WHO'S TO BLAME?

[Guest Sniper1]

One of the 10%'ers on here! Should try and get a job with SODEXHO or Defence Estates!

[nile]

brian laws..end of thread

also..partially ls for not acting 5 or 6 weeks earlier

[Guest Aaron]

It is 100% the players' fault and anyone who thinks that is an idiot. Blaming it on Laws is sily, yes he lost the changing room, but those players should want to play for the club and fans not just the manager.

There is blame for everyone here though. Apart from the players I also blame Lee Stafford (I don't care if you think the sun shines out of his arse). The man has continued to blackmail us about the investment set one target after another, and nothing delivered. He has had stuff put on the official site to try and encourage us, but it will end in tears AGAIN. I just think he should focus on keeping matters in hand with the money available rather than tell us about investment that is maybe's. Until there is something concrete, then decided to tell us. This has took a lot away from the matters on the pitch. And we will see what kind of chairman he is when we go down and see what happens to the prices. ALL OF THE GAMES SHOULD BE CAT C IN LEAGUE ONE. Not just this, but his comments towards people who are not turning up, but why are we not turning up? BECAUSE WE'RE poo !!!

90% of the players are to blame. There are players that have just put no effort in and a few who have always put effort in even if they are not greatest of players. Spurr is an absolute joke of a player, but yet everyone thinks he is a star? ffs. Clarke has never been a footballer, Jeffers is a pathetic scumbag, Potter is just rubbish and stupid, Soares is not a right winger and I could go on, but they are leading examples of shitness.

The one set of people we can't blame is our fans, because even due to our shitness we still average 20k+ and 90% of the time those 20,000+ don't get rewarded.

Feel free to have a go at me, but you know I care so much about this football joke and nothing is being returned to us fans. We don't ask for much, but we have been a joke this season.

[pgmetcalf]

ah the blame game. it doesn't matter who is to blame, that is in the past and even if you did single out someone for criticism, it won't solve anything.

[Guest chezzyowl]

Paul Alcock, from that moment when he fell like he'd been hit by Mike Tyson our destiny changed!

[Depeche]

our so-called strikers (and midfielders too) for not scoring - 17 - spelling it out: seventeen - games without scoring is dire. Don't care how bad the defence was start- to midseason - lack of goals is far worse than conceeding. Just look at our recent 0-0 games - they got us nowhere.

[ratboy]

Mr Starfford - unfortunatly it has to rest with him.

The writing was on the wall at the start of the season when the crazy idea that we'd sell 16k season tickets, the budget was screwed from that point on & set the ttone for the season. we made 2 free signings & one midfielder (Potter - who spent most of the previous season on loan). Look around at all the other teams most of them improved they're squads we didn't.

Then when the season began we had to sell a player to balance the books - so that was bye bye Mr Wood. I'm convinced that Laws didn;t become a bad manager overnight but the job just got to much for him with the constarints placed upon him, so that was bye bye Brian. Was he sacked to late ????....very hard to say but with hindsight yes ( Although who would we of ended up with as manager ???). Our New Manager once again has had his hands tied firmly behind his back but i think has worked wonders with a very, very bad squad of players.

So there you have it in my opinion it's The Chairman who has to hold his hands up - Mr Strafford.

I prepare to be ripped apart by all the " we love you Lee" crew

[Guest Stereophonics]

So funny how people are now saying that Brian Laws was a crap manager all along. Most of us were not saying that last season

[jonnyowl]

99% Players, but Laws should have gone sooner!

[DJMortimer]

We are where we are because of the debt.

Attendances are down because of the product, the product is poor because of the debt.

If that's the case [servicing debts costing £500k per year] then I can't see any merit in the argument that the debt has significantly held us back this season.

the club is in the position that it finds itself in because of the clubs debt which is strangling the club

you can only operate within your means,, and outs ir -£20m

if we had the cash we could bring in better then what we have ...

Since our relegation in 2000, we have had 4 chairmen (I think), 7 managers and god knows how many dozen players from all sorts of backgrounds.

Yet, apart from a brief sojourn in League One and a single run at the play-offs we have spent the vast majority of that time in the bottom half of the Championship. Is that really a coincidence?

So funny how people are now saying that Brian Laws was a crap manager all along. Most of us were not saying that last season

That's football. Everyone has an opinion and it's always unequivocally the right one, even if it's the exact opposite of the one they held only yesterday.

[Guest oliver666]

The supporters who attend games have to be commended. They are at least Championship/Premiership standard. The whole set up at Hillsboro is no more than 1st division standard. That includes top to bottom and until this is addressed/changed we are going nowhere fast. The players with the odd exception are of 1st division quality so therefore no surprise at the position we are in. It's the whole SWFC package which isn't good enough to move the club forward. We are only getting what the club is geared up in producing. Everything to a large degree revolves around money, whether it is from large attendances, wealthy chairmen, or investment. We have only one out these three which equates to continuing to struggle at this standard. I have doubt yet again I will be accused of anti LS, but facts are facts, this club is not progressing as it should be doing.

[Max]

That's football. Everyone has an opinion and it's always unequivocally the right one, even if it's the exact opposite of the one they held only yesterday.

Spot rumbleing on.

------

Just as another note - how about, and I know this is going to be difficult, we don't look to blame... anyone? If we go down, we accept it's happened, work out how every single person with a stake in the club can best help it move forward, and do it. Unconditionally. Not "when they will I will" or, "I want this to happen first". We work out what we can do, do it, and pressure others to do what they can as well.

Or we can just sit around arguing about who was right and who was wrong and who is to blame and who should be absolved and it'll be 2018 and we'll still be in League One, at best.

[mcmigo]

We are currently in our natural position in the grand scheme of things - that is, in the bottom 4 teams in the Championship.

Since relegation from the Premiership, and not including this season, our average position in English football is 21st in the Championship. We are bang on average once more, give or take 1 place.

As correctly identified by the minority, the 'blame' this season is no different to any other season since relegation, as we are having almost the exact same season we have on average every season.

[DJMortimer]

Just as another note - how about, and I know this is going to be difficult, we don't look to blame... anyone? If we go down, we accept it's happened, work out how every single person with a stake in the club can best help it move forward, and do it. Unconditionally. Not "when they will I will" or, "I want this to happen first". We work out what we can do, do it, and pressure others to do what they can as well.

Or we can just sit around arguing about who was right and who was wrong and who is to blame and who should be absolved and it'll be 2018 and we'll still be in League One, at best.

People feel better with a scapegoat to vent at. But invariably, complex things rarely have a single, simple cause. And that is especially true of football where over the course of the season there are probably hundreds of individuals who have had some degree of influence in the billions of potential variables.

I'm still curious as to what it was that changed around last October. We were doing relatively well (in a mediocre kind of way) until then.

[boxing_day]

I dont think one specific can be blamed, its several factors.

1. Brian Laws - lost it tactically and in the dressing room. Played poor players consistantly, and should have walked/been sacked earlier

2. Players - Although you cant blame the likes of JOC who just isnt good enough, certain other players have lacked commitment and fight week in week out.

3. Lee Strafford - Cricised fans after scunny game and serious changed the mood in the fan based after an excellent performance which i think was reflected onto the pitch. I also think the handling of the Wood situation annoyed certain players still at the club, their love for Wood was very evident the other week. He also possibly could have sacked Laws earlier (very difficult decision though) and bought back the band.

4. The band - Creates a poo poo atmosphere at hillsborough and players despise playing in front of that monotone crap week in week out, and again that reflects on to the pitch IMO. The atmos at hillsborough was just starting to recover (slow process) after years of being killed by the band, but now, nobody makes any noise, the band are at least partly responsible for this.

[Max]

People feel better with a scapegoat to vent at. But invariably, complex things rarely have a single, simple cause. And that is especially true of football where over the course of the season there are probably hundreds of individuals who have had some degree of influence in the billions of potential variables.

I'm still curious as to what it was that changed around last October. We were doing relatively well (in a mediocre kind of way) until then.

Exactamundo. No one on here is going to accept that every single one of us could have changed things, or could have caused our season for innumerable different reasons in innumerable different ways. But alas, I'm not going to attempt to defend this point if people attack me for suggesting "its the fans fault", despite the fact that's not what I'm saying, because the entire debate needs to be moved on from the idea of "blame".

I don't rumbleing care who is to blame, I rumbleing care how we're going to fix this.

October is an odd one. I still don't think the 'leaked document' explains enough, but it certainly did something. But I imagine it was the culmination of a number of different factors.

[Guest oliver666]

LS.

His spin, lies and mess up of the ticketing has sent us down.

Not to mention his lies about investment.

Are you for real. Look at the thread you started 'Strafford Out' You mentioned me for starting/spreading all the poo poo about LS. You are an 24 carat knob. You can't even remember what you post, therefore your credibility is zero. You are a truly f**ked up little boy.

[tomhollywood]

60% players, 40% BL.

This.

[DJMortimer]

October is an odd one. I still don't think the 'leaked document' explains enough, but it certainly did something. But I imagine it was the culmination of a number of different factors.

Despite the efforts of one poster in particular to attempt to shoehorn it into that single issue, I was never convinced it was solely down to that prospectus (more than anything I was saying people were too hasty in writing it off as insignificant). At the time I repeatedly referred to the Richard Wood contract saga, the treatment of Francis Jeffers after his red card in the League Cup and potentially other factors that we might be currently unaware of as perhaps producing a cumulative effect. And the chairman tacitly hinted at this too in his New Year message by referring to otherwise unspecified 'issues' that had not been resolved by Laws. Whatever happened, it was sudden, catastrophic and we have not recovered fully from it.

Edited April 7, 2010 by DJMortimer

[PEARSON]

The players.