The reality

People post that he was 5th or 6th choice of the board, yet Gary Holt said GTFC wanted to open contract negotiations with him and wanted to work with him, then changed their minds whilst Jolley himself said he didn’t apply but was approached by the club to come to interview.
Clearly the club did some research, to find out about Jolley as most of us would have never had heard of him yet it seems for the 2nd time in three appointments the board have fell for swagger and talk over  managerial nous.
Says it all really and a board with no real business and people acumen ( a solicitor, an accountant, a retired fish merchant, and a horse trainer)  will produce this type of decision over and over again. Like the team, the board have no balance

Quoted from VinnyGTFC

Last season when looking for a manager Micheal Jolleys name came up. He  was a risky yet interesting shot. Most fans liked the sound of him.
John Fenty took a punt on him. The man delivered and to the delight of most fans Jolley remained manager.
Now there are big shouts to replace this man without giving him the chance to sort the mess out and calls for Fenty to go despite doing what 80% of supporters would have done.
Don't get it!!!

Regardless im sorry you cant lose 7 games in a row when scoring just one goal without any manager being under threat from the sack at any level any club.

So as much as people like him and want him to succeed its results here and now what matter .

The reality?

We are still as crap as ever, even more so. We are averaging a half point a game and can't score or defend. We are heading for non league again, and possibly doing a Stockport.

Operation relegation.

The reality is, in my opinion, that Jolley has made huge errors over the summer but has not had anyone to use as a sounding board or someone to give him that nod of experience that would perhaps give him the courage in his convictions.

His backroom staff is full of people with similar or less experience than himself.  That's a one-way trip to disaster I'm afraid.  That set-up needs someone who has got the t-shirt and can offer support and guidance.  

My biggest frustration with Jolley is that he chops and changes all the time.  Some will say that's because he doesn't know what his best team is but I also wonder if it's that lack of experience to stick by his decisions, like with the way he quickly ditched the 3-5-2 system.  I think he would benefit from that older voice, someone who has previously made those mistakes, just to give him a gentle steer.

Equally so this apparent issue with the senior professionals, does Jolley have enough belief in his convictions to stand up to them?  Would he benefit from someone who's had to do it before and knows how to approach it.

Let's face it, if Jolley wasn't wet behind the ears he wouldn't be anywhere near this club.  I thought the whole idea behind bringing him in was to develop him as he develops us. rather than going for someone off the merry-go-round who will just bring the same old ideas in.  We can't expect Jolley (or indeed his staff) to develop to what we expect without someone there to give him that guidance and support.  It just doesn't happen that way.  Not in football, not in any other sport or indeed any other walk of life.  

Unfortunately the guy is drowning.  His chopping and changing of the side smack of someone who's flapping away in the hope of stumbling upon the winning success rather than having enough faith and confidence in sticking with a system for long enough to see it bed in.  He needs help.  That help and advice won't come from Anthony Limbrick, it won't come from the fitness coach and it certainly won't come from John Fenty.

I appreciate that appointing someone experienced now would potentially send that message of undermining Jolley but sadly that's something the club (and Jolley) will have to get over.  But the last thing the club should do now is ditch this whole project and go down this route again of bringing someone else in, bringing more players in, paying off players the new guy doesn't want...and repeat.

Quoted from diehardmariner

My biggest frustration with Jolley is that he chops and changes all the time.  Some will say that's because he doesn't know what his best team is but I also wonder if it's that lack of experience to stick by his decisions, like with the way he quickly ditched the 3-5-2 system. .

To me he seems to sway with the wind. He is what we used to call a Subbuteo manager, only good at shuffling players round on a board. His huge error, apart from not signing a striker, was to sign players to fit his 3-5-2 preference, use it and then ditch it. The players have been left in no-man’s land. I would have more time for him if he had worked the players to a standstill on that system even if it worked out to be more like 5-3-2 with the lack of pace and became a Hurst type defensive game. At least he would now have had a few points to play with and the players would only have to be drilled in one system. That would have shown strength of character instead of him looking like an overgrown schoolboy who doesn’t know what to do next.

That is the difference between a manager and a coach.

Possibly a “sounding board” might have helped, but you would think these contacts he is supposed to have high up in the game like Dyche would have offered that sort of advice straightaway. Either that notion of him having such contacts was another bluff or else he has ignored them.

One thing Fenty can do to help him if any senior players come to him to tell tales is to send them away with a flea in their ear and tell them to do as they are told or go.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

To me he seems to sway with the wind. He is what we used to call a Subbuteo manager, only good at shuffling players round on a board. His huge error, apart from not signing a striker, was to sign players to fit his 3-5-2 preference, use it and then ditch it. The players have been left in no-man’s land. I would have more time for him if he had worked the players to a standstill on that system even if it worked out to be more like 5-3-2 with the lack of pace and became a Hurst type defensive game. At least he would now have had a few points to play with and the players would only have to be drilled in one system. That would have shown strength of character instead of him looking like an overgrown schoolboy who doesn’t know what to do next.

That is the difference between a manager and a coach.

Possibly a “sounding board” might have helped, but you would think these contacts he is supposed to have high up in the game like Dyche would have offered that sort of advice straightaway. Either that notion of him having such contacts was another bluff or else he has ignored them.

One thing Fenty can do to help him if any senior players come to him to tell tales is to send them away with a flea in their ear and tell them to do as they are told or go.

Jolley could learn from Hurst in that though at numerous times it wasn’t pretty Hurst found a way of playing that suited the players abilities Jolley however seems to be trying to get players to play to a system rather then their strengths. A system that changes weekly at the moment.

Additionally your right about players going to the non chairman on the basis of what we’ve seen since the MKD game they are collectively a massive part of this problem

Let's not cloud facts though with poor judgement.

Jolley was a fairly popular choice as manager last season. When he kept us up - in some style - he could walk on water.

He has strengthened the squad - again, bar the proverbial 20 goals per season mythical man - and the signings went down reasonably well with the fans.

Awful start at home to the season, followed by a win away home, a game that we somehow didn't win against the best team in the league by a country mile, and an away draw at MK Dons as well. There was genuine hope back then, and a pedestal to build on.

We now have six consecutive defeats behind us, an inability to score goals, and the fans reaction seems to be that we are pretty clueless, and don't know where the next wins coming from? These are Jolley's players, and all on longer contracts that had been previously dished out - so there should have been genuine stability. The problem is everything seems to have imploded.

Has Jolley lost the changing room with team selection / tactics? He seems a decent bloke, but he worked in high level finance, so there has to be a ruthless side to him somewhere. If he hasn't lost the changing room, then it's the tactics - there's no other explanation other than the players simply aren't up for it. Yet we see players who are out on loan performing well. We see players who have left the club scoring - even Jamille Matt got a couple of Newport on Saturday after coming on as a substitute. Yussuf bagged the winner for Solihull Moors who are having an excellent season. The list goes on. Something seems to stop players performing when they pull on the black and white.

John Fenty doesn't pick the team, although the board says who we can and can not afford to be in the squad. Is there an air of staleness about the whole thing surrounding the club that impacts directly on players once they cross the portal at BP? It might be part of the equation, but it's not wholly the answer.

It's a results driven business and I think MJ is only too well aware that he's perhaps already on borrowed time. For myself, I hope he is given the time, but not sure just how much, before change would have to come if results don't pick up? Who then would come somewhere like BP to manage, bar all the managerial stiffs who've been sacked more times than they care to remember. Talk will be rife amongst their ranks of the clubs where they can get a good deal, and board backing, and where not to go. I doubt we're among the former.

Am at Carlisle on Tuesday. Was there last season and we were truly awful, so anything over and above that is a bonus for me. UTM, and here's hoping for a real change in fortune for the club.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

His huge error, apart from not signing a striker, was to sign players to fit his 3-5-2 preference, use it and then ditch it.

I'd say the issue was that he didn't sign the players to fit his 3-5-2 preference.

If you're going to play 5 in the middle, you've got to have players with the ability to add some width and pace in the wing-back roles. RHJ is possibly capable of this (though I'm not fully convinced by his defensive capabilities as yet), but Dixon and Fox aren't really players in that vein and we initially played with Clifton, a central defender, in a terribly unfamiliar role. No 'wingers' other than Woolford and the untested Wright at the start of the season when we were trying 3-5-2, though Pringle now adds another option. Little pace in the team and in central midfield especially. Welsh needs two quick players around him - Hessenthaler is fine for that role, but I always think Rose seems a bit cumbersome getting around the pitch and Woolford isn't quick enough around the pitch for a central midfielder.

As I've said in the past, I think the absence of Cardwell due to injury has left us without an 'out' up front because nobody else is capable of playing through the middle, but in general, I think the squad is too thin and lacking back-up in too many areas. I reckon he was planning to fill out the squad by signing a couple of players from Sweden after Christmas which could be the gamble which will cost him his job. Though hopefully not our League status.

Quoted from Cloudy

People post that he was 5th or 6th choice of the board, yet Gary Holt said GTFC wanted to open contract negotiations with him and wanted to work with him, then changed their minds whilst Jolley himself said he didn’t apply but was approached by the club to come to interview.
Clearly the club did some research, to find out about Jolley as most of us would have never had heard of him yet it seems for the 2nd time in three appointments the board have fell for swagger and talk over  managerial nous.
Says it all really and a board with no real business and people acumen ( a solicitor, an accountant, a retired fish merchant, and a horse trainer)  will produce this type of decision over and over again. Like the team, the board have no balance

Not for the first time it appears that when appointing Slade’s replacement the Gang of Four where at cross purposes. Reminds me of the bull sh1t story around the non appointment of Curtis Woodhouse and the senior  mystery source who told Matt Dean that it was happening, half @rsed as ever.

I get what you mean about the Directors business backgrounds and would add that they’ve all pretty much operated in the same isolated small Town for decades which evidently means that fresh ideas and thinking big is alien to them.

Quoted from Cloudy

People post that he was 5th or 6th choice of the board, yet Gary Holt said GTFC wanted to open contract negotiations with him and wanted to work with him, then changed their minds whilst Jolley himself said he didn’t apply but was approached by the club to come to interview.
Clearly the club did some research, to find out about Jolley as most of us would have never had heard of him yet it seems for the 2nd time in three appointments the board have fell for swagger and talk over  managerial nous.
Says it all really and a board with no real business and people acumen ( a solicitor, an accountant, a retired fish merchant, and a horse trainer)  will produce this type of decision over and over again. Like the team, the board have no balance

You pay for quality, are the club offering competitive wages for a good manager, why haven't we approached a smaller club who are doing far better than us for their manager, someone who is respected, and gets results, oh hang on I think I highlighted the problem in the opening sentence.