Ferguson

[DonnyOsmond]

Youth team are currently well adrift at bottom of NE Alliance league with just 2 points from 6 games, U23's lost every game since being reintroduced and first team are struggling to get results in the league as we all know. Hes not exactly taking hold of the 'playing side' is he really.

I'd rather we have good players being developed in the youth then just results. We finished 2nd and won the cup a few year ago, now look where the likes of Ball and Meade are.

We've also had a couple of the 2nd years out on loan so far this year.

[Lindy]

I agree with Sammy. DF does not sign players who might challenge him. Yes men to a man.

[drfchound]

I agree with Sammy. DF does not sign players who might challenge him. Yes men to a man.

He was very quick to get Rob Jones out wasn't he and had a bust up with Butler in his first season too after a dressing room discussion at half time, resulting in Butler being taken off and left out for a few games when we could have done with him on the pitch.

[GetDuerdenOn]

Youth team are currently well adrift at bottom of NE Alliance league with just 2 points from 6 games, U23's lost every game since being reintroduced and first team are struggling to get results in the league as we all know. Hes not exactly taking hold of the 'playing side' is he really.

I'd rather we have good players being developed in the youth then just results. We finished 2nd and won the cup a few year ago, now look where the likes of Ball and Meade are.

We've also had a couple of the 2nd years out on loan so far this year.

Yes Ball & Meade are probably playing at a much lower level now as will 95% if not more of the current Youth team. What about Husband & Manderville, also arguably Middleton who were all part of the successful youth teams that won the cup and were regular runners up in their leagues.

We had a relatively successful youth set up prior to Fergusons arrival, in fact I believe we were rated one of the best Cat 3 academies in the country under Paul Wilsons reign and the 23s development squad were also runners up and doing well under Rob Jones.

2 of Fergusons early decisions were to sack Wilson and replace him with his mate and force out Jones.

Neither the current youth team nor the U23s have won a competitive match this season. I accept the point about developing good players but surely if we were doing that, then we would at least be winning a few games - as good players do win games at whatever level they are playing.

My opinion is that Ferguson, who has been at the club since 2015 hasn't got a grip on the 'playing side' from bottom upwards at all considering we are now approaching 2018.

[rtid88]

I agree with Sammy. DF does not sign players who might challenge him. Yes men to a man.

He was very quick to get Rob Jones out wasn't he and had a bust up with Butler in his first season too after a dressing room discussion at half time, resulting in Butler being taken off and left out for a few games when we could have done with him on the pitch.

To be fair Rob Jones at that stage wasn't good enough to be in our squad anyway so I don't see that as getting rid because of his influence more of a case of freeing some wages on the budget. Wasn't he wanting to bring Stephen Taylor in?? Surely he would have been a voice on the pitch and in the dressing room. I don't believe this idea that he only wants yes men in.

[drfchound]

At that stage of Fergusons tenure Rob Jones would have been a good man to have around helping out.

[steve@dcfd]

Take point about the U18 the results show we are not progressing this year.

But the U23 is hard to judge about 8 out of the 11 players are from the U18 side and the games I have seen the other teams have had more older players in them. Take for instance Rotherham who had 6 players from their first team squad in that game. We had Harry Toffolo.

[steve@dcfd]

Men cost money in wages. Question we signed Whiteman, Houghton and Kongolo on loan all young men could we have signed 3 say 26/27 year olds with league one and above experience for the same money ie wages.

[GazLaz]

At that stage of Fergusons tenure Rob Jones would have been a good man to have around helping out.

I don’t buy into this myth. Just because he was a tough, throwback sort of player doesn’t mean he would be a good manager/ coach. Hartlepool didn’t want him as a manager either.

[rtid88]

Men cost money in wages. Question we signed Whiteman, Houghton and Kongolo on loan all young men could we have signed 3 say 26/27 year olds with league one and above experience for the same money ie wages.

No because we don't have the money to do this. Do you really believe that Fergie wouldn't want to sign the best players that he possibly could, whatever their age?? The fact is he is given a budget that he has to stick to and to bring in the number of players we needed the only way to do this is to bring young players in. Pretty sure people on this forum have been crying out for us to sign young up and coming players from leagues above in previous years and moaned that we are signing players past their best.

[RoversAlias]

"Fergie only wants yes men"?

There is absolutely no proof of that, a totally baseless statement. People bang on about Jones but where is he in the football world now? Is he a well respected manager or something? Not last time I checked. Butler got dropped for a while two seasons ago but he's started every game this season and was named club captain by Fergie.

Fact is we don't know the day-to-day personalities of the players and coaching staff, we don't know what kind of unity and atmosphere there is in training.

[steve@dcfd]

Men cost money in wages. Question we signed Whiteman, Houghton and Kongolo on loan all young men could we have signed 3 say 26/27 year olds with league one and above experience for the same money ie wages.

No because we don't have the money to do this. Do you really believe that Fergie wouldn't want to sign the best players that he possibly could, whatever their age?? The fact is he is given a budget that he has to stick to and to bring in the number of players we needed the only way to do this is to bring young players in. Pretty sure people on this forum have been crying out for us to sign young up and coming players from leagues above in previous years and moaned that we are signing players past their best.

Sorry rtid88 people in the know on this forum will tell you that money is not the problem we have a competitive budget. But what you say I agree with.

[drfchound]

"Fergie only wants yes men"?

There is absolutely no proof of that, a totally baseless statement. People bang on about Jones but where is he in the football world now? Is he a well respected manager or something? Not last time I checked. Butler got dropped for a while two seasons ago but he's started every game this season and was named club captain by Fergie.

Fact is we don't know the day-to-day personalities of the players and coaching staff, we don't know what kind of unity and atmosphere there is in training.

Who knows where Rob Jones would be in the football world right now had DF kept him on at our club ?

[RoversAlias]

Baseless speculation again Hound. You're better than this, come on.

The Fergie-bashing on this forum (by no means just referring to you Hound btw) has gotten out of control the last couple of weeks. The realms of silliness were entered ages ago now.

[drfchound]

Baseless speculation again Hound. You're better than this, come on.

The Fergie-bashing on this forum (by no means just referring to you Hound btw) has gotten out of control the last couple of weeks. The realms of silliness were entered ages ago now.

Baseless, yes i agree.
Speculation is all it was.

However RA, i am not sure that DF bashing is out of control.
There hasn't been much in the way of abuse towards him, just concern about his methods and the place that the team is in right now.
I agree about the club on the whole being of sound bearing but in reality the feeling of well being amongst the fans revolves, in the main, around the results of the first team.

[RoversAlias]

Baseless speculation again Hound. You're better than this, come on.

The Fergie-bashing on this forum (by no means just referring to you Hound btw) has gotten out of control the last couple of weeks. The realms of silliness were entered ages ago now.

Baseless, yes i agree.
Speculation is all it was.

However RA, i am not sure that DF bashing is out of control.
There hasn't been much in the way of abuse towards him, just concern about his methods and the place that the team is in right now.
I agree about the club on the whole being of sound bearing but in reality the feeling of well being amongst the fans revolves, in the main, around the results of the first team.

That is very true Hound, you hit the nail on the head with regards to results being the primary focus of us fans, and I don't want to come across as saying Ferguson doesn't deserve criticism or to be held accountable for mistakes because he does, it's just when things are levied at him based on nothing other than speculation on the part of fans. The other big thing is all this comparing to Dickov that peoole have been doing, right down to arguing the toss over PPG averages and minutiae like that as if football can be boiled down entirely to statistics.

I guess I'm just at my limit with it all. He'll either turn it around now or he won't, Saturday is a big game for us and for him and I'd like to hope we will see a change in fortunes this month.

[drfchound]

As a supporter, there is nothing i would like more than for us to win on Saturday and go on a run, soaring up the table.

[steve@dcfd]

As a supporter, there is nothing i would like more than for us to win on Saturday and go on a run, soaring up the table.

I agree but with extra injuries the 16 we put out could include 2 youth team players on the bench.

[Donnybax]

Fergie was definitely right to get rid of Jones. Unfortunately after his neck injury he was a liability and couldn't even manage 1 game never mind a run of games. He might have been alright to have around but he failed miserably as manager so I'm not sure that he would've been that great to keep.
Admittedly though we don't have anywhere near enough leaders in the team.

[Draytonian III]

I'm not the biggest Fergie fan but he definitely did right of moving Rob Jones on