Hound Not really having the poisoned chalice stuff. It’s a well paid job at a decent club with decent facilities in a nice part of the country
Zingarevich eventually refused to enter the country amidst very strong rumours that his consortium took more than a fair share of the Premiership money. At the same time, our DOF begins living off the glory days of the Doyle/Long transfer, spending six consecutive transfer windows looking for (inappropriately) similar deals for a club vying for around the 20th best club in the country, whilst spending a lot of time vainly chasing Siggurdsson, seemingly for the PR. We dont make the Jordan Rhodes deal (a player who at least was unlikely to depreciate in value) despite us being the lead club for his signature as Huddersfield want Morrison in part exchange. Meanwhile, Pogrebnyak is still stealing a living for 4 long years and we start making signings such as Drenthe because neither of them demand an up front fee. Now you may say these are managerial problems, but its the first sign of a disconnect between manager and the DOF/owners. Adkins was screwed when he joined us - he was never going to keep us up, and then would have to manage a team desperately holding onto their premiership wages. By the time McDermott comes here for the second time, the club is virtually bankrupt.
Our owners have never bought the club to make money from the footballing side, its always been an adjunct to their business interests. Madejski as least hid this well. The Russians wanted the money, got it, and left. The Thai and Chinese consortiums are bare facedly in it for something else, and I really dont believe that any real footballing decisions are being made above Stam. With that in mind, I praise him for last years third, but in no way do I define that play off final as football (at 65 quid a head).
As a final *sigh* Im always disappointed at baseless criticism of both Adie Williams and Gunter. They are openly wondering why they still support this team, when they used to much more in the past. They are basically us. Its why Parkinsons name keeps coming up as manager, despite his record being really quite ropey; or why UR&G attracts the 'Lets sign an ex-player' type of post. There is no connection anymore. That disconnect was started with the McDermott sacking, and every manager since has had to deal with it.
Please buy a striker. A proper one. Not three 1 million pound wingers. A striker. A proper one.
LOL at a nice part of the country. Some of our best football clubs are in parts of the country that you would deem 'not nice'. Managers would definitely prefer to go to those clubs.