Artell deserves credit

Quoted from AncientExiledMariner

I wonder how many of the folk in here who've had to change their minds would reflect on making their minds up too quick and give players or managers a bit more time in future.

DA lost Conteh (didn't have a choice), inherited a pretty poor team, and had to make FB, CB changes, and pull in a new DM. About 3 games later, those players and DA were written off.

People written off this season that are now "not as bad as thought":

Pyke
Obikwu
Vernham
Hume
Tharme (apparently no better than what we had)
DA

Everyone is human, and everyone learns when things go to excrement. We need to start giving people the room to mess up, learn and come back stronger.

Quoted from mariner91

Let's not rewrite history. Conteh was present for two of the home games where we conceded 5 or more goals so it wasn't a problem that was thrust upon Artell with him being blameless. The shape of the team was all over the place, performances had been getting worse quite quickly other than a win over an abysmal Salford and he was trying to make them play a way that they weren't capable of or comfortable doing. That he persisted in attempting to play that way for so long was madness and I would think the owners did have serious considerations about sacking him.

Credit where it's due in that he's shored us up to look incredibly difficult to break down and Obikwu, Hume, Tharme and Thompson have all really added something to the side. A 4 in 6 hit rate of signings is great and I hope he can replicate that in the summer if we stay up. I think we will stay up now and I don't think I've ever seen a team go from looking completely lost to looking so resilient in such a short space of time which suggests that Artell is good at implementing a game plan with a team, it just has to be the right plan for the players he's got. Not just stubbornly sticking to his "philosophy" regardless of playing personnel.  

Quoted from GrimPol

When PH was sacked, and interim manager/coaches were in, and what we then needed is someone who hit the ground running fast as we were sinking and fast. A one one-team only and 18 months out of the game person might have been a smaller gamble if hired in the preseason, it was a much bigger gamble in the situation that was. What we needed was a Manager/Coach who had some history and not someone learning on the job. We are his second club only in managerial terms, and anyone who has changed jobs knows that running a second,  third, or  fourth group gets easier as you leave mistakes and problems behind.
DA instead of just steadying the ship and making sure we didn't ship goals (yes boring draws) misread the technical capabilities of his new team, implemented a system which was misunderstood, anyway all players needed to buy into and more to the point, understand their specific roll in it for it to work. The obvious backfire brought things to a head, with improvements.  But it's a pity that the "new improved gritty" Mariners didn't happen in January, as we are now inundated with posts about how many points per game we will get, or if 45 pts is safety or not, or in other words we are hoping FGR or Colchester will do us a favour and go down instead of us.
I happen to like DA, and I believe he'll grow into the job, but I'm not sure how many bridges he's burnt with the fans and the team, however, I do hope he will survive for the 24-25 season in (definitely) League 1. UTM

Quoted from rancido

To be fair to DA he did say that he wished the players and coaching staff had raised their concerns " 4 or 5 weeks earlier". If they had then maybe we wouldn't have had some of the trouncings we had, especially the Doncaster debacle.

Quoted from rancido

To be fair to DA he did say that he wished the players and coaching staff had raised their concerns " 4 or 5 weeks earlier". If they had then maybe we wouldn't have had some of the trouncings we had, especially the Doncaster debacle.

Quoted from GrimPol

Was it their call to make? The team should always back the manager/coach, and play his way wherever possible, but Doncaster must have been a last straw for them to voice concern. Speak too early and the team spirit could fracture, speak too late and the team could be in real deep trouble. A hard call.
So it's a good thing that there is a vociferous fan base which in the final analysis is only beholden to the good of the club, not the Team personnel, Manager or Owners.
Players, Managers, and Owners are transient, Fans are eternal.  UTM

Quoted from toontown

And to be fair to the players Artell was bawling at Maher and Cartwright that I know of on two separate occasions when they resisted his instructions to play out from the back EVERY time regardless. Perhaps them not following his detrimental instructions to the letter was them very much raising 'concerns' at being slaughtered every week.

Quoted from AncientExiledMariner

To be fully fair, that goal where we conceded due to a poor pass from Cartwright was caused by Maher refusing the ball in acres of space after the right got blocked up and Rodgers went back to keeper to cycle it to the left. As a professional footballer in a team trying to pass it's way out of situations, it was horrific decision making to make no effort to be ready. He sold Cartwright down the river. That and another time when Maher was caught in acres of space up front when we conceded from a quick free quick as the ball went straight down the middle, there is likely a reason why Maher isn't in the team right now. Fortunately Tharme, a resurgent Mullarkey (who has proven me wrong), and Rodgers have given DA the opportunity to take Maher out of it. Seems since then, Cartwright's confidence has improved quite a bit.

Quoted from rancido

In my working career if I had concerns about my tasks and how to implement them then I would raise it with my line manager/supervisor/ foreman.