Simon Francis

Robbo was a joy to talk to... recommend a listen. Off air as well he reiterated how much he wanted an interview for the job this time round. I wouldn’t have seen him as right until speaking to him the other day.... which is what interviews for jobs are all about I guess. He is used to working with lower budgets, bringing people through and losing star assets. All of these things will become important for us in the next few years.
 
Unfortunately there needed to be a man 'after' Eddie... Whether we like to recognise it or not, Tindall was always going to fail... He should never have been put in the situation and ended up being fall guy v1.0.

For all intense and purposes Woodgate will probably be fall guy v2.0. He'll steady the ship hopefully and get back some form of confidence levels, but for me, he should definitely not be the way forward for us...

I was always very sceptical on Robb being a replacement but that was based on nothing really other than he didn't really have a great managerial CV, but looking deeper into his time at Motherwell, hearing him talk last on the BOTN channel and how he still absolutely loves this club (us), how he sees playing football the right way and not getting the ball long, although recognising he needed to do that to start with at Motherwell, due to not having the resource available to do it any other way... Identifying with the community around the club and the relationship with the fans... Building a club that is integrated in it's surrounds... Having proper managerial control... Realising that it was his time to go as he couldn't take them further...

For me, he talks like the ideal candidate to take us on, and I would be pleased if he was at the helm come August... However, I fear he isn't the trophy manager that I get the impression Blake and Hughes want...

Edited to add: Losing Eddie was not only losing a great manager, for us fans it was losing the link between us and the club. We knew the club was in safe hands with Eddie, whereas now, we seem to have no one that understands this club anywhere near the helm... Bringing someone like Robbo back, someone that takes pride in ensuring the club is placed well in it's community, might just go someway to restoring that link...
 
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Neil Dawson said:
Robbo was a joy to talk to... recommend a listen. Off air as well he reiterated how much he wanted an interview for the job this time round. I wouldn’t have seen him as right until speaking to him the other day.... which is what interviews for jobs are all about I guess. He is used to working with lower budgets, bringing people through and losing star assets. All of these things will become important for us in the next few years.
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It was a great listen Neil... Well done to you and all others involved...
 
Neil Dawson said:
Robbo was a joy to talk to... recommend a listen. Off air as well he reiterated how much he wanted an interview for the job this time round. I wouldn’t have seen him as right until speaking to him the other day.... which is what interviews for jobs are all about I guess. He is used to working with lower budgets, bringing people through and losing star assets. All of these things will become important for us in the next few years.
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In the context of the championship we won’t be working with a lower budget though.
 
Waz afcb said:
In the context of the championship we won’t be working with a lower budget though.
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If Begovic is still earning his reputed £70K + per week, that means that next season at least 60p of every pound we take at the gate will be used to pay hs wages.

I think we need to address our budget quite seriously and become realistic as quickly as we can.
 
I looked on Sunday but couldn't find anything although not close to 8pm. Thankfully from this thread just picked it up. Another BOTN gem. Once again a smile on my face we could identify with the team in those days. Bottom at Christmas with only 9 points yet we hardly got on the teams back (except in my case Fletcher at centre half dismal is praise). Never thought Robbo would go on to be a manager but good on him he talked a lot of sense with his feet on the ground.
 
was wondering if anyone was going to ask him about his erm, how can I put it tactfully, err, ability to 'earn' free kicks?!
 
Neil Dawson said:
We will be soon.
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Why have we just given Pearson a 3 and a half year contract in circa 20k a week then? And tried to sign Ritchie on a long contract with huge wages for this level. If we are looking to operate on a lower championship budget over the next few seasons, then handing out long contracts on big money to players with little resale value is not a very clever way to go about it is it?
 
Cloth Cap said:
If Begovic is still earning his reputed £70K + per week, that means that next season at least 60p of every pound we take at the gate will be used to pay hs wages.

I think we need to address our budget quite seriously and become realistic as quickly as we can.
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Probably shouldn’t be signing players like Ben Pearson on big money (for this level) and long contracts then.
 
Waz afcb said:
Why have we just given Pearson a 3 and a half year contract in circa 20k a week then? And tried to sign Ritchie on a long contract with huge wages for this level. If we are looking to operate on a lower championship budget over the next few seasons, then handing out long contracts on big money to players with little resale value is not a very clever way to go about it is it?
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Because as with Scott Parker, them upstairs seem to have all our eggs in one basket, and that is the 'promotion' basket...

I've raised this several times on other threads in that next season, but if we're still in the Championship, you can count on more higher profile players leaving, to be replaced with more average players, with an average budget and we will become an average Champ side (for one season at least), so to think that the likes of Scott Parker or the Barnsley dude coming here, is extremely unlikely... Not saying Robbo is average at all, but he certainly fits the bill of the type of manager we should be looking at...
 
they were saying on TS earlier that newcastle haven't put in relegation clauses for any of their players contracts. callum really landed on his feet there!
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
Because as with Scott Parker, them upstairs seem to have all our eggs in one basket, and that is the 'promotion' basket...

I've raised this several times on other threads in that next season, but if we're still in the Championship, you can count on more higher profile players leaving, to be replaced with more average players, with an average budget and we will become an average Champ side (for one season at least), so to think that the likes of Scott Parker or the Barnsley dude coming here, is extremely unlikely... Not saying Robbo is average at all, but he certainly fits the bill of the type of manager we should be looking at...
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SteveJonesLegend said:
Because as with Scott Parker, them upstairs seem to have all our eggs in one basket, and that is the 'promotion' basket...

I've raised this several times on other threads in that next season, but if we're still in the Championship, you can count on more higher profile players leaving, to be replaced with more average players, with an average budget and we will become an average Champ side (for one season at least), so to think that the likes of Scott Parker or the Barnsley dude coming here, is extremely unlikely... Not saying Robbo is average at all, but he certainly fits the bill of the type of manager we should be looking at...
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Signing players on long term contracts and big money to achieve a short term aim with no regard for the consequences if that aim isn’t achieved, is at best idiotic, at worst it’s gambling the future of the club and that is unforgivable.
 
Waz afcb said:
Why have we just given Pearson a 3 and a half year contract in circa 20k a week then? And tried to sign Ritchie on a long contract with huge wages for this level. If we are looking to operate on a lower championship budget over the next few seasons, then handing out long contracts on big money to players with little resale value is not a very clever way to go about it is it?
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Our signings in the year we had the Max parachute payments plus player income of 60m were four players for less than 0.5m combined.

Watch what happens when the smaller payments come in. Neither of us will know who is right until then and we will probably have forgotten this conversation! Developing cheaper players or youth players will become more prevalent again, throughout the game.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Our signings in the year we had the Max parachute payments plus player income of 60m were four players for less than 0.5m combined.

Watch what happens when the smaller payments come in. Neither of us will know who is right until then and we will probably have forgotten this conversation! Developing cheaper players or youth players will become more prevalent again, throughout the game.
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also per threads yesterday, did we really try to sign ritchie? Sounded like we could have got him after all.
 
Has he hung up his boots?

I can't find anywhere that shows he has, although I imagine he has retired.

Same goes for Pugh
 
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