After the extreme disappointment of last night's game, I have been toying with a number of questions that up to now I have resisted:
1) Is Tilly still the right man for the job?
2) Is Ron's approach to running the club (from a footballing perspective only) likely to yield the results we are desperate for?
There are more questions than this, but these are the fundamental two for me at the moment.
I've read the threads questioning Tilly's abilities with interest, and found myself agreeing with more points than I am comfortable with. I could go into all sorts of detail, but to be honest as none of us really knows any actual detail this would all be conjecture and we could debate it until we're blue in the face but we'll still only be working on outside observations and hypotheses.
So, I'll just summarise the conclusions I've settled on and then open them to the floor:
1) I think we need 6 more wins this season to be safe - from our final 16 games. This is of course a rough guess, but I think 55 points would probably be enough.
2) I still believe Tilly is the right man. I also believe Ron is the right man, and Ricky Duncan too. However our coaching, scouting, transfer completion success rate and tactics leave a lot to be desired.
3) I reckon we'll stay up this year, without covering ourselves in any glory. However a firm plan is needed to address the coaching, scouting and transfer shortcomings of the club and it is needed NOW. This is the only way we'll be able to hit the ground running during the close season and get in players who will plug the severe creativity gaps in our midfield, and finally give us two decent full backs.
4) Next year Tilly needs a big improvement, or for me his time will be up.
What do we do now then and where should the focus be? For me, if we saying that Tilly is right man with the wrong support, the focus should be on Paul Brush, the two other first team coaches and the 'Football Consultant'. The scouting network too, but I'll gloss over that one as it is a whole subject on its own!
Brushy may be a nice guy, and he may get on with Tilly and Ron - but I'm not sure he's actually any good at coaching, motivating and tactics. To be fair, we have no evidence either way - apart from the evidence of our eyes on the pitch, both here and when he was previously at Orient. Tilly needs an experienced, good quality assistant (preferably proven) to support him. They do exist out there and we need to get one in - either an up and coming coach to groom as a successor or an experienced ex-manager who lives locally but isnt planning a return to full management (who might also be able to pass on some tips to Ricky and groom his as a potential future boss). Any suggestions who might be able to fill this role?
Personally I'd also like to involve some ex-players who were made of the right stuff to come in and assist with the training - Paul Clark and David Crown spring to mind, but there are plenty of others too. These guys would be great in the dressing room too - I can certainly imagine Paul Clark geeing up the troops a bit better than Tilly and Brush.
Plenty to chew over. However the crux is I think we need to look at the staff first and fix the shortcomings there (but NOT Tilly at this stage). This needs to be done before the end of this season, so that we can call upon the greater knowledge and ability of our new support staff during the full close season, in order to plug the gaps in the team - and then coach them effectively in pre-season.
1) Is Tilly still the right man for the job?
2) Is Ron's approach to running the club (from a footballing perspective only) likely to yield the results we are desperate for?
There are more questions than this, but these are the fundamental two for me at the moment.
I've read the threads questioning Tilly's abilities with interest, and found myself agreeing with more points than I am comfortable with. I could go into all sorts of detail, but to be honest as none of us really knows any actual detail this would all be conjecture and we could debate it until we're blue in the face but we'll still only be working on outside observations and hypotheses.
So, I'll just summarise the conclusions I've settled on and then open them to the floor:
1) I think we need 6 more wins this season to be safe - from our final 16 games. This is of course a rough guess, but I think 55 points would probably be enough.
2) I still believe Tilly is the right man. I also believe Ron is the right man, and Ricky Duncan too. However our coaching, scouting, transfer completion success rate and tactics leave a lot to be desired.
3) I reckon we'll stay up this year, without covering ourselves in any glory. However a firm plan is needed to address the coaching, scouting and transfer shortcomings of the club and it is needed NOW. This is the only way we'll be able to hit the ground running during the close season and get in players who will plug the severe creativity gaps in our midfield, and finally give us two decent full backs.
4) Next year Tilly needs a big improvement, or for me his time will be up.
What do we do now then and where should the focus be? For me, if we saying that Tilly is right man with the wrong support, the focus should be on Paul Brush, the two other first team coaches and the 'Football Consultant'. The scouting network too, but I'll gloss over that one as it is a whole subject on its own!
Brushy may be a nice guy, and he may get on with Tilly and Ron - but I'm not sure he's actually any good at coaching, motivating and tactics. To be fair, we have no evidence either way - apart from the evidence of our eyes on the pitch, both here and when he was previously at Orient. Tilly needs an experienced, good quality assistant (preferably proven) to support him. They do exist out there and we need to get one in - either an up and coming coach to groom as a successor or an experienced ex-manager who lives locally but isnt planning a return to full management (who might also be able to pass on some tips to Ricky and groom his as a potential future boss). Any suggestions who might be able to fill this role?
Personally I'd also like to involve some ex-players who were made of the right stuff to come in and assist with the training - Paul Clark and David Crown spring to mind, but there are plenty of others too. These guys would be great in the dressing room too - I can certainly imagine Paul Clark geeing up the troops a bit better than Tilly and Brush.
Plenty to chew over. However the crux is I think we need to look at the staff first and fix the shortcomings there (but NOT Tilly at this stage). This needs to be done before the end of this season, so that we can call upon the greater knowledge and ability of our new support staff during the full close season, in order to plug the gaps in the team - and then coach them effectively in pre-season.