20 league games under Artell

Quoted from RonMariner

I really don’t understand why we can’t be competitive in this division. Many smaller clubs than us are. Last seasons team were hardly world beaters but still finished 11th. So a modest improvement in squad quality should have seen us pushing on towards a playoff place.

The fact that we are struggling must therefore be down to truly abysmal summer recruitment. The goalkeeping fiasco has cost us loads of points. As has the over reliance on one quality, but often isolated striker.

Given the lack of pace, mobility, and basic ball playing skills of the current squad we need a big clear out and virtually total rebuild in the summer regardless of which division we end up in.  

They weren’t world beaters and we lost a lot of the better players and replaced them with crap.

Goalkeeper: we had a competent keeper who was allowed to leave. Neither Eastwood or Cartwright are good enough and between them had played less than 50 FL games before this season. Awful recruitment.

Defence:
Smith left and time caught up with Waterfall. We were left with our third choice CB from last season in Maher and signed Rodgers who has been mostly crap. The left back situation wasn’t sorted and Mullarkey is no good at right back. Awful recruitment.

Midfield: lacked creativity and ability last year but the creativity was provided by McAtee further forward. Rose was a good signing but losing McAtee who creates stuff from nothing and pulls the opposition about to create openings has really shown just how poor our midfield is on the ball. Five of our six central midfielders that started the season for us had played nowhere near 100 games in the FL. The only one who had was Clifton who isn’t a capable central midfielder and he is not a FL standard central midfielder as he can’t control or pass the ball well.

Up front we’ve done okay. Hurst had an average team last season, lost most of the quality and replaced it with mainly rubbish. He’s done a lot of good for us over the years but he absolutely fúcked up this summer.

Quoted from mariner91

They weren’t world beaters and we lost a lot of the better players and replaced them with crap.

Goalkeeper: we had a competent keeper who was allowed to leave. Neither Eastwood or Cartwright are good enough and between them had played less than 50 FL games before this season. Awful recruitment.

Defence:
Smith left and time caught up with Waterfall. We were left with our third choice CB from last season in Maher and signed Rodgers who has been mostly crap. The left back situation wasn’t sorted and Mullarkey is no good at right back. Awful recruitment.

Midfield: lacked creativity and ability last year but the creativity was provided by McAtee further forward. Rose was a good signing but losing McAtee who creates stuff from nothing and pulls the opposition about to create openings has really shown just how poor our midfield is on the ball. Five of our six central midfielders that started the season for us had played nowhere near 100 games in the FL. The only one who had was Clifton who isn’t a capable central midfielder and he is not a FL standard central midfielder as he can’t control or pass the ball well.

Up front we’ve done okay. Hurst had an average team last season, lost most of the quality and replaced it with mainly rubbish. He’s done a lot of good for us over the years but he absolutely fúcked up this summer.

This is really true - last season's Waterfall and Smith were so much better than Rodgers and Maher. In Midfield although Conteh was a good signing our next best midfielder is Holohan who is frankly top end NL player. You can't have one FL level midfielder an expect to be competitive.  

Even up front we've replaced Macatee, Lloyd and Orsi with Rose, Wilson, Eisa and Pyke - although Rose is excellent, Wilson isn't bad and Pyke is a decent prospect they are still not as good in totality as the players who left.

We've also been a bit unlucky - I think Vernham out for most of the season is unlucky because he is definitley FL pedigree and we would of expected more from Hunt. Clifton has had his worst season in a town shirt (he was much better last season) But there are too many players who we had who wouldn't look out place in a side in a play off place in the NL but aren't FL standard.

But the recruitment in the summer

What Artell has failed at, as did Hurst before him, is the Jekyll and Hyde performances of the team. Until this is sorted it will deter any type of progress we want to make.

Furthermore, more teams of the past played a certain style and let the opponents worry about us. We worry about the opponents. Once safety has been confirmed a lot needs sorting out in the close season.

Quoted from horsforthmariner

This is really true - last season's Waterfall and Smith were so much better than Rodgers and Maher. In Midfield although Conteh was a good signing our next best midfielder is Holohan who is frankly top end NL player. You can't have one FL level midfielder an expect to be competitive.  

Even up front we've replaced Macatee, Lloyd and Orsi with Rose, Wilson, Eisa and Pyke - although Rose is excellent, Wilson isn't bad and Pyke is a decent prospect they are still not as good in totality as the players who left.

We've also been a bit unlucky - I think Vernham out for most of the season is unlucky because he is definitley FL pedigree and we would of expected more from Hunt. Clifton has had his worst season in a town shirt (he was much better last season) But there are too many players who we had who wouldn't look out place in a side in a play off place in the NL but aren't FL standard.

But the recruitment in the summer

Decent prospect?! Pyke is 26.

Quoted from horsforthmariner

I think he made a mistake in trying to change the team to quickly. But as others have said the summer recruitment is where it all went wrong and to be fair his January transfer recruitments have been pretty good, Thompson, Tharme and Hume are all upgrades on what we have.

How many of them were down to him though? I can't remember the specifics but many of them said we have been interested in them for more than one window? We might have seen some of them had PH been here.

Quoted from GrimRob

How many of them were down to him though? I can't remember the specifics but many of them said we have been interested in them for more than one window? We might have seen some of them had PH been here.

None of the signings were Artells in January i'd have thought, except maybe obikwu given he's u23s so probs not got data on him and Artell seems to rate him.

When he came one of the things he said attracted him was that he wouldn't be chiefly responsible for stuff like recruitment, Stockwood kind of said Hurst didn't get on board with having a recruitment guy and still wanted his own players and that was one of the reasons for him going.

Tharme came in and said his main weakness was his passing for goodness sake, and Artell singled him out for his lumping it after his debut. He's hardly an Artellball style CB, wouldn't have been his choice, but he is an improvement on what we had.

Quoted from arryarryarry

On what basis did you think he was the right appointment, considering in his last job he relegated Crewe and was out of work for quite while and Crewe fans said the only reason he took them up was because took over a really good squad but when he brought his choice of players he took them down?

Who hasn't been sacked among the 24 Managers/Head coaches in League 2?  Indeed in the 72 League teams and 20 Premier teams who hasn't been sacked? Its part of the learning curve.
My surprise when DA was appointed, after saying who? was that he had only managed one team, and he had been out of the game for 18 months, and my estimation, not someone who could enter the job running full pelt whilst the team was sinking. It proved to be correct, as instead of steadying the team and hunkering down to stop us shedding points ( yes shedding as all teams that start a match have one point, and you lose that point or gain 2 more) he went off on a tangent and tried to change tactics and methods that our players couldn't just "understand", or couldn't deliver due to the lack of basic skills.
However w we are where we are and sacking him just doesn't solve anything, just a large desruption at the wrong time.
Bradford on Monday so lets hope eh? UTM

Ginnys post on page two sums my mood up perfectly. I'm 70 and if you ask any town fan my age where we should be in the pyramid I'm sure they'd say league one. However, for the last couple of years I'm coming to the realisation that maybe I'm destined to spend the rest of my days supporting a crap league two team, and the aspiration is to stay there not get out at the right end.
That's despite having league one support and having to watch a succession of teams who I've historically classed as rubbish punching way above their weight. Depressing isn't the right word because there are far worse problems in the world, but it's close. I'm not an Artell fan, his ego is far too big for his achievements but he's the last of a string who've failed to reignite us. I thought it was Fenty, but maybe we're just going to have to get used to the idea that the world has changed and we need to get used to it.
Never thought I'd hope we could keep pace with Cheltenham, Wycombe, Barrow, Stevenage et al

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

Honestly thought he was the right appointment, but I have to doubt it now, he's slowly losing the fans, and I'm not sure he can get the respect he needed now
The board need to take some blame too, they shouldn't have tied his (or any candidate for that matter) hands behind their backs by forcing the training staff on him..

I wouldn't say the board have fcked up ---but giving him a 48 year contract FFS