Despite the recent successes, I still want Slade replaced

[tigerbaybluebird]

He deserves another season at least, I don't think many managers would have done as good a job as slade has with all the flack and players sales, loans etc he's had to put up with

[darran1927]

So if we reach playoffs and dont make it up, he should still go? Why?

Well the club sacked Dave Jones after missing out on getting promoted after reaching the playoffs

[darran1927]

If we get promotion I wouldn't want to see us then change manager. That would be a bit scummy.

Worked for Watford this season , If by some miracle we did get promoted we would come straight back down with Slade in charge

[Jimmy the Jock]

If we get promotion I wouldn't want to see us then change manager. That would be a bit scummy.

Didn't harm Leicester too much .

Pearson had got them promoted AND kept them in the premier league.

AND GOT SACKED.

[Jimmy the Jock]

He deserves another season at least, I don't think many managers would have done as good a job as slade has with all the flack and players sales, loans etc he's had to put up with

Definitely..

At a different club..

[Penarth Blues]

Didn't harm Leicester too much .

Agreed, but Pearson laid the foundations for their success and I don't think they'd have changed him had it not been for his son's predisposition for spit roasts.

I bet Rainieri can't believe his luck this year - just stand there and mumble incomprehensible things at the end of each game and be thought of as a genius

[Rjk]

Worked for Watford this season , If by some miracle we did get promoted we would come straight back down with Slade in charge

We would be favourites to come back down whoever was in charge.
Jetissoning stability with a shoot for the moon attempt at staying up is what we tried last time and we are still paying the price.

[ninianboy]

When judging Slade's performance and ability to take us forward we need to remember that he inherited a lot of very decent players who are either premiership or top six championship quality; Marshall, Manga, Whittingham, Kenwynne Jones, and Pilkington could all play premiership standard while the likes of Morrison, Connolly, Fabio, Ralls, and Turner could all be considered as top championship players. So that's quite an inheritance he was given.

[thehumblegringo]

Personally I would like us to change in the summer but I disagree with a lot of the reasoning of the original poster.

Every season people seem to think that 'the championship is weak this year' but I believe there are some decent squads in the division this year and there's certainly been a lot of money spent. I don't believe anyone has reached the standard of football we witnessed from Bournemouth, Watford and Brentford before their chairman interfered last season but nevertheless it's a decent league.

Slade has definitely worked under constraints, however I believe this has worked to his advantage rather hindering our progress.

He certainly hasn't been shy in playing the victim and has gradually won a lot of fans over by telling them how hard he's had it.

I believe (like someone else commented) that the Tactical changes that have corresponded with more entertaining football were forced upon him with the sales of Jones, Revell and Mason. I don't believe he had a big say in the players who came in, especially Immers and Zohore. I 100% believe we'd be playing a static 4-4-2 if those forwards weren't sold.

I don't blame anyone for thinking he's done a decent job and I can understand how someone would hold this view.

He has definitely built a siege mentality in the dressing room and there does appear to be a good team spirit amongst the squad.

I have said before and I'll say again, I don't believe Slade would ever risk upsetting Tan by appealing to him for new training grounds or more money for the Academy etc.

I agree with the original poster that Slade stifles the development of young players at the club. In fact I'd go as far as saying he has no interest in the Academy and this is definitely what bothers me the most.

I have never seen Slade at an academy match and this goes against everything I believe in. How can he create a pathway for youngsters who are 15/16 etc if he never watches them.

Some will say that's what his staff are for but I truly believe that a manager of a football club should at least be showing his face occasionally to give these kids some hope.

As TOBW and Loramski highlighted last week, he doesn't even seem to be aware what is happening below the first team.

There are far bigger clubs than us who have shown that looking within can produce results this season.
Tottenham and even Manchester United have managed to bleed youngsters that have thrived in the first team environment.

Next season I believe more clubs will follow suit and Guardiola will certainly be keen to bleed some youngsters.

[darran1927]

We would be favourites to come back down whoever was in charge.
Jetissoning stability with a shoot for the moon attempt at staying up is what we tried last time and we are still paying the price.

all promoted teams are always favourites to come straight back down ,Slade would get out down tactically virtually every game , if we went up I'd want us to try and get a manager who has good experience at highest level

[Rjk]

all promoted teams are always favourites to come straight back down ,Slade would get out down tactically virtually every game , if we went up I'd want us to try and get a manager who has good experience at highest level

Like who?

[tigerbaybluebird]

Definitely..

At a different club..

I can't find the laughing smiley on my iPhone so I'll give this a

Lol :- laughing smiley

[Croesy Blue]

Threads like this show how fickle football fans are. Manager gets us to 7th 2 points outside the playoffs with 7 games left, under a transfer embargo and they want him sacked.

Slade is the first manager I've seen us have get the slack for everything that goes wrong but everything he does right is just luck.

Playing the current system by luck
Signed immers by luck
Winning games by luck.

All because he isn't a fashionable enough manager for "huge" club Cardiff City.

Here's another spin on it, when we went on a poor run at the start of the season I think Slade was actually unlucky. We were playing decent stuff and creating chances but the goals weren't going in.

[Croesy Blue]

Like who?

Some shite proper football man like Pulis. alardyce or sherwood I bet. Give me slade any day over those 3.

No once else would touch us, people need to get real at the size of the club, the budget we have and the calibre of manager we can attract.

[City123]

When judging Slade's performance and ability to take us forward we need to remember that he inherited a lot of very decent players who are either premiership or top six championship quality; Marshall, Manga, Whittingham, Kenwynne Jones, and Pilkington could all play premiership standard while the likes of Morrison, Connolly, Fabio, Ralls, and Turner could all be considered as top championship players. So that's quite an inheritance he was given.

He also inherited debts, a bloated and unbalanced squad, little to no funding and a huge job clearing deadwood with a split fanbase and a club who could easily have become the next Portsmouth

He's done a very good job and I can't believe people are still slating him

[thehumblegringo]

Threads like this show how fickle football fans are. Manager gets us to 7th 2 points outside the playoffs with 7 games left, under a transfer embargo and they want him sacked.

Slade is the first manager I've seen us have get the slack for everything that goes wrong but everything he does right is just luck.

Playing the current system by luck
Signed immers by luck
Winning games by luck.

All because he isn't a fashionable enough manager for "huge" club Cardiff City.

Here's another spin on it, when we went on a poor run at the start of the season I think Slade was actually unlucky. We were playing decent stuff and creating chances but the goals weren't going in.

How is it fickle? Surely fickle would be to change one's opinion based on a cluster of results.

The people who are saying for him to go are saying so despite us doing well recently.

I would hate to see us go for Pulis, Warnock, Sherwood etc.

I personally think Bellamy would be a great choice and I think the reason that so many people are so obsessed with experience at the moment is cos of the disaster that was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

I believe Ole failed so miserably cos of his obsession with making us a mini Manchester United.

I believe Bellamy has done a lot of homework around the club and as Cardiff lad he knows what makes us tick.

I would love to see him come in and be given a long term project rather than Tan throw money at whoever will be our manager next season and gamble on promotion like Derby have this year.

[the other bob wilson]

Personally I would like us to change in the summer but I disagree with a lot of the reasoning of the original poster.

Every season people seem to think that 'the championship is weak this year' but I believe there are some decent squads in the division this year and there's certainly been a lot of money spent. I don't believe anyone has reached the standard of football we witnessed from Bournemouth, Watford and Brentford before their chairman interfered last season but nevertheless it's a decent league.

Slade has definitely worked under constraints, however I believe this has worked to his advantage rather hindering our progress.

He certainly hasn't been shy in playing the victim and has gradually won a lot of fans over by telling them how hard he's had it.

I believe (like someone else commented) that the Tactical changes that have corresponded with more entertaining football were forced upon him with the sales of Jones, Revell and Mason. I don't believe he had a big day in the players who came in, especially Immers and Zohore. I 100% believe we'd be playing a static 4-4-2 if those forwards weren't sold.

I don't blame anyone for thinking he's done a decent job and I can understand how someone would hold this view.

He has definitely built a siege mentality in the dressing room and there does appear to be a good team spirit amongst the squad.

I have said before and I'll say again, I don't believe Slade would ever risk upsetting Tan by appealing to him for new training grounds or more money for the Academy etc.

I agree with the original poster that Slade stifles the development of young players at the club. In fact I'd go as far as saying he has no interest in the Academy and this is definitely what bothers me the most.

I have never seen Slade at an academy match and this goes against everything I believe in. How can he create a pathway for youngsters who are 15/16 etc if he never watches them.

Some will say that's what his staff are for but I truly believe that a manager of a football club should at least be showing his face occasionally to give these kids some hope.

As TOBW and Loramski highlighted last week, he doesn't even seem to be aware what is happening below the first team.

There are far bigger clubs than us who have shown that looking within can produce results this season.
Tottenham and even Manchester United have managed to bleed youngsters that have thrived in the first team environment.

Next season I believe more clubs will follow suit and Guardiola will certainly be keen to bleed some youngsters.

I don't bother paying attention to the "weak division" messages I read every year any more because I've never been able to figure out what constitutes one - is it one where the teams are well stretched out with one side a long way clear at the top and another miles adrift at the bottom or is it one where there are not that many points separating the top from bottom?

That said, I agree that, although I enjoyed what I saw of Brighton's performance on Saturday before I left for our game, there are no sides as easy on the eye as Bournemouth were last season.

Also, as you say, I don't think it's been too bad a thing for Slade's reputation that he didn't have much to spend last summer and that he was "limited" by the embargo in January. Although I'd say Peltier and Malone look better signings this season than they did last, I'd still describe his record in the transfer market as patchy - I think it's probably correct to assume that a few of our recent signings may not have been hand picked by Slade, but I daresay there have been times when he's been criticised on places like this for poor signings he may have had not much to do with, so I'm happy to give him some credit for the Immers signing.

I've made my feelings on Slade's attitude towards young players clear many times in the past, so I won't say much about that now except that I was shocked by the answer he gave when asked about Jazzi Burnam-Bobb and how little fuss was made of it.

As to whether he should stay or go at the end of the season, my attitude has always been that various high ranking personnel at the club have made it clear that the aim is to reach the Play Offs this year, therefore there would appear to be valid reasons for letting our manager go this summer if that doesn't happen - it follows therefore that you would expect us to start next season with him still in charge if we do make the top six.

For myself, I've mentioned before that the thought of Russell Slade being in charge next season does not fill me with the same dread as it once did - overall, he's certainly proved to be a better manager at this level than I expected him to be at this time last year, but I'd still like to see some proof that he has a long term plan for the club because I still get the impression that he is not looking beyond what happens with the first team from one month to the next.

[Croesy Blue]

It's just weird to see slade getting exactly the same stick DJ got whatever starts going right he gets blamed for something else.

So far this season I've seen:

Why did he sign O'Keefe
Why did he sign that donkey Immers
We are losing too many games
We aren't winning enough games
Our style of play is boring
We aren't winning back to back games
We can't beat teams above us in the league
We can't beat teams below us in the league
We aren't playing enough youngsters
Slade doesn't make enough subs
He makes too many subs
He makes the wrong subs

The man has done a cracking job and has done about as much with the youth team as the last 4 managers before him did. People just want to moan because he's not fashionable enough for them.

Malky's teams played boring football, contained no youth players and cost more money but people were writing him poems ffs.

[Tandy]

It's just weird to see slade getting exactly the same stick DJ got whatever starts going right he gets blamed for something else.

So far this season I've seen:

Why did he sign O'Keefe
Why did he sign that donkey Immers
We are losing too many games
We aren't winning enough games
Our style of play is boring
We aren't winning back to back games
We can't beat teams above us in the league
We can't beat teams below us in the league
We aren't playing enough youngsters
Slade doesn't make enough subs
He makes too many subs
He makes the wrong subs

The man has done a cracking job and has done about as much with the youth team as the last 4 managers before him did. People just want to moan because he's not fashionable enough for them.

Malky's teams played boring football, contained no youth players and cost more money but people were writing him poems ffs.

I think most fans realise he is doing a fantastic job, it is unfortunate we have a few who will not be happy till they drive him out.
What makes me laugh is they come up with ridiculous reasons and replacements.

[thehumblegringo]

It's just weird to see slade getting exactly the same stick DJ got whatever starts going right he gets blamed for something else.

So far this season I've seen:

Why did he sign O'Keefe
Why did he sign that donkey Immers
We are losing too many games
We aren't winning enough games
Our style of play is boring
We aren't winning back to back games
We can't beat teams above us in the league
We can't beat teams below us in the league
We aren't playing enough youngsters
Slade doesn't make enough subs
He makes too many subs
He makes the wrong subs

The man has done a cracking job and has done about as much with the youth team as the last 4 managers before him did. People just want to moan because he's not fashionable enough for them.

Malky's teams played boring football, contained no youth players and cost more money but people were writing him poems ffs.

THE writing him poems bit made me chuckle.

At the time of Malky I will admit that, at the time I saw his boring football as a means to an end and accepted that it may have been the right way to get our of the division.

I think we need to realise that football is always evolving and what will work at one period of time will be irrelevant in the next.

I believe these shifts are frequent and I believe that Malky's football is seriously outdated now already.

I also believe having witnessed the catastrophe that was our one season in the premier league there are blueprints for more long term success out there.

I believe that Watford, Bournemouth, Swansea etc in establishing a footballing identity throughout the club have given themselves a far better chance of survival in the league above but even if they did come back down this year (in the cases of Watford and Bournemouth) I believe they would have had the vision to keep a squad together which would have gone straight back up.

I believe that our approach is more akin to Newcastle and Villa in that when we enter the transfer market we sign players on a lucky dip basis not with any foresight about how that players will fit into the current squad or system.

I don't just blame Slade for this as it has been the same for as long as I remember.

[thehumblegringo]

I don't bother paying attention to the "weak division" messages I read every year any more because I've never been able to figure out what constitutes one - is it one where the teams are well stretched out with one side a long way clear at the top and another miles adrift at the bottom or is it one where there are not that many points separating the top from bottom?

That said, I agree that, although I enjoyed what I saw of Brighton's performance on Saturday before I left for our game, there are no sides as easy on the eye as Bournemouth were last season.

Also, as you say, I don't think it's been too bad a thing for Slade's reputation that he didn't have much to spend last summer and that he was "limited" by the embargo in January. Although I'd say Peltier and Malone look better signings this season than they did last, I'd still describe his record in the transfer market as patchy - I think it's probably correct to assume that a few of our recent signings may not have been hand picked by Slade, but I daresay there have been times when he's been criticised on places like this for poor signings he may have had not much to do with, so I'm happy to give him some credit for the Immers signing.

I've made my feelings on Slade's attitude towards young players clear many times in the past, so I won't say much about that now except that I was shocked by the answer he gave when asked about Jazzi Burnam-Bobb and how little fuss was made of it.

As to whether he should stay or go at the end of the season, my attitude has always been that various high ranking personnel at the club have made it clear that the aim is to reach the Play Offs this year, therefore there would appear to be valid reasons for letting our manager go this summer if that doesn't happen - it follows therefore that you would expect us to start next season with him still in charge if we do make the top six.

For myself, I've mentioned before that the thought of Russell Slade being in charge next season does not fill me with the same dread as it once did - overall, he's certainly proved to be a better manager at this level than I expected him to be at this time last year, but I'd still like to see some proof that he has a long term plan for the club because I still get the impression that he is not looking beyond what happens with the first team from one month to the next.

Good reply Bob and as always summed up in a far better way than I could ever put it.

I think my views are similar to yours on the subject and your last paragraph in particular strikes a chord with me and echoes my sentiments exactly.

[Skinny Pete]

Think he's done a good job in difficult circumstances, having to ship out the high earners and risk a few signings from the lower leagues that didn't quite work out. He's steadied the ship and stopped us from going into free fall that quite easily could have happened.

However, with the squad we have now I don't think he's got them playing to their full potential as of yet. Hopefully in these final few games it all clicks and we sneak in the play-offs, which would be a fantastic achievement all things considered.

[thehumblegringo]

I think most fans realise he is doing a fantastic job, it is unfortunate we have a few who will not be happy till they drive him out.
What makes me laugh is they come up with ridiculous reasons and replacements.

If you can't debate the thread why don't you just keep quiet, you pearler

[the other bob wilson]

Number of teenagers from the Academy given a first team debut by Lennie Lawrence in league or FA/League Cup games = 6
by Dave Jones = 10
by Malky Mackay = 10
by Ole = 1
by Russell Slade = 0

[Rjk]

Number of teenagers from the Academy given a first team debut by Lennie Lawrence in league or FA/League Cup games = 6
by Dave Jones = 10
by Malky Mackay = 10
by Ole = 1
by Russell Slade = 0

I'd imagine all of Mackay's would have been in a league cup match.