Post-Doncaster- Artell: Sack or Keep?

That statement sends shivers down my spine. Looks like we’ve accepted our fate this season and we’ll go down with even more of a whimper off the pitch, than on it.

Dig in? We’ve been digging in every fücking season for 20 years Jason.

Quoted from devs

Effectively 7pts clear with games in hand
Keep the faith  everyone...

If you want to be pedantic, the GD advantage is more like a 6.5 point gap. Our GD is 12 better than FGRs as things stand, but we still have to play them at home in a couple of weeks. A heavy defeat against them not only shrinks the points gap, but also brings about a huge GD swing.

Carry on as we are and there’s no way we’ll maintain a better goal difference come the end of the season.

Quoted from Poojah

Stockwood’s just posted this. If this is an inference that we are allowing Artell to stay on, then he’s got it catastrophically wrong imo.

Tweet 1759184951314915455 will appear here...

Sorry Jason but we have been doing this for years . hopeing things get better in the next game  next window next season and never does.  I know its your money you will have to spend and its not going to be cheap .Like any business you have to have the right product ,and we dont have that.  We dont expect Harrods but christ this is poundland

Quoted from ginnywings

To put it into context, we lost 6-1 to Walsall, and I believe that was our worst defeat in something like 70 years, and but for the width of a post, that would have been repeated yesterday, merely weeks later.

I was also told last night that the 5-5 result was the only time we have had that score in our history, so we have had three exceptional results, mostly to our detriment in the space of a few weeks.

It just cannot be defended.

The only caveat I can add (and I am desperately searching for the tiniest glimmer of hope here) is that this is maybe what it is going to take to finally release us from the death spiral of the last 20 years, and indeed it is a case of it will get much worse before it gets better, and Artell is railing against two decades of entrenched apathy and underperformance, which will finally see us emerge into the light of progressive, attacking, winning football.

Nah! Me neither.

You've made your mind up, and I'm not going to persuade you.

We all know the squad we had wasn't good enough. We've tried to patch it up in January, and some players need to get match fit so we still haven't had enough time to see the fruits of that and if it is or isn't good enough. I know this manager can get the team to compete and if you can compete, you can pick up wins. Not in all matches, but some. Ultimately the owners are sticking with him, and no words are going to change opinions. We'll just have to see what the next match brings, because I expect, it'll be very different. You won't. So only time will tell.

Quoted from AncientExiledMariner

No it's not every game. Before DA took over, we were losing EVERY game. You don't go from a team of losers to winning or drawing every game. Especially when you cannot change the full squad.

Nor was that Artell’s remit. His remit was to improve us from where we were, and he has made us tangibly poorer by virtually every measurable metric. He has the worst record of any Town manager this century (and possibly ever) in terms of win ratio and PPG.

That’s not just my subjective opinion, it’s a matter of cold, hard, facts and figures.

Let’s flip this on its head; what evidence do you see over the last 6 games that suggests Artell can and will turn things around, and keep us up?

Quoted from devs

Effectively 7pts clear with games in hand
Keep the faith  everyone...

It's six points.



Our goal difference has worsened by about 2 goals per game since the start of the year

Quoted from Poojah

Nor was that Artell’s remit. His remit was to improve us from where we were, and he has made us tangibly poorer by virtually every measurable metric. He has the worst record of any Town manager this century (and possibly ever) in terms of win ratio and PPG.

That’s not just my subjective opinion, it’s a matter of cold, hard, facts and figures.

Let’s flip this on its head; what evidence do you see over the last 6 games that suggests Artell can and will turn things around, and keep us up?

I like how you're limiting the scope to 6 games to load the question and I'm not going to play your game, because I have the memory of the full season and not the last couple of matches.

Our biggest problems were defence, full back and DM. I personally think Hume is an improvement. We have comeptition at CB so can bring our Maher or Rodgers. I'd have personally gone with Maher after seeing him refuse a pass and put Cartwright up excrement creek. Smith is young and is still bedding in. I'll personally give it time like I did with Pyke and Vernam when The Fishy wrote them both off.

He can get us to compete with Notts and Accrington. 1 goal would have won it for us, and if he can do the same in future matches, with that squad we had for Accrington and maybe Hunt also fit, I think we have reasonable chances of a result on any day. The problem with this mentally weak squad is we also have reasonable chances of a tanking. Draws ain't going to get us out of this situation. We'd probably want a good 4 wins on the board, and I think we can do that, even if there is several more losses. We do not have the squad to go much past survival right now, but I personally think DA is the best chance of that with this squad.

Oh, and on what metrics, yesterday, we had more possession, more shots, the same number of shots on target and virtually the same amount of corners. Unfortunately they had 4 shots on goal and scored 5. Hot knife through butter. I'm getting Eastwood vibes.

I expected it would be a landslide for Artell Out but early voting has the Artell In percentage even lower than DA's win percentage as Town manager,

Quoted from Poojah

Artell’s record is now so shockingly bad it will go down in Town folklore regardless of whether we stay up or not. He has made himself the yardstick for managerial underperformance at GTFC for years if not decades to come. It’s just incredible.

I can see absolutely no argument for sticking with him at this juncture. He has to go, I’m afraid.

This.

Quoted from Poojah

Stockwood’s just posted this. If this is an inference that we are allowing Artell to stay on, then he’s got it catastrophically wrong imo.

Tweet 1759184951314915455 will appear here...

This is worrying. I am absolutely open to the board trying to do things differently in face of pressure – sticking with Hurst during the promotion season because the data suggested we weren’t far off picking up points, when other clubs might have pulled the trigger, is a great example and really paid off. We are not a rich club – never have been – and anything which might bridge that gap between us and massive over-spenders is welcome in my eyes.

But as others have alluded to, there is simply no metric that offers a reason for us to stick with DA. I have tried really hard to see things from the “let’s stick with him” point of view, but other than simply not being able to afford to get rid of him, I can’t fathom why we would stick. Both the objective and subjective data overwhelmingly support the idea that the wheels have completely fallen off.

If the board sticks with DA then they are essentially living in hope that something will change, in spite of the fact the evidence suggests things are getting significantly worse.