Topcat

Delldays, Newcastle hired Pardew as a sacked manager from a L1 club, but I agree there would only be a couple of clubs as English Managers in the PL are a minority of appointments these days.

Nigel should wait until May and see what jobs become available. He should not take the Blackpool job as it is a small club with little money and another volatile chairman. By May Nigel will probably have half the Championship clubs at his door and a couple of PL Clubs. Maybe he should consider a move abroad, to widen his appeal in the PL if his family circumstances permit? If he does wait until May, our next Chairman may even re-hire him for a new drive into the PL (dreaming!)

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Makes a lot of sense from the known facts. But the change has increased the chances of relegation in the short term from a slump in form delivered by a shell shocked team. I hope my forecast is wrong, we need a lot of luck now. Yes in a thread last year - probably around Aug/Sept/Oct 2012 as a guess.

Delldays, WGS took a couple of PL seasons to get us into the top group. Adkins record in the last 10 PL games is very respectable and getting a point off Arsenal and Chelsea gave us hope. Also there are doubts that Adkins had a large say in the signings made since he joined.

You are wrong David in one key aspect. Adkins delivered success to Saints and his win % record is up with the best we have ever had. Adkins was not just a nice guy, he was a successful nice guy.

I agree, Cortese got lucky with Adkins with the first change, but it was a close run thing, 9 wins in final 10 games in Adkins first season was extraordinary and lucky. We do know that the owners are not putting in large sums anymore. That massive loan financed out of future ticket sales is another Rangers type disaster waiting to happen if we are relegated. That conclusion does match the known facts. Unfortunately if Cortese has got it wrong we could be facing financial meltdown next season. I hope Cortese gets lucky for the 2nd time. Cortese's lucky appointment with Adkins has reinforced his personal view that he is a brilliant CEO/Chairman feeding his vaity, added to the "Napoleon syndrome".

This decision on Adkins was almost inevitable. We have an over confident Chairman wallowing in his tactical genius in sacking Pardew and picking a new Manager who delivers 2 back to back promotions. So Cortese will have had his judgement reinforced by the outcome of the Pardew sacking. The share holders are of course happy with Cortese as he has increased the Club's value from L1 to Premiership - probably a 400% to 500% improvement in value. However, if we get relegated the debt burden based on future ticket sales etc etc may bring about a financial melt down. Let us hope not.

To try and understand what is behind this strange decision it maybe best to look at Cortese's words. "for the Club to progress and achieve our long-term targets a change was needed...... Mauricio is a well-respected coach of substantial quality who has gained a reputation as an astute tactician and excellent man manager. I have every confidence that he will inspire our talented squad of players to perform at the highest possible level. He also shares my belief that the most successful clubs are built by nurturing young players through a development system that provides a clear path to the First Team, thereby creating a culture that keeps them at the Club for the long term. " Some key words are "nurturing young players through a development system that provides a clear path to the First Team .... long term". Is it the problem over the 4-5-1 vs 442 system that Adkins has sometimes used? Is it a problem with Adkins not wishing to throw in another youngster into the team? That is where I suggest people look into.

How about one of our full back reserves.

This 433 system is not due to NA not wanting to compromise, he is under instruction to play the 433 by Cortese as advised by Reed. Please stop blaming Adkins for this stupid approach to tactics.

I agree with SW11_Saint's points. Just one problem. "We need to be able to change our tactics to suit the occasion." I agree but you overlook the problem that Adkins HAS to play the 433 formation so his tactics are constrained by this bone headed approach that the Club are enforcing.

After yesterday he should never play there again. He was responsible for the 2nd and 4th goal through bad positioning being outside of the attacker. I would rather have a kid with some speed that has played as a full back than have Yoshida there.

MOsaint thanks for more facts on the awful Les Reed. He had been here only a few months before Pardew's role came under threat. Now look at how Pardew is doing wonders with Newcastle. Many of the better players that we have are due to Pardew and not recruits from Reed. Yet Pardew ran recruitment (from a zero base plus youngsters) and the first team.

I voted for Adkins to stay. The rationale being that since he has had the formation forced on him, that would also apply to any replacement. Few good Managers would sign up for that limitation. Also the players brought in over the summer and the start of the season were probably not his choices. A Manager that cannot decide the formation is not a true Manager. Wenger decided to pursue the 433 - not have it imposed on himself. Mind you that 433 has hardly been a success for Wenger in the Premiership in the past 5+ years. This just looks like a car crash of a season. One where we know that the inevitable seems to be first Adkins getting fired and then our relegation. Having Les Reed the National coach from the days of hoof ball tactics now dictating a 433 to Adkins is almost surreal. What has Les Reed ever won? What group of world class players winning international trophies did Les Reed create? The answer is none. We have a failure in Les Reed, dictating a 433 onto our promotion winning Manager Adkins. That is why the crash looks inevitable.

A cardinal error is selecting players for positions that are not their speciality. Yoshida a centre back, playing left back cost us the 4th goal. Yoshida committed the basic error of not getting goal side of his opponent. Laughable. The only doubt I have on Adkins is whether or not he has a free rein to pick the team, or whether some players such as Yoshida, Guly and JRod have it in their contracts that they must play. What did Reed and Cortese promise them to get them to join the Club?

tajjuk "from the team that got us promoted we have precisely 3 players who are of 'premiership quality' - Morgan, Lallana, Lambert. " Two were here before Alan Pardew and one, Lambert, he bought. None came from the time after Les Reed got involved. I would add to that list Jose Fonte, who Pardew bought in Jan 2010, before Les Reed joined in April 2010. The question that follows is whether it is Nigel Adkins choices that are failing or the "scouting system" under Les Reed? We seem to have a team that relies on a core that Pardew put together in his first season with Saints, some 2 levels below where we are. We know that Nigel can lead and motivate a team, but what is the record of Les Reed in selecting premier quality players? Steven Gerrard said that he had "no respect" for Les Reed after the way he treated him during England's Euro 2000 campaign. http://tinyurl.com/9f53ymu 15 months before Saints hired Les Reed he was appointed as assistant manager on a voluntary basis at Bishop's Stortford FC in the Conference South!

That is most likely to happen, we all know what Les Reed did at Charlton. Which brings up the question of whether Les Reed is the cause of the problems?

Is there any chance of Cortese pulling the trigger quickly? Lets have a look at past events. 2010 rumblings in the pre-season about the Manager (Pardew) having problems with Cortese/Reed and the transfer activity. A couple of gains in and even after a 4-0 away win, Pardew is sacked without a replacement lined up. 2012 rumblings in the pre-season about the Manager (Adkins) having problems with Cortese/Reed and the transfer activity. A couple of gains in and after 4 defeats .....

On Talksport this morning Richard Keays said that getting someone from Saints to talk to the media was very difficult.

... with the worst records! http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/the-rundown/least-successful-premier-league-managers-113441372.html LEAST SUCCESSFUL PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGERIAL TENURES "Les Reed, in 11th, might be the least successful manager on the list. He was appointed permanent boss of Charlton in November, but lost his job after just seven matches and has never managed since." Steve Wigley 17th in the list. win % = 7%! (Just to take our minds off Saturday)

Those Palace fans should stop running threads such as the one below about those jolly nice, warm and cuddly Brighton supporters. http://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=33442

Re-posted what I placed on the Lounge/takeover thread. Just imagine if Saints supporters did the right thing for Portsmouth and decided to raise money for their Club or its rebirth? Gone at a stroke would be the years of bitter animosity. In one single act the prestige of Saints would also jump up. Because they are down is the time for some Saints samaritans. Are we not big enough to do the right thing?

Just imagine if Saints supporters did the right thing for Portsmouth and decided to raise money for their Club or its rebirth? Gone at a stroke would be the years of bitter animosity. In one single act the prestige of Saints would also jump up. Because they are down is the right time for some Saints samaritans.

Under Pardew we acquired some very good players. We then got Les Reed taking up the "Director of Football" role. Pardew left. That maybe relevant to the decline in player acquisition quality and not Cortese. Cortese however hired Reed and appointed him. It is also true that the sudden death of Marcus will have thrown a question mark on all parts of his business empire and we are a small part.