[harrogatebaggie]

There seems to be a lot of talk about Alex Neil. What do others think? 

To me I want to give RM a proper run. It is his first appointment, and he is recognising that we need to change things and he is trying different things. 

Do I rate AN, yes he is a decent championship manager, but no more than that. I don’t find his football teams exciting. 

We continue to be on financial restrictions, so we knew that someone had to be sold. Would we have been a better side keeping Fellows and Heggem. Definitely. 

Is our owner doing a good job with wheeling and dealing, definitely. 

At the mo I think we are a top half team, but probably not good enough for the play offs, despite the league being fairly poor, yet very competitive this year. 

We also have Dike and Bany to come in, if they are ever fit enough. Plus getting Molumby back in with Mowatt will improve the side. 

So for me let RM cut his teeth and see where we end up. Rather him than AN, as long as we don’t end up in a position we did with Bruce. 

Please give me your thoughts, I have my Tin hat on already!

[4evaabaggie]

I think Ryan should be given some time to get his head in the game, he’s young and it’s the first time he has been in the driving seat, L plates are off and he’s still learning however we need to balance that with the long term aims of the club. If it looks as though we could get sucked into a dogfight then for the benefit and future of the club he will need help or replacing.
We are a better side than our position suggests, we have surrendered to many gifted goals and dropped unnecessary points, jury still out on whether Josh is a suitable number one and we are lacking a forward creative driving force thorough the middle.
Very happy with the new owners, they have taken over a ship that was leaking water and threatening to sink, they have plugged the holes, steadied it and are starting to make the necessary repairs within the restrictive budgetary rules. It will take time, this year was / is maybe too early for a concerted push for the greed league but with a fair wind and avoiding any sharp rocks we could still be a contender.

[Blue Baggie]

I'm not sure Alex Niel would be a step up from Mason. After our lucky win against Oxford Mason has a stay of execution. I do believe we're just delaying the inevitable. We need a manager who can inject pace and energy into the side, be tactically aware, adopt changes in play and use substitutes in a positive way. Allow our youngsters a chance.
Sadly Mason doesn't offer none of the thing we need. Hence I'm in the release him corner.

[BaggieSteve]

Although I’m not comfortable with the style and some of the selections, I’d also like to persevere with Ryan Mason. He’s young, inexperienced and this is a huge step up from being a #2 at Spurs, when he was “suggesting” not “deciding”. Nevertheless, I like the idea of a young, hopefully progressive coach but I recognise he needs to learn how to adapt.
As regards possible replacements, none of the names being speculated over the last couple of weeks instill any enthusiasm. We can be an impatient lot, so let’s stick with Mason but “encourage” a bit more adventurism

[Stairs]

I am happy with RM. So long as he learns and adapts as in time we could have a cracking manager.

Don’t want to keep sacking managers and seeking instant success like some of the other clubs of late.

[talkSAFT]

I was so chuffed last night for Steve Clarke. I usually want Scotland to get beat, but I cheered them on in their great dramatic win, and nearly hit the roof when the last kick of the match (from his own half) secured the win. Great goals!!!
The Players interviewed all love and admire Steve.......wish we could tempt him.

[BaggieSteve]

[quote="talkSAFT" pid="289518" dateline="1763547637"]
I was so chuffed last night for Steve Clarke. I usually want Scotland to get beat, but I cheered them on in their great dramatic win, and nearly hit the roof when the last kick of the match (from his own half) secured the win. Great goals!!!
The Players interviewed all love and admire Steve.......wish we could tempt him.   
[/quote

As an Englishman living in Scotland for the past 44 years and having had ABE (Anyone But England) dragged out every time England appears in a tournament (regardless of the sport), it’s always very tempting to cheer on Scotland’s opponents.
However, I was cheering for a home win last night, it was a remarkable match; Denmark dominated possession but to limited effect, while Scotland had, I think, four shots on target and they all went in ?. I guess you’d call that very effective.
As Talksaft said, delighted for Steve Clarke (and Alan Irvine); he takes so much stick up here but has got Scotland massively overachieving. I’m not sure who the fans think would do a better job, sometimes I think they need a reality check. Still, he’ll be a hero today!

[Blue Baggie]

I'm not sure Alex Niel would be a step up from Mason. After our lucky win against Oxford Mason has a stay of execution. I do believe we're just delaying the inevitable. We need a manager who can inject pace and energy into the side, be tactically aware, adopt changes in play and use substitutes in a positive way. Allow our youngsters a chance.
Sadly Mason doesn't offer none of the thing we need. Hence I'm in the release him corner.

Now will people see he's not a manager and is no good for us. We tried him as a risky appointment and he has come up short in so many areas we need to admit he's not up to the task. Let's get rid and move on.

[BaggieSteve]

I appreciate that a lot of us get exasperated when we see the response to calls for Mason’s head but I’ll ask the question anyway: who would we replace him with?

Like most of us on the forum I’m having real concerns regarding the coach’s performance, particularly around selection, set up and substitutions (so everything really) but I’ve no idea who could replace him, primarily because it’ll likely be someone who has also been sacked by a championship club for poor performances. Either that or someone we’ve never heard of and are taking another punt on (see Celtic’s likely appointment of the coach of Columbus Crew), as we did with Ryan Mason.

I honestly don’t think we are in danger of relegation (brave words I know) but neither do I think - or have I thought - that we would be a promotion prospect this season. It feels like another season of treading water while we make progress in getting the club on an even financial keel, overcoming the shit show left by the previous owner.

I don’t want this to sound like I’m settling for mediocrity because I’m as exasperated as the rest of us on our performances and results but I just think we need to be a bit patient. Of course, if we’re in the relegation zone come January, I’ll probably be regretting these words.

[Slick_Footwork]

After Mason's decision to take off Mikey Johnston on at half time on Saturday, my patience is wearing very thin.

I also thought his post match comments about Johnston were really poor. To say we would be more threatening without him, after he's set up two goals, is absurd. Then to say it was "50/50 who started anyway" is surely going to upset both Johnston and Illing-Junior, as he's basically saying neither are good enough to be an outright choice and he doesn't really fancy either of them. To be honest, I thought his interview was moronic.

I'm not really sure what Mason thinks he's going to achieve by alienating players, especially Johnston, who has probably been our stand out performer this season.

But for now, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

That said, my gut feeling is that he's got no chance of turning things around and it's just a matter of time before he's sacked...

He's been here for a while and I just don't see any evidence that he has a clue what he's doing.

On the rare occasions you think you see some improvement, like first half against Coventry, he then makes an idiotic decision like withdrawing Johnston that makes you realise that the positive performance was just blind luck.

Our next 2 games are at home so I suspect we'll get something and that will give us hope and buy him time. Of course, if we were to lose them, his position would be untenable and he would have to go. I don't see that happening though.

However, even if we win both of those home games, which we could, I still don't see us picking up points in the away games. Mason's tactics are just far too negative. Against Oxford at home, he made defensive changes and we had to hang on for dear life at the end, parking the bus and punting it anywhere like a pub team...

I think that eventually we will have a losing run and he'll be sacked. By then it will be too late for a new coach to get us in the promotion shake up. Like when Steve Bruce got sacked, we left it too late and just missed out on the playoffs. Had we had Corberan earlier that season, we'd have been in with a shout of automatic promotion.

But of course, I hope I'm wrong. I hope something clicks in Mason's head and he's able to turn it around and guide us to promotion.

However, gut instinct isn't often that wrong.

If we were to lose the two home games and he was to be sacked soon - which I don't expect - I wouldn't want Alex Neil. Although he's always done reasonably well at this level, I just wouldn't find it an exciting appointment. That said, I don't think many managers could have done worse than Mason with this current squad. But I'd be in favour of us casting the net wider and picking up someone from abroad. Although he did poorly with Spurs and Forest, I wouldn't mind giving Ange Postecoglou a platform to rebuild his career. The football at the Hawthorns has been boring as hell for the last few years, at least Ange is gung-ho and you would get some excitement.