Gary O'Neil

I am underwhelmed by the actions of our supposed ‘ruthless owner’ in tolerating not just the defeats but the manner in which we are losing games..we have no real pattern to our play, often it looks like eleven individuals trying to work it out during play..our attacking guile is non existent…set plays are worse than Sunday League!…simple skills like passing to each other are inconsistent and ragged…
It is down to the manager and his team of coaches to instill better disciplines on the pitch…so Gary you can’t go on blaming referees for poor decisions when we can’t put the ball in the opposition net…
O’Neil should have been sacked after the Burnley game, and certainly not currently be involved in any transfers!
 
Old Cherry said:
We need to get active soon in the Market and get 5 or 6 decent players in or Gary will carry the can and be sacked with some dolt coming in with little time to get organised.

And it cannot be all about Danjuma in the way we play...there has to be leadership from several players.

Neither can it be all about the link to L'Orient.

That could backfire if Foley has them as his No 1 priority and WE do the feeding !



Just look at our April/ May fixtures.. Saints away... Spurs and Manu ..other 6 pointers v Leeds, West Ham, and Wolves...away to Everton finale...same ground as 20-21 finish albeit with different result this time ?.

Everton won't lose that one and would put us down.

Some serious thinking must be ongoing now and start to produce solutions!
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There's a lot of sense in this. We can't chuck all our eggs in the Damjuma basket but it does feel like we are at the moment. I just hope we don't flip the switch in to desperation mode next week and start scraping the transfer deadline day barrel.

We really need 3 or 4 more. As it stands we are probably weaker than we were 3 weeks ago when Solanke was fit.
 
Garbo said:
I am underwhelmed by the actions of our supposed ‘ruthless owner’ in tolerating not just the defeats but the manner in which we are losing games..we have no real pattern to our play, often it looks like eleven individuals trying to work it out during play..our attacking guile is non existent…set plays are worse than Sunday League!…simple skills like passing to each other are inconsistent and ragged…
It is down to the manager and his team of coaches to instill better disciplines on the pitch…so Gary you can’t go on blaming referees for poor decisions when we can’t put the ball in the opposition net…
O’Neil should have been sacked after the Burnley game, and certainly not currently be involved in any transfers!
Click to expand...

I agree with what you are saying . However I believe GON is a good coach and could turn out to be an excellent manager but he needs help.
His coaching team is pretty non-existent in comparison to what other managers have had in the last 10 or so years.
This philosophy of us getting ex players back on the scene is a loud of rubbish .
For him to be successful here he needs experience next to him as we all can see this clearly isn’t working at the moment

We all want 4 or 5 players in , in this window and from looking at who we are linked with: ex players and to us buying a buying a player from a club that our owner owns looks like in terms of finding talent our scouting network seems to be pretty tinpot.

Given that Foley has only been here for a few months I do understand Rome wasn’t built in a day and it will take time for us to get a proper set up.
Foley can’t fix all these issues over night and we have to trust he is getting a proper plan and structure in place
 
It does go to show how our current set up isn't working.

Did Richard Hughes give Foley a list of 20 targets that he has been following for the last 18 months?

Doesn't look like it.

The only reason we have had 1 signing so far is because Foley purchased Outtatara (sp) from the parent club.

It's starting to look very amateur to Foley I would imagine, the more layers he peels from the onion.

Blake and Hughes will not be with the club in 6 months time.

Gary is also on borrowed time, but if he keeps his job long enough to keep us up, it's his to lose.

The transfers have so far been slow.

Foley is in a new world, and perhaps he has bitten off more than he can chew.

The club was cheap for a reason.

It's currentry in free fall, on and off the pitch.
 
The whole club has never caught up with Eddie's rampant march up the divisions... Which is a ridiculous thing to say seeing as it was 7/8 years ago that we first reached the PL.

As great as Max has been to this club, and he should get a statue alongside Eddie, he unfortauntely did not have the financial clout to take the club where it really needed to go. The money always had to go either on or off field... When we really needed a bit of both...

We're at another crossroads here with the new investment. I think Foley might have to accept that to get the club into a position it needs to be to start 'growing', we might have to go through relegation and hopefully bounce back up at first or maybe 2nd attempt... This is a new World to Foley, where teams can have bad seasons and actually have to pay for it in the form of relegation.

As @dragonm8 mentions, as time goes by and layers are slowly peeled away, I am sure Foley's team will start to see the huge holes in the operation. The club has basically been fire fighting for some time now, sticking plasters on things instead of working the problem and delivering credible solutions in an attempt to future proof and grow to a new level... We seem content with being 'tinpot'.

This includes the way we do business at the top level. I'm not necessarily a Blake and Hughes basher, and they have done some very good business in the market, but I do also recognise their inadequacies (along with other sections of the club).

Whilst I accept the video that was shown online of the 2 changing rooms before the Brentford game can be worked to fit a narrative, I've also reliably heard that standards have dropped throughout the backroom side of things since Parker has left... Attention to detail is not what it was or should be... Focus is not quite right and perhaps a bit too relaxed/blasé... an things that were probably seen as fundamental to the likes of Howe and Parker, are no longer being carried out...

Has GON really got the respect and clout he needs to drive this group forwards... Small details I've heard would indicate that he is perhaps still operating with the same 'coach' relationship as he was when Parker was in charge... which to me is a recipe to disaster, and an open doorway for players to abuse the situation. I just don't think he has the presence and respect maybe to manage this club... I desperately want us t beat Forest on Saturday, but I worry that in doing so, Foley will think we've turned a corner, which we very well might have, but it's unlikely... The players simply need more direction and discipline from their manager and I dont think GON is the man to offer that...
 
If you look at the actual stats, they're pretty stark.

https://sportsbrief.com/facts/top-l...ague-managers-time-2022-stats-win-percentage/

Looking at his league games, he's right in the middle of the worst PL managers ever. And many of them were in charge for between 10-25 matches. GON has had 15.

P15 W3 D4 L8
Win% - 20%
PPG - 0.87

If I'm brutally honest, it's less the results and more the performances. Unless there is a complete turnaround in how we play on Saturday, I don't see how he can survive the weekend.

For me, it isn't enough to see a scrappy win. We need to see some direction from the team. In fact, I'd take a defeat but a clearly executed thought out strategy seen on the pitch. That would give me more hope for the future.
 
kirsikka said:
If you look at the actual stats, they're pretty stark.

https://sportsbrief.com/facts/top-l...ague-managers-time-2022-stats-win-percentage/

Looking at his league games, he's right in the middle of the worst PL managers ever. And many of them were in charge for between 10-25 matches. GON has had 15.

P15 W3 D4 L8
Win% - 20%
PPG - 0.87

If I'm brutally honest, it's less the results and more the performances. Unless there is a complete turnaround in how we play on Saturday, I don't see how he can survive the weekend.

For me, it isn't enough to see a scrappy win. We need to see some direction from the team. In fact, I'd take a defeat but a clearly executed thought out strategy seen on the pitch. That would give me more hope for the future.
Click to expand...

The warning signs have been there since Southampton in October. That was a dreadful performance both on the pitch and tactically.

Remove the Everton week and it was one win in eight. Incredible he got the job permanently.
 
I don't pretend to have any insider knowledge when it comes to the upstairs positions of the club, and I doubt anyone 'really' does... However, there was a pivotal moment in this clubs recent history, where we royally f*cked things up.

We had a caretaker in charge that was keeping things ticking along but even then there were alarming signs that mistakes across the board were not acceptable from a perm manager...

We had 'that' caretaker period (Circa 6 weeks), followed by a 6-week break to explore and research the market, the globe, for a new person to take charge... Someone that fitted our bill. I appreciate all the arguments that there is potentially a small pool of people available, but I also don't accept that with a good enough scouting operation in place, we could not unearth a young, exciting manger that has the same beliefs the club does, to take us forward, and is excited by the prospect of taking over a PL club, that at the time was in a pretty healthy position...

We instead ended up with the internal appointment, that is clearly not working... I just don't see how we spent the best part of 3 months and came up with internal and 1 other...

There will be other factors included but you can't help but feel, GON's appointment is having a negative effect on our ability to attract players...
 
afcbmdl27 said:
Last chance tomorrow..
Lose and badly then two weeks til next game .. time for someone to come in etc ..
Click to expand...
Agree. Hopefully we’ll win. Would then give any new signings a week or so training.
Worst case is we lose and he doesn’t get the bullet as we have no one lined up besides Cooper and co.
 
afcbmdl27 said:
I think our form / Gary has gone under the radar, as in next many talking about his future , as its all Moyes ,Lampard .
Click to expand...
Add to that that before a ball was even kicked, everybody expected us to get relegated this season. So hardly big news in the media's eyes if that danger is ever more present !
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I don't pretend to have any insider knowledge when it comes to the upstairs positions of the club, and I doubt anyone 'really' does... However, there was a pivotal moment in this clubs recent history, where we royally f*cked things up.

We had a caretaker in charge that was keeping things ticking along but even then there were alarming signs that mistakes across the board were not acceptable from a perm manager...

We had 'that' caretaker period (Circa 6 weeks), followed by a 6-week break to explore and research the market, the globe, for a new person to take charge... Someone that fitted our bill. I appreciate all the arguments that there is potentially a small pool of people available, but I also don't accept that with a good enough scouting operation in place, we could not unearth a young, exciting manger that has the same beliefs the club does, to take us forward, and is excited by the prospect of taking over a PL club, that at the time was in a pretty healthy position...

We instead ended up with the internal appointment, that is clearly not working... I just don't see how we spent the best part of 3 months and came up with internal and 1 other...

There will be other factors included but you can't help but feel, GON's appointment is having a negative effect on our ability to attract players...
Click to expand...

Still Can't believe Knutsen wasn't even approached by the club. Reading about him he seemed a great fit for a squad like ours. Annoying.
 
I wonder if one of the big problems for us has been that Foley was distracted by his purchase of Lorient? Obviously those in charge knew Demin was selling and that we needed a new manager so you'd think someone would've come up with a list of likely candidates but maybe Foley wants to be heavily involved in choosing the new man but because of Lorient hasn't had the time and basically said yeah to Bielsa but if you can't get him stick with GON until I can take a better look at some of these other candidates?
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
The whole club has never caught up with Eddie's rampant march up the divisions... Which is a ridiculous thing to say seeing as it was 7/8 years ago that we first reached the PL.

As great as Max has been to this club, and he should get a statue alongside Eddie, he unfortauntely did not have the financial clout to take the club where it really needed to go. The money always had to go either on or off field... When we really needed a bit of both...

We're at another crossroads here with the new investment. I think Foley might have to accept that to get the club into a position it needs to be to start 'growing', we might have to go through relegation and hopefully bounce back up at first or maybe 2nd attempt... This is a new World to Foley, where teams can have bad seasons and actually have to pay for it in the form of relegation.

As @dragonm8 mentions, as time goes by and layers are slowly peeled away, I am sure Foley's team will start to see the huge holes in the operation. The club has basically been fire fighting for some time now, sticking plasters on things instead of working the problem and delivering credible solutions in an attempt to future proof and grow to a new level... We seem content with being 'tinpot'.

This includes the way we do business at the top level. I'm not necessarily a Blake and Hughes basher, and they have done some very good business in the market, but I do also recognise their inadequacies (along with other sections of the club).

Whilst I accept the video that was shown online of the 2 changing rooms before the Brentford game can be worked to fit a narrative, I've also reliably heard that standards have dropped throughout the backroom side of things since Parker has left... Attention to detail is not what it was or should be... Focus is not quite right and perhaps a bit too relaxed/blasé... an things that were probably seen as fundamental to the likes of Howe and Parker, are no longer being carried out...

Has GON really got the respect and clout he needs to drive this group forwards... Small details I've heard would indicate that he is perhaps still operating with the same 'coach' relationship as he was when Parker was in charge... which to me is a recipe to disaster, and an open doorway for players to abuse the situation. I just don't think he has the presence and respect maybe to manage this club... I desperately want us t beat Forest on Saturday, but I worry that in doing so, Foley will think we've turned a corner, which we very well might have, but it's unlikely... The players simply need more direction and discipline from their manager and I dont think GON is the man to offer that...
Click to expand...
Excellent post.
 
kirsikka said:
If you look at the actual stats, they're pretty stark.

https://sportsbrief.com/facts/top-l...ague-managers-time-2022-stats-win-percentage/

Looking at his league games, he's right in the middle of the worst PL managers ever. And many of them were in charge for between 10-25 matches. GON has had 15.

P15 W3 D4 L8
Win% - 20%
PPG - 0.87

If I'm brutally honest, it's less the results and more the performances. Unless there is a complete turnaround in how we play on Saturday, I don't see how he can survive the weekend.

For me, it isn't enough to see a scrappy win. We need to see some direction from the team. In fact, I'd take a defeat but a clearly executed thought out strategy seen on the pitch. That would give me more hope for the future.
Click to expand...
The thing for me that is so obviously wrong is that no matter which of the weird line ups we have put out the players seem to have lost all faith in it. They take an age to look up and pass the ball whereas with Parker and obviously Eddie each player knew their job, knew where a teammate was at any time and could almost pass the ball blind. It had been hammered into them - this is what you do. Now its what am I supposed to do and blank looks coming back from the touchline. Anyone at Leeds would know exactly what I meant in that last sentence, very worrying.
 
redharry said:
"Now its what am I supposed to do and blank looks coming back from the touchline. Anyone at Leeds would know exactly what I meant in that last sentence, very worrying."
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Apparently on MOTD, one of the Brentford players said, "we all know what we are supposed to be doing." Although that involves cheating, can our players honestly claim that?

I think that we will win tomorrow. I have faith in the players but no longer any in O'Neil to lead them.
 
beds cherry said:
Still Can't believe Knutsen wasn't even approached by the club. Reading about him he seemed a great fit for a squad like ours. Annoying.
Click to expand...
Do we know for sure he wasn't...? It came out in the media that Knurtsen instructed his club and all around him that he didn't want to be bothered with anything remotely involving him leaving BG, and that his focus was 100% with BG for the foreseeable... If true, fair play to him and we rightly didn't take that any further, if anywhere at all...

It's a real stretch but I hope is that we aren't seeing another Scott Parker scenario play out here we we just bounce from stop gap to stop gap until the person we're after becomes available...

Again it's all about the club, but BHA seem to bounce from quality to quality, and pretty quickly as well... Other clubs move quickly with appointments yet we seem to always come out with the "no rush" mentality and end up with nothing...

Surely... surely... them upstairs have a shortlist of replacements already...
 
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