Serious question. If we were to lose the next three games and the club make a decision to sack him, would you take Rowett back till the end of the season if it guaranteed championship football next?
JE’s Just Back
- Thread starter STWall
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Life with the Lions
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I don’t disagree with your thoughts re the club having to make a decision eventually about Edwards, or about how much money relegation will cost us if we go down. I’ve been banging the warning drum about the latter for the past year or so, in that we’re only a season away from being relegated, and unfortunately this season might be the one where it happens.
But you haven’t answered my question about a replacement for Edwards, and no one else on here has put forward any names that they think could do better? I think the general consensus of opinion on here is that most of our problems are not Edwards’ fault. The players weren’t performing for Rowett at the start of the season, and that’s continued (with the occasional upturn) since Edwards came in, and he was here a couple of months before the January transfer window where he’s at least tried to address the situation by bringing in three signings (which unfortunately haven’t worked out yet.)
Short of getting a firefighter in like Warnock (who is doing that at Aberdeen to the end of the season), who out there is available to turn our results around? Not only that, but who would potentially risk damaging their reputation by coming to a club with 10 games to go, and fail to keep us up? I think Edwards is spot on when he says the players have to cut out the silly mistakes which have ended up costing us points. That, and making the wrong decisions when we get a sniff in front of goal. We have enough problems as it is, facing a bad injury crisis and battling shit, inept refs without the players unable to do the basics and adding to our general woes.
robbo555
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I'm quite a sad individual, I know. Millwall is a massive part of me and it does really affect me when we lose. When we went down in 1996 it felt like someone had died.
Life with the Lions
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Agreed. Yesterday’s result was the lowest I’ve felt all season, because with a bit more effort from the players, we could have won against Coventry and given everyone a massive lift for Wednesdays game against Ipswich.
robbo555
Well-known member
I don't have an answer for that. I honestly want Edwards to work out. All I'm saying is that if we keep losing then what other option is there? Keep losing and go down or do something about it?
Life with the Lions
Well-known member
Unfortunately we’re not in the scenario where we can rub an imaginary lamp and a genie can guarantee that Rowett will keep us up. Sorry, not being rude or trying to dodge your question, but it’s an impossible question to answer because there’s so many variables to consider which have already affected us before and after he left us.
Bringing Rowett back wouldn’t solve our injury crisis, or improve the shit refs we’ve had all season, and don’t forget that the players were making mistakes and not performing in certain games under his watch this season, so we can’t say it’s all been going downhill since Edwards joined us.
The sad truth is that, for the most part, we don’t have the pace and athleticism that Edwards has publicly stated we need. We have a number of ageing players who, for whatever reason (lack of skill, lack of pace, lack of a footballing brain etc.) can no longer make a difference in a league where other clubs have realised that to kick on you need the players who have those qualities.
Yes, a lot of it is down to us having a lack of money to compete with other rich chairmen or consortiums, but sometimes splashing what cash you have doesn’t always pay dividends. We took a risk and broke the bank to sign Flemming and halfway through last season we had a player who had scored us 15 goals, was probably then worth £10M to us and we all thought we were gonna be the new Brentford because of it. Then what happened? Warnock found a way to nullify Flemming’s presence on the pitch, and other managers followed suit. Flemming became ineffective towards the end of last season, his goals dried up (when we needed them the most) and his lacklustre performance has unfortunately carried over to this season (although it has picked up a bit recently.) You can have all the money in the world, but if the players you sign don’t have the heart, desire or basic skills to compete, you really don’t have much at all.
Gaeilge Millwall
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Life with the Lions
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Maybe JB factored in that relegation might be a possibility if he signed a new, untried first time manager, but in his mind we had to progress as a team and as a club, so he made the decision and knew that the buck would stop with him if it all went tits up? He’s his own man and may want to do things differently to how his dad did things.
Maybe the question to ponder is this: if it’s inevitable we are going down this season with the players we currently have, and regardless who was the manager to the end of the season (Rowett or Edwards), which one would the posters on here think would give us the best chance of bouncing back first time to the Championship with the same group of players we have now?
I would have to go for Edwards because there are some good passing sides in league 1, and we’d have to match them, pass for pass, to be in contention if we wanted to go back up.
E18 wall
Well-known member
Not sad at all, nothing wrong with having a passion in your life fella.
CJEXPAT
Well-known member
I would argue that he has cost us 3 goals since his arrival. Should be replaced by Lennard ASAP
Brusselslion
Well-known member
I very much doubt that the Chairman effectively said to Edwards when he appointed him, "Try not to get relegated but if we do never mind. I'm confident that you will be the man to rebuild us in L1".
I don't think many are saying that it is inevitable that we get relegated. Imo we aren't one of the three worse sides in the division. What I - and I think some others - are saying is 1) the blindingly obvious: we need to pick up points quickly and 2) Edwards appears to believe that changing our playing style will garner those points. Unfortunately, the facts suggest otherwise. At the moment, this apparent emphasis on process over results seems misplaced (to me). We should be focusing on results (at least until we are safe). Some of us believe the best way to pick up results would be to take a more pragmatic approach and play to our strengths e.g. employ Rowett-like 'ugly', 'defence first' football.
If we go down it will be a disaster for the club. Reduced revenue; our top talent e.g. Esse, Emarku, De Norre leaving and no guarantee of a quick return to the C'ship, as 'big' clubs such as Wednesday, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Charlton
show. Avoid at all cost. We can rebuild as a C'ship club in the summer.
Life with the Lions
Well-known member
Well of course JB wouldn’t have said that to Edwards in his interview, but there might have been a niggling doubt in the back of his mind that taking such a big risk on appointing a manager with no previous experience could get us into trouble later on in the season. It would only be natural for any chairman to think that way, as did many on here when his announcement was made, and many were saying, “Joe Edwards? Who?”I very much doubt that the Chairman effectively said to Edwards when he appointed him, "Try not to get relegated but if we do never mind. I'm confident that you will be the man to rebuild us in L1".
I don't think many are saying that it is inevitable that we get relegated. Imo we aren't one of the three worse sides in the division. What I - and I think some others - are saying is 1) the blindingly obvious: we need to pick up points quickly and 2) Edwards appears to believe that changing our playing style will garner those points. Unfortunately, the facts suggest otherwise. At the moment, this apparent emphasis on process over results seems misplaced (to me). We should be focusing on results (at least until we are safe). Some of us believe the best way to pick up results would be to take a more pragmatic approach and play to our strengths e.g. employ Rowett-like 'ugly', 'defence first' football.
If we go down it will be a disaster for the club. Reduced revenue; our top talent e.g. Esse, Emarku, De Norre leaving and no guarantee of a quick return to the C'ship, as 'big' clubs such as Wednesday, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Charlton
Thing is, playing Rowett’s ‘ugly, defence first football’ as you call it, didn’t help us before Edwards replaced the manager who employed that style. Against the so called better passing sides in this division we got outplayed and beaten by Norwich away, Leeds at home, Swansea at home, and in the cup lost 4-0 to a second string league 1 Reading side.
With the exception of Coventry at home and Ipswich away, I think under Edwards we’ve pretty much held our own against the sides we ended up losing to. Now, was all of that just luck on our part because the opposition were having a bad day, or did we do better against them because we were playing better football and matching them? I like to think it was the latter reason rather than the former.
Of the games we lost, many were losses of no more than one goal which separated both sides, and losses like QPR and Coventry away were more to do with the players making silly individual mistakes which cost us in the end. Mistakes that Edwards is fully aware of and is trying to get the players to remove from their play.
Had Rowett stayed on, would we have improved our all round game? Personally, I would say no. We might have cut out the silly mistakes by booting the ball into row Z instead of back passing a header into the path of an opposition forward, but would his defensive football have still turned defeats into draws, and draws into wins? Based on the levels of improved player acquisitions in many Championship clubs this season (players we could never afford to buy), I would say the outcomes to these lost matches would be the same, if not significantly worse on the goal tally front.
End of the day, we can all want Edwards to set up and play the way we think he should in order to get us out of the shit we’re currently in, but short of JB ordering Edwards to change his footballing stance, he’s not going to. Him and us just have to hope that the players can turn this slump around (as they did over Christmas) and steer us to lower mid safety. The return of key players would help us tremendously and getting better, fairer referees wouldn’t hurt us either!
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Brusselslion
Well-known member
My comments embedded in your text above
Many of our team are drilled to play a certain way. Maybe because that's all they're capable of- who knows! What if the players he's selecting aren't familiar with or comfortable with what they're now being asked to do? If they can't perform it what happens then? Continue as we are and lose games or implement tactics/ strategy that suits the players best and not the manager? It seems that we're conceding goals because the defence is being to exposed.
That wasn't the case before so what do you do? Persist with something that is to our detriment or change things to something the players are more comfortable and competent with? I appreciate what Edwards is trying to do. We even seen positive change from time to time but is now really the time to try and change the style and mindset of a team that did so well playing a certain way albeit not very pretty at times? If going back to basics means we get another season in this division i'd be all for and leave the revolution until the summer.
You're not the only one that i've seen on certain platforms plainly lying about Rowett. Which is fucking daft because it's there for all to see.
It didn't help us? Well this below ( column furthest to your right) suggests that you're either a complete lunatic and or a liar. We were 5th in the table for 5 of the last 8 weeks of last season. We spent 17 of the last 20 weeks in the top 6 you absolute lunatic.
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T28ColdBlowLion
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I wouldn't say starting out before being given a job by winning the European Cup Winners Cup against the mighty Real Madrid is "starting like a cunt" that's my point. What a fkg ridiculous comparison comparing JE with Sir Alex - that their prior experience before JE being given our gig and Sir Akex being given ManU's managers role is comparable in any way whatsoever.
That's my point
T28ColdBlowLion
Well-known member
I wouldn't say starting out before being given a job by winning the European Cup Winners Cup against the mighty Real Madrid is "starting like a cunt" that's my point. What a fkg ridiculous comparison comparing JE with Sir Alex - that their prior experience before JE being given our gig and Sir Akex being given ManU's managers role is comparable in any way whatsoever.
That's
Stowwall
Well-known member
You brought Ferguson up on this thread ,no one else. And me saying he started out like a cunt was in reference to his beginning at Man Utd ,as you probably well know. I would imagine ,might be wrong , that his record as Aberdeen boss would not be common knowledge to many ,our Scottish friends on here and the odd anorak being the exceptions ,but Google is a wonderful thing.
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returnofthetankme20
Well-known member
For me and i am one of them that for years we have been needing to change the way we play if we want to progress. I have been bored shitless with our style of play. It is going to take time it needs a couple of windows, important we stay up and and build. He wont be going anywhere
T28ColdBlowLion
Well-known member
Now you're just making yourself look silly geezer. You can't assume that nobody on here knows about sir Alex when at Aberdeen and your inference that I only know this because I must have googled it is just desperate and completely wrong.
I'm stood here in Upper Dockers looking at loads of empty seats here today. Love him as you do JE ain't impressing a lot of our fans, it's not just me pal
