11-09-2014, 21:34
(This post was last modified: 11-09-2014, 21:50 by bomberbrown1968.)
Can only agree with what's been said before, he does come across as a nice chap and I genuinely wish him all the best and would love him to be our manager for years to come if he can make a go of it.
Of all our business we did in the summer, the appointment of Irvine was probably the biggest disappointment of them all - left field, cheap and no compensation to another club.
We have to remember that the squad we now have has been assembled for him - the days have long gone for us, of having a manager who targets, negotiates and sits in on any deals made - we are now run , fashionably, by a head coach, in our case Irvine,who is given his squad to coach, set tactics, select his matchday squad, gel into a team,use substitutions to change and above all else motivate and inspire if things aren't going right.
Early indications of all of these are not very promising so far - selection, tactics and substitutions have all been pretty poor so far, having said that he hasn't had a full squad to choose from as yet, but I think we all agree that we now have a set of quality players who should have the potential to avoid a repeat of last season and even look to emulate the points total or position of 2 years ago.
One thing's for certain JP won't hang about while his investment, which should be applauded, goes to ruin, if it does end badly for Irvine it will have been a complete waste of 3 or 4 months and we'll be playing catch up going into the winter and lots of people, me included will say"I told you so, he was never the right man for the job".
I'll give my full support to anyone who represents the Albion, so I will give him some time when he's got a full squad to work with, having said that I was less than impressed with his interview on the way home when he was asked if Lescott would be in the squad for Saturday, he skirted around the question saying he'd have to decide if Everton was the right type of match for his comeback and assess whether is was too much of a risk or not. FFS he's either fit to play or he isn't - tell it how it is - yes or no.
In Irvine I trust - worriedly, a little fearfully and for the time being only if things don't improve.
Of all our business we did in the summer, the appointment of Irvine was probably the biggest disappointment of them all - left field, cheap and no compensation to another club.
We have to remember that the squad we now have has been assembled for him - the days have long gone for us, of having a manager who targets, negotiates and sits in on any deals made - we are now run , fashionably, by a head coach, in our case Irvine,who is given his squad to coach, set tactics, select his matchday squad, gel into a team,use substitutions to change and above all else motivate and inspire if things aren't going right.
Early indications of all of these are not very promising so far - selection, tactics and substitutions have all been pretty poor so far, having said that he hasn't had a full squad to choose from as yet, but I think we all agree that we now have a set of quality players who should have the potential to avoid a repeat of last season and even look to emulate the points total or position of 2 years ago.
One thing's for certain JP won't hang about while his investment, which should be applauded, goes to ruin, if it does end badly for Irvine it will have been a complete waste of 3 or 4 months and we'll be playing catch up going into the winter and lots of people, me included will say"I told you so, he was never the right man for the job".
I'll give my full support to anyone who represents the Albion, so I will give him some time when he's got a full squad to work with, having said that I was less than impressed with his interview on the way home when he was asked if Lescott would be in the squad for Saturday, he skirted around the question saying he'd have to decide if Everton was the right type of match for his comeback and assess whether is was too much of a risk or not. FFS he's either fit to play or he isn't - tell it how it is - yes or no.
In Irvine I trust - worriedly, a little fearfully and for the time being only if things don't improve.