Ritchie Situation: Sack Him or Back Him?

[LordyOfTheManor]

well he was given a two year contract when he came, so i don't think we'll be losing him yet.

[Floyds]

3rd or 4th manager?!


i dont think rictchie is up to it - but i dont think he should be, or will be, sacked for the forseeable future.

davy gave him a decent contract and would be reluctant to pay him off - so unless we slip deep into relegation trouble i cant see him leaving until the summer at the earliest.

as for manager of the month - he was nominated because he won 4 games in a row or whatever it was - but the performances and results in the season as a whole have simply not been good enough in anyone's book.

think this season will just have to be written off, release all the out of contract players in the summer, and get some players at the club who have the hunger and desire to succeed...

[Deleted]

Back him. He hasn't even had a full season yet.

There's a lot of dross to clear out. We have too many players who are similar.

Brandon / Schofield - Playground players who want to beat all the opposition and then their own team.

Clarke / Mirfin - No pace between 'em and the turning circle of a tanker.

Young- GASH

Hardy - Even worse.

Beckett - Limited. Doesn't add anything to the team. When he and Schofield are playing it's like we're down to 9 men.

The signings Ritchie has brought in (aside from Keogh) have been an improvement. Give him time and he will turn around.

All this blinkered nostaliga for Jacko is daft too. Would he have got Jevons? Wallwork? We'd have ended up up with nowt or some paperboy from Blackburn.

It's pointless looking back, because you miss what's in front of you.

[arnhemterrier]

Well said 'mint'. It'll take at least a season for AR , but I expect some signs of improvement by March time (though to be fair we have been playing better). It took a while for Warnock as well, for the team to get used to his style, remember Barnet/Brentford at home that year?

But he needs HIS OWN COACHING STAFF HE TRUSTS AND WORKS WELL WITH!

[LordyOfTheManor]

arnhemterrier said:

Well said 'mint'. It'll take at least a season for AR , but I expect some signs of improvement by March time (though to be fair we have been playing better). It took a while for Warnock as well, for the team to get used to his style, remember Barnet/Brentford at home that year?

But he needs HIS OWN COACHING STAFF HE TRUSTS AND WORKS WELL WITH!

good post mate. if we had sacked warnock, he wouldn't had got us promoted the next season. besides you can't ENTIRELY blame him for the failing of others. i.e. poor coaching staff, lack of money, etc.

[freddy]

Me I`m all for backing him.At the ens of this season he can get shut of the dross but that might leave us with a possible 8 or 9 players[]

[Deleted]

I agree wholeheartedly he needs his own 'right hand' man. Not allowing him to bring one in is akin to trying to heal a knife wound with a band aid.

I can see what Ritchie is trying to do.

He'll go for a centre back and left winger in Jan. Probably loans and then permanent in the summer.

This season will be upper mid-table and we'll be there or there abouts next season.

I hope he gets some roughhouses to play down the spine of the team too.

[SN0W]

get him sacked, the useless bubble-headed waste of space...... nah, I'm only joshing..... I agree, give him a decent coach and let him continue to build the team and we should start to kick off as real challengers next season.... and you never know... we might get a bonus or two in the cup this year too.....

[Richard1986]

I would say back him.

don't like the man or the football/players we have who seem very heartless to me

but he is building a decent side on paper

we have got some quality players in which was probably the main reason jacko got sacked


give him another season or two I reckon


saying that i am one of the 3,000 who has walked away and atm i dont feel like coming back anytime soon even if i did have the money/time which i don't right now and didn't have last year due to working down in london etc

[LordyOfTheManor]

thanks for all the posts. next question who reckons nathan clarke should be shot out of a cannon into the sun? :-)

seriously tho. we need to be patient and not simply call for the manager to be sacked when in theory it not exactly his fault, but the fault of others.

[LordyOfTheManor]

the season isn't over yet, but change is needed and i don't mean just the playing staff either.

[madmcmadadem]

Richie want Rick Holden to join him, but instead he his lumbered with Laural and Hardy.

[selhurstterrier1]

Town have not had a decent centre back since Sodje Yes he had his big faults but on the day he was awsome and commanded the line ! shoot me down now but think first ?

[dazb69]

SUPPORT HIM and let him bring his own backroom staff in and then let's judge him, but from what I've heard, the money KD has freed up for contracts for the backroom staff, AR would not even go to his proposed staff with such a pittance of an offer.

[HuddsTerrier]

Frankly the honeymoon is well and truly over for AR

Saturday was the absolute pits in the second half, up there in my worse ten experiences as a Town fan, 45 mins being baited by L**ds as they ran up the score, paying £25 for the pleasure while our players simply “gave up” on the pitch!

AR failed to fire up the players. They are not the worlds best players, they play in League one, technically L**ds have better players (well they can pay more), what we have (or should have) is more heart, with a side packed with local lads against a assembled band of mercenaries from Norway, Bulgaria, Demmark etc managed by a cockney disliked (as a player) by many of his own fans.

Passion could have won us the game

But no passion showing for Town and it was L**ds who wanted it more – i.e them busting a gut to support the man on third goal while Town’s players jogged back.

And where were the subs AR? Worthy, Brandon on the bench, the midfield getting swamped and over run. Schofield useless again, Kamara being doubled up on, Collins not even bothering to get dirty, Wallwork looking past it – did any of them come off? No (too late) you took off Jevons, who can score from nowhere for (the now fat) Cadamarteri, aka Mr Five Goals a season. Inspired

Out fought and out thought, both on the pitch and in the dugout = pathetic

AR post comments don’t wash either. That hurt me like hell (did it hurt you AR? No it’s just a job to you isn’t it!), we were humiliated by the team we all hate the most … “heads down”, that is unacceptable in a game against L**ds, if they drop their heads in that game then shouldn’t be at Town. No excuses in THAT game. They were representing a group of long suffering fans (who’ve made them all wealthy young men), and they “dropped their heads”!

Fooking come into my work this morning lads, hear a few of the L**ds fans crow then tell me about dropping your head! The poor lambs!

When will AR apologise for last week. I didn’t go to Southend (although have been before and it’s a bloody long trek), to follow that 4-1 with a 4-0 stuffing at L**ds – what about a heart felt sorry, maybe here’s a refund for the hundreds of pounds you’ve wasted last week watching Town players “heads drop”. At the very least smash a few teacups!

This morning I am not a happy Town fan at all, luckily for AR I’m not the chairman because there’d be another public rollicking on the website this morning if I was!

[arnhemterrier]

So is that sack him or back him Hudds?

[HuddsTerrier]

arnhemterrier said:

So is that sack him or back him Hudds?

It's a he and the team owe us big time now. I can never remember being so badly beaten in a derby!

He now has four very winnable games and I expect us to go on a run ... our league position is unacceptable given the talent on the books (and I don't expect promotion this season but better than we have been).

Also the number of four nil defeats this season is unacceptable - it shows a lack of personal pride IMO.

The honeymoon is over and it's time to deliver a few results, in a results driven business!

[Deleted]

The post above is spot on.

How many challenges flew in on Sat after we went 1 down? They just seemed to meekly accept defeat and that was it.

I could have accepted a sending-off or two on Sat (probably the wrong attitude to have) as it would have shown some pride and frustration.

[Floyds]

Hudds_Terrier that post is 100% spot on.

we have been like that for ages now - we ought to have players who fight, get stuck in, give 100% each game.

look at some of the defeats this season, as Walsall, Grimsby, Southend, Leeds, Crewe just to name a few - pathetic.

AR needs to sort the lot of them out - this season is over realistically - so he should be looking now to keep us up, and to think about what he is going to do with the team next season.

i personally wouldnt keep one out of contract player on the clubs books - let them waltz around somewhere else and bring in some players who are prepared to fight for the team.

[terrier67]

Jon Worthington - now there was passion and committment on the bench - why didn't we try him in a Derby when we were losing and having the p!$$ taken out of us. Yes it might have been a straight red in the first tackle, but we know with Jonny that it means something to him and he show it - whether we are winning or losing.

[htafc]

i think earlier on in season he was to blame for dropping points eg like the donny game

[terrier67]

unfortunately since he has been out, the rest of the squad have proved that they are equally capable of losing points. We just might look like we are trying not to with Worthy. I'm not saying he is perfect - his distribution leaves a lot to be desired, but he does get the crowd going as well.

[190119]

Some of us called Jacko the man with no plan, well this Ritchie is no better. In fact as things stand he's bloody worse.

Suppose you have to give him time to sort it but it'll be too late when we're in league 2. Doubt he will be here at the end of our centenary season.


Now I would like him to prove me wrong, but I doubt it!

[hughphamism]

There's no signs of progression from Jacko on the pitch or the league table and it would seem like Ritchie's had more money to spend as well.

Not time to fire him but it's been a worse season so far than any under Jacko. We're seeing less football and less passion - not good.

[Floyds]

it could easily have been jacko's team (towards the end of his reign) this season - a sad reflection on AR.

the way he stands there in his stupid shorts and hat looking on without a care in the world - oh well - always next season int there?

[cheesyhtfc]

i think there are a lot of similarities between this year and last, and the bad form seemed to coincide with Terry Yorath leaving the club. I think it shows that without a good (proven?) assistant manager you will have problems

[thomo]

I'd hope we can still make something of this season. We can keep writing seasons off. Irrelevant of this been Ritchie's first year, he's brought in nearly half a new side and I'd still expect progress. So far in terms of results and league position there has been NO progress. It can't continue and we must start to pick up points.

It is a results business and for that reason, if were to fail to collect any less than 6 points from the next 4 games, we'd simply have to get shut of AR.

[Deleted]

I haven't written the season off yet either. The division's so gash that a team with a 15 point deuction is in with a shout of going top over the xmas period. If it was a difficult division, they'd be in staving off relegation.

If Ritchie signs the right players (left winger and an old fashioned kick 'em up in the air centre-half) we might put a rum together.

I reckon we'll need to keep at least 15 clean sheets between now and the end of the saeson in the league. We couldn't do that in a laundrette at the mo'

[Deleted]

We might even put a run together. Christ we need rum at times!