[WBA-Josh]

Biggest mistake that Steve McLaren ever made was leaving FC Twente for Wolfsburg in the summer 2010. He had won the league with Twente and was rebuilding his reputation before going to Wolfsburg where he lasted 6 months.

Since then it’s been hit and miss, with a lot more misses than hits.

[Blue Baggie]

Biggest mistake that Steve McLaren ever made was leaving FC Twente for Wolfsburg in the summer 2010. He had won the league with Twente and was rebuilding his reputation before going to Wolfsburg where he lasted 6 months.

Since then it’s been hit and miss, with a lot more misses than hits.

Steve tbf always comes across a decent person, but I get the impression he trusts far too much in written tactics. Naturally gifted or magical players would never fit in to one of his teams. We won't mention his "Brolly moment" He appears to always need more time - which is no longer gifted to managers in today's world.

[WBA-Josh]

A few weeks ago I suggested Achim Beierlorzer as a left field option. Well this evening his Regensburg team won 2-1 and that win puts them up to 8th and only 6 points behind 3rd place. This with an expenditure of only a quarter of a million euros last summer. 5th last season having spent even less than that.

Do our peeps at the top even look outside of the UK for options or do they have tunnel vision to just look in the U.K?

[Blue Baggie]

Josh - our biggest failure this season has been our recruitment. We replaced leavers with loans or players on 12 months contracts.
Knowing Brunt / Barry / Mozza / Mears / Hoolahan will need replacing with perm signings our recruitment has been a total failure.
Dowling and his team should explain as to what they are doing or Jenkins may as well dump them.

[Blue Baggie]

Can someone remind me why we haven't appointed a new manager yet?
What are we waiting for?

[drewks]

IMHO defeat today is no bad thing.
It SHOULD serve to galvanise, or start, the search for a new HC, not just make do with what we have.
It also confirms where we will be playing next season, bar a miracle. Again, in my opinion, no bad thing.

[Stairs]

Rafa could become free at end of season?

[Blue Baggie]

We should get Sam - Moyes - Arry - Mourinho - Jokanovic - Wagner - Wenger ALL IN for 6 weeks Pay em a Million a piece.
The place would be buzzing and the media would pay the costs. We would walk the play off's.
Or lets show our ambition and just keep Shan. It's really in your hands MARK ?

[SpenB]

Whatever happens, be it Shan or anyone else, if we go up (by any path) are we making our situation worse..?

We will lose players even if we go up.
We will lose players even if we stay down.
Either way, to stay in contention be it not getting relegated from the EPL or getting promoted from the EFL we will need to buy better quality players than what we lose (also, than what we keep). That's not being nasty, moaning or slagging folk off etc. but its reality. Everyone that leaves needs to replaced with progressively better players, and that’s just to keep up, not move up (that’s a completely different ball game lol). With what we have seen so far, i cant see Lai spending to make this happen and thats just reality.

If not then its straight back down = embarrassment and disappointment.
Miss out on promotion again = embarrassment and disappointment.

Moving back on track for this thread.
Will we get the correct manager / head coach / yes man / tea lady to achieve this?
Will we spend the money on the correct manager?
Will we give them the money to achieve this?
Or will they get shot down all the time?
Does that mean we get 5/6th choice?

It seems we have more than one issue here,
- We (allegedly) have an owner that does not care – is this just an opinion or a fact? He could be sitting at home every week head in hands wondering why we are crap?
- Is Lai really that naïve that he trusts and believes what the board are telling him?
- What is his “man in Havana” (chairman) telling him the truth? What is the chairman being told from the rest of the board (is he being told the truth)?
- I haven’t even moved onto the field of play yet…
- Manager...
- Players...
- Etc...
- It needs to be sorted from the roots to the tips - if not, same old...

It’s just like work, the workers (in this case the supporters) can see everything that’s wrong or going wrong with the place (the club) but why can’t the works director (the board) or the owners?
It’s almost as if when you reach that hight of power they all have a lobotomy which removes the common sense part of the brain.

Ok, if you have managed to suffer to the end of this then a big well done and I apologies for the drivel you have just endured. I just needed to get the frustration out.

[Stairs]

IMHO defeat today is no bad thing.
It SHOULD serve to galvanise, or start, the search for a new HC, not just make do with what we have.
It also confirms where we will be playing next season, bar a miracle. Again, in my opinion, no bad thing.

You were right. Problem is the club has a reputation for making bad decisions. Not installing a manger straight away was one.

Next big mistake will be appointing the wrong one.

It’s going to happen as sure as night becomes day.

I continue to dream of a day when we appoint a charismatic young manager that takes the club on a 5 year journey of growth and excellence that other fans and the press purr about.