[spireitematt]

Interesting you say that Dev because night before Saturday's game he was doing the after dinner circuit and he's on Sky a lot being a pundit and won't be surprised if he's on tonight as a pundit for the Wales match. On Sunday he was on goals on Sunday with Ben Shepherd and Chris Kamara.

[bluepooch]

I'm on a real downer with Saunders though ,his pre and after match interviews are bewildering and waffled,he makes John Sheridan sound like Richard Burton's Hamlet.If I had a pound for every time he's mentioned the Villa v Leicester comeback from 2 down game Id buy a ticket for the West Stand .Nothing he says makes sense ,at least Cookie used to tell it how it was .

[Devongone]

The trouble with being paid to talk is you talk when it might be better to say nothing.

I think Saunders is a nice enough guy, but paid to babble on he'll do it like the rest of us. The thing is I think I could do that, BUT I don't think I could successfully manage a team in Division 1.

I'm sure that somehow Saunders needs to make his mark on the team. Make it his. Make the team desperate to win for him. I don't really believe that the defence is our problem; the team is the problem and it is reflected in conceding goals. And I've always been an advocate of Tommy Lee, but to make an impression Saunders needs to show everyone has justify his place ...... and the players you might prove that with are Morsy, Evatt and Lee. And Tommy seems to be the only one with a viable, surprise replacement, who might even be brilliant.

I'm not too worried that Saunders doesn't always make sense. Plenty of successful managers say baffling, contradictory things. Jose Mourinho for instance, but supporters only worry about it when the team starts losing.

Oh by the way Dancing, yes if we lose there'll be rumblings. Yes Deano took on a difficult job, but we all knew we were going to lose players; he'd not be much of an analyst if he'd not grasped it too. If he lets fear of failure dominate he's halfway through the door. Give Walsall something to think about and even if we lose say now we build on this, this and this!

[bluepooch]

I think I would have been a bit more tolerant of Saunders if we hadn't had the previous two years under Cook but I want Football like that again and I'm sure Dave Allen does too that's why he has to bite the bullet if we don't win at the weekend .

[Devongone]

Of course you're spoiled Pooch, but how many years have you followed the town? And how many of those have been disappointing? Yet you've stayed with your team. You've earned your right to be heard!

If we play to win and try to play however we choose without fear ...... I think that'd do for most people. Personally I'd always cast a slightly critical eye over proceedings, even under Mr Cook there were things that needed improving. If we'd kept him he'd be changing stuff, he wouldn't be satisfied even if we were where Walsall are.

Mr Saunders can't be Mr Cook's franchise substitute. His team has to reflect Dean Saunders, not the fading memory of Paul Cook. That doesn't mean discarding all we learnt under Mr Cook, but it might mean building on the best of it and adapting it to new players. For me we don't have to win at Walsall, we just have to make it obvious that's what are aiming at and expecting to do. If we've got that we're on the road to somewhere.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Just a reminder to everybody that about this time last year we went through a rough patch under Cook and people were predicting doom and gloom with some even calling for Cooks head. We were passionless, bereft of ideas and some fans were not happy. If my memory serves me right we were then drawn away in the first round of the cup and nobody was confident of us going to another non league side and winning. We scored 6 and went a run that took us back in the playoffs and kept us there. I think peoples memories become clouded with age and I can remember some absolute dross served up by PC during his tenure. People criticised him for his substitutions, keeping nobody up at corners and he brought in some absolute garbage loanees. However he was probably the best manager we ever had at Chesterfield and when it worked the football was a joy to watch but it wasn't always like that.
I will give Saunders a fighting chance and think we may get a result at Walsall and at least a point against Southend then 3 against Scunny. If that was followed up by another 3 at Fleetwood then thinks would look a whole lot better. If we lose all 4 then he'd better get his tin hat ready.

[bluepooch]

Come on Dancing, every team has its ups and downs but Cookie always stuck to his principles and in the end we generally got out of the rut.Can you honestly see Deano getting us back on track ? I cant .Lets also not forget ,rebuilding job and injuries excepted ,Deans got a bigger budget than Cookie ever had .
Can you see Deano's team dominating teams like Cookies team and can you see Deano's team scoring 6 goals no less than 3 times which is what Cook's teams did.
Like I said ,hope I'm wrong on this and maybe if he was a new rookie manager learning his trade Id give him more time but he isn't .He's either a crap manager or an unlucky manager ,if its the latter his luck needs to change pretty damn quick.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Blue, don't forget Cook was with us for nearly 3 years. The first year everybody was saying why the hell had we given him a 2 year contract. I remember in Cooks first season freezing my nuts off at home to Scunny on a Tuesday night watching the worst display I have ever seen any Chesterfield team give. The loanees who played I cant even remember one of them they were so instantly forgettable. I remember 1 came from Man City and probably now plays for Ark Tavern.
Not disagreeing about the current state but Ds has been well and truly dropped in the shit by his superiors. On the other hand maybe that was the master plan. Bring in a scapegoat who everyone can blame so CT and DA get away with destroying the squad and making a few bob back. Not saying Cook didnt know what he was doing but he learned a hell of a lot whilst with us. It wasn't always pretty.

[Devongone]

Much as I like to blame Thefatcontroller for everything, Deano chose to drop into the shit. Only an idiot wouldn't have been aware that players were likely to depart. Who wouldn't have taken £1.2 million for Clucas? How could we have kept Tendayi when he wanted to leave? Roberts was ready for a change of scenery and Ryan had publicly stated his desire to go.

Certainly we haven't invested big money in replacement players. But how much have Gillingham, Walsall and Burton spent? They seem to have recruited wisely and built better teams than us, that's all. They seem to have more spirit and a better game plan.

Dean Saunders knew what his job would be. Perhaps he over-estimated the strength of the remaining Chesterfield players or under-estimated the contribution of those leaving. The fact that Clucas and Darikwa only missed one game between them says a lot about the gap they left, and no one should forget that the team spent the second half of last season covering for the loss of a striker who'd been the best in the country to that point.

Small clubs sell players unless, like Bournemouth, they recruit a billionaire. Part of the data.

In several different jobs Mr Cook has improved teams, in a similar amount of attempts Mr Saunders has consistently failed - that doesn't mean it has to happen this time or that Portsmouth will automatically be promoted. But it isn't adding to my confidence about Walsall away.

[bluepooch]

Saunders constantly refers to his rebuilding job but lets not forget Cookie had a re building job or building job to do when he took over, but during that period he kept the club moving up the table.The important and admittedly difficult thing for a manager when he is building a team is that he also needs to keep a decent winning ratio in order to keep the team progressing .I think old Dean's record in his short tenure is about 33% to date.Not good enough.

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Edit that just looked on managerstats its 28.57 %