And now, the end is near……….

[the other bob wilson]

http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/

[Bluebirdman Of Alcathays]

Your line about NW preferring toil over talent and grafters over mavericks is obviously a fair point but there are anomalies. In his book about management, he talks about Taraabt as the type of player he never had before and subsequently built the team around him (with talented grafters) putting up with behaviour that wound up the senior players. I thought when he bought Tomlin that he was going for a similar vibe (without the petulance and skipping training) but that didn't work out. Even this year with Murphy, Reid and Camarasa, NW has tried to bring in some flair but it has only momentarily clicked as a unit going forward, and would probably need more time to develop.

Maybe I'm being charitable by suggesting that underneath it all is someone who would like to play a more expansive game but perhaps instinct or circumstance gets the better of him? His longest stint as a manager was at Sheff Utd (8 years) so it'd be interesting to hear if their fans could throw any light on the type of long term planning he undertook.

[the other bob wilson]

Your line about NW preferring toil over talent and grafters over mavericks is obviously a fair point but there are anomalies. In his book about management, he talks about Taraabt as the type of player he never had before and subsequently built the team around him (with talented grafters) putting up with behaviour that wound up the senior players. I thought when he bought Tomlin that he was going for a similar vibe (without the petulance and skipping training) but that didn't work out. Even this year with Murphy, Reid and Camarasa, NW has tried to bring in some flair but it has only momentarily clicked as a unit going forward, and would probably need more time to develop.

Maybe I'm being charitable by suggesting that underneath it all is someone who would like to play a more expansive game but perhaps instinct or circumstance gets the better of him? His longest stint as a manager was at Sheff Utd (8 years) so it'd be interesting to hear if their fans could throw any light on the type of long term planning he undertook.

I think a better way of describing it would be he prefers grafters over someone who is, first and foremost, a footballer. How would a twenty seven year old Whitts have done under Warnock's management? I don't know the answer to that, but, from memory, his Sheffield United side never had a Whitts type of player - I used to think of David Tonge as the nearest thing to a playmaker in that side.

As for long term planning, the impression I got from a distance was that it was all about the here and now, but maybe that's not fair - what I will say though is that the man himself has said that he can only look at the short term at his age and I reckon that is a reasonable point from his perspective, but, although I accept that no manager is going to get, say, five years, to build exactly the sort of side he wants, I'm not sure every club drifts from one year to the next in the way we do.

[Cyclops]

Typical alarmist post.

Haven't our performances in recent 'must-win' games against Burnley and Fulham taught you anything?

[Bluebina]

http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/

Good report as ever, slightly harsh on Warnock I feel, as it's always been his way to reward the players that show in training, maybe if he just picked the more talented players, we would have been relegated weeks ago?

Warnock has his way, the vast majority of fans appreciate this, but as usual when things go wrong fans start to turn and want someting else, when in reality, no matter what his style there is probable no one betrer for this squad of players, to rebuild and go again.

[Enoch Mort]

Good report as ever Paul. In respect of Murphy I wonder what being "poor in training" means. Played poorly, couldn't be arsed, sulked, had flaming row ? Whatever it was I hope that he comes back motivated.

[the other bob wilson]

Good report as ever, slightly harsh on Warnock I feel, as it's always been his way to reward the players that show in training, maybe if he just picked the more talented players, we would have been relegated weeks ago?

Warnock has his way, the vast majority of fans appreciate this, but as usual when things go wrong fans start to turn and want someting else, when in reality, no matter what his style there is probable no one betrer for this squad of players, to rebuild and go again.

A couple of things, first I said in the piece that it's one thing to give a player a kick up the backside in October and another completely to do it when it's late April, you're playing "must win" games to try and avoid relegation and you have a wave of injuries which lead you to have to pick what, I would say, is arguably the weakest bench in Premier League history.

Second, what you say in your last paragraph is a good argument for keeping things as they are given the widely held view, which I tend to share, that our manager is a good motivator. However, is it not a fact that, besides seemingly falling out with Josh Murphy, Neil Warnock has not been able to get Kenneth Zohore playing to the levels of two years ago, there has been an argument or misunderstanding with Victor Camarasa regarding an injury and the baffling treatment of Bobby Decordova-Reid - in a squad hardly packed with game changers, these are four players who might fit that description when they are firing on all cylinders and it has to be said that our manager has not been able to get them doing that often enough this season.

Yes, I accept that it would be wrong to put all of the blame on one side, the players have to accept some responsibility too, but three of them were brought to the club last summer and, if they are more to blame than our manager, then that raises questions of due diligence on the club's part.