a laughing stock since Milan Mandaric took over

[Listy]

Leicester City are down with Fulham and Birmingham City possibly set to join them, albeit from a higher level. All of them were expected to have had enough to beat relegation this season so what has gone wrong at these three clubs?

In the cases of Leicester and Birmingham there are certainly many smaller clubs than them in their respective divisions while Fulham can count on a few years of Premier League riches to enable them to spend their way out of trouble. But there is one defining characteristic that has dragged all of these clubs into the position they now find themselves in – incompetence from unrealistic boardrooms.

Leicester have been quite simply a laughing stock since Milan Mandaric took over with the club becoming nothing more than a managerial merry-go-round. Martin Allen in particular could have led them to great things but Mandaric would not stand for anyone taking attention away from him.

Birmingham had a quality boss in Steve Bruce and were always likely to overcome their erratic form in time. Instead, the panicked and took the cash from Wigan and replaced him with a man unproven at Premier League level. Wigan looked doomed before Bruce arrived, now they are safe and hard to beat while the Manchester United legend’s former club are sinking without trace.

Fulham were on a loser the moment they dumped Chris Coleman after years of overachievement. They also plumped for an international manager with a questionable domestic record – twice. Roy Hodgson may get them out of trouble yet, but it has taken a miracle to do so. Lightning rarely strikes twice though. These sides are now reaping what their money men have sowed.

There is nothing wrong with believing your club can go to the next level but realism is everything in the game. Give these bean-counters a lavish of riches and they become power crazed and desperate for more, much like a boxer from the mean streets who makes it to the top of his game. The result is inevitable decline and fans of these clubs deserve better than to be at the mercy of these ignorant fat cats. Manchester City to go down next year, anyone?


http://www.4sportsake.com/blog199h/index.php?entryid=836

 

[OldGit]

Rather simplistic, I would say. Having watched the Fulham-Birmingham game on Saturday I would say brum's major problem in staying up has more to do with the quality of the squad, which was mainly assembled by Bruce.

If your analogy holds water then Liverpool would surely be deep in the mire.

 

[FIF]

Leicester City are down with Fulham and Birmingham City possibly set to join them, albeit from a higher level. All of them were expected to have had enough to beat relegation this season so what has gone wrong at these three clubs?

In the cases of Leicester and Birmingham there are certainly many smaller clubs than them in their respective divisions while Fulham can count on a few years of Premier League riches to enable them to spend their way out of trouble. But there is one defining characteristic that has dragged all of these clubs into the position they now find themselves in – incompetence from unrealistic boardrooms.

Leicester have been quite simply a laughing stock since Milan Mandaric took over with the club becoming nothing more than a managerial merry-go-round. Martin Allen in particular could have led them to great things but Mandaric would not stand for anyone taking attention away from him.

Birmingham had a quality boss in Steve Bruce and were always likely to overcome their erratic form in time. Instead, the panicked and took the cash from Wigan and replaced him with a man unproven at Premier League level. Wigan looked doomed before Bruce arrived, now they are safe and hard to beat while the Manchester United legend’s former club are sinking without trace.

Fulham were on a loser the moment they dumped Chris Coleman after years of overachievement. They also plumped for an international manager with a questionable domestic record – twice. Roy Hodgson may get them out of trouble yet, but it has taken a miracle to do so. Lightning rarely strikes twice though. These sides are now reaping what their money men have sowed.

There is nothing wrong with believing your club can go to the next level but realism is everything in the game. Give these bean-counters a lavish of riches and they become power crazed and desperate for more, much like a boxer from the mean streets who makes it to the top of his game. The result is inevitable decline and fans of these clubs deserve better than to be at the mercy of these ignorant fat cats. Manchester City to go down next year, anyone?


http://www.4sportsake.com/blog199h/index.php?entryid=836

bull

 

[homer]

Martin Allen in particular could have led them to great things ..........

Dear God, or Santa depending on which one of you is real, please save us

 

[alex]

It may be bull, but the sentiment requires better respect. I think Mr Mandaric has a right in letting us know what exactly went wrong with Mr Allen, as we were nowhere near this situation when he was fired.

 

[homer]

It may be bull, but the sentiment requires better respect. I think Mr Mandaric has a right in letting us know what exactly went wrong with Mr Allen, as we were nowhere near this situation when he was fired.

Neither were we in this siutation when Holloway was appointed.

We were above Crystal Palace, and Cardiff, both of whom managed to get themselves a decent enough position in the league - and neither of which were given the funds to bring in twelve players during the transfer window

The mistake made was to allow the cnut to carry on as long as he did - and that is a mistake that many on here have applauded and fought for, for many weeks

 

[WALSHIESTACKLE]

It may be bull, but the sentiment requires better respect. I think Mr Mandaric has a right in letting us know what exactly went wrong with Mr Allen, as we were nowhere near this situation when he was fired.

He has no right as part of the settlement with Allen both parties agreed to say nothing. Speculation will always be there about what happened such as the ridiculous suggestion of ball throwing at Clive Clarke before his heart attack.

As for the fact we were no where near it when he was sacked we had only played 4 league games so a comparison is virtually impossible.

 

[Yorkshire Vixen]

Neither were we in this siutation when Holloway was appointed.

We were above Crystal Palace, and Cardiff, both of whom managed to get themselves a decent enough position in the league - and neither of which were given the funds to bring in twelve players during the transfer window

The mistake made was to allow the cnut to carry on as long as he did - and that is a mistake that many on here have applauded and fought for, for many weeks

yup precisely

 

[syd]

It's both difficult and pointless to start sharing out the blame now. Put simply we need to look forward, if Milan's going to go he needs to do it quickly, if he's going to stay we need the managerial situation sorted quickly.

On the one hand Mandaric has spent a lot of money on the club, he brought in Worthington at the right time, made what many saw as a positive appointment in Allen and then they parted company for reasons which may well have been justified. As we can see at Bolton, the Megson appointment was possibly a good one. Then he appointed Holloway, who was popular with many fans to the end, and backed him up with funds superior to almost any other in the Championship. On the other hand he tinkered with transfers and took far too long over his managerial appointments. He seems to have been more worried about selling the club than dealing with Ollie's disastrous performance (which would have cost money of course), and the fact that Allen went via 'mutual consent' puts a dent in his argument that there was one very good reason for the chap's departure.

Equally, Holloway can't be blamed entirely. He took over a side with great instability and only dropped 5 places down the table. He was constantly in fear of his job and who knows how many of the transfers were his own. On the other hand you could say that with the funds available, relegation was a damning indictment of his management. Especially when he admits that motivation was a major problem, despite having blamed results on things like playing against ten men. And, lest we forget, after that Barnsley game we'd 'proved all our critics wrong'. Alarm bells were really ringing at that point.

Even the fans have a share of the blame. They hounded Megson out of the club and enough of them backed Ollie to the last. Some of us were called idiots for suggesting, back in February and March, that our best chance could be to get rid of him and let someone more competent do the job, despite the fact that he seemed totally inept. We had a side of players who, in many cases, have had great success in this league in very recent history, but some fans couldn't see beyond how nice a guy Ollie was. If you passively accept mediocrity, that's what you end up with.

Ultimately, blame is pointless because we all have a share. All Milan needs to do now is to make his mind up - fast. Then we can look ahead.

 

[homer]

It's both difficult and pointless to start sharing out the blame now

Difficult, maybe - but pointless ?

Not at all

If this club is to genuinely move forward then it must hold the mother of all post-mortems (internally, not in public) to ensure that the (many) mistakes of the past are not repeated in the future

To ignore what has gone before (unprecedented in our history, don't forget) and carry on regardless with a lot of silly rhetoric and blind optimism is quite possibly the worst thing that we can do right now

There is blame in this shoddy outcome, and those responsible must either go (Holloway and many of the current crop of 'players') or change their way of working altogether (Mandaric in particular)

 

[cleefox]

It's both difficult and pointless to start sharing out the blame now.
Even the fans have a share of the blame. They hounded Megson out of the club and enough of them backed Ollie to the last.

Pointless eh, but you still do it. So its the fans fault. Dickweed.

 

[Chuck T Masala]

I don't think blame is pointless in this case. Not only is this a disaster for the club from a playing and supporting perspective its bad news commercially too. This needs a proper drains up examination and heads need to roll for poor performance/decsions/outcomes. The supporters continued to play their part and have coughed up all season and been let down by the team again and again. If they want to barrack the manager and others then I think they have earned that right this season.

I for one want to see someone made accountable for this abject sporting and commercial fauilure and I want them sacked. The club needs to be run and managed properly otherwise it will continue to fail.

As for Megson, he is a tough cnut, he won't be hounded out of any job after just a few weeks. He went for his own reasons, don't flatter the fans by suggesting they forced him out.

 

[Trifull]

I thought we were a laughing stock long before MM took over.

 

[DesertFox]

I don't think blame is pointless in this case. Not only is this a disaster for the club from a playing and supporting perspective its bad news commercially too. This needs a proper drains up examination and heads need to roll for poor performance/decsions/outcomes. The supporters continued to play their part and have coughed up all season and been let down by the team again and again. If they want to barrack the manager and others then I think they have earned that right this season.

I for one want to see someone made accountable for this abject sporting and commercial fauilure and I want them sacked. The club needs to be run and managed properly otherwise it will continue to fail.

As for Megson, he is a tough cnut, he won't be hounded out of any job after just a few weeks. He went for his own reasons, don't flatter the fans by suggesting they forced him out.

As usual, it's hard to argue with a word that Masala says...

 

[syd]

I know we'd like to see someone made accountable for this, but there's lots of accountable people here. I believe the biggest factors in our fate were decisions made by Milan, most significantly the decision to sack Allen (or, depending on your viewpoint, the decision to appoint him - one of the two must have been a mistake).

However Milan Mandaric is unlikely to conclude that he personally is responsible. And what's to be gained from vociferously telling him that he is? Right now he knows he'll probably never own another major English club, his best chance may well be to fight back with City who, lest we forget, would quite possibly have ended up relegated whether he'd arrived on the scene or not. So I, for one, am reluctant to remind him what a difficult old swine he's been this year, because doing so is the most likely route to him saying 'okay, **** you all.'

I can't accept the fans have no part in it. Many of you backed Holloway to the end, despite him blaming defeats on playing against ten men, and repeatedly telling us that we could relax every time we'd won a game. At the crunch he threw out the sympathy card, telling us how badly his missus had been treated by Plymouth fans. He's been a disaster, should have gone earlier, but no he shouldn't be the sole scapegoat for what happened.

Remember Milan told us how much we'd influenced his decision in not appointing Warnock last summer. Would we have gone down if we did? And I refuse to believe that the fans' constant barracking of Megson didn't contribute to his decision to walk out. Remember how Mandy said the fans' opinion had made the goodbye 'a lot easier.' Mandaric gave him permission to talk to Bolton. We forget this.

If we'd have treated Holloway the way we treated Megson he'd have been gone by February and we may have stayed up. If we'd treated Megson the way we treated Ollie, he'd probably never have gone.

I'm partly to blame too. I backed the Mandaric takeover in the first place, and it was a takeover galvanised by overwhelming public opinion. Maybe we all need to look at ourselves a bit here and what we expect from the club. The atmosphere in that place had been terrible for 5 years, and in that time we've also had the worst home record of any team in any league. How come we're not partly responsible?