[spireitematt]

I really do not want to say I told you so as this is still my team, but I think the penny is finally dropping with fans that Sheridan isn't the messiah and wont get us out of the division.
If as he says he doesnt know what to do then it probably needs the fans to give their honest opinions to the players and give them a bollocking as nobody else seems bothered about doing it. I can tell him what to do - resign and take Gerrard with you.
Yesterday the team traveled down leaving the Proact at 7-00am. The commentators on Radio Sheffield said how jaded they all looked before the game started and that they had all walked around the pitch 5 times when they arrived at 2-00 to stretch their legs. They said that it was noticeable that nobody spoke with another player and it was obvious from that and the warm up that team spirit was non existent.
That's the John Sheridan effect.

Already tried an experienced manager with Martin Allen and that didn't work.

It doesn't take 7 hrs to travel down to London, takes about just over 3 hrs depending on traffic. If no player spoke to another player during the warm up or walking round the pitch before the game then it looks like there is something wrong behind the scenes.

[Devongone]

The other clubs in our league travel to matches in much the same way as us. Some have even done proper jobs most of the week too.

If our players are jaded, then the club has done that to them, and that is the manager's responsibility.

He is picking a similar team every week and achieves remarkably similar results. Somehow he then concludes the players are good enough. The obvious answers from outside the fishbowl seem to be that all the players CAN'T be good enough and that more radical changes need to be made NOW!

[spireitematt]

The club have released a statement. https://www.chesterfield-fc.co.uk/news/2...statement/

"It is acknowledged that the position we currently find ourselves in is extremely concerning following a very disappointing start to the season.

We have one of the highest budgets in the National League and have a manager with a proven record over many years who has the full support of the board and the owner.

Owner Dave Allen is in regular contact with John Sheridan and will continue to provide the necessary funds if further additions to the squad are identified.

The supporters remain a credit to the club and to the town, providing loyal support both home and away. We urge supporters to continue supporting the team in the knowledge that everything is being done to improve the situation."

Is this a vote of confidence? This sounds like it's trying to appease the fans and get them on board. We have one of the highest budgets in the league but are getting rolled over by teams who are part-time?

[SaltergateBorn]

To be fair, Matt, whatever the club does or doesn`t do or says or doesn`t say at the moment, it`ll get hammered for it. If they say nothing they`ll be accused of not caring and anything they do say will be dismissed as just meaningless PR.

As long as we`re in the position we are at present, it`s a no-win situation for them. The only way the supporters are going to be appeased is by us starting to win games and climbing up the table. Simples.

The sure-fire, cost-effective, instant way of doing that? Suggestions on a post-card, please.

[Dancingwilldoit]

The answer is definitely not to give Sheridan any more money to spend on hopeless ex league players.
Levi Amantchi received a standing ovation from fans for his performance for Blyth on Sat http://www.blythspartans.com/interview-a...ith-debut/. FFS they are not that far below us in the pyramid why isnt he in our first team squad?
I dont think Sheridan has even named a single player from our own youth team or so called development squad in any of our matchday squads this season. The guy is just bereft of ideas and can see no further than the end of his nose. We need some passion and fight not just shrugging of shoulders and finger pointing when the opposition score.
It looks as though Spyrou isnt coming back. I wonder why? Could it be the toxic atmosphere the club seems happy in wallowing in?

[Devongone]

I'm supposed not to be interested but the answer to Salts is bleedin' obvious but difficult now to effect. Just as Gary Caldwell painted himself and Jack Lester into a corner neither could exit from, so Sheridan has trapped himself or any other manager with the squad he's jerry built.

The only players we have who trouble the opposition are Evans, Boden and Fondop-Talom. Common thread? All three have good experience of non-league. Sheridan's approach is seen with Gerrard. No non-league experience, at the end of a career his ability barely merited and now physically out of shape. He is captain ……… compare and contrast.

Chesterfield need more non-league players. Why? Well EFL see the National at best as a fifth division, but mostly it is viewed as a different and lower level all together. To the non-league player coming up through the pyramid, our league is a premier league. It is where they want to be and if they can get there it is a jumping off point to anywhere at all. They are eager to be there and show what they can do. They go on to the pitch smiling, former EFL players look at their surroundings and go into mourning.

But at this stage of the season what do you with unwanted players even if you can bring in new ones from clubs like Buxton, Farsley and Southport …. and what do you with an EFL manager stranded in non-league who is mystified by the problems he has created? It certainly won't fit onto a postcard, maybe going down again is the answer.

Blyth would be a good loan for Amantchi, close to home and experience that should fit him for OUR first team. BUT every week Sheridan provides Chesterfield with a bench full of changes with no capacity to change a game. Amantchi could change a game, but he's getting standing ovations in the north east, whilst poor old Jamie Sharman is getting injured midway through the first half. AND how is our development squad supposed to fare when its best players are taken out on loan, players fire off each other, how can they fire off big Levi if he's having a nice time looking out at the North Sea and the Tall Ship being built in Blyth harbour?

[SaltergateBorn]

That`s exactly my point, Dev; the devil`s in the practicalities. Yes, in theory we could ditch our manager - again - along with half of the squad that he`s recruited, but we can`t afford to do it.

We`re still paying MA`s contract up until the end of the season, JS has a large chunk of his still to run, so if we did that in effect we`d be paying 3 managers simultaneously. In the same way, unless some club is prepared to take some of our current squad off us on terms that the club and the players concerned would find acceptable - unlikely in the extreme, I`d have thought - we`re saddled with them for the duration and any additions would again cost money that we surely can`t afford.

I can`t argue with what any of you have said, but if the atmosphere in the club as a whole is as bad as you all think it is there must be a root cause and that`s what has to be identified and eradicated first and foremost. Until it is, anything else is just papering over the cracks and unlikely to achieve a great deal. I don`t enough about the internal workings of the club to say what that root cause is - we can all make assumptions but we really don`t know - and it`s inevitable that morale isn`t going to be sky-high when a club`s in the position that we are right now; however, bearing in mind that we`ve been in freefall for several years now, during which time there`s been a complete change in management and playing staff (not to say several complete changes) it`s very difficult to say what it is.

I agree that a very large post-card is required; no argument there either.

[Devongone]

Sheridan knows how to organise a team, train, all of that stuff. He SHOULD be able to manage at our level. The trouble is last season he had it easy. He took over an under-achieving squad and got a proven goal scorer. The new manager bounce turned persistent draws into wins and he even had players like Fortune and Kiwomya on the bench who could come on a make a difference when the team was struggling. The skills he required were very much those he'd used his entire career.

He clearly thought that recovery meant he now knew what was required for a new season and did very little in the summer. He especially doesn't seem to have researched and scouted non-league talent or to have found out much about his opposition. The result is illustrated by the league table. Unfortunately Sheridan has proved himself the stubbornest of men and is determined to repeat the same thing over and over again until it comes up with a different result. He could at least find out about the football he's in and the players who mostly cost nothing and don't demand huge wage packets, but that isn't his mindset, so even if money became available to recruit he'd be likely to fritter it on some numbskull who once had the talent to play in the Championship, but has spent most of last season and this warming the bench at Cambridge United on an inflated wage.

For a start Chesterfield need Sheridan to do his job, but he's incapable of seeing what it is!

I wonder for Saturday what does Sheridan know about Torquay? Someone has to get close to Jamie Reid, Kalala will run the game if Chesterfield let him and needs man-marking and if Opi Edwards the loanee from Bristol City is playing he's another handful. Their keeper however is vulnerable to a mistake if pressurised, Fondop-Talom needs to get in on him and shake him up a bit …….

[Dancingwilldoit]

I will tell you what Sheridan hopefully knows about Torquay. He probably knows its in Devon and that they used to be in the football League. Other than that I would assume nothing and I look forward to witnessing another team playing football on the ground through midfield rather than defenders by-passing it completely with over the top dinks either straight to the keeper or for the visitors defence to soak up all day.
Dev, you use words like "needs man marking", JS will probably give one of our defenders a felt tip pen to take care of that - sorted.
I feel another home defeat on the cards unless we have some incoming before Sat.

[Devongone]

You can read about Chesterfield trying to bring in players before Saturday ……. on the Torquay website. That's where I found out!