Just another shite season where it's becoming a chore going to watch and I'm just hoping we don't get another stuffing from Derby!
The survival poll
- Thread starter Will.NFFC
- Start date
:14:
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Erm... that didn't happen?
MarvinsPA
Vital Squad Member
What, Paul Hart didn't see his play off team disassembled & receive no money to spend, followed by sacking him when it shockingly transpires that selling your best players & not replacing them leaves you weaker? or that this set of circumstances is what lead to our relegation?
Or both?
What didn't happen?
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Exactly. Not one bit of that happened.
Only one member of the playoff squad left (scimeca)- he took a bigger contract at Cardiff. Club couldn't afford Huckerby's wages, which were more than twice what the next highest player was on.
Hart signed Sonner , McPhail, Chopra and Gareth Taylor, before flogging Harewood for Marlon King (his choice).
Hart then got us three points adrift of safety in the bottom three. His final game, a home defeat by Coventry resulted in a post match interview where he vowed to "keep doing what we've been doing"
Can't see how on earth that was a wrongful sacking. It was completely right as proven by us staying up that season. We were relegated the following season for a variety of reasons, none of them due to Hart's sacking.
MarvinsPA
Vital Squad Member
Jim Brennan? Bart-Williams? Jenas?
Harewood was offered a contract on reduced terms.
Huckerby was willing to take a massive pay cut to come here, I know he was.
After saying we would only spend money from a position of strength, Hart got us into a position of strength & had the rug pulled from under him.
Calvin Plummer
Vital Football Legend
Welcome back Marvin...
factchecker
Vital Squad Member
Bart-Williams and Jenas were sold before the start of the play-off season. Brennan did leave in the summer after the play-offs.
The "position of strength" comment was long after Hart.
PVH
Vital Football Legend
Any road, I'm not sure what Fawaz was expecting to achieve by reappointing Brazil. No disrespect to Brazil, but his last tenure yielded a 22% win ratio and a pretty poor run of results. All that appointing Brazil was ever likely to achieve is a reduction in running costs. Meanwhile the team slip slides down the table as expected by anybody with half a fooking brain. Another blinder by Fawaz.
in_the_top_one
Vital Football Legend
A lot of fans wanted Hart out at the time. All you ever heard was "he's a nice guy and plays attractive football but he should be doing better and he's got to go".
:21:
:21:
factchecker
Vital Squad Member
Everyone seems to forget that we went nearly 4 months without winning a game under Hart. By the time he was sacked, it was a mercy and a relief for pretty much everyone.
Calvin Plummer
Vital Football Legend
Hart also had personal issues.
MarvinsPA
Vital Squad Member
Maybe so, but the fact he wasn't backed sufficiently after the play off season is undeniable imo, & what followed after only supports that.
Poor form under him with several key members of the previous seasons squad not replaced turned into a poor squad with shite football under worse managers.
That's how you get a football club into league one, & feels pretty much the same now.
Poor form under him with several key members of the previous seasons squad not replaced turned into a poor squad with shite football under worse managers.
That's how you get a football club into league one, & feels pretty much the same now.
Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Bart Williams was 18 months before the season Hart was sacked, as was Jenas. Both were in the PL the season we were in the playoffs.
Jim Brennan and Jack lester also left. One of those (Lester I think) was promised a new contract from Hart, but Hart went on holiday before sorting it. The player had an offer he couldn't refuse by the time he returned.
Harewood was on a pittance- a youth teamer wage but had 12 goals already that season and 20 the season before. Sorry, no way was he offered reduced terms- he couldn't have been on much less. Hart didn't want him- he coveted King and had wanted to sign him two years before.
Hart was allowed to sign Michael Stewart from Man Utd, Stephen McPhail from Leeds, Gareth Taylor, Danny Sonner and David Tarka. He later got King and Chopra. No idea why he chose not to sign a left back- he started playing Wes Morgan there.
Remember, this was only about 18'months after the collapse of ITV digital. Money was extremely tight.
No idea about Huckerby. Nigel Doughty told me himself that he wanted double the next highest wage.
I went to 42 league matches that season. We were bobbins under Hart for much of that time
