Meanwhile....

Johnny Comelately said:
Mate, if you want to pretend that appointing a caretaker manager rather than a permanent one is a good thing, that's up to you. Makes you wonder why only Watford do it every season though.
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How differently do you think things would have gone if JW had a four year contract? As it was he won seven in a row to get us into the playoffs and had us 2-0 up against brentford before disaster struck.

You're probably right though. As the ball was travelling through the air to Mepham he almost certainly thought about controlling it properly but thought twice about it when he remembered the length of the managers contract.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
How differently do you think things would have gone if JW had a four year contract? As it was he won seven in a row to get us into the playoffs and had us 2-0 up against brentford before disaster struck.

You're probably right though. As the ball was travelling through the air to Mepham he almost certainly thought about controlling it properly but thought twice about it when he remembered the length of the managers contract.
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Haha keep digging. You never know, you might find something sensible to say eventually. Although that's looking increasingly unlikely tbh.
 
Without answering for Johnny he didn’t say appoint Woodgate permanently, he said appoint a manager permanently. You could maybe forgive us for not having one lined up to replace Eddie but to do it again with Jason is bonkers.

The fact Woodgate achieved what he did with fairly limited ability (don’t think you are arguing that he is an excellent manager) to me only emphasises how good our squad was and how well a decent permanent manager would have done had they got it at the season start or Xmas.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Without answering for Johnny he didn’t say appoint Woodgate permanently, he said appoint a manager permanently. You could maybe forgive us for not having one lined up to replace Eddie but to do it again with Jason is bonkers.

The fact Woodgate achieved what he did with fairly limited ability (don’t think you are arguing that he is an excellent manager) to me only emphasises how good our squad was and how well a decent permanent manager would have done had they got it at the season start or Xmas.
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What exactly would a decent manager have achieved that Woodgate didn’t?
 
SlowDownDerek said:
What exactly would a decent manager have achieved that Woodgate didn’t?
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It comes down to whether you believe this group of players have the capability to do well - end of season slump and lack of composure vs Brentford when the heat was on makes me doubt whether a new manager in February would have made any difference vs woodgate.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
What exactly would a decent manager have achieved that Woodgate didn’t?
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With this squad? Got us up. Maybe automatically, before that three game slump at the end we were on course to be five points behind Watford. I think a better manager than JW would have found those five points...the squad was good enough to win every game they set foot on a pitch.

Say they failed that and were in the play offs they wouldn’t have been naive enough to play Brentford twice and I think with the confidence of a semi final win they’d have done them in the final as we have far better players than them.
 
I think Woodgate did get this group playing, but that inconsistency came back to haunt us. Maybe if the team had stayed consistent on the winning run then it may have been different but it may have also been a good idea to rest a few players.

That Stoke game was the real disappointment for me. I think I’m right in saying a full strength side, I expect Woodgate thought they could pick up at least a point to avoid Brentford over the two legs but the team failed to perform. Didn’t get much of a performance in the play off second leg either.

Could a different manager have done better? Yes they could of. At the same time the players might not have taken to him immediately and he may have tried to change things too much to get coherent performances from day one, which is generally want you need for promotion.

They were a talented team but in my mind I was never quite convinced they had the focus, maturity and winning mentality to be thinking that they were a good bet for automatic.
*If* a manager had really got them going then yes they would have been a real handful, who that potentially mythical manager might be :shrug:
 
Neil Dawson said:
With this squad? Got us up. Maybe automatically, before that three game slump at the end we were on course to be five points behind Watford. I think a better manager than JW would have found those five points...the squad was good enough to win every game they set foot on a pitch.

Say they failed that and were in the play offs they wouldn’t have been naive enough to play Brentford twice and I think with the confidence of a semi final win they’d have done them in the final as we have far better players than them.
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I don't know the stats but be surprised if many new managers had a better points per game record than Woodgate did before he started resting players.

We were on course to beat Brentford before disaster struck. We don't need to imagine a scenario where we had more confidence against the mighty Brentford. We were better than them as it was until decisions went against us.
 
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