LEE CLARK SACKED

About time lost three games this season.

43 game unbeaten run..Club record.

JUST HAD TO GO.

MR BRENT GET ON THE PHONE PLEASE....WE''LL RISK HAVING HIM.

I would think Dirty Leeds will be getting in touch with him fairly quickly.

Madness, absolute feckin' madness!! words really do fail me here!!

Seems unbelievable doesn't it but the fans on their forums are in agreement. An example of the modern day fan expecting instant and continual success? In a league with Charlton and the two Sheffield clubs I would expect them to be in the mix, which they are.

Maybe the Chairman took a look at the management options available at the moment and thought it was the right time - Grayson, McCarthy, Warnock, Reid ( )

And....Fletcher of course........that's Carl if your not sure which one.

Thats absolutely mental! Huddersfield will get a play-off place at the very least, and could still gain automatic promotion. They made the play-offs last year. Clark has them playing great football and they have an absolute gold mine in Jordan Rhodes, who they have already turned down several bids of several million pounds. He managed them to a club record 43 match unbeaten league run, and they must average around 15k home crowds.

Only lost 3 games all season! What the F***. This smacks of having someone like Warnock or Grayson already lined up, especially with all the coaching staff also being sacked. Can't get my head round this at all.

Just an alternative possibility here but do you think that Lee might have already had a craft word with Leeds prior to his sacking and the owner of Huddersfield has heard about it and thought, bollocks to you my job and club are as big as them so if you are that disloyal you can just feck off and join them. The truth will out in the end because there is definately more to this than getting rid of a successful manager.

Insane! And there's us with by far the worst 'manager' in the entire football league, probably ever, and he's as safe as houses!

Freathy wrote:

Insane! And there's us with by far the worst 'manager' in the entire football league, probably ever, and he's as safe as houses!

Fletcher has guided his team to more points per games this season than several other teams and managers have achieved. I really don't see your evidence for the statement.

Enjoy Life wrote:

Freathy wrote:

Insane! And there's us with by far the worst 'manager' in the entire football league, probably ever, and he's as safe as houses!

Fletcher has guided his team to more points per games this season than several other teams and managers have achieved. I really don't see your evidence for the statement.

You mean Fletcher and his mentor(s)?

Rickler wrote:

Enjoy Life wrote:

Freathy wrote:

Insane! And there's us with by far the worst 'manager' in the entire football league, probably ever, and he's as safe as houses!

Fletcher has guided his team to more points per games this season than several other teams and managers have achieved. I really don't see your evidence for the statement.

You mean Fletcher and his mentor(s)?

Fletcher and his mentor(s) or Aidy Boothroyd and his coaching staff with 8 points from 10 games or Dagenham & Redbridge's John Still (and his coaching team) and their mammoth 14 points from 20 games.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

Just an alternative possibility here but do you think that Lee might have already had a craft word with Leeds prior to his sacking and the owner of Huddersfield has heard about it and thought, bollocks to you my job and club are as big as them so if you are that disloyal you can just feck off and join them. The truth will out in the end because there is definately more to this than getting rid of a successful manager.

Similar thoughts crossed my mind.

Fletcher has been in charge for 21 League games now, and from those games we have picked up 23 points. He has also overseen our F.A.Cup campaign where we snuck a late equaliser at home to Stourbridge having been totally outplayed, before the replay where we were comprehensively beaten 2-0 by Stourbridge who play in the Southern League Premier Division, and are currently 8th in that League.

It's usually acknowledged that "new manager syndrome", lasts for a few games, where just the fact that a new face is in place has a positive effect, even if it is a caretaker manager who used to coach the U-18's. If we say that the "new manager syndrome" lasted 4 games where we actually won 2 and drew 1, had no real bearing on Fletcher's skills, then that takes 7 points of the 23, leaving 16 points from 17 games. And following the first four games where the feelgood factor had an effect, we then went 7 games without a win, and had 1 win in 10 games.

So we then learn that Sean O'Driscoll was "assisting" Fletcher as a favour, having been his manager at Bournemouth previously, and our form definitley improved with 3 wins and 4 draws in 10 games or so. Since O'Driscoll gave up his unpaid role as Fletcher's mentor, we have 2 points from the 3 games John Deehan has been mentoring Fletcher.

Now statistics can be massaged to suit the purpose. Fletcher wasn't the manager for the first 9 games where we picked up a solitary point, but Peter Reid had an almost entire squad of teenagers and loanees, most of whom signed for us and played, despite not being paid, so that really doesn't count against Peter Reid in my book. Fletcher has had an entire new squad to work with now, so nobody could point to the fact that it is not his team. And he has had the luxury of the players being significantly happier as they are now being paid their wages.

There are managerial vacancies at Wolves, Leeds Utd and Huddersfield currently, but I doubt the Chairmen of these clubs are waiting to see if Fletch applies for the jobs before appointing their new managers, do you Enjoy Life?

I do indeed Greenjock, thank you for asking.

I'm not saying that Fletcher is the best manager, or even a good manager, but he's our manager and that is unlikely to change. Neither is he the worst manager the football league has ever seen. Freathy made the comment and I counter-argued based on I think reasonable stats. Freathy and Tring Green were both lauding Boothroyd when we were losing to Burton and Northampton were winning. 10 minutes later and there was a 6 point turnaround in our favour.

Would I prefer Warnock in charge, yes, would I prefer an experienced manager in charge, probably. I would also prefer Fletcher playing. That is not the case though, it is his decision to make and he will be judged upon that at the end of the season. The supporters of this football club could do most to assist our battle against relegation by turning up, cheering the team on and not making plainly ridiculous statements such as Freathy's. That is not "happy-clappy", nor is it being an "aviva boy" it is about being realistic and trying to make the best of the situation before hopefully we maintain our league status and can review everyone's position in the Summer.

Enjoy Life wrote:

I do indeed Greenjock, thank you for asking.

I'm not saying that Fletcher is the best manager, or even a good manager, but he's our manager and that is unlikely to change. Neither is he the worst manager the football league has ever seen. Freathy made the comment and I counter-argued based on I think reasonable stats. Freathy and Tring Green were both lauding Boothroyd when we were losing to Burton and Northampton were winning. 10 minutes later and there was a 6 point turnaround in our favour.

Would I prefer Warnock in charge, yes, would I prefer an experienced manager in charge, probably. I would also prefer Fletcher playing. That is not the case though, it is his decision to make and he will be judged upon that at the end of the season. The supporters of this football club could do most to assist our battle against relegation by turning up, cheering the team on and not making plainly ridiculous statements such as Freathy's. That is not "happy-clappy", nor is it being an "aviva boy" it is about being realistic and trying to make the best of the situation before hopefully we maintain our league status and can review everyone's position in the Summer.

So you agree fletcher is a shit manager and even if by some miracle we avoid being ejected from the football league you don't want that clueless buffoon anywhere near this club next season?

Sadly, I doubt the non-investing brent, who's only concern is his hotel developments, will even give a thought to replacing fletcher as we prepare for non-league oblivion in the summer.

PAFC RIP

I asked if you thought the chairmen of those clubs were waiting on Fletcher applying for their vacancies. And of course they're not. From what I've seen he's pretty clueless, sets his stall out to frustrate and nick points even at home. His substitutions are baffling and the only improvement from Reid has been due to outside help and a complete set of new players. I hope to god we stay up but also hope that Mr Brent realises in the long term he has to put his hand in his pocket for a new manager with some coaches, and that's before we start talking about how crap the players are.

In reply to Freathy and Greenjock.

I do not think Fletcher is a shit manager, I think he is an inexperienced one who has been put in an awful situation for his first job.

I do not think that any manager of any football league club will be poaching Fletcher in the near future. Keep us up however and he would have done an excellent job. Whether that makes him an excellent manager in the long term is a different thing of course, it is too early too tell.

I'm also saying that we have 16 games left and the situation, particularly now John Deehan is in place, is unlikely to change. I would hope that during this time everyone connected to the club, including supporters on match days (I would also include in my opinion not being abusive about Fletcher or the team on internet forums but I'll settle for those in the stadium) would work together to do everything to ensure that we are not relegated.

In the Summer we will lose a whole crop of the current squad, we will be 9 months further down the line in paying off our debts and a level playing field with the rest of League 2. It would be opportune to review the whole structure of the playing/managerial side at this time.

Having only suffered one match this season I can't really comment on 'the football'.

What I do recognise through pre and post match interviews is that Fletcher is an awful communicator.

Given our perilous state, I personally would have thought that an experienced man was vital in the managerial position, particularly once the opportunity to bring in some players arose.
I have never really rated Reid but he had no chance with the boys he had at his disposal.

The facts are, we are little or no better than 50/50 with the bookies to stay up and those with the power/influence to increase our odds, have thus far done nothing more than wave flags and talk a good story................... sorry, forgot the bucket rattling.

Then he should not have been offered the job in the first place, Ridsdale cost-cutting at it's worst. Ridsdale has been in football long enough to know Fletcher wouldn't be up to the job and our position was no place for a gamble because it saved money. Remember we have also lost our best player now Fletcher won't play.

Fletcher himself must have had doubts when he was offered the job. So he wandered aimlessly for a while before asking for a mentor/help. It's pretty obvious Fletcher meant his mate Sean O'Driscoll, but by dithering we let O'Driscoll slip through our fingers, and instead Fletcher gets Deehan, and I would think most people are aware that Fletcher hardly seems enamoured with this set-up.

It's too late to change it now for this season, and my fear is that we stay up only due to the fact that there are two even poorer teams for the remainder of the season, and Fletcher is retained next season as well. I can't see us picking up another 20 odd points this season, so we are relying on other sides losing a fair whack of games.

And if the players at his disposal aren't up to the task, then Fletcher should have been banging Mr Brents door down in the transfer window, telling him we're going down without some decent money being spent. If Fletcher did say all of this and Brent refused, then that would suggest Brent isn't that bothered whether we stay up or not, and if Fletcher knew he was left with a pile of shit, he should have told Brent that he wasn't up to keeping us up with our current squad.

Fletcher may turn out to be an amazing manager in the future, I doubt it myself, but at most he should have been offered a coaching role under an experienced manager. Compare Fletcher's communication skills to another young manager in Eddie Howe, and he comes across as barely capable of stringing a sentence together, whereas Eddie Howe sounds professional, sounds as though he knows what he is doing, and this certainly shows on the pitch.

I know Harry Redknapp has also stated he is not academically gifted to say the least, but he has 40 years footballing experience under his belt to call on. I just don't see Fletcher analysing games very well, don't see that he has worked the opposition out one bit. The Stourbridge manager had our measure from the start in the F.A.Cup and we were extremely lucky to take it to a replay, or unlucky if you happened to travel to watch the replay or were unfortunate enough to have ESPN included in your TV package.

It's very admirable sticking up for Fletcher and calling for fans to get behind him, but in reality I reckon the majority of the fanbase didn't want him originally and certainly haven't changed their opinion on what we've seen so far.

I would love to be proved wrong but I predict we will finish with around 40 points this season, but fortunately thats enough due to Northampton and Dagenham being even worse than us. If either of those two do start picking up points then I can't see many other teams within touching distance of us, also going into freefall until the end of the season.

Funny isn't it...I could of sworn that this thread was about Lee Clark being sacked.......but of course I only started it.!!!

ZYPH wrote:

Funny isn't it...I could of sworn that this thread was about Lee Clark being sacked.......but of course I only started it.!!!

We're allowed to digress on ATD.

Fair points Greenjock, some of which is conjecture, but nevertheless it is going to be a bumpy 16 games.

No-one is going to say that Fletcher is the ideal candidate and it is a high-risk strategy from Brent as the proverbial will hit the fan if relegation hits. Having said that (and opening up a whole can of worms) I'm one of those that would like us to operate within our means and pay back what we owe with no bending of the rules via internal sponsorship fo the stadium etc. If that means we have a playing budget that delivers non-league football then so be it. The previous regime wasted so much money it was unbelievable and it is them that are to blame for us being saddled with a huge ongoing debt.

I know however and appreciate that some on here may disagree -

Fingers crossed we can pull out a run of 2-3 wins on the bounce from somewhere.

You were the first one to mention Fletcher zyph

I almost admire your stoicism mate.

Do you actually 'enjoy' watching the crap on display and the bleak outlook ?

Tringreen wrote:

I almost admire your stoicism mate.

Do you actually 'enjoy' watching the crap on display and the bleak outlook ?

If that was meant for me TG then I still enjoy going to the football, but then I consider going to the football much more than the match itself.

John Lloyd described my Argyle perfectly as a travelling drinking club. I meet up with old school friends, consume a few ales, grab something nice to eat and head off to the match.

Do I enjoy the football? If we win yes, regardless as to whether it's by playing beautifully or by a dodgy penalty in the last minute. If we lose then I've grown to have a grudging acceptance of it. I'm mostly an away fan and therefore regardless as to our form I'm destined to see us lose more often than win.

What do I hate the most? lack of effort. No Argyle player will get stick from me if they are giving everything they have and I don't think even the most frustrated of Argyle fans would say that the players and management team at the moment aren't giving everything in terms of effort. Limited they maybe, we are the 89th worst team in England and Wales afterall, but care they do.

I would say "enjoy the ride" but I know that's an often quoted phrase on here. What may be more apt is to put a smile on your face and at least get on the bus in the first place. You MAY enjoy it..?