I Really Hope Palace Beat WBA

[wisewoodowl]

I cannot believe the amount of negativity on our forums as oppossed to the Crystal Palace forums which have been positive about their plight for weeks, they'll be 5,000 away fans up for it next saturday whilst we stand their having already thrown the towel in, the palace fans smell our fear already.

http://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201110

It's not negativity it's reality.

For weeks I've been saying that if we need to beat Palace to stay up we will do. After seeing the lack of fight in the squad in the last 4 games, through my blue and white tinted glasses, I have realised that the team isn't good enough.

[xploreowl]

It's not negativity it's reality.

For weeks I've been saying that if we need to beat Palace to stay up we will do. After seeing the lack of fight in the squad in the last 4 games, through my blue and white tinted glasses, I have realised that the team isn't good enough.

football is changable 1 decent perfoemance and suddenly the outlook of thousands is altered, when we had our good run just after Irvine 1st arrived on the scene there was even optomistic whispers of the play offs.

in Brunt we trust

[roaminowl]

Yes, and the same one who won us a major trophy and kept us up in his second spell.

Bingo.

Blows your argument about AI out of the window doesn't it.

p.s thanks for the predictable response.

[Belfast Owl 2]

I want us to stay up

But it will certainly not be elation that I would feel if it did happen. Maybe relief but f*ck knows what else

This season has been a farce and staying up won't change that.

[Daz]

Bingo.

Blows your argument about AI out of the window doesn't it.

ROFL!

Not one bit.

When Big Ron came to us, he could already point to a CV of having managed a fabulous WBA side, Man Utd and Atletico Madrid.

So I'm not sure what sort of bingo they play where you are

[DJMortimer]

ROFL!

Not one bit.

When Big Ron came to us, he could already point to a CV of having managed a fabulous WBA side, Man Utd and Atletico Madrid.

So I'm not sure what sort of bingo they play where you are

Even dismissing Atkinson's history for a moment, do you remember the feeling of the supporters when we got relegated? There was no call for him to be dismissed. The perception was that we had played good football and had been rather unlucky to go down (even in the last game when we lost to Forest we had numerous good chances and didn't deserve the 0-3 scoreline). Season ticket sales went up. Supporters were optimistic that a good squad was being put together by an experienced, capable manager and that we would bounce straight back.

Can we say the same this time around?

[steelowl]

Even dismissing Atkinson's history for a moment, do you remember the feeling of the supporters when we got relegated? There was no call for him to be dismissed. The perception was that we had played good football and had been rather unlucky to go down (even in the last game when we lost to Forest we had numerous good chances and didn't deserve the 0-3 scoreline). Season ticket sales went up. Supporters were optimistic that a good squad was being put together by an experienced, capable manager and that we would bounce straight back.

Can we say the same this time around?

Nope

Cannot remember any match like that one bizarre Goal diff swing and results on the last day left me absolutely gutted but within hours was raring to go at the next season because we went down with a good side and just knew we'd do well - strangely don't have the same thought about this lot don't know why

[roaminowl]

ROFL!

Not one bit.

When Big Ron came to us, he could already point to a CV of having managed a fabulous WBA side, Man Utd and Atletico Madrid.

So I'm not sure what sort of bingo they play where you are

It's the kind of bingo that detects when someone is talking horse crap. Your assertion that AI could not motivate our players, thus being at blame for our relegation, was backed up with a comparison to Big Ron.

However, his great CV and superior motivational skills saw us get relegated, despite having a decent squad and having the luxury of being in charge for the whole season.

Don't get me wrong, I thought Atkinson was a fantastic manager but to use him as an example of how to motivate players and avoid relegation does not hold up. Which is not only my opinion, it's a fact.

[Daz]

My original post said that he can get players playing out of their skins - nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, I accept he took us down (fair enough) - but his wealth of experience (around 600 matches as a manager - with 500 of these at top clubs) and his motivational skills soon put that right and not only got us promotion at the first time of asking, but also won us a major trophy. As others have already said, we all believed in him to do well once we were relegated - mainly because he had nothing to prove as an established, experienced manager.

The point of my original comment (without it being twisted) was that a motivational manager is much more likely to get results out of a deflated team, as is a manager who had a great CV when he joined us.

Looking at these critical components of a manager's CV (experience and motivational skills), have we chosen wisely over the last 18 years and is this one of the main reasons for our decline?

[roaminowl]

My original post said that he can get players playing out of their skins - nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, I accept he took us down (fair enough) - but his wealth of experience (around 600 matches as a manager - with 500 of these at top clubs) and his motivational skills soon put that right and not only got us promotion at the first time of asking, but also won us a major trophy. As others have already said, we all believed in him to do well once we were relegated - mainly because he had nothing to prove as an established, experienced manager.

The point of my original comment (without it being twisted) was that a motivational manager is much more likely to get results out of a deflated team, as is a manager who had a great CV when he joined us.

Looking at these critical components of a manager's CV (experience and motivational skills), have we chosen wisely over the last 18 years and is this one of the main reasons for our decline?

Great questions and I would suggest that the answers are no and yes, respectively.

I think the jury is still out on Alan Irvine though.

p.s. I didn't mean to 'twist' your comment. I just responded to how I read it. No malice intended.

[Daz]

No worries RO - I knew that.... we can play bingo together now

I think we have no choice other than the jury being out on AI and rightly or wrongly because of the lack of depth on his CV I cannot help but fear the worst. To me, it is all shouting out as the same merry go round we've been on for the last 18 years but I do of course desperately want him to be successful with us and would love to be proven wrong.

One day, I would like to think that we might look back at the common denominators for failure in all these years of decline and realise that the failure to appoint a proven successful manager is the biggest of them all and very much false economy.