talent it's a toss up. I don't think the play-off 2004 team had a midfielder as creative and skilful as Dean Cox, that's for sure.

 

[London Irish]

I think that is pretty much spot on. One of the worst things appears to be avoiding relegation 2 seasons ago as some fans then started to get unrealistic expectations. We were always going to be embroiled in another relegation fight in that second season which we may or may not have survived. We lost that battle and went down, so be it.

Also from the start of the season I always said I would be happy with a mid-table finish. As nice as it would be to go up we are blatantly not equipped to handle life in the Championship.

I was sceptical of Dean Wilkins' appointment as I not a fan of the idea of promoting within as we have been burnt previously and everytime I check the Youth Teams results on the website they now always seem to lose.

That said if Deano was to be made first team manager I would not have been adverse to letting Mark Mcghee carry on until the end of the season. His contract ran out them anyway and we could have had a smooth hand over.

As it is Wendy should get full backing now as what is done is done and it would appear he is upto it the job even more so than the other internal appointments. The one thing he needs is time which as we know is not a commodity often afforded to football managers. The squad has very good potential and if we can keep it together and with a couple of additions (although not loan signings) then we could be onto something very good.

Oh, getting final approval on Falmer would help also.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Rustington BHA

Yes, also agree 100 per cent with your comments. I hope very much that Dean Wilkins is given time as you say. There will be a few more Blackpool and Doncaster results before this season is through, but given time I'm now convinced Wilkins will irmprove the team and hopefully get us to the play-offs next season. Don't think we quite have the all-round strength in midfield to do it this, but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Older and more experienced certainly, in terms of raw talent it's a toss up. I don't think the play-off 2004 team had a midfielder as creative and skilful as Dean Cox, that's for sure.

I concur, but they also had a 25 goalman in Leon - which is priceless at this level as there is not a great deal between the sides in this league.

 

[London Irish]

I concur, but they also had a 25 goalman in Leon - which is priceless at this level as there is not a great deal between the sides in this league.

Jake 10 Revell 7 Cox 7 - all by November, not bad.

By November 2003, Knight had only a handful more than Jake and we had no one scoring goals from midfield like Cox or even Hammond is now.

We do not have a bad team now at all, but it will need time to mature. That would have happened under McGhee, it will now happen under Wilkins.

 

[Icy Gull]

Obvious really. I keep asking people like you the same question when you come out with the canard about "better football" - where you at Forest? That day we outpassed the runaway winners of our league - we just lacked defenders of the class of Hinsh and Butters to keep them out.

I agree there is more optimism now - but that's because people's expectations have been lowered. Under McGhee, people demanded Championship football or play-offs at the least, under Wilkins people are happy to accept midtable and losses like yesterday's.

This is what makes Dick Knight a great chairman of this club, in changing the manager he has solved one of the great problems with the fans of this club, inflated, unrealistic expectations of what we can realistically acheive. People were very unhappy at the beginning of the season that he said midtable was our realistic objective. One change of manager later, and people are happy to swallow exactly that.

And in a way I'm not knocking it, Albion games are a much more pleasany experience now that fans' expectations are realistic. When we lose, we now lose with good grace rather than the horrible, sour atmosphere that overtook many of our games last season.

Your camparison about the resources left to McGhee and Wilkins has been discussed many times on here, and where you go wrong is a very rosy perception of the strength of that squad minus Simon Rodger, Darius Henderson. It was an ageing team overeliant on journeymen like Oatway and Mayo, but McGhee still performed miracles with them.

I'd also agree with that. A few more defeats under DW and the crowd will turn again, unjustly, just as it did with MM this season when we were doing no worse than we are under DW, as the point of this thread proves.

Really hope Deano can win a couple at home soon ,as the atmosphere once the crowd turns makes going to watch the Albion a unpleasant chore.

 

[jonny.rainbow]

We do not have a bad team now at all, but it will need time to mature. That would have happened under McGhee, it will now happen under Wilkins.

Agree with this comment 100%.

 

[*Gullsworth*]

I think that is pretty much spot on. One of the worst things appears to be avoiding relegation 2 seasons ago as some fans then started to get unrealistic expectations. We were always going to be embroiled in another relegation fight in that second season which we may or may not have survived. We lost that battle and went down, so be it.

Also from the start of the season I always said I would be happy with a mid-table finish. As nice as it would be to go up we are blatantly not equipped to handle life in the Championship.

I was sceptical of Dean Wilkins' appointment as I not a fan of the idea of promoting within as we have been burnt previously and everytime I check the Youth Teams results on the website they now always seem to lose.

That said if Deano was to be made first team manager I would not have been adverse to letting Mark Mcghee carry on until the end of the season. His contract ran out them anyway and we could have had a smooth hand over.

As it is Wendy should get full backing now as what is done is done and it would appear he is upto it the job even more so than the other internal appointments. The one thing he needs is time which as we know is not a commodity often afforded to football managers. The squad has very good potential and if we can keep it together and with a couple of additions (although not loan signings) then we could be onto something very good.

Oh, getting final approval on Falmer would help also.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Rustington BHA

Are you me in Disguise? Just about sums it up! Have to admit the football we are playing under DW bodes well for the future. Lets hope the fans back him fully and is more forgiving than under MM's reign because although the football is more rethreshing to watch it is almost certain the inconsistancy wil remain untill this team matures into the finished product!!

 

[Ernest]

If we lose tonight Dick Tight will have no choice but to SACK Laurel and Hardy and get a TRIED and tested manager in before we become a cup clanger on Saturday

 

[Arrid]

Under McGhee we were playing dull dull football, not scoring goals, the fans were unhappy and the players didn't exactly look happy.

Since Wilkins has come in were scoring a fair few goals and the general atmosphere around the place has been better he has also brought in players that improved the team something which McGhee failed to do over the summer.

I don't think peoples expectations have gone down its just we can see something happening rather than turning up week in week out for a possible 1 nil win or a defeat, it makes quite a difference

Correct!

 

[Arrid]

Yes, I am - with great interest

And all these comments say the same thing. I'm happy that we are a midtable team, that we are winning some games in a lower league than the one we were in last season. Oh, and beating cup opponents a few leagues down from us. Lowered expectations, bravo

I'm happy that you're happy

You really are a buffoon of the highest order LI. You talked nonsense when McGhee was here and you talk nonsense now.

It is nothing to do with expectation. If you cannot see our play now is not more entertaining and cannot see that small improvements occur weekly then you must go to games blindfolded. Everything about the club is refreshed and more vibrant and once more and perhaps most importantly we appear to have hope!

 

[jonny.rainbow]

You really are a buffoon of the highest order LI. You talked nonsense when McGhee was here and you talk nonsense now.

It is nothing to do with expectation. If you cannot see our play now is not more entertaining and cannot see that small improvements occur weekly then you must go to games blindfolded. Everything about the club is refreshed and more vibrant and once more and perhaps most importantly we appear to have hope!

You don't win promotion on entertainment though.

I judged McGhee on results, and likewise, I will judge Wilkins on the points he delivers.

 

[NMH]

We do not have a bad team now at all, but it will need time to mature. That would have happened under McGhee, it will now happen under Wilkins.

That would have happened with McGhee would it? How would you know that?
How do we know he would have formed the team any differently?
We know he was standing watching a side relinquishing any lead they could conjure up, were letting teams get around the defence. We know they looked pretty sad and lacking ideas, even after the 'awful poisonous small player that contaminated the team' was removed!

I'd agree the first and last sentences though.

 

[London Irish]

If you cannot see our play now is not more entertaining

But it was only a year since our forward line was Seb Carole, Jake Robinson, Leon Knight and Albert Jarrett, playing virtually 4-2-4.

Entertainment is fine, but results count far more, as we discovered last season after the "entertaining" false dawn of the win over Plymouth and the remarkable 3-3 draw at Elland Road.

 

[London Irish]

That would have happened with McGhee would it? How would you know that?

I'm just extrapolating from our 4th place and play-off win and the manner in which he brought through young players like Adam Virgo and Dan Harding as part of that great triumph. And of course his work in similar circumstances at Reading and Millwall.

 

[aftershavedave]

But it was only a year since our forward line was Seb Carole, Jake Robinson, Leon Knight and Albert Jarrett, playing virtually 4-2-4.

Entertainment is fine, but results count far more, as we discovered last season after the "entertaining" false dawn of the win over Plymouth and the remarkable 3-3 draw at Elland Road.

"performance not points" was your motto at the time wasn't it?

 

[NMH]

I'm just extrapolating from our 4th place and play-off win and the manner in which he brought through young players like Adam Virgo and Dan Harding as part of that great triumph. And of course his work in similar circumstances at Reading and Millwall.

Fair enough, not everyone had the required faith in that happening, and in my opinion there wasn't much to suggest he was going to get things going in the right direction, other than him saying it.

 

[London Irish]

"performance not points" was your motto at the time wasn't it?

No, that was the caricature of my views from the "kids of all ages" led by Dwayne I think. I think it arose from the fact that in the first few weeks of the season I said our slow start in August and September wasn't a disaster because the same happened in 2004-5, not that our slow start was an irrelevant thing, which were the views inputed to me.