Coppell out!

[Sun Tzu]

Is Woodcote Royal Mr Grumpy, but not in disguise ?

[Woodcote Royal]

Do you honestly think our league position warrants the sacking of the manager??

No, but I think moving on regardless at the end of the season by not renewing his contract is looking a more attractive proposition by the day.

Should we not lose another game, playing fabulous football, scoring goals for fun, and going up as champions, would you reverse that position ?

Would you judge an artist by a half finished painting ?

Possibly, but not only is this very unlikely, I think he's made too many mistakes over the last 2 seasons and has clearly failed to learn from them.

I'm not saying we won't creep over the line but it really feels like it's time to move on after a month in which I see him as the main culprit for our dire displays.

[Woodcote Royal]

Is Woodcote Royal Mr Grumpy, but not in disguise ?

Sometimes, but I was merely responding to Visions double post................ignore my observation if it helps.

[Vision]

No, but I think moving on regardless at the end of the season by not renewing his contract is looking a more attractive proposition by the day.

Should we not lose another game, playing fabulous football, scoring goals for fun, and going up as champions, would you reverse that position ?

Would you judge an artist by a half finished painting ?

Possibly, but not only is this very unlikely, I think he's made too many mistakes over the last 2 seasons and has clearly failed to learn from them.

I'm not saying we won't creep over the line but it really feels like it's time to move on after a month in which I see him as the main culprit for our dire displays.

I don't get this either. If we "creep over the line" , do you not consider that to be an impressive achievement. This team/squad had been rapidly revamped from the side that played regularly in the Premiership. In the last few games alone Federici, Armstrong, Pearce,Kebe,Cisse and to a lesser degree Lita,Rosenior & Duberry weren't exactly part of Coppell's Premiership best 11. This leaves us with Doyle,Hunt and Harper (who presumably are the Coppell favourites you want dropped from the team) as regulars in our side last season.

I do think people underestimate the impact relegation from the Premiership can have on a side which is why i think only a handful of the last 30 or so relegated sides have been automatically promoted straight back the following season. In that context promotion would be a fine not something that we somehow fluked. Once again i think its the expectation that somehow we should be running away with the league that is skewing peoples perspective.

[Hoop Blah]

From my point of view it's not so much the results and our standing in the league but the rudderless way we seem to be achieving it that makes me worry about Coppell. That and that I think the side has gone so far backwards from the one that Coppell took up last time (I know it was our best side ever and all good things come to an end blah blah blah but we had a fine opportunity to maintain our standards and didn't).

I agree that even being one of the three who are/were running away from the pack is something we should be grateful for but it doesn't mean we should just accept moving backwards or performances that are just not up to standard.

[Schards#2]

I think people's frustration are born of the fact that we demonstrated earlier in the season that, even with this squad, we can be head and shoulders above anyone in the poor division when we are performing, however, having demonstrated it, we have not performed for some time now.

I doubt many other managers could have got this squad performing at that level so i'm in the 'Coppell's job for as long as he wants it' camp. Sadly, I don't think he's going to want it much longer assuming he still does now.

[Vision]

From my point of view it's not so much the results and our standing in the league but the rudderless way we seem to be achieving it that makes me worry about Coppell. That and that I think the side has gone so far backwards from the one that Coppell took up last time (I know it was our best side ever and all good things come to an end blah blah blah but we had a fine opportunity to maintain our standards and didn't).

I agree that even being one of the three who are/were running away from the pack is something we should be grateful for but it doesn't mean we should just accept moving backwards or performances that are just not up to standard.

My point is that in the context of relegation and the dismantling of the greatest side in the club's history to expect us this season to be coasting to automatic promotion is a bit over the top particularly given how historically difficult its proved for others. The mistakes of the past are to some degree irrelevent to the current situation particularly as i think you're referring to transfer policy as much as team selection.

To be in contention for automatic promotion whilst starting that slow rebuilding process is fine by me and i frankly don't buy the argument that if we get promoted on the last day of the season then the acheivement is somehow hollow.

There are barely 3 premiership regulars in this current side and 2 of those are players that most believe shouldn't even be in the side so I'm really not sure why people think we're massively underacheiving. Of course recent performances are disappointing but i still don't see why the sacking of the manager is a realistic arguement.

[Vision]

I think people's frustration are born of the fact that we demonstrated earlier in the season that, even with this squad, we can be head and shoulders above anyone in the poor division when we are performing, however, having demonstrated it, we have not performed for some time now.

I doubt many other managers could have got this squad performing at that level so i'm in the 'Coppell's job for as long as he wants it' camp. Sadly, I don't think he's going to want it much longer assuming he still does now.

The point is that you could take the best parts of any teams season as an indication that they should be winning the league at a canter. You should know by your own infamous thread that a disappointing half dozen games is no more an indication of how the season will pan out as a half dozen games where we hammer sides.

Given the inevitable rebuilding of this side i'd say that the fact that we have consistently been up with the pacesetters and remain so is actually more than an awful lot of people were predicting at the beginning of the season and indeed after the first half dozn games

[Schards#2]

I think people's frustration are born of the fact that we demonstrated earlier in the season that, even with this squad, we can be head and shoulders above anyone in the poor division when we are performing, however, having demonstrated it, we have not performed for some time now.

I doubt many other managers could have got this squad performing at that level so i'm in the 'Coppell's job for as long as he wants it' camp. Sadly, I don't think he's going to want it much longer assuming he still does now.

The point is that you could take the best parts of any teams season as an indication that they should be winning the league at a canter. You should know by your own infamous thread that a disappointing half dozen games is no more an indication of how the season will pan out as a half dozen games where we hammer sides.

Given the inevitable rebuilding of this side i'd say that the fact that we have consistently been up with the pacesetters and remain so is actually more than an awful lot of people were predicting at the beginning of the season and indeed after the first half dozn games

Points taken but few sides can point to extremely comfortable away wins at the main 3-4 rivals in, pretty much, any division.

[Hoop Blah]

My point is that in the context of relegation and the dismantling of the greatest side in the club's history to expect us this season to be coasting to automatic promotion is a bit over the top particularly given how historically difficult its proved for others. The mistakes of the past are to some degree irrelevent to the current situation particularly as i think you're referring to transfer policy as much as team selection.

To be in contention for automatic promotion whilst starting that slow rebuilding process is fine by me and i frankly don't buy the argument that if we get promoted on the last day of the season then the acheivement is somehow hollow.

There are barely 3 premiership regulars in this current side and 2 of those are players that most believe shouldn't even be in the side so I'm really not sure why people think we're massively underacheiving. Of course recent performances are disappointing but i still don't see why the sacking of the manager is a realistic arguement.

Totally agree, apart from that I don't think we should've let ourselves get relegated in the first place and I'm still viewing this seasons mistakes in tandom with those that the manager admitted to last season.

I think he's done a great job rebuilding a side that looks good enough to win the division IF he can get them out of the current rut.

[Vision]

I think people's frustration are born of the fact that we demonstrated earlier in the season that, even with this squad, we can be head and shoulders above anyone in the poor division when we are performing, however, having demonstrated it, we have not performed for some time now.

I doubt many other managers could have got this squad performing at that level so i'm in the 'Coppell's job for as long as he wants it' camp. Sadly, I don't think he's going to want it much longer assuming he still does now.

The point is that you could take the best parts of any teams season as an indication that they should be winning the league at a canter. You should know by your own infamous thread that a disappointing half dozen games is no more an indication of how the season will pan out as a half dozen games where we hammer sides.

Given the inevitable rebuilding of this side i'd say that the fact that we have consistently been up with the pacesetters and remain so is actually more than an awful lot of people were predicting at the beginning of the season and indeed after the first half dozn games

Points taken but few sides can point to extremely comfortable away wins at the main 3-4 rivals in, pretty much, any division.

Southampton have taken 4 points of us and deservedly so. Did they massively overacheive in those games? Did we massively underacheive? Or is it more the case that in this division unlike any other there is actually very little to choose on any given matchday between sides at the top and the bottom. As I said a period of results taken in isolation is no real indicator of how the season will or should pan out.

It really is a 46 game grind.

I understand and to a degree share the frustration, its part of being a football fan but it just seems to me to nearly always be disproportinate to the actual reality of the situation.

[papereyes]

I just hope he makes the tough decisions required to turn the recent slump around.

[Arch]

I think people's frustration are born of the fact that we demonstrated earlier in the season that, even with this squad, we can be head and shoulders above anyone in the poor division when we are performing, however, having demonstrated it, we have not performed for some time now.

I doubt many other managers could have got this squad performing at that level so i'm in the 'Coppell's job for as long as he wants it' camp. Sadly, I don't think he's going to want it much longer assuming he still does now.

This is the essence of it. You can change the playing personel (as some people cry for every transfer window), change the manager (as some people want now), change the chairman (as some people want all the time), change the stadium, we could up sticks and move the club to Dublin or Milton Keynes, Hunt could even change his underwear. But the most obvious change is the way the eleven players we put on the field play. We know they can play better because we've seen it. The same players (essentially) that lost on Saturday dicked all over BC in the autumn, same with Swansea. We can speculate that Ben Watson would have improved our performances, but it's just a theory; we could surmise that Martinez or Johnson or Jewell might lead us to glory, but until we've seen it it's just conjecture. We could imagine a rich benefactor splashing the cash and bringing Premiership glory, but that's just a daydream. We have first hand experience of this chairman, this manager, these players making this club look like a model club and this team look a cut above the opposition. I wish we could stick to talking about what changes to make out of what we've got, because wanting something else is fantasy and what we've got is good enough for now if used correctly.

[Hoop Blah]

...and what we've got is good enough for now if used correctly.

What if we consitently don't use it 'correctly' and we fail to live up to our potential?

[Arch]

...and what we've got is good enough for now if used correctly.

What if we consitently don't use it 'correctly' and we fail to live up to our potential?

If at the end of the season we've failed to live up to our potential, it's a pretty good bet Coppell will go. Anyway, for those who remember 04/05, the club sat down at the end of the season and set a strategy for changing things... with famous success.

[loyalroyal4life]

Bring Back Alan Pardew!!!!! (joke)

[rfcjoe]

^ err, not funny.

[Hoop Blah]

I think he'll go either way, but if he wasn't, and it looked like for the second season in a row he'd made significant errors along the way to us under achieving (both with the playing staff already here or by not supplementing them sufficiently with his available resources), what would you want to do with Mr Coppell?

[Gordons Cumming]

If was Coppell I'd run as far as I can from this club with it's fickle fans.

We have a slightly bad run and everyone panics!!

Good grief.

[Royalee]

If was Coppell I'd run as far as I can from this club with it's fickle fans.

We have a slightly bad run and everyone panics!!

Good grief.

He runs wherever he goes anyway, doesn't need you to inform him to do so - he runs from big decisions and the likes of Man City.