FULHAM

[Stormin' Norman]

No other club in all four divisions would put up with Cook and this away record, he would have gone long ago, you can tell these new owners are not football people.

The Royles just dance to the clueless IEC tune.

 

[king_dezeeuw06]

When we say Cook has Birmingham and Sheff Wed games to save his job what does that mean? He needs 2 wins? If he gets a win against Birmingham and loses to Sheffield does he go? What if we perform well in both and get 2 Draws?

We all know where we are, what Cook is capable of etc - we've had 50 games to judge at this level and 10 or so this season to get a clear picture - so if the the board didn't sack him at the very conveniently timed international break after the awful Barnsley display and that poor run they must have been somewhat content at where we were. I'm not sure what they could have seen since to make them change their mind.

I think reality is he will most likely only go when other results go badly enough against us as if they are happy to accept the results and performances on display i think the standard is just keep us out of relegation spots, so I think regardless on anything else as long as we are no lower than 4th bottom he'll continue to get the nod. Think we won't change until the concern becomes a crisis judging from what we've seen.

I think Huddersfield and Stoke's suprisingly disasteterous start to the season has propped us up so far but if they ever start to come out of it that it will be likely singnal the end. As Barnsley are likely to make up the bottom 3 - if the 2 parachute money clubs pull clear it's hard to imagine us not replacing them in there.

 

[The_Pon]

What I'm hoping for is not a results based decision, but a performance based decision.

It's not the fact we've lost games. We're a small club in a big league, and we will lose games. That's just our reality for the foreseeable future. What bothers me is the manner of the performances. We're not being outgunned by big spenders and eventually going down to pure quality, the like of which we can't afford or attract. We're simply capitulating on a weekly basis. No style, no system, weird (at best) team selection, ineffective substitutions, no regard to previous performances in picking the team... The list of faults is endless.

There are simply no positives to weigh that off against.

It has to end sooner rather than later. I don't think IEC lack ambition. Their spending in summer was big by our standards. Maybe they still don't want to be seen as trigger happy new owners, but I don't think that's an accusation anyone could level at them, even if they fired Cook tonight.

 

[king_dezeeuw06]

What I'm hoping for is not a results based decision, but a performance based decision.

It's not the fact we've lost games. We're a small club in a big league, and we will lose games. That's just our reality for the foreseeable future. What bothers me is the manner of the performances. We're not being outgunned by big spenders and eventually going down to pure quality, the like of which we can't afford or attract. We're simply capitulating on a weekly basis. No style, no system, weird (at best) team selection, ineffective substitutions, no regard to previous performances in picking the team... The list of faults is endless.

There are simply no positives to weigh that off against.

It has to end sooner rather than later. I don't think IEC lack ambition. Their spending in summer was big by our standards. Maybe they still don't want to be seen as trigger happy new owners, but I don't think that's an accusation anyone could level at them, even if they fired Cook tonight.

Great post Pon. I fear this season could be a mirror of the Caldwell one if we don't act soon. The longer we delay the inevitable the more confidence can erode and a losing mentality set in and whoever comes in will have a bigger mountain to climb.

I think we've genuinely got a decent squad more than capable of finishing well clear of drop zone but we're not getting anything like the best out of them and the team is less than the sum of it's parts.

We've already missed out on Monk by kicking the can down the road but there are still a number of good options available although I think we are going to be less and less attractive as the games tick by.