How impressed are you with BMcD's return to the club?

[genome]

What's your point then if you are not criticising Brian?

.

They're still worse off under Brian atm.

Nice riposte

[Denver Royal]

I'd much rather have a bloke who knows and cares about the club in charge than someone who loans in a bunch of players who don't really care, and who turns his head at the first opportunity. He was as classy as his beloved Chelsea.

So conceptually you were against Adkins and Clarke right at the outset when they were hired then? Nothing on their resumes suggested they 'knew and cared' about this club. They weren't 'our guys'. Yet BMD is getting credit - and slack - for these traits and they are in vogue. He's enjoying a bit of a honeymoon right now because of Clarke's antics/fallout. Fair enough. I can see that. Its early doors yet, and will give him a chance, but I think at some point we are going to have to distance ourselves from the 'nice guy' and the history thing and move toward evaluating and rating him as a manager more on its own merits. The 'well, at least he's not Clarke' stuff has a short shelf life, for me anyway.

[Oilroyal]

Give the bloke a chance. He needs at least until this time next year before any of us can honestly evaluate his impact as as manager in his second stint at the club.

Ideally this season he needs to keep pushing for a top 6 place although I think we've left ourselves too much to do now. He's clearly looking at the FA cup as a silver lining, taking it seriously because if we beat Huddersfield, and then play a winnable game against Walsall we're in the thick of it again in the FA cup.

My only concern over Brian's judgment since he arrived is Vidra staying on the pitch for the full 90 at MK Dons and using Simon Cox over Sa. Odd to say the least but other than that he's done a pretty decent job with the handful of games he's managed so far.

[RoyalJames101]

I'd much rather have a bloke who knows and cares about the club in charge than someone who loans in a bunch of players who don't really care, and who turns his head at the first opportunity. He was as classy as his beloved Chelsea.

So conceptually you were against Adkins and Clarke right at the outset when they were hired then? Nothing on their resumes suggested they 'knew and cared' about this club. They weren't 'our guys'. Yet BMD is getting credit - and slack - for these traits and they are in vogue. He's enjoying a bit of a honeymoon right now because of Clarke's antics/fallout. Fair enough. I can see that. Early doors, and will give him a chance, but I think at some point we are going to have to distance ourselves from the 'nice guy' and the history thing and move toward evaluating and rating him as a manager more on its own merits. The 'well, at least he's not Clarke' stuff has a short shelf life, for me anyway.

McDermott's record is better than both Adkins and Clarke

[genome]

I'd much rather have a bloke who knows and cares about the club in charge than someone who loans in a bunch of players who don't really care, and who turns his head at the first opportunity. He was as classy as his beloved Chelsea.

So conceptually you were against Adkins and Clarke right at the outset when they were hired then? Nothing on their resumes suggested they 'knew and cared' about this club. They weren't 'our guys'. Yet BMD is getting credit - and slack - for these traits and they are in vogue. He's enjoying a bit of a honeymoon right now because of Clarke's antics/fallout. Fair enough. I can see that. Its early doors yet, and will give him a chance, but I think at some point we are going to have to distance ourselves from the 'nice guy' and the history thing and move toward evaluating and rating him as a manager more on its own merits. The 'well, at least he's not Clarke' stuff has a short shelf life, for me anyway.

Not in a general sense, I meant in comparison to Clarke after him Fulham antics. A few on here were talking about the "soul of the club" after Clarke left and Brian was appointed. It made sense for the club to get someone on who the fans could relate to straight away.

Whether it will be the right footballing appointment... time will tell, but it's only been a few games. But I'd much rather have him than Clarke. I very much doubt he would've turned it round, the club atmosphere seemed quite sour.

[Longhorn1970]

I'd much rather have a bloke who knows and cares about the club in charge than someone who loans in a bunch of players who don't really care, and who turns his head at the first opportunity. He was as classy as his beloved Chelsea.

So conceptually you were against Adkins and Clarke right at the outset when they were hired then? Nothing on their resumes suggested they 'knew and cared' about this club. They weren't 'our guys'. Yet BMD is getting credit - and slack - for these traits and they are in vogue. He's enjoying a bit of a honeymoon right now because of Clarke's antics/fallout. Fair enough. I can see that. Its early doors yet, and will give him a chance, but I think at some point we are going to have to distance ourselves from the 'nice guy' and the history thing and move toward evaluating and rating him as a manager more on its own merits. The 'well, at least he's not Clarke' stuff has a short shelf life, for me anyway.

Not in a general sense, I meant in comparison to Clarke after him Fulham antics. A few on here were talking about the "soul of the club" after Clarke left and Brian was appointed. It made sense for the club to get someone on who the fans could relate to straight away.

Whether it will be the right footballing appointment... time will tell, but it's only been a few games. But I'd much rather have him than Clarke. I very much doubt he would've turned it round, the club atmosphere seemed quite sour.

The board shouldn't gave agreed to the Fulham approach then we wouldn't be in this mess ...

[RoyalBlue]

I'd much rather have a bloke who knows and cares about the club in charge than someone who loans in a bunch of players who don't really care, and who turns his head at the first opportunity. He was as classy as his beloved Chelsea.

So conceptually you were against Adkins and Clarke right at the outset when they were hired then? Nothing on their resumes suggested they 'knew and cared' about this club. They weren't 'our guys'. Yet BMD is getting credit - and slack - for these traits and they are in vogue. He's enjoying a bit of a honeymoon right now because of Clarke's antics/fallout. Fair enough. I can see that. Its early doors yet, and will give him a chance, but I think at some point we are going to have to distance ourselves from the 'nice guy' and the history thing and move toward evaluating and rating him as a manager more on its own merits. The 'well, at least he's not Clarke' stuff has a short shelf life, for me anyway.

Not in a general sense, I meant in comparison to Clarke after him Fulham antics. A few on here were talking about the "soul of the club" after Clarke left and Brian was appointed. It made sense for the club to get someone on who the fans could relate to straight away.

Whether it will be the right footballing appointment... time will tell, but it's only been a few games. But I'd much rather have him than Clarke. I very much doubt he would've turned it round, the club atmosphere seemed quite sour.

Selecting a manager should not be a sodding popularity contest. It does not make sense for any club to get someone in merely on the basis that the fans can relate to them straight away (in reality I suspect this was done more on the basis that JM & his sidekicks could relate to McDermott). Anyway, if things continue the way they are then more people will start to remember why the love affair ended with Brian last time around and will be less likely to relate to him.

The thing I've found most disappointing with the return of Brian is how little positivity and unity it's caused amongst the fanbase. Frankly, I'm astonished.

I'm more astonised that you're astonished! Half the fanbase wanted him sacked. They're hardly going to sit there thinking it's a great idea bringing him back! And he's done absolutely nothing yet to prove them wrong!

A similar point made more succinctly.

[genome]

Give him some time, man. People were glowing on here after the Derby game which was less than a week ago, 1 loss in 4 (3 in 7 B-Mac games compared to 5 in 7 beforehand) and it's all doom and gloom again.

Chill out, and see where we are in a few more weeks, and if we bring anyone in. Remember he has to work with what Clarke did in the transfer window and has to gel together a bunch of loan players low in confidence, it's not his squad at all.

[Ian Royal]

We've since learnt a lot that we didn't know at the time since he was sacked. I still think it was a reasonable call given his performance, although made by a clueless twat as it turned out, but in hindsight an awful lot of people who thought he should go at the time have changed their mind. McDermott's had the opportunity to learn from the mistakes he made in the PL, to learn from his experience at Leeds and to learn from his work with Arsenal.

It's incredibly important for a manager to be popular. Very very few managers last more than a month or so with the fans vocally against them.

As I've said, I was one of his bigger critics in the PL, but I'm not a total idiot*, so I don't expect him to wave a magic wand and get miracles in a handful of games. The fact is he's come in to a team with shattered confidence, with lots of new players who've not settled well into the team. He needs to build a team spirit and understanding, whilst pulling people out of a slump who are devoid of confidence. That will take time.

You ask what has he done to change people's minds about him? I ask what do you expect him to do in a month?

The team spirit, on the whole, looks better. We're still trying to pass the ball reasonably well - using players like Piazon and Norwood. McCleary is looking a better player again. The defence and keeper is looking a bit more solid. Yes there are still mistakes, but we've got a recent Academy graduate in the centre of defence. It takes time.

The last 12 under Clarke: WWWWDLDDLWLL
Rolling 6 game points per game: 1.8, 1.5, 1.0, 1.0, 0.8, 0.8
The last six under Clarke: F6, A10

Under McDermott
WLLWDL
1.2 ppg, F4, A5

He's halved the number of goals we're conceding. Yeah we're scoring 60% of the goals, but give it a little time. Under McDermott we're clearly doing better. For all we know, the result against MK Dons was a blip on the road to recovery. Things look a whole lot rosier if we get 10 points from the next six games.

Short of getting regularly stuffed with abject performances and losing most games, there is no excuse for getting stuck in to a new manager's performance before he's been in charge for at least 10 games. No. Excuse. It's pathetic.

And lets not forget there wasn't exactly a horde of quality managers available we could have got instead. Even if he was actually doing badly.






*Open goal for Leon or Mags.

[Longhorn1970]

Give him some time, man. People were glowing on here after the Derby game which was less than a week ago, 1 loss in 4 (3 in 7 B-Mac games compared to 5 in 7 beforehand) and it's all doom and gloom again.

Chill out, and see where we are in a few more weeks, and if we bring anyone in. Remember he has to work with what Clarke did in the transfer window and has to gel together a bunch of loan players low in confidence, it's not his squad at all.

He's on record saying he was happy with the squad of players here, and he knew the budget (nil) ...

[Ian Royal]

Give him some time, man. People were glowing on here after the Derby game which was less than a week ago, 1 loss in 4 (3 in 7 B-Mac games compared to 5 in 7 beforehand) and it's all doom and gloom again.

Chill out, and see where we are in a few more weeks, and if we bring anyone in. Remember he has to work with what Clarke did in the transfer window and has to gel together a bunch of loan players low in confidence, it's not his squad at all.

He's on record saying he was happy with the squad of players here, and he knew the budget (nil) ...

He's also on record saying he wants to build team spirit and has been known to lie in interviews before.

[Longhorn1970]

Give him some time, man. People were glowing on here after the Derby game which was less than a week ago, 1 loss in 4 (3 in 7 B-Mac games compared to 5 in 7 beforehand) and it's all doom and gloom again.

Chill out, and see where we are in a few more weeks, and if we bring anyone in. Remember he has to work with what Clarke did in the transfer window and has to gel together a bunch of loan players low in confidence, it's not his squad at all.

He's on record saying he was happy with the squad of players here, and he knew the budget (nil) ...

He's also on record saying he wants to build team spirit and has been known to lie in interviews before.

Apart from undermining his integrity I'm not sure what your point is. None of us know what team spirit is like, or was like, but I guess the players must be feeling a sense of under achieving and they will be trying to turn it round ...

[CountryRoyal]

Give him some time, man. People were glowing on here after the Derby game which was less than a week ago, 1 loss in 4 (3 in 7 B-Mac games compared to 5 in 7 beforehand) and it's all doom and gloom again.

Chill out, and see where we are in a few more weeks, and if we bring anyone in. Remember he has to work with what Clarke did in the transfer window and has to gel together a bunch of loan players low in confidence, it's not his squad at all.

He's on record saying he was happy with the squad of players here, and he knew the budget (nil) ...

He's also on record saying he wants to build team spirit and has been known to lie in interviews before.

So... He doesn't want to build team spirit?

[genome]

Give him some time, man. People were glowing on here after the Derby game which was less than a week ago, 1 loss in 4 (3 in 7 B-Mac games compared to 5 in 7 beforehand) and it's all doom and gloom again.

Chill out, and see where we are in a few more weeks, and if we bring anyone in. Remember he has to work with what Clarke did in the transfer window and has to gel together a bunch of loan players low in confidence, it's not his squad at all.

He's on record saying he was happy with the squad of players here, and he knew the budget (nil) ...

My point is it must be tough for a manager to take on a team low in confidence when half those players know they can just leave at the end of the season whatever happens. He's also not going to come out and say he's unhappy with the squad as that will undermine his own efforts to build confidence.

[Kitsondinho]

He could take us all the way back to League Two and I'd still want him as our boss. Can't really add any further comment because I'm obviously both biased and deluded!!

[Denver Royal]

We've since learnt a lot that we didn't know at the time since he was sacked. McDermott's had the opportunity to learn from the mistakes he made in the PL, to learn from his experience at Leeds and to learn from his work with Arsenal.

I hear some of what you say, though I'd be interested in knowing more specifics on what 'we' have learnt, and what you believe BMD has learnt. Assuming 'less than 10 games is too early to judge', then its too early for me to determine yet what he's learnt. I'm unsure what PL mistakes he's corrected because he hasn't managed in the PL since then. I'll know more if/when he manages there again. And in fact, his only 'opportunity' to demonstrate/manage anywhere at all since we fired him was one season in the CL at Leeds when they finished 15th. In any event, I take it you were surprised that no other clubs had snapped him up as manager prior to us?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

The board shouldn't gave agreed to the Fulham approach then we wouldn't be in this mess ...

I would suggest Clarke wanted to leave and the board knew this, having agreed to let him talk to Fulham it went a bit wrong imho.
I think Howe expected him to take the job, and that would have suited the club.
The question is why would he want to leave us for Fulham?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

My point is it must be tough for a manager to take on a team low in confidence when half those players know they can just leave at the end of the season whatever happens. He's also not going to come out and say he's unhappy with the squad as that will undermine his own efforts to build confidence.

Good post, it was tough for Coppell the first season back down, knowing that most of the team would leave if we failed to go.back up, and it showed in the performances to the end.
This is even tougher, we have loan players, who presumably also won't be wanting to get hurt between now and the end of the season. And may be under some instruction from their permanent clubs.

[wingnut]

The board shouldn't gave agreed to the Fulham approach then we wouldn't be in this mess ...

Remind me what happened the last time we refused a club permission to talk to our manager...

And, by "be in this mess" do you think our form would be better if Clarke were still here?

[Mr Optimist]

Absence, and the benefit of hindsight has made the heart grow fonder of Maccy D. I am willing to give him at least 12 months and a couple of transfer windows before making any judgement. He deserves that as a minimum for what he has done in the past and for the rather cheap way he left first time around, given what we know now about our former Russian friend.

First time around I thought he should have been given until the end of the season in the prem, and possibly the first 15 games of the following season if we had gone down, which I think we still would've done if he had stayed. Many other clubs would've pulled the trigger as we did in our position at the time, and that was when the Reading way was lost, and that was I think took MaccyD and a lot of long time fans by surprise when Anton asked him.

Welcome back Brian and leave the man to get on with the job.