I got it so wrong

I'm holding my hands up and eating humble pie as we speak.
David Artell was not impressing me at all, his tactics, team selections, set up all seemed to be of a clueless bullshitter, but I now realise how I got is so wrong.
He's got us playing football, proper football that arks back to the pass and move style of AB, we look like a team thats getting noticed, a team that others will now worry about playing.
Are we the finished article?..I don't think so, but gibe Artell more time, this could be some journey we are embarking on under him.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

I'm holding my hands up and eating humble pie as we speak.
David Artell was not impressing me at all, his tactics, team selections, set up all seemed to be of a clueless bullshitter, but I now realise how I got is so wrong.
He's got us playing football, proper football that arks back to the pass and move style of AB, we look like a team thats getting noticed, a team that others will now worry about playing.
Are we the finished article?..I don't think so, but gibe Artell more time, this could be some journey we are embarking on under him.

It takes a brave person to admit that they were wrong and good on you for posting this. I always thought he was a good appointment but obviously it's easy to say this now. He inherited a disjointed squad and I think it took him a while to get his playing philosophy across to the players. He said it was a marathon, not a sprint and also said we needed evolution , not revolution. Maybe hackneyed expressions but nevertheless very true in our case. I thought that it would come together but I never thought that it would be as quick as it has. We now know that things will only get better and I honestly believe that we are at the start of a great time for the club.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

I'm holding my hands up and eating humble pie as we speak.
David Artell was not impressing me at all, his tactics, team selections, set up all seemed to be of a clueless bullshitter, but I now realise how I got is so wrong.
He's got us playing football, proper football that arks back to the pass and move style of AB, we look like a team thats getting noticed, a team that others will now worry about playing.
Are we the finished article?..I don't think so, but gibe Artell more time, this could be some journey we are embarking on under him.

Fair play.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

I'm holding my hands up and eating humble pie as we speak.
David Artell was not impressing me at all, his tactics, team selections, set up all seemed to be of a clueless bullshitter, but I now realise how I got is so wrong.
He's got us playing football, proper football that arks back to the pass and move style of AB, we look like a team thats getting noticed, a team that others will now worry about playing.
Are we the finished article?..I don't think so, but gibe Artell more time, this could be some journey we are embarking on under him.

You are only "wrong" because of hindsight surely? A lot of posters were saying similar things at various times because in real time it did seem a bit clueless.  Not so long ago our home performances were shocking. I think we will look back on that late equaliser at home to Gillingham as the turning point.

The change to play 2 strikers has also been a great improvement but it seemed he was never going to implement the current formation but since we have, its been a revelation.

Football is a roller coaster and one minute the manager is king of the castle and the next he is hopeless so anybody commenting in real time is perfectly entitled to their view to my mind, unless it's just completely vindictive.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

You are only "wrong" because of hindsight surely? A lot of posters were saying similar things at various times because in real time it did seem a bit clueless.  Not so long ago our home performances were shocking. I think we will look back on that late equaliser at home to Gillingham as the turning point.

The change to play 2 strikers has also been a great improvement but it seemed he was never going to implement the current formation but since we have, its been a revelation.

Football is a roller coaster and one minute the manager is king of the castle and the next he is hopeless so anybody commenting in real time is perfectly entitled to their view to my mind, unless it's just completely vindictive.

Fans views can either be reactive or proactive. They can either judge on what appears on the surface or look at what is trying to be achieved. There are those that can look purely at results or those that can see what is trying to be achieved. Regardless of how some fans think, it's not that easy to change a playing style and for the players to immediately grasp that and produce the expected result. DA is a lot more intelligent and tactically aware than some posters give him credit for.
DA has proved that he is flexible in his approach in both his style of play and how he utilises his players.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

I'm holding my hands up and eating humble pie as we speak.
David Artell was not impressing me at all, his tactics, team selections, set up all seemed to be of a clueless bullshitter, but I now realise how I got is so wrong.
He's got us playing football, proper football that arks back to the pass and move style of AB, we look like a team thats getting noticed, a team that others will now worry about playing.
Are we the finished article?..I don't think so, but gibe Artell more time, this could be some journey we are embarking on under him.

Good on you - hopefully fans can give him more leeway going forward, as there inevitably will be other rough patches to come

I think a lot of us at the end of January thought this season would just fizzle out with a below mid table finish but a change in formation meant we are serious play off contenders.
I’m sure the owners were dreading loads of dead rubbers after January results but they need not of worried

I think the sentiment behind these kind of “I’m sorry, I was wrong” posts is lovely, but not really necessary. And that’s because:

a) virtually everyone wanted Artell out last February
b) it really was absolutely shocking

Someone pointed out on here yesterday that there’s a large contingent on the Notts County forum who want Stuart Maynard out, and yet it’s not inconceivable that he takes them up, either automatically or with his hand cupping his ear at Wembley in May. That’s a prime opportunity for egg on face.

But Jan and Feb 2025 were outstandingly bad. I managed to dig out my own post from the night of the infamous Donny game, and whilst it has unquestionably aged terribly, I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassed by it because it was objective in its assessment, and Artell was statistically our worst manager of the millennium by a considerable margin at the time.

https://forum.thefishy.co.uk/?m-1708214020

Add to that, fans of this club know how to recognise a team heading out of the football league better than most, and we were ticking every box at that point. We were systematically chaotic - the breeze with which sides were playing through our attempts at the high press was truly shambolic.

But the recovery and subsequent development has without doubt been astonishing, and seems to be only getting better. I think that dark period, where Artell probably couldn’t have complained about being sacked if that had been the decision, probably did him a lot of good in retrospect. Coming through the adversity, yes, but also learning first-hand that pragmatism has a role to play in football.

I think what we are seeing today is probably a hybrid of the purist football Artell intended to play when he first took the job and the more measured, risk averse system he had to revert to at the end of last season. We clearly still look to exhaust every other option before going long, but we’ve also stopped fannying about at the back from every goal kick. It’s nice football, but it’s no longer so obsessed about looking pretty that it becomes prohibitively risky.

I’m possibly doing Artell a disservice there; I’m loving the fluidity we have in the team with our centre halves charging forward when we’re on the attack, but at the same time, I’d be shocked if he didn’t take something from his troubled early days here, and I’m delighted that we are the beneficiaries of that right now.

How are you eating pie if your hands are up?

Not trying to sound all high and mighty, but I genuinely took to him straight away and never thought he should have gone last season.

Main reason why, is because his first game after only a few days at MK was a miraculous turnaround, then I thought the home match against Crewe not long after was the best I’d seen us play for years.

After that, it fell apart but the make up of the squad following Hurst’s summer business was all wrong, truly think he ballsed that up, and Artell simply didn’t have the tools.

Always liked his interviews too. Albeit, he deflected a lot during that terrible run - but he was under a hell of a lot of pressure, and let’s not forget his father had passed away plus the awful accident with the poor Walsh family.