How Long Will BM Last at this rate?????

[cmonurz]

but not his mistake if he was only given 5 million to spend.....

It would be easy to think you were just on a wind-up, brendy. HB has already spent considerable time explaining his thoughts on how the transfer budget might be decided upon.

[Hoop Blah]

but not his mistake if he was only given 5 million to spend.....

If he goes in and it goes something like:

RZ: So, how much do you want to spend on new players Brian?
BM: Hmmmm, I want to keep faith with the current squad who've served me so well, with one or two astute additions, so lets say about £5m?
RZ: Is that all? Fair enough, you're the manager. It's done, here you go you've got £5m to spend.

That would be McDermotts fault.

[melonhead]

but not his mistake if he was only given 5 million to spend.....

It would be easy to think you were just on a wind-up, brendy. HB has already spent considerable time explaining his thoughts on how the transfer budget might be decided upon.

who are you? his oxf*rd babysitter?

as have i. he just repeated his stance again. so i did the same
dunno why youre sticking your oxf*rd beak in tbf

[melonhead]

but not his mistake if he was only given 5 million to spend.....

If he goes in and it goes something like:

RZ: So, how much do you want to spend on new players Brian?
BM: Hmmmm, I want to keep faith with the current squad who've served me so well, with one or two astute additions, so lets say about £5m?
RZ: Is that all? Fair enough, you're the manager. It's done, here you go you've got £5m to spend.

That would be McDermotts fault.

neither of us know


but that seems massively more unlikely than my imaginary conversation between the two


either way tbf. im happy to concede when i hear him say it. until then im more happy to actually believe what he has repeatedly said on the matter so far. cos he seems an honest and open kinda guy.
pklus it just seems weird, that when responding to people questioning him on whether its his fault we are in trouble cos we didnt spend enough, he keeps saying about the budget he was given, that it was a mistake, that he hopes the owner spends a bit more this jan to rectify it etc
hes not really the kind of bloke to imply a shift in the blame like that if its not warranted

[cmonurz]

but not his mistake if he was only given 5 million to spend.....

It would be easy to think you were just on a wind-up, brendy. HB has already spent considerable time explaining his thoughts on how the transfer budget might be decided upon.

who are you? his oxf*rd babysitter?

as have i. he just repeated his stance again. so i did the same
dunno why youre sticking your oxf*rd beak in tbf

Dick. It's a discussion board, I joined in.

You said 'but McDermott only got £5m', HB explained how he thought that came about, so you said 'but McDermott only got £5m'. frimmers would be proud.

[maffff]

You do have to wonder who calls the shots - Madejski/Howe/Hammond? McDermott? Anton..........? potential for conflict?

[cmonurz]

You do have to wonder who calls the shots - Madejski/Howe/Hammond? McDermott? Anton..........? potential for conflict?

Based on what we've heard from TSI and McDermott, it appears they were closely together, TSI taking on board a lot of what McDermott has to say, but ultimately making the final decision.

[melonhead]

It would be easy to think you were just on a wind-up, brendy. HB has already spent considerable time explaining his thoughts on how the transfer budget might be decided upon.

who are you? his oxf*rd babysitter?

as have i. he just repeated his stance again. so i did the same
dunno why youre sticking your oxf*rd beak in tbf

Dick. It's a discussion board, I joined in.

You said 'but McDermott only got £5m', HB explained how he thought that came about, so you said 'but McDermott only got £5m'. frimmers would be proud.

just thought you sounded like a massive HB arse licking bender tbf.

im discussing it with HB, its been a long running thing.
he spent a long time explaining his thoughts to me, i spent a long time explaining my thoughts to him.

you coming on and saying - but HB spent a long time explaining his thoughts didnt really add anything to any discussion, and nor did it persuade me to stop explaining mine.

[cmonurz]

I agree with him. Thanks for the compliment though.

Do it on PM if it's private.

[melonhead]

its not private


you just didnt really add anything to it, and your argument didnt make any real sense.

~"i should stop saying what i think because hes spent alot of time explaining what he thinks, and you agree with him."


but thanks for your interest

[Hoop Blah]

I don't recall McDermott ever saying he wanted more to spend or claiming it wasn't partly his decision to largely stick with what he had. Obviously he can't be too candid about the subject because he has to motivate and work with the players, and that's why I take very little notice of the cliched sound bites.

Zingaravich said that it was a decision they made, they being the decision making unit that it was implied McDermott was part of.

It still sounds like you're inferring Zingaravich is making stuff up!

[Hampshire Royal]

I'll admit to only watching the last 2 games on Sky, but what I saw - particularly the Newcastle game, where Kelly played for the first time and the midfield looked particularly good, we seemed to have turned some sort of corner.
This season has been a steep learning curve for the players and Brian but they seem to have learnt from it. I know it's early days, but I honestly believe that the future is looking a lot more healthy than earlier in the season. Thank goodness that SJM and Anton don't take any notice of what some people write on this board. If Brian had been sacked, we just would not have the current feeling of optimism. Saints sacked Adkins and they managed a 0-0 draw, with their new manager, against a team that we beat 2-1 when we were not playing too well.
Brian is doing things the right way, and, as far as I'm concerned, fully deserves to stay in the job he clearly loves.

[glenroyal]

I don't recall McDermott ever saying he wanted more to spend or claiming it wasn't partly his decision to largely stick with what he had. Obviously he can't be too candid about the subject because he has to motivate and work with the players, and that's why I take very little notice of the cliched sound bites.

Zingaravich said that it was a decision they made, they being the decision making unit that it was implied McDermott was part of.

It still sounds like you're inferring Zingaravich is making stuff up!

I agree with that impression - that whatever McD can actually say on specific cases, all the indications are that most of the decisions involve a lot of joint discussions - Anton, Nicky and Brian - and they seem to genuinely know and trust each other - which is what matters most to me. (Last time I saw Anton interviewed he looked like a kid enjoying playing with his new friends and his new toy - aah, sweet, I know. He's have to be pretty competent conspirator for that to be an act.)

[wolsey]

I'll admit to only watching the last 2 games on Sky, but what I saw - particularly the Newcastle game, where Kelly played for the first time and the midfield looked particularly good, we seemed to have turned some sort of corner.
This season has been a steep learning curve for the players and Brian but they seem to have learnt from it. I know it's early days, but I honestly believe that the future is looking a lot more healthy than earlier in the season. Thank goodness that SJM and Anton don't take any notice of what some people write on this board. If Brian had been sacked, we just would not have the current feeling of optimism. Saints sacked Adkins and they managed a 0-0 draw, with their new manager, against a team that we beat 2-1 when we were not playing too well.
Brian is doing things the right way, and, as far as I'm concerned, fully deserves to stay in the job he clearly loves.

Exactly

[Hoop Blah]

Southampton getting a 0-0 draw against a team we managed to beat (having been totally outplayed for the first 45 minutes I might add) just a few days after changing their manager has no bearing on where we would or wouldn't be now if we'd given McDermott the boot.

[Cypry]

I've got to say, even the Summer transfer dealings aren't looking as bad, now that we've had time to learn and sort out a system....

The only area where you could say he got it wrong was right back - neither Gunter or Cummings have made the step up, and that situation has now been addressed in the signing of Kelly.

Outside of that, Mariappa now seems a first choice CB and has impressed recently, Shorey has played a big part this season, but has been replaced by Harte recently (IMO Harte makes up for what he lacks in pace with his brain and experience - no matter how many times the Harte haters tell you he gets rinsed by opposing wingers, they actually have a really hard time coming up with any examples). Guthrie looked all wrong for a bit, but now that it seems all of the personality issues have been put to bed, he seems to have turned a corner. McLeary has played a big part so far this season, particularly with Kebe being injured for a period. Pogrebnyak now has a system which seems to be working for him. Taylor and Sweeney were never signed with first team action in mind, so we can discount them from the equation....

Yes, you could say we got it wrong tactically, but I do think our injury issues in midfield pretty much forced a 4-4-2 (if they score 3 we'll try and score 4) approach for a period (we did, after all start with 4-5-1 early in the season)...

[Hampshire Royal]

Southampton getting a 0-0 draw against a team we managed to beat (having been totally outplayed for the first 45 minutes I might add) just a few days after changing their manager has no bearing on where we would or wouldn't be now if we'd given McDermott the boot.

One thing that hasn't changed significantly is the spirit among the squad. That is what saw us gain victory against Everton after a bad first half. Saints had a good first half against Everton, but were not able to capitalise on that to defeat them. This spirit (did you see the reaction to Pog's goal against West Brom?, not only by the 11 players on the pitch, but also by the squad as a whole), added to the better way we are playing now shows to me that Saints' inferior result has a great bearing on where we would or wouldn't be now if the architect of this spirit was sacked. The effect on Saints of sacking the manager who had done extremely well for them, to be replaced by someone who is almost certain to make wholesale changes to their squad, is yet to be seen, but I suspect it will not be good for them.

[SPARTA]

BM:

"If I get given a load of money to spend then I’ll spend it. But in any case throwing money at things doesn’t guarantee success. There are teams in this league who have signed players for a lot more money than us and it’s not necessarily helped.”

[melonhead]

I don't recall McDermott ever saying he wanted more to spend or claiming it wasn't partly his decision to largely stick with what he had. Obviously he can't be too candid about the subject because he has to motivate and work with the players, and that's why I take very little notice of the cliched sound bites.

Zingaravich said that it was a decision they made, they being the decision making unit that it was implied McDermott was part of.

It still sounds like you're inferring Zingaravich is making stuff up!

nope.not really.im sure brian was involved in the discussions.

i gave you my made up conversation speculation before.
its still about the same, until i get more information and soundbites to add to the info i use to come up with my guessings.

just an opinion of course, like yours, and ill happily change it if in the coming years brian comes out and says it was his decision.


we probably needed to spend 40 million quid to totally rebuild the team to make it prem ready.
i doubt AZ would countenance that sort of spending, and i doubt very much if such a newly constructed team could come together and play well enough to stay up anyway.once you get to that point you have to think is it worth it anyway.
brian would definitely have had input in the discussions but essentially i just cant see why he would repeatedly make a point about spending the budget he was given, when questioned when he was under real pressure and threat of the sack, if he was given as much as hed have wanted.
that may change in future with future statements from those involved

[Extended-Phenotype]

IMO, Brian jacked in the 4-5-1 system too quickly. He gave up on Guthrie and Pog too early, ran Legs into the ground, stuck with Gorks too long, cut off his nose to spite his face with the handling of Pearce, ran with 4-4-2 against the wrong opponents, made the wrong changes too late in too many games and, as manager, is to be held somewhat responsible for us starting the season ill-prepared in terms of transfers.

That said, what was pissing me off was him failing to learn or change. He left it a bit late, but it's happened and I'm pleased.

Criticisms were justified and now vindicated, on the other hand sticking with Brian also looks like being a great decision.

So smiles all round, presumably.