Hunts gone

[LUX]

Sad for Hunt, like him a lot.

I don’t think he had much to work with tbh, not sure anybody else will do better without a striker and other key reinforcements.

Hope I’m wrong.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

Really wish NH all the best. He deserved better. The chanting yesterday seriously lacked class. A few months ago we nearly lost the club completely, and a few games later people are wetting their pants because we’re not yet winning enough games, after most of our key players had to be replaced. I can accept that Couhig may have had reason to be concerned that things weren’t going in the right direction, and wouldn’t. He has information not available to me, and ultimately he’s got to make the hard calls.

But the fans didn’t have that inside knowledge, just the kind of short-termist entitlement that expects us to beat teams from unfashionable places as a matter of course. Sometimes things take a bit of time. I remember Coppell losing three successive games 3-0 and admitting he didn’t know what was going wrong. Maybe we should have sacked him.

The TikTokification of football (and much of modern life) is a bit depressing.

[South Coast Royal]

I know I am in a minority as most of you seem to have wanted Noel gone at any cost, but I’m so annoyed that I actually hope we get relegated this season to teach the impatient owner a lesson.

I have attended all the games I can so far this season, but I cannot see me wasting any more money supporting a club that truly deserves to go down.

Why do you think we "deserve" to go down just because a member of staff has been allowed to leave with a substantial sum of money to help him on his way.?
Should a company not replace a sales manager if targets haven't been reached?

Our owners are no different to most other owners in that they want the best for their club and this decision, in their judgement , will be best for the club.

You can obviously choose to go to matches or not but your reasoning for abstention seems a bit naiive-this is what happens in the world of football.

On balance I think they may well have made the right decision and in my much longer time supporting the club than you I have seen many managers come and go I look forward to seeing who comes next .
The hope that it might be the new McGhee, Coppell or McDermott-who knows, we might even enjoy watching our team again.
You are most welcome to come and join us.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

I know I am in a minority as most of you seem to have wanted Noel gone at any cost, but I’m so annoyed that I actually hope we get relegated this season to teach the impatient owner a lesson.

I have attended all the games I can so far this season, but I cannot see me wasting any more money supporting a club that truly deserves to go down.

Most didn’t want Noel gone, many had doubts but only a couple of vocal people wanted him gone asap.

I don’t think the owners have been impatient, have you read the statement?

It was earlier than I expected and I remain very much on the fence, you’re entitled to your view as we all are but I think you’re being a bit OTT

[SouthDownsRoyal]

You okay?

Have supported the club through thick and thin during all the dark times, but not sure I can any more. Disgraceful knee jerk panty pooping decision by the new owner. Leaves a very sour taste after what Hunt did last season in keeping the club going against all the odds. Loyalty might be unimportant to you but it is important to me.

I see you use the word loyalty, you`re so loyal you`re hoping we get relegated, nice one.

I think Jimmy has stolen his log in

[andrew1957]

I know I am in a minority as most of you seem to have wanted Noel gone at any cost, but I’m so annoyed that I actually hope we get relegated this season to teach the impatient owner a lesson.

I have attended all the games I can so far this season, but I cannot see me wasting any more money supporting a club that truly deserves to go down.

Why do you think we "deserve" to go down just because a member of staff has been allowed to leave with a substantial sum of money to help him on his way.?
Should a company not replace a sales manager if targets haven't been reached?

Our owners are no different to most other owners in that they want the best for their club and this decision, in their judgement , will be best for the club.

You can obviously choose to go to matches or not but your reasoning for abstention seems a bit naiive-this is what happens in the world of football.

On balance I think they may well have made the right decision and in my much longer time supporting the club than you I have seen many managers come and go I look forward to seeing who comes next .
The hope that it might be the new McGhee, Coppell or McDermott-who knows, we might even enjoy watching our team again.
You are most welcome to come and join us.

Patience in football has never been great but in recent years the desperation for instant success is getting ridiculous. I think back to Steve Coppells early seasons and we were pretty poor but he went on to be our greatest ever manager. Having a new manager every season has rarely worked for any team other than Chelsea. I think the next manager will be our 17th in the last 10 years. This is crazy.

[Hound]

Worth remembering that Hunt was very involved in the recruitment process throughout and the biggest failing - ie MoM as our lead striker - was a deal brokered by his brother as his agent

Jacob also one of his clients

I also suspect the decisions to not try particularly hard to keep Craig and particularly Wareham was also his decision

[Linden Jones' Tash]

People keep harking back to a time when Managers were given 'time'...

That's all well and good if the cost of stagnation is bearable by the owner....

That's not the case nowadays and these new owners have been very clear about their objectives...

The future is all that counts...

[LUX]

I really don’t think Wareham and Elliott would have made that much difference

[Hound]

Wareham did a good job last year and was a big part of the second half of the season. Maybe not a starter but second striker maybe

Also a good lad who had a good rapport with the fans

[stealthpapes]

I know I am in a minority as most of you seem to have wanted Noel gone at any cost, but I’m so annoyed that I actually hope we get relegated this season to teach the impatient owner a lesson.

I have attended all the games I can so far this season, but I cannot see me wasting any more money supporting a club that truly deserves to go down.

Why do you think we "deserve" to go down just because a member of staff has been allowed to leave with a substantial sum of money to help him on his way.?
Should a company not replace a sales manager if targets haven't been reached?

Our owners are no different to most other owners in that they want the best for their club and this decision, in their judgement , will be best for the club.

You can obviously choose to go to matches or not but your reasoning for abstention seems a bit naiive-this is what happens in the world of football.

On balance I think they may well have made the right decision and in my much longer time supporting the club than you I have seen many managers come and go I look forward to seeing who comes next .
The hope that it might be the new McGhee, Coppell or McDermott-who knows, we might even enjoy watching our team again.
You are most welcome to come and join us.

Patience in football has never been great but in recent years the desperation for instant success is getting ridiculous. I think back to Steve Coppells early seasons and we were pretty poor but he went on to be our greatest ever manager. Having a new manager every season has rarely worked for any team other than Chelsea. I think the next manager will be our 17th in the last 10 years. This is crazy.

The last manager to last over 2 years is McDermott who hit that point in December 2011 and was only manager for a shade over three calendar years.

Since then we've had a further eleven full time managers (Adkins, Clarke, McDermott, Stam, Clement, Gomes, Bowen, Paunovic, Ince, Selles, Hunt). Not one of these has lasted more than 1 year and 264 days and six of those lasted less than a year.
There's two extra interim managers during Covid within Pauno's spell but not counting them. Not counting the other interim managers and I'm not counting Gilkes.

In terms of win %, the best three were Selles (43.6%), Stam (40.8 ) and Hunt (37.3). I think had we kept Selles, yeah, we'd have reached the play offs last season (I think Selles and Bowen are the only two not to be sacked).

I firmly believe that this is no way to run a club so yeah, I am disappointed. I think there's many ways that this can go south and I hope we make the next decision quickly, efficiently and wisely.

[PieEater]

It must be a tough call if you're the coach and get the manager gig knowing that you're probably moving from a safe job to one where you'll get sacked sooner or later.

Presumably these days managers come with a team so a coaches job isnt' really all that safe either.

[stealthpapes]

It did feel like the mood turned after the Swindon defeat* and, in spite of losing only two games after that one, we've only won two and it has felt like his number was up in the eyes of some.

*a defeat that has mattered little and we'll probably qualify from the group stage, so ...

That said, I have a lot of time for Couhig's statement. It's well put together and comes across really well.

We go again.

[Winston Biscuit]

I think back to Steve Coppells early seasons and we were pretty poor

First partial season under Coppell we finished 3 points outside the play offs and went into the final day still able to finish in the play offs.

First full season under Coppell we finished 3 points outside the play offs and went into the final day still able to finish in the play offs.

At the time the 3rd and 4th highest finishes in the clubs history

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Obvious comments but What’s done is done.

What really matters now is who comes in.

NH took over when we were a basket case with a twonk of an owner he did well last season.

I don’t like the constant churn of managers nowadays but it is how it is, it’s impossible to know, give him the whole season, he may have turned it around, finished mid table, or better. We may have gone down, no one will ever know.

Remember he was manager when Couhig came in and so was never his choice, as much as we must, and do respect NH for last season and what he did as a player in the past we must also respect Couhig, without him we may not even be in existence, if he feels a change is best, we need to support that.

I wonder if the manager was someone unrelated to the club would there be such resistance?

[Esteban]

It shouldn't be forgotten that Couhig isn't the only person with skin in the game. He's the chairman, but he has other investors who may be more impatient than him. It won't have been Couhig’s decision alone.

[Royalwaster]

Seriously not sure what's worse - the idiots on Twitter calling for Hunt's head or some people on here bemoaning his sacking as if it's the betrayal of Christ. Surely, it's somewhere in the middle ... I don't like him being sacked, but from my point of view he didn't seem able to get us playing the style of football needed to win games in this league, so probably best to get rid now. I definitely didn't think we were immune from relegation ... and for us that would be a disaster as it would mean we'd 100% have to cut the academy.

[RG30]

It shouldn't be forgotten that Couhig isn't the only person with skin in the game. He's the chairman, but he has other investors who may be more impatient than him. It won't have been Couhig’s decision alone.

There was a recent home game when Rick Catania was in town and hovering around the dressing room at FT which didn't sound great.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

It shouldn't be forgotten that Couhig isn't the only person with skin in the game. He's the chairman, but he has other investors who may be more impatient than him. It won't have been Couhig’s decision alone.

There was a recent home game when Rick Catania was in town and hovering around the dressing room at FT which didn't sound great.

I’d expect Rick to be involved in the goings on.

[RG30]

As for Hunt's departure, it's sad for the man who had given so much to the club a variety of roles it ended like this but the writing had been on the wall for weeks.

Cardiff aside, we haven't played well all season and the data/results were backing that up. Pre-season was a bit of a shambles and RB/JJ have to take fair share of blame. Nigel Gibbs was a huge loss in the summer and the decision to bring back Marshall was baffling.

The timing makes sense has we don't play another league game for a while and gives a new guy time to bed in ahead of the cup this weekend.