McDermott Hits Back

[winchester_royal]

So either Brian or Anton is an absolute liar. I am going to guess it is Anton doing the lying, tbh.

Or, given they're both saying the same thing, they both are.

[royal_cornwall]

In summary the team he left was practically the SAME as the one he started with.

That's progress for you!

The team he left us with were no where near good enough to compete in the league they were in.

[floyd__streete]

So either Brian or Anton is an absolute liar. I am going to guess it is Anton doing the lying, tbh.

Or, given they're both saying the same thing, they both are.

Anton: "We could have done more"
Brian: "I couldn't have done any more"

So, unless Anton's admitting it is his fault, then they aren't both saying the same thing.

[winchester_royal]

So either Brian or Anton is an absolute liar. I am going to guess it is Anton doing the lying, tbh.

Or, given they're both saying the same thing, they both are.

Anton: "We could have done more"
Brian: "I couldn't have done any more"

So, unless Anton's admitting it is his fault, then they aren't both saying the same thing.

Both said more money should have been spent in the summer, both said money was available in January that we didn't use. Brian just seems to think that it was okay for him to only recommend Ince and Sig, whereas Anton felt he should have been a little more active.

Hardly the polarisation of opinions that some seem to think.

[Cobi]

So either Brian or Anton is an absolute liar. I am going to guess it is Anton doing the lying, tbh.

Or, given they're both saying the same thing, they both are.

Anton: "We could have done more"
Brian: "I couldn't have done any more"

So, unless Anton's admitting it is his fault, then they aren't both saying the same thing.

They've both said they agreed on the summer budget, so BM can't not be happy with that. BM also said he got everyone he wanted in the summer.

They've both said they should have done more in January, the only difference is BM saying it was NH's and AZ's job to get the players he wanted, and AZ saying BM should have done more.

Let's hope Nige gets a decent budget for the next few windows, because he's gunna need it!

[Jackson Corner]

The Sig thing is bollocks we may as well have bid for Bale. He was never going to leave one of the countries top clubs and a chance of CL football to join a team going down. If that money was available we should have gone for more realistic targets. Instead we got two div one players and an injury prone Portugese player who no outside Lisban had ever heard of. We signed our death warrents in January.

[andrew1957]

For the Brian knockers I would agree that the squad is little stronger than it was when he took over but whose fault is that. He was forced to sell Siggy, Long, Matt Mills etc for loads of money and given little to invest. He invested what he was given and made the best of what he had.

On top of that this season we have been incredibly unfortunate with injuries.

We will never know what he could have done if he was given a lot of money to invest - he simply never had the chance.

[Haag Royal]

Didn't someone else say on another thread here that in January we:

- went for a football camp in Portugal, had a kick about with Sporting and bought one of their contract dispute players
- played Crawley in the cup, saw Akpan and bought him
- played Sheffield Utd in the next round, saw one of their players and bought him

Not very clever scouting really was it.

I agree the Gilfi thing is rubbish. We did not stand a cat in hells chance and all it did was make us look momentarily unlucky but over time has made us look stupid. Same with Ince.

[Esteban]

For the Brian knockers I would agree that the squad is little stronger than it was when he took over but whose fault is that. He was forced to sell Siggy, Long, Matt Mills etc for loads of money and given little to invest. He invested what he was given and made the best of what he had.

On top of that this season we have been incredibly unfortunate with injuries.

We will never know what he could have done if he was given a lot of money to invest - he simply never had the chance.

He had money to spend in January and came up short. Whether you choose to believe that we were in with a realistic chance of signing Sigurdsson or not, to be given the chance to spend up to £10m and only ask for two players who, realistically, were always going to be very difficult to sign, then you have to take at least some of the responsibility for it all going wrong. I'd have kept Brian on until December myself, but it's harder to make a case for keeping him than it is to build a case for firing him.

[sandman]

Didn't someone else say on another thread here that in January we:

- went for a football camp in Portugal, had a kick about with Sporting and bought one of their contract dispute players
- played Crawley in the cup, saw Akpan and bought him
- played Sheffield Utd in the next round, saw one of their players and bought him

Not very clever scouting really was it.

I agree the Gilfi thing is rubbish. We did not stand a cat in hells chance and all it did was make us look momentarily unlucky but over time has made us look stupid. Same with Ince.

Well if the internet says it then it must be true.

[Wimb]

I don't think Brian took us forward

I know... maybe I'm just in an overly pessimistic mood over the short term future and it's clouding my mind this morning/afternoon, whatever time it is now.

I can't dispute his success, I liked the guy, thought it was harsh to give him the bullet and was gutted to see him go. I just don't look at the club's situation when he walked in and the situation he's left it in and think we're in a significantly better position as a football club. We're not going to be dominating the Championship next year with Brian's squad and so we're about the same rough expectation level as entering Brendan's reign.

In the end though I'm inclined to believe that he should hold the least amount of blame for any lack of genuine forward movement. I think the whole infrastructure of the club crumbled during his reign as Sir John's money ran out and as of yet TSI haven't shown that they've improved it.

I suppose Brian's legacy will be how the likes of HRK, Mariappa, Akpan, Blackman and McCleary turn out. If they're the bedrock of the side in 3 or 4 seasons then his tenure will be looked at even better. I wouldn't trade last season for anything but I think bad management has contributed towards this being one of the more miserable season's in recent memory. Then again, that's a sign of how far we've come in the past 10 years that I view our third ever season in the PL as being fairly miserable

[sandman]

The Sig thing is bollocks we may as well have bid for Bale. He was never going to leave one of the countries top clubs and a chance of CL football to join a team going down. If that money was available we should have gone for more realistic targets. Instead we got two div one players and an injury prone Portugese player who no outside Lisban had ever heard of. We signed our death warrents in January.

You're confusing our position now with our position then:

http://www.endz2endz.com/football-premier-league-table-310112/

Yes we were far from safe but we weren't "going down" for definite and at that point Gylfi wasn't exactly setting the world alight at Spuds.

How far down the target list do you want to go? We got "realistic targets" in the players we signed and if we'd have gone for more of those the fuss kicked up on here would've been of epic proportions. What do you call a realistic target in the January window? Fans call for ambition and then complain when the club tries something ambitious that doesn't quite come off. You need to work out what you want them to do!

[winchester_royal]

I'm with Wimb. In footballing terms we were better off 3 months into Brian's reign than we were when he left. The standard of our play has regressed, as has the quality of our squad. Not necessarily his fault given the budget constraints he was dealing with...but for me too often he went searching for short-term plugs rather than long-term solutions.

Can't fault him in terms of results and success, but he hasn't really left a huge platform on which Adkins can build, which is why the 'Adkins Diet' may take time to evolve.

[Wimb]

I'm with Wimb. In footballing terms we were better off 3 months into Brian's reign than we were when he left. The standard of our play has regressed, as has the quality of our squad. Not necessarily his fault given the budget constraints he was dealing with...but for me too often he went searching for short-term plugs rather than long-term solutions.

Can't fault him in terms of results and success, but he hasn't really left a huge platform on which Adkins can build, which is why the 'Adkins Diet' may take time to evolve.

Sums it up better than I have in 5 or 6 posts of waffle...

[Silver Fox]

the 'Adkins Diet'.

Fuck off

[winchester_royal]

the 'Adkins Diet'.

Fuck off

It's carbs that are your enemy my friend, not me..

[Nomad_Royal]

Didn't someone else say on another thread here that in January we:

- went for a football camp in Portugal, had a kick about with Sporting and bought one of their contract dispute players
- played Crawley in the cup, saw Akpan and bought him
- played Sheffield Utd in the next round, saw one of their players and bought him

Not very clever scouting really was it.

I agree the Gilfi thing is rubbish. We did not stand a cat in hells chance and all it did was make us look momentarily unlucky but over time has made us look stupid. Same with Ince.

Do you really beleive that was the scouting we did?

[Maguire]

I just don't look at the club's situation when he walked in and the situation he's left it in and think we're in a significantly better position as a football club

?

??

[Hoop Blah]

They've both said they agreed on the summer budget, so BM can't not be happy with that. BM also said he got everyone he wanted in the summer.

He's also said that he although he got everyone he wanted, and spent all his budget, he was working on 2 or 3 others as the window shut.

Not sure how he was bringing them in if he'd already spent his budget though.

[Hoop Blah]

How far down the target list do you want to go? We got "realistic targets" in the players we signed...

We wouldn't have had to have gone far down a decent list to perhaps strengthened with the likes of Frimpong, Dorrans, Townsend, Scharner, Huddlestone, Darren Bent perhaps?

It does look from outside that we limited ourselves far too much in January.