Gaffer

This is a very bold move by the board if this is true. They know that they are under scrutiny and yet select a relatively unknown guy to take charge. Even if you don't agree with their choice, you have to admire their guts in appointing him. It'll take some time before they adjust to his way but if he is the attack minded coach they all say he is, we are in for a treat. It'd be great if he brought Weiss back with him. I always thought he was an exciting player to watch and just what we need.

We have to take a risk on these appointments, and I'd like us to take relatively big risks. We already know what some of the established managers can do, and it isn't a lot, even with money. I'd like us to go for someone who can really make the whole far better than the sum of the parts. After all, that's exactly what we're going to need until we can compete financially again. I thought MW was the man to do that but it hasn't worked out. But just because it didn't work with him doesn't mean we should stop taking these risks. If we don't take risks it'll be a decade before we reach a state of parity. If do take a risk with Wilson (for example in the DoF role) and a relatively obscure manager it could all go pear-shaped again, but I'd rather take that risk than run with the certainty of mediocrity next season. I just don't think I could cope with the lack of hope that comes with some of the names mentioned. We can't have it both ways. We can't catch :them: as quickly as we all want without taking risks. We're an impatient bunch afterall. But this of course means there's the chance of further setbacks. Are we willing to accept that risk? I am. I just hope the board has the guts to take more risks without jeopardising our long term plans.

I agree with you about Miller. I don't rate his ability either (but have obviously enjoyed his crucial goals), but in a team which lacks leaders it is very obvious how much we dip when he isn't on the field. As well as finding 3/4/5 new players in the transfer window, we need to make sure that at least one or two of them have leadership qualities. We've got some really good players but even with a quality manager we will need a few players on the field to keep the team going when the inevitable tough periods arise. Players with the skill and leadership qualities are rare and therefore costly but I hope the board supports the manager/DoF financially to fill this chasm. I don't think Miller will play next season (not that often anyway) and other than Wallace (the quiet leader) we have no one that has those qualities.

TB: you should apply for a position in the tabloids with sensationalist and unsubstantiated statements like that about the board. Having just experienced our club going through a real crisis over the past few years, I'd expect all bears to put this current issue in perspective. We are not good enough to win the title this year and we were never going to be. Our objective was to get second place and although that looks in some doubt, we still have a great chance of achieving that. We have a decent squad of players who are in need of guidance and management, and as far as I can tell from statements made, the board is doing that. I expect us to get back to the top eventually, but to think it's going to happen in the next couple of seasons is thinking that belongs to your aforementioned society. How many points behind them is close enough for it not to be considered a crisis? 2, 3, 5, 10? You may find that we are in "crisis" for another year if your expectations are unrealistic. As a support we need to hold this board to account and push for progress, but we also need to be sensible and pragmatic too. It's hard when we have so much emotion tied up in our club, but anything else creates a negativity that isn't helpful at all. I'll admit I am naturally optimistic, but I really don't see the world as bleakly as you do. I feel we've lost 6 months with this setback over MW but after what we've just endured for years I can accept that. For your own sanity I hope you can too.

I agree with him. We're not in a crisis. We were before King and co took over, but now we're on the way back. And yes we've had a terrible run of results but it's hardly a crisis. I think we will all feel frustrated and angry at the gap between ourselves and :them: but that's not the fault of anyone still at the club. We now just need to continue the rebuilding of the club and we all knew it would take time. Didn't we!?!?

Wow, that is very negative even by your standards Norris. I agree that teams will fancy their chances against us. The team is so low on morale and it's been showing on the pitch for a few months. When morale is low like that it's difficult to snap out of it. This means that the defence is even more nervous than usual, and the strikers don't take shots when they should. In that regard we do need a break to turn the tide for us and I make no apologies for repeating that despite it alarming you. As a smart person once said ... you can't always change the direction of the wind but you can adjust the sails. I just don't think we've done that yet and I'd like to see Murty try something new. He needs to shake up the personnel (especially up front) and he needs to play or best players in their best positions. If he does that we will win. If he does that I'm also sure we will give "them" a game too. I'm really looking forward to the game, and I expect we will be a little happier when we get the result. The team can then start to rebuild its confidence in the tactics and the individuals. We need the confidence to return before the results can start to flow. Tomorrow is the start of that process. You'll see.

Goram Hutton Butcher Gough Brown Laudrup Durrant Gazza Cooper Negri Mols (Negri was a goal machine) How depressing it is doing this though. How long will it be before we change our best XI to include a current player?

He hasn't recruited well, either in loans or in permanent signings. I wasn't defending his recruitment record, but I was challenging the accusation that he only recruited loan players to "look good" to other clubs.

Very interesting. Let's see how he does, but it's a big job for such a young guy. There will be so much focus and scrutiny on how well he performs in the summer transfer window.

Who else could hit a free kick like that one against Aberdeen? He was class, pure class!

MW didn't exactly leave us under the best circumstances but there's no need to massage the "truth" like that. Our best player has been Hyndman. I think he shows that every time he plays. As a manager you don't jeopardise your role as manager to "look good" to other clubs. That's just nonsense, but it's Saturday night so I'll assume you're either on the wind up or on the sauce.

??? I'm almost certain he took the loan players because it was the only way we could afford to have players of that calibre. It may also be a big part of our future too. We have to be smart about our use of finances and if that means taking more loan players I'll be happy with that.

Being a director of a football club is one of the toughest gigs. I can't think of any other small businesses that have the same level of visibility and therefore scrutiny. The guys running them are not the top execs, afterall the best directors tend to go where the money is in the larger multi billion pound organisations. I think in many ways we've got an expectation that our club will be run in an expert fashion, but the club just doesn't have the infrastructure that larger companies have to secure that smooth running. The club doesn't have the recruitment pipeline from a large HR team (to replace a manager). It doesn't have the quality or depth of a PR team which would exist in large companies. And it doesn't have the level of risk, finance and legal teams to prepare for the many challenges the club might face. Almost all clubs are the same, which is why it's easy to find fault in the way most clubs are run. My point is that we have a decent board but not an expert, or well supported (with the necessary infrastructure) one. I can live with that as long as I believe that their motives are the right ones. I do, but I just wish they'd hurry up and restore some optimism by appointing someone soon. In the meantime I just hope Murty has had enough of listening to whomever he has been up to now. It wouldn't surprise me if it was Walter, and would explain the sudden departure from playing football. ;-) He's had the opportunity to have a free shot at it and he's blowing it. It's time he stood up to be counted. We need to drop Miller (as much as I like him) and give someone else the chance to play through the middle. We're crying out for a change in that position.

Many of them are unemployed for a reason. I'd rather we got the right manager, than one who happens to be available right now. BH: you can throw stones from your glass house if you want to, but knowing how hard it is to manage difficult situations like this means that I'll be keeping my powder dry until the board makes a decision on our next management team. We're all hurting at losing, and we're all feeling demotivated with the team right now but I can't stand the lack of reasoning and appreciation that this was not an easy situation to manage. Do you think they're trying to do the right thing? I like to think so.

In which case, that would make "most people" as wrong as Rab is. I'm all for holding this board to account, but it's unreasonable to expect them to have a manager ready to immediately take over under these circumstances. The clubs that tap up managers behind the back of the incumbent annoy me and I wouldn't want us to adopt that tactic. It's underhand and immoral and I'd like to think we're above that. The board now has a tough job to do, but we can't be blaming them when it's unjustified. There are plenty of things to blame them for, but not this.

No they're not. They are accountable, but responsibility is on the shoulders of those entrusted to do a job. It would have been completely irresponsible to keep them on under the circumstances, in the same way that senior execs in any business have to given gardening leave if their positions are untenable for the remainder of their notice period. There's no way the management team could continue under the circumstances and I'd be surprised if any of us really believed that.

Ok, we know you don't like the board but are you serious here??? We all "know" the timing of MW leaving was accelerated by their actions and the board believed it had more time. The situation is hardly ideal, but then neither is the situation the board has to deal with either. They just need to get the right people in as soon as possible but there's no point in rushing anything. It was a reasonable action to take in appointing Murty, but it hasn't worked out, at least not yet. They are accountable for everything, but they're not responsible for everything.

I agree with this. On the few occasions where McKay and Hyndman linked up in the middle of the park we looked dangerous. Why oh why don't we play McKay in the middle? We need to shake it up a bit and he's so dangerous in there. Instead we keep him out on the wing. I just don't get it. Murty has nothing to lose and yet he won't try changing a broken system.

That's not what I watched tonight. I thought we were so unlucky to lose that game. We just need a break and can't get one at the moment. We are making mistakes, both tactically as a team and as individuals but I don't think you can point the finger at players who should be "ashamed". They're just really struggling and need something to go our way for once.

Morale is so low right now, and when that's the case it's just typical to lose a goal like that.

Well spotted ref

We just can't get a break here. I do think we are likely to make chances when McKay and Hyndman are playing through the middle like this though. McKay is wasted on the wing.

This isn't the same old at all. They are playing decent stuff here but that was another mistake by Tav, although it was a very well placed shot. I don't think they should be too worried. We will score here, and I fancy us to go on and win.

Please please make this be true

I'd just love us to try a setup that works for our players and to their strengths. Tav and Wallace are great wing backs so we should use them as such. McKay is really creative and has a wicked shot so he should be place central where he can hurt teams. Kiernan is actually ok but he needs someone strong next to him. So, next year I'd like us to play 4-2-3-1 With the ball we would have 3 at the back (2 x centre backs and a holding midfielder) and two wing backs. Then we'd have a narrow front three with McKay behind, playing the number 10 role, which is what he's ideally suited for. Foderingham Tav and Wallace as the wing backs Kiernan and another in central defence Rossiter as holding midfielder with Holt as central midfield Then McKay in the 10 role behind waghorn And windass and Dodoo or o'hall in the wider front positions We've almost got the players to try this now but without that holding midfielder it's not going to work. We could do worse than to try Kiernan in that position. I'll probably get stick for suggesting it, but he is technically pretty sound and despite what I've seen suggested on here, he's decent at holding his position. He'd just need to concentrate more and pick up runners. I suppose this is all pie in the sky but my criticism of Smith was when he played players out of position. For me McKay is a great example of how to turn an effective player into a bit part player. He's the ideal 10. I wish we'd play him as that. So, Murty if you're reading this just give him a go. If it goes well you can buy me a pint. If not, it was Frankie's idea.