oneaday wrote:

---

smiler wrote:

---

Roos, Buxton, Collins, Rawson, Mattock, Halford, White, Ledesma, G Ward, Thorpe, Maguire. How about that for a starting eleven?

---

 Buxton: A vast improvement on Richardson. He certainly isn't a Hunt or Tavs and needs a right sided midfielder in front of him like Agard who tracks back. 

Collins: Everyone slates him and yes he's no pace. But then again neither had Morgon (how many times did Morgon get sent off for hauling players back). Difference being Morgon had the classy Arnason next to him.

Rawson: Decent player but young and inexperienced. Needs a younger Collins next to him.

Mattock: Good player when fit.

Halford: Brought in to play up front. He could certainly lead the line better than JCH and would score more than Revell.

White: Rotherham don't play with wingers so would require a change of style. Get the ball to him, let him beat a man (which he can do) and get crosses in the box for Halford / JCH

Ledesma: Frustrating how he is ball greedy and goes down too easily but he can play. Same as White but on opposite wing.

Ward: Dont ask this lad to put a defensive shift in because he is wasted. Give him a free role and let him run at the opposition. He will create chances and he will score goals,

Thorpe: Did okay first time he played in the defensive midfield role. Comfortable on the ball as you would expect from a Man Utd youngster,

Maguire: I cannot believe the amount of Wednesday fans who cannot believe that it hasn't worked out for Maguire so he must have something. Play him up front to feed off the knock downs from all the crosses coming in.

 

Then you've got the others to slot in like Smallwood, Newell, Derbyshire, Broadfoot, JCH. So no, I don't think Evans left us in a mess.

---

 I have some sympathy with your views on Evans but let's get realistic about some of the players you are bigging up.

 

Buxton better than Richardson, I will give you that.  But Richardson is L2 standard.

Collins I'm sorry but Tuesday did it for me.  Let that donkey Miller make a complete fool of him and then sat on his arse, shrugged his shoulders and watched him score. 

Rawson - agree

Mattock - stealing a wage

Halford - may be a good player but his attitude stinks.  Threw his toys out of the pram when he didn't get his way and was asked to play for the team.  Even giving him the captains armband didn't change his attitude.  A bad apple, not what you need or can afford at Rotherham.

White - biggest disappointment of the season for me, never got going when given the chance to take the shirt.

Ledesma - I simply can't believe that Evans thought he was good enough to sign after a frankly rubbish loan spell with us.  Only looked good against a very poor Blackpool side and then had to be subbed otherwise he would have been sent off.

G Ward - one decent game in ten is not what we need.  Not ready for a relegation scrap.

Thorpe - bit of an enigma is Thorpe.  Came with great promise but has been unable to force his way into the team.

Maguire - like Halford, thought he could come to Rotherham and be the big *******s and dictate where he would and wouldn't play.  His pre-season interview on Radio Sheffield Wednesday told you all you needed to know about his attitude.  Thought he could be a big fish in a small pond, another bad apple.

 

You forgot Richardson Ex. Kept on by Evans but left out in favour of Halford at right back in the first game. Richardson is a once decent full back, solid pro and seemingly nice guy who is sadly not up to The Championship any more. Short of pace and limited going forward. Have he and Buxton ever been seen together?

How anyone can look at the list of players Evans squandered our (no doubt limited) budget on - all his top targets who were adding quality not quantity remember - and defend it is beyond me. It is the devils own job to put that right when players have their contracts in place and the window is closed.

Just for fun, here is an XI comprising players Evans signed at the start of last season:-

Loach, Richardson, Broadfoot, Wood, Sadler, Hall, Wordsworth, Swift, Brandy, Taylor, Bowery.

Broadfoot turned out ok. Were the rest good signings/value for money?

I have left out Derbyshire and Green.

There is a pattern - scatter gun signings close season then get loan players/further loan players in (Hunt, Lafferty, Martinez, Sammon last season and the two Norwich players this season) to replace them when it becomes quickly apparent you got it wrong.

Is that good management? No. Is it sustainable? No. Can we afford to keep doing it? No.

Evans might have scraped us out of trouble this season if he had again been allowed to get in more expensive loanees in place of his bad signings. We will never know. But the idea that he was building anything sustainable is a joke. Unfortunately we now have a choice of going down or having to recycle Evans' squad again in January to try and save the season.

And really it all comes down to a 4 week window in 2 weeks time. How many do we have to sign to get the 4-6 players we need to stop us from going down? And how much will that cost over and above the budget we've set also trying to get these in the Jan window where prices and wages are inflated? Even if we do get the players we're asking them to slot in, be instantly successful and gel straight away. All those 3 factors just aren't going to happen. The only course we should be plotting is further culling next season in L1 and building from there, getting the conveyer belt moving - that's why Redfearn was brought in, to not stop us going down but build a legitimate route from Academy to first team. Once that process is producing players and we can mix that with quality not quantity can we go again, that is sustainable and doesn't rely on the decisions of one person's judgement. This is further backed up by the creation of the committee. Everything points to the board conceding relegation this time, but with a more long term plan. If it takes 5-10 years so be it, but the crux is - the next time we appear in this league we'll have better foundations to ensure sustainability

Towdlad wrote:

---

Exetermiller wrote:

---

And we're not even mentioning more ingrained squad members. Derbyshire can't hit a barn door, Green past it, JCH flatters to deceive, Frecks past his best and no sign of the often Lampard type goals, D Ward made of glass and playing like he's waiting for the next injury, Smallwood having a poor season by his standards, so that leaves only Broadfoot, Newell, Best?, Kelly, Thorpe?, Camp as the rest aren't ours. But in those is the potential of a good spine if they all can play consistently. If we can get 2 decent full backs, wide men and a striker to add to that it may be half decent, but that is going to cost big time and is on the proviso that about 15 players all leave at once - not gonna happen

---

 I haven't managed to see many games this season so dont feel qualified enough to comment  but I would tend to agree with Ex here, that there is potentially a small hub of decent players around which, come next month we should be able to put together a fighting unit and give us, an albeit, slim but fighting chance.

As for whether I agree with Redfearn or Evans, well I'd agree with Evans on one point, Redfearn must be feeling the pressure now and expect he just blew up Tuesday which, I'm sorry to admit, was not professional. As for Evans, I remember the Crawley fan who posted on MM when he became our manager. He said that he would do well for us but leave us in the 5hit. Its my opinion he knew he'd got things terribly wrong and jumped before he he could be held responsible, quality over quantity eh. I dont think Redfearn fully appreciated the full depth of malaise that had infected the players and the club. I dont think the situation reflects well on anybody really

---

 very good!

ian wrote:

---

Towdlad wrote:

---

Exetermiller wrote:

---

And we're not even mentioning more ingrained squad members. Derbyshire can't hit a barn door, Green past it, JCH flatters to deceive, Frecks past his best and no sign of the often Lampard type goals, D Ward made of glass and playing like he's waiting for the next injury, Smallwood having a poor season by his standards, so that leaves only Broadfoot, Newell, Best?, Kelly, Thorpe?, Camp as the rest aren't ours. But in those is the potential of a good spine if they all can play consistently. If we can get 2 decent full backs, wide men and a striker to add to that it may be half decent, but that is going to cost big time and is on the proviso that about 15 players all leave at once - not gonna happen

---

 I haven't managed to see many games this season so dont feel qualified enough to comment  but I would tend to agree with Ex here, that there is potentially a small hub of decent players around which, come next month we should be able to put together a fighting unit and give us, an albeit, slim but fighting chance.

As for whether I agree with Redfearn or Evans, well I'd agree with Evans on one point, Redfearn must be feeling the pressure now and expect he just blew up Tuesday which, I'm sorry to admit, was not professional. As for Evans, I remember the Crawley fan who posted on MM when he became our manager. He said that he would do well for us but leave us in the 5hit. Its my opinion he knew he'd got things terribly wrong and jumped before he he could be held responsible, quality over quantity eh. I dont think Redfearn fully appreciated the full depth of malaise that had infected the players and the club. I dont think the situation reflects well on anybody really

---

 very good!

---

 Towd -  As for Evans, I remember the Crawley fan who posted on MM when he became our manager. He said that he would do well for us but leave us in the 5hit.

Ive been saying this for nearly 2 seasons now (gave Evans the benifit of doubt to start) and I still agree, BUT i am now thinking that the issues are not only with the playing staff and team management but at a higher level. I m gonna get slaughtered for this but Im begining to belive the issues start with Mr T Stewart (puts on tin lid and ducks below the parapit).

We are now a far healthier club financially thanks to Tony but no where near a Championship club, thanks to Tony. Its great to be not in debt but in this league we need far more financial input or, we have to gamble and go "over drawn" in order to survive and progress in this league.

Im not advocating a Bolton style melt down but we have to spend to assure our survival. If this means being in a small debt in order to do so then do it. I do not however think this will happen as i do not think Tony will allow control of the club to go else where regardless of the amount of ££££'s, I also do not think he will risk his other buisnes interests to bank roll RUFC.

Only my opinion for what it worth

Exetermiller wrote:

---

No tin hats required and in honesty I think the whole board are of the ethos that we operate within our means. And that is right, there will come a time when many clubs implode. The future of our game is not with 4 pro leagues but 2, that's what the FA and PL want, hell even UEFA. Those that survive will be self sustainable and if that means mediocrity in L1 then that's the way it is. We aren't ready for this league, we need 20yrs of backend infrastructure development including FITC to get more people watching us

---

 There does seem to be a very ominous silence at the moment. And to think we were talking just before the start of the season about extending the ground capacity, I expect the plans are still with the engineers. It would be nice to have some idea of plans for the future, it would remove much of this uncertainty. But then again we wouldn't have much to argue about.