[bluepooch]

Ive said before and I'll repeat again the most important decision a club can make is to appoint the right man to run things on the pitch.Get it right and the whole club gets a lift.
Ive given numerous examples of where one man can change a clubs fortunes in the blink of an eye and I'll give a few more examples.
Sheffield United ,treading water with various managers for 5 years until the appt of Wilder.Barnsley,langusihing until the appointment of Heckingbottom.Lincoln ,looking like Conference forever until the appointment of a Cowley or two.
Clubs are constantly criticised for changing managers too quickly but it really is like playing the lottery and if the right man comes in it can supercharge a team and club.
I will have no problem if we sack Caldwell after 10 or 15 games if things arent going to plan but I don't have confidence they would pick the right replacement.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Doesnt matter how many examples you give Blue, it was the wrong appointment at the wrong time. The only justifiable reason to ditch Wilson when we did would have been to bring in a strong no nonsense manager or else somebody who could bond the team together for a relegation battle. I personally don't believe that under Wilson we would have lost against Bury or Oldham.
Humphreys knows the players and their limitations. He is the players PFA representative so must have some good knowledge of man management, he has done wonders with the reserves and seems to have the respect of his professional team mates. He should have got the gig to the end of the season. Caldwell did not have any experience of shoestring football and making a team dig in and graft and should never have been appointed.

[bluepooch]

I actually agree that the Hump may have been the best option at the time but listening to GC's interview tonight he's either deluded or he is seeing something which .so far ,we haven't .I hope to God its the latter and we can start seeing it very soon ,starting tomorrow.

[spireitematt]

We need to win at least 9 of the remaining 14 games. These are the remaining 14 games:

A Millwall
H Oxford United
A Walsall
A Swindon
H Shrewsbury Town
H Peterborough United
A Bristol Rovers
H Rochdale
A Bolton Wanderers
H Port Vale
H Southend United
A Scunthorpe United
H Charlton Athletic
A Sheffield United

I can't us winning 9 games in those remaining 14 games. I can't see us winning a game for the rest of the season.

[Devongone]

Blue, Barnsley got promotion without a manager AT ALL!

Sheff Utd failed under several managers who have succeeded elsewhere. So it clearly isn't just the manager there.

The Cowleys appear to have got Lincoln to where they should have been anyway.

Paul Tisdale has taken Exeter from bottom of the football league to the promotion race and has only been at the club since dinosaurs ruled the earth.

A manager can lift a club. Currently we need a yogic flyer.

We gave Caldwell a job almost no one could have done - maybe a Warnock might have saved us that's all.

A football is only an organisation. There's no magic about managers. This isn't a Harry Potter film. We ain't gonna get Dumbledore!

Caldwell needs new ideas and has to enthuse his players. And next season he has to be capable of finding new players for nothing. If he can't at least try to do those things then he should fukaku off and stop obtaining money under false pretences.

[Devongone]

Just thought I'd add that statistics show a change of manager tends to bring a team 2.5 pts the following game, but that the honeymoon period ends after 12 games and the tendency is for the team to deteriorate further. In 2009-10 for instance all three teams relegated from the Premier League had changed their manager.

Evidence from other sports tends to suggest a downturn in team's fortunes is followed by an upturn regardless of whether the managers changes or not.

Richard Bevan from the League Managers Association said, "Verifiable data has shown that the gains from changing managers are marginal, if indeed there are any at all."

You only have to give this a moment's thought to realise there are so many variable factors within a football club that coming up with a one-shot solution like changing the manager is bound to be a less than adequate solution. Both Wycombe and Exeter have risen from relegation fodder in Division 2 to promotion hopefuls, permanent losers to a run of wins, by not-changing their manager and not injecting loads of cash they didn't have ........ But that doesn't prove that NOT changing your manager is the answer either. Ask what things the unchanged manager decided to change; how many of the variables were within his control .....

[bluepooch]

Dev Im not advocating changing the manager for the sake of it and admirable as your statistics are they miss my point which was that getting the RIGHT manager in can transform the club.
It is the most difficult thing to do but if a club gets it right its take off time

[Devongone]

Of course Pooch, but for the man to be right, the club perhaps doesn't have to be in free fall with the owner demolishing it from the inside, with people no one trusts at the top, and a team whose true ability may well be accurately reflected by the league position.

If you take the example of Bournemouth. Their success is seen as an example of Eddie Howe's magic ...... but their few remaining players rallied, their tattered board joined the fight and the town got involved. When Eddie Howe left, the team continued to succeed under Steve Fletcher, the club continued its recovery. It wasn't just Eddie.

Lots of factors combine, some the manager controls, some are impossible for him. Success surely depends on the things he can do something about.

Now I think there is a lot about Chesterfield Danny Wilson couldn't do anything about and Gary Caldwell is a clever man if he has established how deeply these problems are embedded, never mind found the solution. Our position didn't originate with Danny, or even Deano. There was evidence of it during Paul Cook's final season and you could argue that the Proact itself and our promotions have been not much more than mirages.

A football team can build out of a disaster behind the scenes, but it's hard and we don't really appear to have the precondition of enough determined, loyal, experienced players to help.

Doing precisely nothing rejuvenated Barnsley, their manager left, the players rallied to the temporary man in charge, he didn't bring in a huge influx of players but a team which had looked like promotion contenders pre-season transformed itself from relegation fodder to success. It wasn't Gandalf coming in with some ancient complex magic, it was Sam Gamgee, one of the lads, stepping up and everyone coming with him.

Gary Caldwell has an enormous job to make himself the right man for a failing club like ours. If he is to succeed one of the first things he, we and our miniature board have to accept is we are going down. We would need 8 wins to stay up and what's Mr Caldwell, 0-6, or is it 7? I love a long shot, but this is way beyond a long shot.

[bluepooch]

I disagree that Barnsley did nothing Dev ,they appointed a new team manager to make all team related decisions and in my opinion Lee Johnson wouldn't have got them to where they are now.I'm actually jealous of the progress they have made over the last 18 months.
Eddie Howes second spell propelled Bournemouth to where they are now and I'm fairly certain the previous encumbent would not have done the same .
Its no coincidence that a clubs fortunes do change with a change of team manager otherwise clubs wouldnt make the change ,they are looking for that catalyst.
We need 7 wins and 2 draws from 14 games to get us to the magical 51 points .A very tall order considering we dont score much.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Blue 3 points from 18 isn't exactly inspiring. Even you now should be getting ready for Accrington and Barnet next season. Theres not a lot we can do about it now but it still annoys me that we made the wrong appointment. It doesn't matter what other managers do or how they perform, its a fact that our manager isn't and its probably because he cant.
It takes a special kind of knowledge to stir up a storm and drive a team on or else you knuckle down and try to build up a strong team spirit in a very short space of time. Caldwell had no experience whatsoever of either. He had big money to play with but even so he was sacked for poor performances after he took Wigan up. What made anybody think he was the one for us is what I find incredible. Danny managed it last year and may well have done it again but we were never going to do much more than sit above the drop zone with him in charge. The board had to act because the fans demanded it. Most fans thought Caldwell was a good appointment but we now sit firmly in the mire going nowhere other than down. Its not a tall order, its an impossible one. To make matters worse our budget will be cut to shreds next season. It really will be another battle to stay in the football league. Caldwell is going to have to learn his trade PDQ.