The Hotel End

I like JB, he loves our club, his passion is obvious in his interviews, and he's got the team playing for him...
What's not to like?
Sign him up now!!

Agreed. Obviously there's no guarantee of success, but it's hard to believe there's a better man for the job at the moment. His passion for the club could be the difference between staying up or not.

One win in 6 games.........happy to give him another couple of games but it’s a results business, one swallow and all that.
I do like JB he’s one of us.

UTC

Completely agree, looks promising and he clearly loves the club but I'd like to see continue and become a habit before offering Brady a longer term deal. We had this issue in a similar sense with Curle as every so often we would get a credible performance or result and then people wanted him to stay. Low and behold, the next 4 or so games we awful.

I would argue that although we have, so far, only had one credible result under Brady, the other 4 games haven't been awful and we could/should have picked up more points.

I totally agree. We were the width of the post away from taking 9 or 10 points from the first few games.

I wouldn't jump the gun and give him a longer contract.

So, if I were to look at it,

Good performances
Burton - Attacking from the off, an absolutely travesty of a goalkeeper mistake denies what should be a win in reality.
Ipswich - Another great team performance, once again should have taken 3 points but lacking quality up front to finish the chances we created.
Milton Keynes - Good attack threat, poor defensive performance. Unlucky to lose, should have got a point minimum from it.
Plymouth - A bit agricultural and lacking much attacking intent, but always in control after the second against a team doing well.

Poor performancess
Rochdale - First not particuarly good performance, maybe hampered by the wind and conditions.
Swindon - Confidence sapped, though conceding a unjust freekick at the end of the first half took the game away from us. Another goalkeeper howler.

I think if that was over the course of the season, considering the respective budget in the division I'd probably be satisfied with it. It's not spectacularly overachieving, it's not awful either. Results have been less forgiving than the performances.

Thought the recent results against MK and Swindon were avoidable and the losses exposed some poor judgement in selection and substitutions. There is an improvement in playing style but hardly in results. As some others have said it is perhaps too early  to give JB a free reign to end of the season. Too early approval might embarrass both Club and the Triumvirate.  I would give the Triumvirate a total of 10 games - so 4 I think to go. If the results are disappointing prior to completion of 10 games then an immediate assessment should take place. To me we are in a desperate survival battle and with respect to Jean G the selection
should be taken with care and not be rushed.  I certainly hope for better results and will support any appointment made by KT. What is Jean G interests in promoting JBrady so liberally?

What is Jean G interests in promoting JBrady so liberally?
What sort of question is that?

I think it's just the latest conspiracy theory/multiple username/agenda accusation from Evers. Smile and nod and just move on...

Only very few supporters have openly suggested that Jon Brady be appointed Manager with immediate effect. I think for reasons best known to yourself you are reading too much into the query.

Jean G said 'I like JB, he loves our club, his passion is obvious in his interviews, and he's got the team playing for him... What's not to like?  Sign him up now!!

All admirable sentiments but all a bit rhetorical. What I was trying to obtain was a bit more substance from Jean G ; like Coaching , tactics and League 1 survival plan up to the end of season. In other words what is Jean G specific interest to promote Jon Brady. Would like to share Jean G's views if possible 8)

I can’t speak for Jean but I 100% agree with his post. If it helps figure out Jean’s rationale / agenda, here is mine:
- he has a genuine passion for this club
- he has appointed 2 competent coaches who also have the aforementioned passion
- he puts NTFC success above his own ego
- he seems to man manage well
- he has them playing more on the front foot with a much more positive approach
- he doesn’t talk in footballing cliches
- he knows how to work with and develop youngsters - that’s our future
- he lives round here so commitment and work life balance pluses
- he’s not failed elsewhere and cashed in

Appoint him now until the end of the season.
STOP REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES BY APPOINTING THE LATEST DROSS THAT DROPS OFF THE  LOWER LEAGUE MANAGERIAL MERRY-GO-ROUND.
- let’s grow together, have realistic 5 year aims and achieve them.

Similar to Jean G's sentiments; all very admirable with perhaps item 5 bring relevant.  I think your use of 'rationale' is admirable and might have helped me to be more succinct. Some of your proposals appear to be personal views based on dare I say it ; Tinted Glasses. Far more hard nosed appraisal would help on team tactics, game plans for L1 survival, coaching  and the type of player required, transfer policy etc. I wouldn't mind a suggestion or two how to avoid the migration of key players at the end of season! To put it bluntly IMO personal sentiments are fine but if you support the immediate selection of a manager you may need to convince some hard bitten sceptics on here.

Ian Evatt endured a slow start to life at Bolton, winning just two of his opening 15 games in all competitions.

However, he's now got #BWFC purring, as six successive wins has propelled the club up to 6th to within six points of the summit!

Dean Austin: 7 points from 5 games
John Brady: 5 points from 6 games

The signs are very encouraging but I would give Brady a few more games to prove he can produce a sustained upturn in form and goal-scoring.

There is an obvious difference between Brady and Austin that I havent seen highlighted in comparisons of the two on here.
Brady was not involved with the first team squad before being given the caretakers role, but Austin was JFHs assistant.
Bradys starting from further back.
I'd give him more allowance in that respect and make him first team manager now, especially if that means he doesnt have to wait until the summer for a pay rise.

Spot on mate.

I think maybe you should ask Jon Brady  these questions, how on earth is anyone other than him likely to know the answers to your questions.
youve named paul Cook as your choice without giving reasons as why or any of the aforementioned  questions

Expecting an upturn in goal-scoring is like sending someone into a gunfight with a revolver full of blanks.

Paul Cook was never a realistic choice although at the time he seemed an ideal but unlikely choice. His record spoke for itself. There are enough expert and articulate Forum members who would be able to make a list of what they expect or hope for from Jon Brady. Take Drilling he would probably fill a page ;). It simply is not enough to say he has a passion for the club, interviews well, lives locally and is a nice chap; would have thought KT would be more interested in specific details. Some of these declared attributes as outlined in some posts are a given in any case!

I would add that I desperately want Brady to succeed.

His post-match interviews are the best of any manager I can remember bar Wilder,

He comes across as intelligent, tactically knowledgeable and genuinely passionate. The way he has dealt with performers like Hoskins and Mitchell suggests that he is a very good man-manager.

I would love him to succeed and like others would far rather have a successful Brady than a soulless journeyman with no connection to the club. However, as I say, he needs to prove that he can maintain a run of results and give us a genuine chance of staying up. Once he does that I would give him a contract to the end of the season with the option of extending it further.

You can do all the due diligence you like when appointing a new manager but I would say there there is little to no correlation between that and any future success. Just look at JFH we appoint him and it’s a disaster, add that failure to his record, Burton appoint him and he works wonders, with the same scenario happening with Gary Johnson. Let’s not pretend there’s any science to the process.

I think my major two concerns would be 1. We'd have to appoint a new academy head, and when he inevitably leaves (whatever happens, he'll not be here in 3 years, almost 99% certain), can he be reintigrated into it or will we lose him. 2. Recruitment. Brady, Sammo and Rico have almost zero outside connections to other teams, are they entirely reliant on scouts opinions and that standard of recruitment (Slowe, that guy who joined solely because he was John Johnsons real life mate, Courtney Herbert) pretty much killed Sammos management career.

Zero contacts...... how do you know who they know ?

Wilder
Dyche
Calderwood
Woodman
Crystal Palace
Spurs
Charlton
West Brom

Just to name a few of Sampsons contacts and that's without me knowing who he knows / has worked with and for previously.

Sampson has scouted for all 4 of those clubs BTW

Agree, Sammo is well known on the circuit.  ;)

Well, I meant more along the lines that they've all been at the club for a long time, and don't have experience coaching or managing at other locations which you get mostly when you recruit experienced managers. Not to say that this will end up 100% leading to poor recruitment, just the area I think I'd be most concerned about.

curle was well known and coached at other locations - and his recruitment this season has been utter dogs***

Remember, we've still got head of recruitment Simon Tracey, under contract for another season...

So unless KC gets another job and wants to take him with him, we're stuck with him, unless we sack him!

https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/20202/july/back_room_staff/ (https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/20202/july/back_room_staff/)

Well that’s your view but not everybody’s. The current squad are better than their current position belies. Even Manny4 has suggested this as have some others. You can’t get promotion without some decent coaching. You do need some half decent players to help tho’.

It was just a shame those half decent players that got us promoted left in the summer. The current squad has been woeful this season and for me we have probably got more points than we have deserved. There are signs though with Watson’s great form and in the last match Horsfall and Sowerby had their best games for the club, whether Brady can get goals out of our attackers is another matter!.

So nobody has a scoobies do they?

Curles recruitment was dogshit, as correctly pointed out, or we would not be in the position we are.

Stop fecking about, give this fledgling management team from now until the January window. Time to assess, time to build in the summer and have a real good go at the new season with their team, whatever division it is.

I'm actually proud of Jon, Ian and Marc, we're lucky to have them here and I cant think of anyone who I would want managing our football team right now more than these guys. Give them some time.

You can stick your merry go round of basement managers names. We don't need them.

I agree with this, lets have someone in charge who cares and understands the youth set up so can set up a philosophy for the whole club on the playing side.

I've said this before but I'm not averse to repeating myself (and it's something of a tradition on here) so I'll say it again  ;D.

Yes, we lost a lot of good players over the summer but I wouldn't write off the current batch as bad players. I actually think we've recruited players that are probably "better footballers" in some cases but Curle didn't know what to do with them once he had them. He then asked them to play in a style that they weren't used to, didn't suit them and that frankly they aren't physically equipped to play. The end result is they played badly, lost a lot of games and have basically been psychologically broken by the experience.

I think a good few of them are still technically decent players, they are just going out expecting to do badly and as a result are playing out a form of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Nowhere is this more tangible than up front. Look at our strikers -

• Rose is a proven goalscorer and is probably the least affected as a result but certainly isn't firing on all cylinders
• A bit of a moot point, perhaps, but Smith is the epitome of this. He's a decent footballer and finisher. He just isn't a targetman. We used him as a targetman and he couldn't do it. He's clearly quite a highly strung player and it's had an effect on him. I think it's a shame he was farmed out when he was because we could really use him right now
• Korboa had bags of energy and looked a real find when we first saw him but soon had that enthusiasm beaten out of him. Probably now sh1tting it because he's likely to end up back at Wickes in the summer because he looked a bundle of nerves and uncertainty in his cameo against Plymouth
• BAS - no one else seems to see it but I maintain there's a decent player in there. To come from tippy-tappy U23 stuff to Curle's blood and thunder hit and hope stuff was probably too much of an ask and has put him way back in his development. I think with a more passing approach we will get more out of him. I suspect there might be an attitude problem there that Brady is trying to address first though... Maybe he's already shot his bolt but I've a suspicion he could go on to "do a Steve Morison" (if someone buys him a decent pair of boots)

I've left Edmondson and Chuk out because they are both rookies and Miller because he's actually a tad unfortunate not to have scored a couple. Obviously Jones is a complete unknown.

My point though is has the recruitment been a problem because we've misused good players or because we've recruited square pegs for round holes?

If it's the latter, then that's Tracey's fault because he didn't get what the manager was looking for, if it's the former it's Curle's fault for squandering Tracey's (potentially) good work.

Either way, if the Brady Bunch can build up the confidence of a few of these players and play to their strengths, call me hopelessly optimistic, but I think we could end up a decent side by the end of the season. Will that turnaround come in time to get the points on the board though....?

 

Agree with this. IF we lose to Pompey on Saturday (lets face it will be a tough game) I HOPE this board isn't full of get whoever in posts.
I personally would love The Brady Bunch in charge. but as pointed out above lets give them a few more games. Obviously I hope we get a win on Saturday but I would settle for a point. UTC

Some great posts on here, keep it up lads! I too want Brady & co. to succeed, and I think they will.

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/breaking-brady-to-stay-in-charge-of-cobblers-until-the-end-of-the-season-3154398 Well this will make people happy and others undecided and some unhappy..

Would have preferred us to have appointed someone external but happy KT has finally provided some certainty at least until the end of the season. Time for us all to get behind Brady in the fight for survival. Hopefully Tuesday’s win will have given the players a huge boost!

I doubt there's a single one of us, on here or at the club, that doesn't want DB and pals too succeed. So that's that covered!  ;D

What cannot be disputed is that at this level, or the one or two below it, he's got no experience.

Im not concerned about lack of contacts. Gary Johnsons little black book didn't do us any favours. There's plenty of examples of how a lower league player has become their manager and done well. Two I can think of off the top of my head without giving it any thought are David Artell and Ainsworth.

My concern, and its looking at history, is that often when a team bottoms out of league1, the slump continues into the following season and out of the league they go. Chesterfield, Yeovil, Southend potentially this season all spring to mind. We are in a precarious position, and last time when we went with Austin, it was only our much criticised previous incumbent who stopped the rot after a 4-0 (should have been 7 or 8-0) defeat at Mansfield which was arguably one of the very worst performances in our more than recent history. At that time we had some really decent players as well, more so than we currently do. But unlike today, there was a big disparity in wages, which likely caused a dressing room split amongst other things.

As a club, we need to learn about how we went about our business last time and recovered quickly to become a promotion challenging side. Take away the bad stuff that didn't work, and put into place a structure where we could potentially bounce back at the first attempt if we do get relegated.

Personally, I wouldn't want us to stick with Brady until the Summer, go down and then look to replace, and then potentially miss out on the early summer deals because we are in a transitional period (management). A decision needs to be made a fair time before this season ends as to who our next manager is beyond this season...

If Brady was to keep us up, its a no brainer. But Id hold fire for now on any decision; my view since Curle was fired was to go external, but Brady (subs use and last 30 minutes tactics aside!!!) has impressed me. I also accept that my view, like all of our views, is subjective and that many would have agreed with him tactically etc during those games.

5 points from 6 games is no better a return than what we were getting before Curle was sacked. I do however accept that if luck had been with us and our keeper hadn't of been on speed, we'd probably have got 9 or 10 from those games! We've also played nice football, although strangely the one game where we did hoof it a fair bit more than the others, and had a fraction of the possession (32%) was the game we won! Funny old game eh.

Lets see what happens Satdee. See you on here over the weekend no doubt!



edit - above was posted 2 minutes before Brady's announcement. Good luck to him and Rico and Sammo!

I think you do some of the recruited players a disservice. Some are average and some freed of Curles tactical disciplines are beginning to look ok. I happen to think that the squad is better than originally thought! Are you waving a white flag still?

Good, I'm pleased about that. Reading between the lines on KT's comments about the medium term and Brady, Sammo and Rico all having roles at the club of some sort makes me think that they are still planning to get an external in for next season.

I guess if the Brady Bunch keep us up it's going to be very difficult for KT to not give them the full time role though.

The ball's in your court, boys, show us what you can do!!!

YAY!!!!!   ;D ;D ;D

Happy with this, good luck Jon, Rico & Sammo!  :)

Delighted with this decision ...
You couldn’t get a more committed team.
The club has done 100% the right thing by everyone .
Now let’s stay up ....

It feels like a sensible decision.

Careful now, some may start to question why you are happy! ;D

+1

Fair question  8)
To Jean G are you happy for yourself or just for smooth talking big Jon  ;D = el Saviour
Knowing full well you don't reply or comment on posts :o  Pretty wise tho'.

Makes sense for KT to announce now after the elusive win, before the Pompey game.
Once he didn’t replace him after the first few results it was never going to happen and gives the trio some immediate stability.
Fingers crossed we push on and make it difficult for KT not to extend. We have plenty of time to pull clear and survive, if Burton can (with the ‘genius’ of JFH) I’m sure we can.

Fully agree with this. I would really like to see the boys make it very difficult for KT to get rid of them at the end of the season.
I would also hope that the savings in not hiring an outsider will allow for maybe a few more out of contract fresh faces.

No, but if you start from the bottom...

I am glad that KT digested my earlier comments, you could obviously see they were directed at him personally.

This is absolutely the right thing to do and given a relatively short period of time I think the boys will mould an exciting team, they do know these divisions as well as anyone.

I didn't say the players were bad but the recruitment was, you can recruit a "team" badly, you probably have some amazing skills but I wouldn't recruit you as part of a PR team for example. That would be dogshit recruitment as we mentioned earlier.

Anyway, C'mon lads!

Totally agree..

Agree with giving Brady bunch  until end if season. It us unfortunate that we seem to play a lot better when we are playing so called better teams. We have lost and looked poor when we have played Swindon, Rochdale, Burton, Wigan etc. This is probably because of too much expectation and pressure on the team.
Let's hope that round pegs in round holes and encouragement from JB will help the players relax and play more confidently.
I do think we can stay up, 17th at end of season.

Down down, you bring me down...or I am the Resurrection?  ;)

https://youtu.be/TbU7oVz0Uq0

 ??? I hope Brady is not "off his face" on e's? 

That would be a disappointment after just getting the job.

This was a favourite with the Hotel End; bit before your time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx06XNfDvk0

At last a decision, this was totally on the back of that first elusive win and before we get turned over by Pompey, just goes to show I don’t think there was ever an intention to go external, obviously the cheapest solution.
Thomas is in full damage limitation........
I have a feeling of history repeating itself here like with Austin, time will tell.
Anyway I am fully behind the Brady Bunch

UTC

Bleedin obvious weren't it.

Good luck Jon, Ian & Marc and of course goalkeeping coach Dan Watson. We're all behind you and at long last a decision has been made.

All the best lads!

Chuffed. Finally a management team that care for NTFC as much as I do!
Well done KT. Now let’s get a realistic 5 year plan agreed and back The Brady Bunch to get us there.

Pleased about this. Whatever happens the rest of the season I think it's the only sensible decision at this point. Good luck to them and the team!

Best thing that’s happened to this football club for some time. Yeah, promotion through the playoffs was great, but it wasn’t based on form or the managerial skills of KC. It was down to the desire of the players and playing with freedom for 2 matches. JB understands that. He is a team manager - not a football manager after his own bit of glory. Good luck Jon!

Great news , lots of best wishes on here whilst biting their tongues and grimacing

Love the optimism but I don’t think we do 5 year plans. Graham Carr must be the last to hang on for that long. They tend to move up or out these days.
Let’s go for survival, Championship, lose in Championship final and then he goes to Watford and Sammo takes over.
The more likely scenario is that he lasts a few months after the next transfer window. The joys of the Cobblers merry-go-round.

Agree and hope it all goes well especially on Saturday - perhaps we can now get the fabled Managers bounce. Love the sound of 17th ..who wouldn't.

Mr Right.

Evers, I'm happy that our club is moving in the right direction, you seem to have an agenda against the flow, as and when it suits...
'Big' Jon (he's not that big), has our club at heart, and I don't need to state tactics or formations to substantiate my view...

Cheered me up loads. Good choice of song Mr Coolcat, he's hoping & praying for a Resurrection. Best of luck Brady Bunch UTC

So refreshing to hear a manager talking sense in an articulate way .
I actually now think we have a plan and a belief on the pitch .
Curle just spouted rubbish and relied on pseudo psychology .
He hid his own failings behind fraudulent philosophies .
The man was a charlatan .

Have to agree with this, no strong links, bookies odds all over the place, nevet any intent.

Fully behind them though

I am at least hoping for a win today and Charlton too! An agenda! - like some on here hope he does well😎. JB did not have universal approval certainly before Plymouth and gave reasons for doing so.  Don’t count your chickens etc

Brady .... aaahaaaaah ... saviour of the universe
Brady ... aaaahaaaah ... you saved every one of us

“ brady you have only 13 games to save the world “

he’s just a miracle
savour of the impossible

I rest my case, and raise my glass...
Still not out of the woods, but what a difference a week makes!
Momentum and confidence is everything, enjoy your weekend fellow cobbs, the future is looking a whole lot brighter than a few weeks ago...  :)

Firstly you are up very late BUT is your glass half full or empty?
 8)

Firstly, I'm a night owl, and secondly, my glass is alternating between both, and why not? Happy cobbler celebrating this morning...
Hope this finds you well...   ;)

I just watched the EFL show on Quest. They showed a clip of an interview with Brady and afterwards Colin Murray said "I absolutely love that interview. I don't support Northampton, I don't think I've ever been to Northampton, but I'd run through a brick wall for that guy."

Top stuff!

This is what we need to harness.

We should now be looking to long term stability and produce a new culture throughout the club, similarly to Dario Gradi and his time at Crewe. Allow Brady to recruit a new team for the youngsters with him, Sammo and Marc at the top.

A revolving door of managers doesn't work and with these three in place and allowed to shape the club we have an amazing chance to break the mould, I hope KT grabs it.

Top post

Top post

I don’t necessarily disagree with you, the issue is at any time is  if we lose 5 or 6 on the spin or end up deep in a relegation mire the fan base will be screaming for his head and it will be difficult for any chairman to resist in the face of the inevitable vitriol. I don’t think it’s a case of KT grabbing it but more a case of fans holding their nerve on what in football is often a bumpy ride.

For me one of the big difference between Curle and Brady is 'intent'.

KC played a lone centre forward who had to chase long balls. Midfielders had no time to join him.
Under JB he has THREE forwards with pace who are joined by an advanced midfielder, Watson. He is saying you 4 create and score goals because the two holding midfielders give you safety .

JB began by stopping the oil tanker from game one and has continued by turning it around. Now full steam ahead!

It is a pleasure to look forward to games again instead of enduring them.

Well done, so far, to the Brady Bunch.

+1

Made my concerns about Brady loud and clear. I must say though that I've been mightily impressed these last 2 games (in particular) and the teams shape and tactical approach to games is very clear and concise. At the end of the day, 10 goals from the last 5 games tells its own story, and Id argue that we could have scored many more if our strikers had been ruthless.

I still have concerns that when we go a goal down or are struggling in a game, I've not seen evidence to move away from plan A (which has worked very well versus Plymouth and Pompey) and adapt accordingly. Whilst that doesn't matter when your in front in games, it does in other matches and I think our points haul would have been far higher if earlier subs had been made etc, particular in the Rochdale and Swindon games.

That isn't a negative slight, we've been exceptional this past week, and long may it continue. Charlton's results at home this year have been dreadful, so I'm really hopeful that we can kick on tomorrow evening.

What I do like about Brady is that he oozes positivity, and seems really passionate about the job in hand and the club in general. The players have responded to that and some of their performances are now at a level that I think any reasonable person wouldn't have thought possible a short while ago.

Im not going to get carried away, there's some tough games coming up and we are still right in the sh1t but we've given ourselves a decent chance and a real platform to kick on from!

I suppose it's a different mentality for Brady in first team football where results are everything. In youth games the emphasis is encouraging young players to learn good habits, technique and team play, the performance is the most important thing which reduces the need to alter the team or style of play.
At the moment the first team is like a new group of players at the start of the season. I feel confident that JB and Co. are smart enough to make appropriate changes when the team is playing is the way they want.

He has already severely criticised some players after the Swindon game so perhaps he has the wherewithal to manage players in the right manner after a defeat?   At the moment the team are his 'revitalised' players so they are for now 'great' players. He has said he will do everything possible to ensure survival in L1.

And then looked at what happened after the Swindon game .
No justification required .

Most passionate interview since Sir Chris Wilder at Notts County...

https://youtu.be/GtelgwUu7Pw (https://youtu.be/GtelgwUu7Pw)

I would suggest that JB stays away from social media after games. If he does become permanent manager at some point it will do nothing for his mental state. Imagine if supporters were allowed in the grounds and some of the vile abuse that's dished out at times.

I like his passion though particularly when discussing Lee Collins.

I really like the guy but I am worried for his well-being when he gets this involved. I do think a modern manager needs to keep one step removed from us rascals.

I really hope this job isn’t too much for him, he seems to flick for one emotional outburst to another, John it really isn’t personal, it’s people’s opinions.
He looks a broken man.

Not sure I agree with that. Hes passionate but frustrated with what he has available. Sowerby is now out for the season as is miller. Squad players  and youth are not stepping up.

A great interview, regardless if he is or isn’t the right man for the job, we all know he is working with a dud squad!

I like him.....what a breath of fresh air after the Curle interviews.

He's getting what he can out of our squad, laying the law down to the youngsters (some of whom he coached in the U18's don't forget) and he's a very passionate guy who is wearing NTFC on his sleeve.

If we go down we go down, but at least we will go down fighting under Brady, rather than with a whimper which is where we were heading under Curle.

Totally agree!!

I don’t believe we could have brought in another management team that would have got a better points tally out of this squad post Curle? The pressure these blokes are under is immense and at times they are going to lash out, just like us? I think in the morning Jon will be the first to acknowledge the emotional roller coaster us supporters are on and perhaps with hindsight cut us some slack? Many of us have been following the club for 40 years +. We have had our hearts ripped out of our chests more times than we can count and still we keep coming back and back, only to be brought to our knees time and time again. When results go against us we will lash out, and any player that doesn’t appear to give his all will get slaughtered for it. But if you deliver as a manager or player when it matters you will become immortal and your name will be revered for ever. As a player you just have to decide if you have the minerals to try and become one of the exclusive group that make up the latter? Personally I’m just happy that Jon, Sammo and Rico are calling the shots on this run in because they genuinely love this club, and no amount of money you chuck at the job can buy that.

Great post,  can't disagree with any of it. Not many clubs get a management team that have a genuine affection for them and speak as honestly and emotively as Brady, you know he's speaking from the heart and deserves to get us out of the mire.
Whether he does or not remains to be seen, but I think we'd all love him to succeed.

A heartfelt passionate post that I can totally relate to...  Wouldn't want my club in anyone's else's hands right now, if any one can save us, it has to be the Brady bunch...

as most people know on here - i have backed JB for some some time.
That man cares like we do for this club .
Just get behind him because he is one of us .

What a genuine, great bloke he is ...

Very relatable interview and great not to listen to a mangers normal clichés.
He should stay off social media, especially when you consider the kind of stuff posted is pretty tame compared to what’s out there. It’s probably lucky that we’ve been behind closed doors!
We certainly wouldn’t get anyone else who cares as much and I’m sure has the players backing.
Getting anything out of Monday would be huge.

JeanG - support for JB cuts both ways with good results and disappointing ones.

Don't dispute it...  (and it's Akinfenwa btw)   ::)

Top Bloke...hope he can keep us up.

Akenfenwa??

Your spelling is out Evers. Adebayo Akinfenwa is the correct spelling.

He has the club at heart & i for one hope he will agree to stay as our manager for next season & beyond even if relegated. Also, yesterday he showed tactical astuteness with the 4-2-2-2 formation. I think he can keep us up, but even if not we should stick with him. IMO

You have been away a long time?   8)

This is why I have respect for the bloke. He might not deliver alll the time and given what he has to play with that is not unexpected, but you can see his passion for the club and if he can imprint this on the players we will survive.

He has something that is very rare these days in football... Honesty and integrity. That put him above many others in my book.

+1

I can only add to the above comments.

I do hope KT takes note and does the right thing. Sammo, Rico and Jon know these leagues inside out and the trio have great respect for each other and a huge desire for us to succeed as a club, as much as any of us do. This is a rare opportunity.

I can't remember us ever producing such a strongly qualified and dedicated back room team, so I hope we don't blow it and give it to some passing charlatan looking for a stepping stone.

Given some time and patience they will deliver as much if not more than any of the 29 managers I've witnessed previously.

Of course this all depends on JB and the others wanting the job on a long term basis. Maybe, they don't and are more than happy to go back to the academy at the end of the season. Out of the stress and strains of football management and the inevitable sack at some point in the future.

This is the question I would like to be asked or put forward by the club, are we ,as supporters , willing to give Brady & co time , say 2/3 seasons to create a new ethos for the club . Patience will need to given as there are bound to be bumps in the road on the way.
The thing is , as none of us can look into the future, does that mean playing eye pleasing football in league one or national league? But on the other hand can any other manager guarantee a bright future?

Inclined to agree with this.

Are they on limited time contracts? I would guess at they level at a lower league club they would be regular PAYE employees. They can't be on big wages, I would suggest around £35k for Brady and less than £30k for Sammo and Rico.
I'm just guessing here, I have no idea how much backroom staff at lower league clubs are paid or what sort of contracts they are on.

I think we should give them the time to do this, I am fed up with managers who are only here for a paycheck, at least Brady and Co. are genuine and care for the club. I want us to do as well as we can but if it means going down a division or two to build that club ethos then so be it.

Massive love in on this thread. I get it to a degree, in as much as I would love to see these three make it work. It is almost an ideal scenario.

The trouble is I’m not sure it is working. I can’t help but feel that the main change since Curle is that we try to play more football now, but we manage it only in very occasional glimpses and still do not really carry a threat or create a lot. The biggest worry is that we consequently have become a a bit of a soft touch / lightweight / easily rolled type of a side and confidence looks fragile to me.

We need to show a bit more going forwards and I’d love to see us start to develop the ability to come from behind in a game.

So, I get the sentiment, but pragmatically there are more experienced and better qualified options out there, so I’d like to see a bit more from the team before tossing Brady etc the reins for three years.

I get what you are saying, but Brady and co can only work with the tools they are given and I think this team would struggle whoever was in charge. I think it needs us to get to the end of the season and have a big clearout and bring in players that Brady & co can work with to take us forward.

So you'd be content for us to lose our league standing in order to prove we are on the right path? Unbelievable.

You might have shot your self in the foot with the last sentence 8)

they are curles players, he assembled the soft centre we now have!

we have improved our defensive record, but we still have the soft underbelly that curle left us with - thats more mental than organisational.

however, trying to play a better brand of football is all well and good, but you cant do it with hoofball players!!

recruitment in the summer is once again needed to be massive

Just read the quote you've replied to and couldn't agree with you more. dropping out of the league would be the worst thing that could happen to this club and we wouldn't be getting back in any time soon. 100 years of unbroken league membership and some people would be happy to throw it away to build some sort of club ethos. Think we should be able to do that without losing our league status, unthinkable.

Please explain what players are hoofball players?? I thought all players were footballers who adapt to the tactics any particular manager wishes them to play.

No not content, but I would take it if it meant that we had a long term vision and plan for the Club, to be honest I would go and watch the club in whatever the division they were in. Yes I want us to have league football but its more about meeting mates and enjoying the day out and enjoying the football I am watching. In the last few seasons with journeymen managers there has been precious little enjoyable football to watch.

Wow, I think your on your own there mate, dropping into non league would be an unmitigated disaster and you would do it because you want to see a ethos developed, no thanks Jon.

What do you mean by soft centre as by common consent on here that the defence had improved considerably and that includes Marshall! If you mean the front three they perhaps deserve a more appropriate nickname?

I think soft centre is harsh too, we are where we are because of a lack of ability not effort and primarily being completely blunt in attack.

What I meant by soft centre / soft underbelly, is that you watch the game and feel like they have done ok, but they actually create very little going forwards and then get picked off for a 1-0 or 2-0 defeat, often to a fairly tepid goal.

I agree that he has had no opportunity to bring his own people in and that the squad is not strong enough for the division. However, I can think of numerous times when I have seen a Cobblers team written off as hopeless, only to be revitalised and rejuvenated by a new manager. Not sure this has happened with too many this time around.

I’m not anti-Brady. I want it to work and relegation is not necessarily the end for him as far as I am concerned. I just worry that he might be a losing manager long term and I would need to see a lot more before I’d be offering out long term contracts.

How about a “saggy top”?

Manny, as mad as battery man sounds, I do have some support for his point of view.

I never thought I’d quote a biblical story on the hotel end but ...
Wasn’t there a guy that built his house on the sand and another guy that built his house on the rocks. One fell down and one didn’t- you can work out which one for yourself!

Journeymen with no loyalty, who can’t wait to work nearer home, and have no genuine passion for success is the football equivalent of building a successful football club on the sand. If we need to go backwards to build on the rocks then I for one will vote for that.

Don’t expect all to agree, especially those like JollyCobbler that think loyalty is for mugs and losers.

What if your house is built on the site of a former rubbish tip that's got methane gas problems?  :o

Don't forget that most of the bible has about as much credence as any other work of fiction, considerably less in some cases and why would not wanting to lose our long standing league status be considered disloyal?

Come in SOG to query such heretical stance😎

I didn't say I wanted us to lose our league status, what I said was I would still follow them if we did and I think we need to settle on a steady head at the helm to get us there, wouldn't you want to see a long term solution to the s*** we have had to put up with these last few years. We need an owner that wants a club with a long term plan and a manger who wants the same.

Fair enough but it wouldn’t be the person with back to back relegations.

I didn't say you did, I was replying to Jim Hall, hence the boxed "quote" from Jim Hall above my reply.

Also, yes, of course I'd like to see a long term solution to the shyte that's gone on but not at the expense of our league status that would possibly do a lot more harm than good. Many teams have dropped out and some have probably come back stronger, not many. More have dropped out and not come back and won't be coming back any time soon and we ain't going to get a Ryan Reynolds either.

Exactly!

The other major consideration is budget .
We are simply not paying the going rate in wages for this division .
That may be prudence on behalf of the Exec team and it may stand us in good stead during these hard times but we will never truly compete or hold on to our good players if we pay below the accepted levels .
Watch again at the end of this season as the very few better players go for more money elsewhere .

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56687470

Maybe something to consider for those thinking of appointing an up and coming non league manager in the close season, especially if we went down this year?

Beware the freefall.

Vastly different situations, Molesley started under a transfer embargo and only with youngsters to work with

What's your thoughts on a new gaffa ntfclad? You think we're still going down the non league route or will they just give it to Brady no matter what division we end up in?

if we go down by a point , would you keep this management team on next season ?

I prefer the question, which management team would be an improvement on this one next season and why?

Joey Barton was mentioned on here before he took over at the Gas, looking at Saturdays game, I thought that despite probably having a better squad of players than us, Rovers were no better than us at all, in fact I think we could lay claim to have been better than then. So does that make Brady a better manger than Barton?
   We could put this in the context of "are we better to get an experienced man in" ? Barton. an experienced manager, failed to get enough out of an arguably better squad to beat our squad managed by a "rookie" manager.
   I would agree that Brady hasn't got everything right, that was never going to happen, but I think he's made our defence reasonably solid despite having an extremely limited goalkeeper, and hasn't done anything stupid like leaving our best player on the bench so he can watch and alter the game later. He's struggling to get goals from our front players but I think that would be very difficult for anyone.
    We have beaten Oxford and Portsmouth recently, both managed by experience men so what conclusions does that draw ?

And what about all of those 'lesser' sides we have failed miserably against? If we reach the end of the season still failing to pick up any points away from Sixfields, would you still consider him the right man for the job?

No he isn’t, he’s the cheap option so I fully expect him to be give the poison chalice of NTFC next season, high expectations on a Thomas budget.

Didn't most on here congratulate him for holding season ticket prices for the 10th year in a row? And now want a higher playing budget despite having to hand out refunds to a lot of supporters for this season.
Can't have everything. Either no playing budget or reasonable season tickets

Yes.

Good question. I would like to hear opinions on this, I would say at this level, on our budget, there isn't one.

We heard Joey Bartons name mentioned, Carton is right. Take Grant McCann as an example, fired from Pooh for being too "rookie," hated at Hull last season now you could argue Pooh were a bit premature? Need they have ever bothered sacking DF twenty times before? it's all nuts!

I would like to see what this trio do with the team given the chance.

Well Jolly what do you think of Chucks, Jonesy and Marshall’s little cameo’s last Saturday?

This is the big problem isn't it ? At our level there are no "Guaranteed success" managers so what do we do, bring in another experienced man, probably looking to top up his pension, an "up & coming" man from non league but he won't have league experience or stick with staff who are NTFC men through and through? With no guarantee's on anyone.
    I don't want another KC type off the lower league managers roundabout, I would be reasonably happy with a non league up and coming manager or stick with the NTFC at heart men we have at the moment.
    But as I said, there are no guarantee's with anyone .

I thought it was interesting, especially given Brady's repeated statements about "the players need to show in training to have a chance of playing". While in an ideal world I understand (and largely agree with) this viewpoint, I would say we are at the stage where chances have to be taken. Marshall can be a bit in-and-out, but I think he has to start because we need some creativity. I would also start Jones on friday, too. As for Chucks; I'm not sure, but if Brady doesn't start him then I'd definitely like to see him get a full 45 minutes second half.
I see enough with these three to edge us towards some unexpected results.

In that scenario 100% no. Given he couldn’t beat Burton, Rochdale, Swindon, Wimbledon or Bristol Rovers.

Did you think they were going to moan about the prices being frozen? We will be playing in a lower league next season against footballing icons like Harrogate and Barrow FFS!
Putting the season tickets up wouldn’t have been a clever idea.

I'd give Brady a 12 month contract and keep him until Xmas if it is going pear shaped. Who else are we likely to attract? Another journeyman talking in clichés.
The only thing grating a little with JB is his increasing talk of 'people are saying this' etc. He's been playing to an empty house so needs to toughen up a little and must be getting his feedback from Facebook....or places like this. I'm not sure how he'd cope with some of the sh*t that gets shouted at the dugout from row C.

I get the calls for a short term contract of a season for managers. Trouble is that makes your bloke a top target if the team does well? Either way, please god let’s have some continuity and stick it out with someone. The endless revolving door of mediocrity to crisis and back again is nonsense, expensive and tiresome.

I think the pragmatic approach of a short contract far outweighs the cost of these two/three year deals, especially at our level. If he is doing well you can extend mid way through. If he is doing well on a longer contract someone will pay you compo to nab him anyway, assuming they wanted to go. I dread to think how many managers we have paid over the years who were no longer actually employed by us.
I'd always go the short term route with some performance related incentive bonuses. 

At this level the chances of keeping a successful manager wanted by bigger clubs, under a long contract or not is zero. So the length of the contract comes down to potential compensation for having your manager pinched v’s potential pay offs for sackings, I would imagine most if not all teams sack managers far more often than have them leave for bigger clubs, so for me short contracts make much more sense.

To me the situation is very clear. If we stay up keep Brady, if we go down get someone new in. Brady has done ok as manager but I wouldn’t say the improvement has been that great to warrant staying in the job should we go down. Whether that be by one point or not. As for the question of who could we get in as manager who would be better than Brady. No one knows the answer as you can never predict how well any manager is going to get on. However what I would say is there are managers out there with much better records and CVs than Brady. That doesn’t guarantee success of course, but the narrative some have pushed which is that there is no one out there better than Brady is a ridiculous one. In my humble opinion of course  ;D

JB says Saturday was another point gained - no, it was 2 points lost. If that is how he views a home draw with another bottom 6 team he does not fill me with confidence.

Bit harsh WSOAP - it at least kept us out of the bottom at until Friday. If there is any criticism he keeps Playing Edmondson without Marshall for a bit of quality?  Also the subs could come on sooner. I suspect that the draw whilst not ideal was a better for us than Rovers?

The draw was worse for us, we were at home and if we hoped to stay up these were the games we should have been winning.

You could name numerous games where we failed to pick up enough points. But the game against Wimbledon where we didn't turn up, gave away a sloppy goal and then missed a penalty with the last kick of the game has in my opinion proved crucial to the mess we find ourselves in now.

Unfortunately Brady hasn't done anything to help matters at all, far too negative,  sets the side out not to lose when winning is far more important.  Talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.

Sounds like a reincarnation of KC  :o

I tend to agree. I like the guy but all his talk is about really going for games when in reality, particularly away, we just try not to lose. MK away changed his outlook sadly.

It’s easy to talk and say ‘we’re going to always have a go’ until the pressure comes. When Brady took charge as caretaker there wasn’t really anything to lose as such. He got a pass from a large section of the fan base on the basis that ‘it couldn’t really get any worse than Curle’. Once the expectations start to rise, the pressure quickly follows and all of a sudden that bravery often goes out of the window. The novelty of playing a certain way also wears off quite quickly if results don’t follow.

Am talking about the here and now! Not if
Consider this; we are one point behind Wigan whilst BR are now 3pts and all have played 41games! BR may need two games to catch Wigan? All I said that we were in my opinion slightly better off than BR after Sat game. Of course it would be better with a win ::)

TBF Curle had completely lost the plot and had to go, what followed was a debacle, Thomas waited until we won a game, 5th  attempt I think before announcing Brady as manager till the end of the season.
If you look at THIS seasons stats KC has a win ratio of 23% while Brady’s is 26%.
Furthermore if we take those win % for the season adding in the draws Keith would have amassed 43pts while Brady would have 49pts.
Unfortunately this is the theoretical totals and doesn’t take into account the truly awful squad we had prior to Sheehan, Jones and Kioso coming on board.
All in all is a 26% win ratio enough, are we satisfied with the style of play etc?
There’s isn’t a shadow of doubt we will be in L2 next season and I fully expect Thomas to cut the wage bill accordingly so don’t expect a sudden jump in form because we go down.

Wigan have 3 winnable home games against Crewe, Burton and Swindon, if they win 2 of those we need 8 points to finish above them.
Wimbledon after only winning 1 game in 10 (against us) have now won 2 and scored 8 in the process. They have 4 home games including Swindon Rochdale and Oxford and visit Ipswich who they beat 3-0 last night.If they only get 5-6 points we would need another 8-9.
Barring these 2 having a sudden collapse and us going on a run (unlikely) we are down.

Agreed, again a unmitigated disaster from our stay away chairman.

Some very harsh posts here.

I myself called Brady 'risk averse' on another thread.

However, the revelations about Marshall's hamstring problems cast his recent tactical caution in a different light.
Curle left Brady with ridiculously limited options in terms of creativity and assists; the few remaining options (Sowerby, Miller and Marshall) are now injured.

The one area where I would like to see him taking more of a risk is by selecting Jones (and possibly Chucks) up front, but as I've said before: changing the strikers in this team is to some extent like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic - largely pointless unless the fundamental problem of creating chances is addressed. The caveat I'd throw in is that of all the strikers we have, Jones and Chuks look to be the most capable of creating chances for themselves through their movement, something which we might have to turn to if Marshall's injury persists. I think Brady has largely selected Rose/Edmondson for their superior pressing ability and workrate in comparison to Jones/Chucks - this was probably the correct strategy in games such as Shrewsbury at home but he needs to start gambling a bit more now.

Overall, I would say that Brady has played his ridiculously limited deck of cards just about as well as he possibly could so far. For me questions about his style of play and win ratio are all largely moot at this point because he hasn't been operating with anything resembling a proper League One squad (thanks to the piss poor recruitment of his predecessor). On the plus side, I would argue that he has:

1. Got the players working hard and fighting.
2. Transformed the defence from a basket case into a decent League-One-quality unit. In fact, the core unit of Horsfall and Jones with McWilliams screening them could provide the spine of a very decent side next year (providing that the latter signs a new contract).

I understand the pessimism on here, but if I were Brady I would be largely ignoring results elsewhere and focusing on what is under our control. We have 5 football matches with 15 points to play for. If we won three of these I would be pretty confident of avoiding the drop. Teams have pulled off greater escapes than that in the past and it is still achievable. As I keep saying, no one gave us a prayer of going up last year after the Cheltenham home leg debacle. KC showed last year that if you get it right psychologically and tactically then you can upset the odds.

At the very least, what I want to see is some fight.




 

Cracking post Bungle, especially the last paragraph mate.

Yes, very good post. We've still got no chance of staying up though. Who's to blame? Is it Curle, for getting in a load of dross.
Was Edmonson really one of his main targets in the transfer window, or was that just spin, hoping he'd come good because the budget was so s***e. Was the budget s***e though? Who knows, none of us that's for sure. If it was, then KT has to take the brunt of the blame considering we got £1000000 plus for Goode and it seems next to none of it was spent on transfer fees.
But, hey ho. At least most people are happy we've still got a team to support and as long as we can finish 22nd or higher next season we'll be ok in our s***ty little ground with no ambition and no chance of anything exciting happening any time soon.

Who decides what a "s***e" budget is?

What would people say was an acceptable budget for this season?

Good questions GPC, got any answers?? 

I don't have any clue what an acceptable budget would be or whether ours was s***e or not  and I know we're in the middle of a pandemic, but most of the rest of league 1 seem to have done enough to maintain their status. We couldn't even match Gillinghams financial clout to hang on to a striker who's had a very good season, although, admittedly I wasn't too fussed if he stayed and if he had probably wouldn't have been as successful as he has been.

What I was getting at is that even if there was a figure.....and there is...... who decides whether its "s***e" or not? How do we know how it compares to the rest of the League? What are we judging it against?

We don't know how much Gillingham offered compared to how much we did, we don't know if they offered more and that has put them into more debt than it would have done had he not joined.....

Figures mean little when taken out of context and in isolation.

If I gave you a figure, you'd decide whether it was s***e or not....and the next person might not be in agreement with your assessment.....and so on!

I totally get you, but if you had all the figures of all the teams, would ours come closer to the highest figure or lowest/s***tiest
figure. It doesn't really matter what the figure is, it's whether it's comparable to our s***tiest rivals and whether it was spent wisely.

I would take some convincing that Curle had a mid table league one budget but decided to assemble a mid table league two side, what was he doing with the surplus?

When KC came in September 2018 we had 7 points from 10 games. Taking over DA's jigsaw he immediately turned the season around and from the remaining 36 games achieved 54 points ( equivalent to 69 points over a full season).
Since JB has taken over KC's jigsaw the uptick in results has been miniscule, KC had 24 points from 26 games and JB has 16 points from 15 games (equivalent to 49 points over a full season) so still relegation form.
Personally I like the fact we have 3 ntfc men in charge but it is a results business and the product on show has not been good. If there is no suitable experienced manager available it may be worth taking a punt on an up and coming manager from the National League or a younger man employed as a number 2 at another club.

I agree with your conclusion but let's not forget when KC came in we were in league 2 and now under Brady we're in a much harder league 1.

So basically, they've both come up wanting in league 1. Is it the managers. the players or the man/men at the top?

When KC came in we had some good players (Crooks, Van Veen) who were playing badly in league 2.
When JB took over we had some poor players playing badly in league1, different scenario completely.

If every team in the league had identical budgets, six would be looking at promotion and six would be fighting against relegation, so other factors are at work. Good luck plays a big part with injuries, refereeing decisions and of course recruitment. In the case of the latter, the better the recruitment team the less luck you need. Last season the recruitment was largely good(e) this season largely crap and so we are where we are!

I’ve no reason to doubt what KC said, he said the same about Miller and there was definitely talk of that prior to the season starting. Obviously like you say any talk about budget is just speculation, you can believe it’s s***e, for me I’m fairly confident it’s not in the bottom 4 so there was no reason other than poor recruitment for KC so have assembled this woeful relegation fodder team.

Yes, but who's fault is it, the managers, the players or the man/men at the top? The six near the top have mainly,  got more money and spent, budgeted and recruited wisely, the six near the bottom haven't and luck, injuries, refereeing decisions even themselves out over the season, whether you've got a "football man" at the top or not.

I've never believed that luck evens it's self out over a season. When you're flying high every bit of good fortune goes for you, when you're where we are lady luck laughs at you.

Or could it just be that we're not very good and can't score? But who, apart from us fans, is bothered?

I would like either Paul Tisdale or Kenny Jackett if we end up back in league 2 next season. Jackett probably wouldn't want the job but Tisdale always has teams at the right end of the table when he managed Exeter and MK.

If we stay up (by some miracle) it would be hard not to offer the job to Brady and co. If he wants it though, I still have my doubts.

Maybe not but you can not complain when there is little to no investment if fans are more than happy, and in some cases seemingly demanding, prices are held

I'm not sure that ticket prices come into the argument when you consider that season ticket revenue accounts for just 10% of yearly turnover, and this season only amount just under half of the Charlie Goode transfer fee.

Holding or even raising the prices would have a negligible effect on any transfer budget.....

So have we only got 1650 ST holders ? I thought we had over 3,000  :o

More the case that we have a high proportion of concessionary season tickets.... and the total figure is in between your two quoted figures!  ;)

Apart from the bottom 4 !!!

Not really, all of the bottom 4 can still escape, no one has been cut adrift.
With our run in and injury list though I’m not holding my breath!

Like I said, MOST of the rest of league 1.

Give JB a chance if he wants it. Let him bring in his own players for next season. He doesn't stand a chance with what he's inherited, but I believe he will be competitive next season and we will play better football. 

I wouldn't say that we have suffered from bad luck particularly this season. Unless you count signing a strike force who couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo back luck. 
On their day the team seem capable of putting a good performance together but that goes for just about any professional team. We just don't do it very often.

No idea where we sit on injuries this season compared to others but if we have suffered more than most then that seems to be a permanent fixture as long as I can remember. Some of our injuries have probably done us a favour!  ;D

The formula is simple. We need a squad of good players and a good manager and a good coach. It doesn't matter what it costs.

recruitment has been a major issue .
It has been appalling .
If the head of recruitment is still here next season i will be amazed .
None of the forwards recruited would get into a conference side and the non league players are exactly that.
Get the recruitment right and it all looks different .

Yes, I like your well though out holistic approach, nothing can stop us now.

You make it sound so easy. I can't remember anyone complaining about our recruitment last season, in fact people were saying what a difference Simon Tracey was making compared with Melville.

The big difference now is we've moved up a division and instead of being a biggish team in league 2 we're now a smallish team in league 1. Hence, making recruitment that much harder. KC stated this on numerous occasions that we'd missed out on our main target.

We always have this problem when we move up a league and I don't know what the answer is. Even when we do splash the cash (under JFH) it didn't do us any good.

Our player budget seems to have generally been ok for League 2 but not enough to sustain a position in League 1. Calderwood and Wilder knew this and jumped ship as soon as we were promoted. Curle didn't get the opportunity to move on, so was stuck with the us and the same budget the new League One managers had in the past, with similar consequences.

Don’t agree with this at all. Calderwood & Wilder were headhunted by much bigger clubs (Forrest & Shef U) who would have offered more in wages and more resources. Is our budget in the bottom 4 in the division? Highly unlikely, is our budget less than mid table Accrington? massively unlikely. If our manager finished the season in the same position our budget is compared to other teams, we would stay up, they don’t even need to overachieve.

Why is it highly unlikely that we have a bottom 4 budget? What are you privy to that makes you so certain of this?
If turnover has anything to do with budget then Accrington would appear to be over performing, but that has little to do with our own league position relative to our budget.

I just think it’s more likely that Accrington, Rochdale, Wimbledon and Crewe have a smaller budget than us as opposed to the other view that any manager was doomed to failure and had no way to complete with these four mighty titans.

1. We paid transfer fees for Rose, Sowerby and Ashley-Seal at a time when a good number of League One and League Two clubs spent zilch due to pandemic belt-tightening. I would suspect that Mills is on a decent wage given that he was Forest Green's captain and top scorer.

That sounds like a pretty competitive budget to me. I'd be surprised if the likes of Accrington, Gillingham, Crewe and AFC Wimbledon or Wycombe (last year's play-off winners) had spent more.

2. TeachersPet is right: recruitment isn't an exact science and even geniuses like Sir Alex have the odd Djemba-Djemba moment.

However, a hall-mark of a decent manager is that the diamonds outweigh the duds. Curle has signed five strikers this season: Rose, Ashley-Seal, Edmondson, Miller, Nuttall. Only one of them (Rose) has scored a legitimate goal! A look at their respective track records suggests that this shouldn't have come as a glaring surprise.

If he had saved his money, offered Oliver a two-year contract with a pay rise and signed a proper winger/creative midfielder instead of messers Seal, Edmondson and Nuttall then we might be having a very different conversation right now.

(For the record, I don't believe Vadaine would have scored 16 goals for us, but I do believe he would have scored 8-10 and assisted more with his hold-up play.)


 



 

I would be amazed that pre Jan we didn’t have a bottom four budget, post Jan it’s probably in the bottom six.
Looking at the squad the likes of Racic, Korboa, Harriman, BAS,Warburton will be on peanuts compared to the top two thirds of L1.
The majority of the loans we have got in have been all injured, Nuttall, Miller, Sheehan, Jones it’s as bad as it gets.

Paying a fee for BAS is taking the p1ss.

teams like wimbledon , MK and Gillingham are paying their best players 3 or 4 times more than our best players .
Teams at the top are paying players 10 times the amount of ours or more .
We are bargain basement in this league and that is putting it kindly .

A couple of weeks ago Poohborough drew 1-1 with Sunderland. The goalscorers were Dembele and McGeady, two players on a completely different planet to our squad, says it all really.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. I don’t remember too many people being that disappointed that Oliver had left back in the summer. I don’t think many (if any) on here can genuinely tell me that back in the summer they believed Oliver would score 10 league goals in League One after scoring 4 in 30 appearances in League Two. Many of the people who are now saying Curle should have given him what he wanted definitely weren’t saying that at the time.

Interesting site..... would be interesting to know how they get their figures though. They claim to be accurate and someone has put a lot of work into this.....

https://salarysport.com/football/

We (according to these figures) have a higher budget than Wimbledon, Accrington, Crewe, Rochdale and Gillingham.

Our quoted wage budget is just over £2.4m a year.......... however I know that figure is somewhat higher than the figure given out by the Cobblers Chief Exec.......our two top earners on this list though are Racic and Nuttall, neither of whom were our players but probably are earning what is suggested with their parent clubs...... take those two off and you're not far off at all from our true figure!  ;)

So if those quoted figures are correct and you remove Racic and Nuttall we have the fourth lowest budget.
But I dare say other clubs will have simialr anomalies?
Three Fleetwood players supposedly earning 15k+. Obscene.

Good post Bungle - that pretty much sums up our current predicament in front of goal.
But now with Miller and Jones being out - what’s the answer?
We don’t even have any set pieces up our sleeve!

Watson going on another goal mini spree?
Lots of dodgy pens?
Chuck finally clicking and coming out the traps like Hussain Bolt on Bisacodyl?

One thing I do know (I think!?) it ain’t gunna revolve around Rose, BAS and Edmundson!

i cannot speak about the overall budget but i can tell you that all of those clubs mentioned have individual players on at least double or treble the money of ours .
Loan players wages can be distorted because they are largely often mainly paid by the parent club .
i am afraid we simply do not compete at the table , made worst by the inadequate scouting of simon treacy.

Absolutely, in a nutshell, we have the 4 lowest budget in L1 and will most likely finish just below that.
Therefore Brady is in a no win situation, not sure what Thomas expected?

I think that our Chairman thought that there would be teams going to the wall due to Covid and that would keep us in League 1

Interesting that Arnold is on £600 pw, Mitchell must be 3.1/2 times better because he is on £2100 pw.

That's the one that made be think it might not be that accurate, I cant see Arnold coming her for £600, he was under contract at another League 1 club. If Derby are not paying £2000 of Mitchells wages we are being done ! 

The becoming all too common, worthless rhetoric from Jon Brady, regarding tonight's derby.
His rhetoric rarely matches the on field activities...worrying!

Aren’t we still paying Nuttall’s wages for the rest of the season despite him being sent back?
I’m not convinced about the figures from that site especially as has been mentioned the loan fees which would be partly funded by parents clubs.
I do find it interesting that on that site our budget isn’t in the bottom 4 and it’s only after the two players wages you mention are taken out it is, you caveat that by saying other clubs would have similar anomalies meaning if similar corrections were made it wouldn’t stay in the bottom 4 yet there are other posters now using this 4th bottom statistic as if it’s fact!.

The salary page has Vadaine Oliver on £1500 , so what did we offer him ? Remember he could commute from Sheffield to Northampton which is got to be worth a few hundred a week.

So , you want him to say :
“ we have players that are mid division 2 standard , our forwards can’t finish a sentence , the keeper is a liability but the lads are trying as hard as they can . Let’s hope we win a corner and score a goal with a gust of wind “
Because that’s the truth and everyone knows it

But then we got Danny Rose on £2400* and paid a transfer fee.

*Based on the same salary page which I’m not convinced on it’s accuracy.

So true

Used the Wayback Machine from 2020. According to that Oliver was on £500 a week. I just can't see anyone commuting to work for that sort of money.

Active Squad:
Player Name   Weekly Wage   Yearly Salary   Age   Position   Nationality
Andrew Williams   £3,500   £182,000   32   ST   England
Chris Lines   £3,400   £176,800   33   M C   England
Jordan Turnbull   £3,100   £161,200   24   D C, DM   England
Lloyd Jones   £3,000   £156,000   23   D C   England
Mark Marshall   £2,900   £150,800   33   AM RL   Jamaica
Alan McCormack   £2,500   £130,000   35   D R, DM   Ireland
Joe Martin   £2,100   £109,200   30   D L   England
Nicky Adams   £1,900   £98,800   32   WB/AM R   Wales
Ryan Watson   £1,700   £88,400   25   AM C   England
Sam Hoskins   £1,600   £83,200   26   AM R, ST   England
Scott Wharton   £1,600   £83,200   21   D LC   England
Charlie Goode   £1,400   £72,800   23   D C   England
Harry Smith   £1,200   £62,400   24   ST   England
James Olayinka   £1,100   £57,200   18   M C   England
Matty Warburton   £900   £46,800   27   AM RC, F C   England
Michael Harriman   £900   £46,800   26   D RL   Ireland
David Cornell   £870   £45,240   28   GK   Wales
Paul Anderson   £800   £41,600   30   M R   England
Reece Hall-Johnson   £700   £36,400   24   D RC   England
Shaun McWilliams   £620   £32,240   20   M C   England
Steve Arnold   £600   £31,200   29   GK   England
Callum Morton   £580   £30,160   19   AM L, ST   England
Vadaine Oliver   £500   £26,000   27   ST   England
Morgan Roberts   £480   £24,960   18   AM RLC, F C   England
Camron McWilliams   £430   £22,360   18   D/WB/M R   England
Sean Whaler   £420   £21,840   18   D/AM R   England
Bradley Lashley   £390   £20,280   18   GK   England
Jack Newell   £310   £16,120   18   M C   England
Jay Williams   £310   £16,120   18   D C   England
Scott Pollock   £270   £14,040   18   AM RC   England
Ryan Hughes   £230   £11,960   18   D LC   England
Caleb Chukwuemeka   £120   £6,240   16   AM R, ST   England
Dylan Berry   £120   £6,240   16   GK   England
Ethan Johnston   £120   £6,240   17   ST   England
Ewan Clark   £120   £6,240   16   M C   England
Haydn Price   £120   £6,240   17   M C   England
Jacob Ballinger   £120   £6,240   17   D/WB/M L   England
Jordan Fowler   £120   £6,240   17   D RC   England
Josh Flanagan   £120   £6,240   16   D C   England
Lewis Gilbert   £120   £6,240   16   ST   England
Lewis Patching   £120   £6,240   17   GK   England
Liam Cross   £120   £6,240   16   M C   England
Max Dyche   £120   £6,240   16   D C   England
Richie Bailey   £120   £6,240   16   D R   England
Ryan Smith   £120   £6,240   17   D/WB L, M LC   England
Tom Scott   £120   £6,240   16   AM C   England
Urijah Gordon-Douglas   £120   £6,240   17   ST   England

Well he was playing for us and living in Sheffield last season, maybe he travelled with KC ?

They paid his travel.

I think what is fact is that we have one if not the worst squad in the League, now if we had a bigger budget why wouldn’t you buy better players?
Couple the poor squad with the injuries and we will finish bottom, wait and see.
A mid table budget would have seen us stay up.

Why arent we bottom now?

I fully agree about the standard of players this year, but even with the Chinese money a decent budget last time we got relegated, so there is no guarantee that would not have happened this season too. This year Accrington have proved being probably the smallest team and with no wealthy benefactor that it is still possible to recruit well and get a decent league position.

No, I'd like a bit more from the training, tactics and passion on the field to mirror the rhetoric!

Not necessarily, we were worse the season we had that 'Chinese money' and spunked it on stupid wages for the likes of Ash Taylor and van Veen.

Budget is obviously a big factor, but scouting and recruitment are more important to get the most out of it. It's why smaller clubs than us are able to consistently over compete.

I sincerely hope that the squad selected do not have the mindset of some on here ::) As long as we perform creditably that is ok with me! It has come to the point were the allegiance of some on here appears very doubtful at best.

The problem is though, we haven't performed creditably on a fair few occasions this season, that's why we are where we are.
I think the allegiance of most on here isn't in doubt nor do most have an anti club agenda!! Most of us are just realistic and can see that there are major problems, not just on the pitch. I think we could be embarrassed tonight. I hope you can come on here later and ram my words down my throat, I really do.

The problem has been and always will be, No ambition, we yo yo between the bottom two divisions because every time we go up, we try and survive with journeymen and loanees.

When was the last time we had a 20 goal a season strikers or even two that hit double figures, i stand back ready to be enlightened

Aidy Boothroyd is available again.

Despite the fact that numerous managers and even our current Chairman have said we wouldn't go down this route again.....

goalscorerwise....(league goals only)

2020/21   Watson 7, Hoskins 5
2019/20   Hoskins 8, Williams 8
2018/19   Williams 12, Van Veen 7
2017/18   Long 9, Ash Taylor 6, O'Toole 6
2016/17   Richards 10, O'Toole 10
2015/16   Richards 15, O'Toole 12
2014/15   Richards 18, Toney 8
2013/14   Carter 5, Norris 4
2012/13   Akinfenwa 16, Nicholls 7, Langmead 7
2011/12   Akinfenwa 18, Jacobs 6, Berahino 6
2010/11   McKenzie 10, Holt 7
2009/10   Akinfenwa 17, Gilligan 8, McKay 8
2008/09   Akinfenwa 13, Jackman 8
2007/08   Hubertz 13, Kirk 8
2006/07   McGleish 12, Kirk 7
2005/06   McGleish 17, Kirk 8
2004/05   McGleish 13, Smith 10
2003/04   Smith 11, Richards 9
2002/03   Gabbiadini 12, Stamp 4, Asamoah 4
2001/02   Forrester 17, Hope 6
2000/01   Forrester 17, Savage 8, Howard 8
1999/00   Corazzin 14, Howard 10
1998/99   Corazzin 16, Howey 6
1997/98   Seal 12, Freestone 11
1996/97   Grayson 12, Cooper 10

Thats as far as Soccerbase goes!

Prior to that Bobby Barnes scored 20 in all competitions in 1989/90, and the season before that Tony Adcock scored 20 in all competitions too..... the last Cobblers player to score 20 league goals in a season would therefore be Richard Hill in 1986/87

The last Cobblers player to score 20 goals in a season in all competitions was Scott McGleish in 2005/06 (24 total, 17 of them in the league), and he is the only "20 goal a season striker" we have had in the last THIRTY YEARS

Ok its so easy then we need to sign Jamie, Bayo and Scott for next season and we may score a few

That is absolutely staggering.  No cobblers player has scored 20 league goals for over 30 years, although a fair few ex Cobblers
have. Possibly more unbelievable is our 2 highest scorers in a promotion season had 8 apiece. Must be some sort of record.

We signed a striker from a premier league academy who was apparently banging in the goals at that level. Unfortunately it didn’t pay off on this occasion but on principle I wouldn’t be against making that kind of signing.
In Danny Rose we paid a fee for a striker who was many on here were hailing a natural goal scorer. Again it didn’t work. I kind of fail to see what else we can do unless our recruitment is spot on, as player who really is a proven goal scorer at league 1 level is going to be snapped up by bigger teams and unless we get a billionaire owner willing to throw away multi millions of pounds each year that type of proven player is way out of our range.
The truth is we need to the type of signing someone like Mullin at Cambridge who’s record never remotely suggested he was capable of what he has this season, or say a Charles at Accrington who they signed from Southport, which is all down to great recruitment.

no player is on that money at this club .
The information is wrong .
Loan players are different -they get paid in main by the parent club .
Look at the cars in the car park .

The last player to score 20 league goals in a season for us came from a non-league club for no fee (or maybe a bag of balls)?

It wasn’t just him some amazing recruitment went into getting that team together.

Oh dear.

Andy Boothroyd is available again. The football wasn't brilliant but we had a good home record and he did get us to Wembley, we might even get Clive Platt back.

Living the dream.

The truth is you need to get lucky. It's the same with all player recruitment, just think JJOT and Ricky Holmes.

And he may bring Bayo back... or not. ;D

A fine result, albeit too little too late (maybe)...
Who'd of thought Wigan and AFCWimbledon would both win 4 on the trot?
But... Whatever, JB has had a few remarkable results, and I believe he remains our best choice going forward...
Just hope he wants it!!

Well if we do change manager at the end of the season and we want a man whose team play attacking, expansive football I'vefound just the man. His teams last 4 games have featured 22 goals with 3 wins and scorelines of 3-0, 3-4, 5-2 and 4-1. He has a wealth of experience of division 2 with a promotion on his cv and will be out of contract at the end of the season. He is currently managing Oldham.

But some on here derided the man at every opportunity. It was almost an agenda ridden campaign. What about one or two on here refusing to go to home games because of the style of football. In the end it was his last few results against the then current bottom 4 which did for him! If Oldham give him a contract and they have a successful 21/22 season some of us will look a bit silly and have a gross misunderstanding on football management trends. Some weeks ago Melly suggested that a change of Manager was unwise! Remains to be seen if he was right or not,

How well KC does next year will prove nothing, he showed with us that he’s capable of signing great players like Morton & Goode then in another window nothing but dross.

Don't worry, when Oldham's pre existing team are eventually dismantled and re-coached by KC, these results will turn into 0-1 losses with 27% possession and 1 shot per game on target. PS I don't mind looking a bit silly, perhaps this post will be lost by then.  ;D ;D ;D

From the horse's mouth (Ryan Watson). The new manager 'has installed the belief in us and confidence to play'. I would also add that the players can now probably understand what on earth the manager is talking about.

I think you have to give the players a bit more credit, virtually everyone knows bullsh*t when they hear it.

Ok so I have become somewhat annoyed recently by the suggestion that there is little to separate the performance of Keith Curle and Jon Brady so far.

So I looked at their records in the league this season:


Our record under Curle:

Played: 26
Won: 6 - 23.1%
Drawn: 6 - 23.1%
Lost: 14 - 54.8%
Points won: 24 - 30.7% of available 78 points

Goals conceded: 40 - 1.53 conceded per game
Goals scored: 20 - 0.77 scored per game


Our record under Brady:

Played: 17
Won: 5 - 29.4%
Drawn: 4 - 23.5%
Lost: 7 - 41.1%
Points won: 19 - 37.2% of available 51 points

Goals conceded: 20 - 1.17 conceded per game
Goals scored: 18 - 1.06 scored per game


Look at the difference in goals scored and goals conceded under Brady! We are scoring more, and our defence is actually pretty good even when compared to the rest of the division.

But most importantly, we are picking up 6.5% more available points over Brady's term than Curle's.
If you were to calculate what Brady's points total would be by this stage of the season - i.e. after 43 games played - then you would discover that we would be above Wigan (19*43/17=48.05) on 48 points.
If you take the same logic with Curle's record (24*43/26=39.69) we would be sitting on 39 points, although I don't think it would have even been that many given how they were playing towards the end of his tenure.

And this is with a poor squad with very little strength in depth made harder by the number of injuries of late. Brady has had to make do with the tools available to him. Even more so, he picked up this team when it was at rock bottom after that dismal defeat at home to Wigan, and his massively improved the playing style in my opinion.

Even if you don't agree that it has become a more enjoyable watch in this team - which I can scarcely believe that someone could - then you have to acknowledge the statistical turnaround in this time. Playing-wise, I think Brady has created a very solid defensive spine of the team with Horsfall and Jones improving no end under him. He has also recognised that Bolger shouldn't be anywhere near the starting XI. Another thing that I haven't seen too often on here, the midfield for the first time actually seems have clearly defined individual roles: McWilliams the ball winner, Morris as the playmaker, and Watson as the more advanced goal-scoring midfielder supporting attacks. If Mickel Miller (who I think is a fantastic player) was injury free all season I'm certain our points and goals tallies would higher as he offers pace and more importantly dribbling ability in wider positions; the lack of which has really cost us this season. I think the manager would certainly look to address this in the summer.

So yes, I think it would be deeply unfair not to give Brady a chance to build on what he has started next season!

Well done OCoole for some very interesting stats.

You don't need to worry too much. The club is clearly preparing for his appointment judging by the twitter feeds coming out of the club.

Latest one "Lovely words from Jon Brady on why it's so important for the community that we keep on fighting" following the one the other day "a rallying call from Jon Brady."

The club are so funny the way they prepare the supporters for an announcement  :D Do they think we were born yesterday  ::)

It’s got more to do with the head of communication being a halfwit.

O'Coole has indeed presented some interesting details when comparing playing statistics ref Curle v Brady. He is clearly making clear his support for JBrady which he is entitled to do. For me at least it all depends on how Brady handles the current situation and his team continues to show determination to stay in League One. Whatever Curles faults he somehow got us to League One when most of us thought we had no chance. This great opportunity now appears to be squandered but even so should not be surrendered cheaply.  Perhaps Larry is right Curle merely ran out of luck after the Play offs. Contrary to some opinion the team is far better(I believe) than the constant cheap jibes, blaming selection, players and of course recruitment, all of which have been with us for most of this year.  Recent results against Oxford, Pompey and Ipswich clearly confirm that. What Brady has shown is his ability to get the best out of Curles team and his elevation of the Jones Boys with Chucks have improved things to give us a slim chance of avoiding relegation. At the moment the more cautious/wiser folk on here cautioned against change of Manager on the basis it is disruptive and counter productive. To counter this Curle's stubbiness in continuing with an obsolete playing style combined with truly debilitating results ended with his dismissal.  Where O'Cool's arguments begin to attract attention is suggesting that had Brady been appointed sooner we would be in a far better situation. He is assuming that of course to further his support for Brady; equally had Curle not been sacked we might have clawed our way out of trouble; its what Curles teams do. We just don't appreciate the unedifying sight of his tactics!  For me I prefer to remain in League 1 come what may but if relegated and Brady can keep the spine of the team he might be offered a contract. I hope very much he does well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

1. No, I never said anything to the effect of "far better". I did the calculations for both of their records aggregated for 43 games, and it suggested that based on that record, we would 9 points better off under Brady than under Curle. In actual fact I think we would be more like 20 points better off, factoring for how bad they were under Curle in December and January, and also factoring for Brady being able to make his own signings (imagining he was there in summer 2020). But I did not say this in the original post so please do not put words into my mouth.

2. Talking of assumptions, that feels like a whopper of an assumption you are making there! I can only presume you did not watch any games in December or January?!  ;D

OK here goes my thoughts, we will be playing in L2 again next year, I think we should stick with John, Sammo and Ricco and use as much of the budget as possible on a small younger quality squad.
I trust KT to do right by us as much as I would a rattle snake not to bite me, he will give us a mid to lower L2 budget.

Not sure on what logic you use to base this, our financial figures show KT doesn’t run the club on a profit. You have been hammering him for good housekeeping this season and our low budget, IF that was remotely true then we would surely be in a better position that the rest of the league that APPARENTLY didn’t housekeep and didn’t have low budgets relative to the size of the club, so surely there will be more money next season?.

Ocools stats do make for interesting reading - especially the goals for and against. I don’t like to have a go at the young lad but, if Edmundson had been dropped to the bench sooner, I think there would be an even more impressive differential.

The calculated points argument is irrelevant - there are so many other factors at play here.

Of course, I am desperate for JB and crew to do well. However, what KT must do, assuming we go down, is avoid another Dean Austin situation - give them at least until the January window (not just panic after 10 games!).

Possibly the best post you've made, Evers. You and I are in agreement far too often, these days. ;D I hope Brady turns out to be 'the man.' The thing that bothers me is the constant assessment that 'no one else could have come in and done any better because the players are all crap.' Then, on the odd occasions we pick up a good result, it's basically because JB has worked wonders with a s*** squad. By my reckoning, if the squad is good enough to perform against the likes of Pompey and Ipswich, then they were capable of better against those sides around us.
Brady could be the answer, but can we just watch the remainder of the season unfold without all the trumpeting of his potential. Simple fact is, it was in our own hands to survive in League 1. We've thrown that advantage away with some woeful results. I'm still to be convinced.

O'cool's stats prove nothing. The rest of his argument is all just conjecture. I do agree with you though: if Brady and crew are handed the reins for next season, then they have to be given a decent run to prove themselves.

Ok, so let me reset your thoughts, I have no clue what you are talking about in the above paragraph it makes no sense?
We are currently £8m + in debt to our owners, we have an inadequate squad for this league, the table doesn’t lie, we will be relegated and next season we will have a much reduced budget because we are in L2.
I really don’t get the point you are making?

I think that’s why this squad plays for us, it’s all about consistency, Championship player give 8/10 performances 80% of the time, where our squad is capable of the same 20% of the time.

Firstly I appreciate your detailed analysis and largely agree with your findings. Provided Brady and his team maintain the current progress to the end of season with commendable efforts made by all concerned to retain our place in League 1 then he deserves a contract.
 
I think your opinion in the last three paragraphs sees a casual introduction of 'if' and the assumptions follow. You give a possible 48pts after 43 games which to most on here would indeed be a far better situation than which we now face? Your analysis by defining the merits of the Brady Team clearly favours the selection of Jon Brady as Manager; this is I think is entirely understandable. In arriving at a 48pt after 43 games by definition this would be a far far better situation?
I hope Team Brady achieves the almost impossible and win 4 games on the trot and secure possible survival in League 1. Who wouldn't?

The club has said with the uncertainties surrounding COVID a cautious approach (good housekeeping) would be taken. You have said the club has one if not the smallest budget in the league, if this is true then other clubs have not taken this cautious approach. In theory this good housekeeping would suggest the club should be in a better position financially compared with other more reckless clubs, yet you are suggesting the clubs budget next season will again be low compared to the size of the club relative to others. Why will it be? Are you suggesting KT is taking money out of the club?

As far as I can see I am the only one trying to use statistics to support my argument for what should happen.

Your argument is ENTIRELY conjecture.

I agree that aggregating the points totals for both managers is in no way an exact science but my intention was to shine light over the two managers' records and give an idea whereabouts we might be now if either had been given all season. Clearly everyone will have their own opinions on which manager is right for the club (including external options) but I felt it was necessary to put the stats plainly for all to see their records and generate discussion. James Heneghan's put a Chron article out today which states that we are the 16th best side in League One since Brady's arrival, which is also useful I feel - https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/brady-is-putting-himself-in-the-frame-for-the-full-time-job-at-cobblers-3210288
I cannot deny that I am very much of the opinion that Brady is the right man for the job, and I'm pleased to see that he is at least on the right path to convincing you!  ;)

The board, as all do, allows some far fetched and demonstrably inaccurate opinions; its what boards all over do!
Regarding the definition that the players are crap made by quite a few on here , an example of such comments got Terry to expose them (quote) as bottom feeders who do nothing but pull apart the Players and Club(end quote) . It is depressing to read doom laden repetitive opinion for ever and a day. In some games the players have proved that they are not rubbish and have gained decent results against Fleetwood, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Oxford and Ipswich to name some? These are sides supposedly better than us with higher budgets with better players(?) to boot. You are quite right to maintain a cautious approach.

Of course he’s taking a wage, what I am exposing is that KT is running us on a shoestring budget, certainly for L1 and probably a mid to lower table L2 club.

Any extra money put into the business on top of turnover is in the form of a loan, KT isn’t investing anymore into NTFC just look at the state of the stadium, broken windows, scoreboard, seats and the hideous stand he PROMISED to fix 6 years ago.
As soon as the land deal is done he’ll be off, I just hope the council caveat the contract to the benefit of NTFC.

You clearly have done some good work and Heneghan's article today seems at the very least to confirm your analysis. Of course some on here will challenge/comment on your analysis so best to avoid personal comments and concentrate on the facts. Perhaps those who favour statistical analysis can take an interest.....GPC for example!

So we haven't performed woefully against those sides around us? ;D

Poorly? Yes. Woefully? Certainly not.

If you want to know what was woeful form, look at Curle's performance against the current top 8 sides. Again I'll provide some evidence so we are not making floundering arguments.


Current top 8 sides: Hull, Posh, Sunderland, Lincoln, Blackpool, Charlton, Oxford, Portsmouth

Current bottom 8 sides (excluding Cobblers): Plymouth, Burton, Shrewsbury, AFC Wimbledon, Wigan, Rochdale, Swindon, Bristol Rovers


Curle's record vs bottom 8:

Played: 9
Won: 4
Drawn: 2
Lost: 3

Goals conceded: 14
Goals scored: 13

Curle's record vs top 8:

Played: 9
Won: 0
Drawn: 1
Lost: 8

Goals conceded: 21
Goals scored: 1


Brady's record vs bottom 8:

Played: 7
Won: 2
Drawn: 2
Lost: 3

Goals conceded: 6
Goals scored: 5

Brady's record vs top 8:

Played: 6
Won: 3
Drawn: 0
Lost: 3

Goals conceded: 9
Goals scored: 10


Yes Brady's record against the sides around us hasn't been great, but ask yourself why? His very first game was against Burton. They were resurgent by that point and he had just taken over a team with rock bottom confidence and had 1 or 2 days training with them for goodness sake. The defeat to Swindon was poor, but Mitchell was f*cking awful for us in that game and cost us 2 preventable goals in a game that we lost 2-1. Losing 1-0 to Wimbledon was not good enough, but again could have been different if Sammy had scored from the spot.

Credit where it is due to Curle, he did have a reasonably strong record against sides around us. But that record of 8 defeats and 1 draw out of 9 games against the top sides is inexcusable. As for conceding 21 goals and only scoring just 1 goal in those 9 games, well... Brady has made us look competitive in nearly every game we have played under him, barring a comprehensive defeat to the best side in the division in Hull. Versus top 8 sides, Curle's goal difference is -20, Brady's is +1. Would you like a manager that makes him team competitive against all sides or not?

Say that my argument is conjecture again and I'll politely tell you to look in a mirror. I'd also be interested to hear realistic suggestions of managers that you believe would probably do a better job than Brady next season?

O'coole. Good work on the stats, but they do not factor in certain variables.

The main one is players.

Arguably, two of our best players in recent times have been Kioso and Jones (defender). These two missed most of/all of the first half of the season, the bulk of KC's period, because he didn't sign them until later in the season. Morris has also been a fairly important player, again only signed in January. When Miller played we picked up some decent results, again signed in January.

Where I will say that Brady has worked some magic is the forming of the partnership of Jones and Horsfall. Horsfall has been a revelation since Bolger's been kicked out the starting line up, and Jones has been excellent as well. He's also found a position in the team for Watson that really gets the best out of him.

Regarding points per game, if we had lost on Tuesday the stats would have been very close. We are now playing teams that 'are on holiday' and lets be fare, Ipswich were awful defensively and didn't look at all focused. You can though, only beat whats put in front of you. The fired up teams, those below/around us, we have failed in 5 attempts to beat them. Under KC, we got excellent results from those games, less so against the better teams. Funny old game.

Id also say that our style of play has become more direct as Brady's reign has evolved. The football we played at Ipswich and MK Dons for example was excellent, on Tuesday night it was very direct (30% possession) and effective because for one reason, he finally succumbed to the obvious and gave Chuck and Jones (who he signed for a pittance, good work there) a go. It worked well, they caused more problems than any other forward line we've mustered up throughout the season, even if they didn't score a goal between them!

I think Brady is doing alright, but like some others have said, lets see how it all looks and feels after the Sunderland game. I FELT VERY negative after the Bristol Rovers game which I thought was awful (coupled with late subs again and a reluctance to try a different shape until right towards the end), the Posh game I accepted because they are frankly a much better team than us.

I do like Brady though, top bloke. As of course are Rico and Sammo. It would be great if we could go into next season with them and spend any available cash on more/better players rather than a new management team. I just need a bit more convincing that its the right way forward!

Sorry Drilling I respect the points you are making but I have to pull you up here - I don't think you can say Curle's results were 'excellent' against the lesser teams. As I showed in my previous post, they won 4 out of 9, drew 2, and lost 3. Don't get me wrong this is good form but excellent surely would necessitate winning 80% of those games. One of those wins was the 3-2 win against Wigan at a time when they were a complete basketcase of a club and had to field a team mostly formed of youth players. Another of the 4 wins was against Burton when they were a total shambles earlier this season. Of course as you say you can only beat what is in front of you but if we are stating caveats (such as Ipswich being 'on holiday'), these are certainly worth noting.

The goal difference against top 8 and bottom 8 sides is so illuminating in my opinion.
Curle vs bottom 8 is -1, and vs top 8 is -20. Brady vs bottom 8 is -1, and against top 8 is +1.

I also think it is somewhat unfair to suggest that we are direct under Brady. We may go longer periods without the ball but when they do have the ball it is played out via Horsfall and Lloyd Jones almost always in a shorter pass to a full back or to Morris in midfield. Under Curle the defence couldn't even hit a long ball within 10 yards of a forward when it was lumped up the pitch. Players have noticeably improved under Brady - no more so than Horsfall, who I said was a good player early on this season when others wrote him off - and I think he merits credit for that. Under Brady with have actually achieved over 50% possession in games (revolutionary I know, Keith) so you cannot just point to the 30% vs Ipswich. I would argue that in games with less possession under Brady (apart from vs Hull) it has been a case of playing on the counter - rather than 10 men behind the ball, hoof and chase under Curle. I think next season when Brady can improve the squad we will see us dominating possession in most games in League Two (as looks our likely fate after Wigan and Wimbledon resurgences) as he likes the team to build from the back and work the ball until the opportunity presents. I'm not sure what more could be done to have more possession with the current group of players?

Good post, Drilling. Summed it up a treat.

Ps. Ocool's posts are all conjecture. ;D :P

Yeah that is exactly the lazy reply I expected from you, you have nothing to add do you? Muppet  ;D

You can make statistics say almost anything you want them to.
KC is the better manager because all of our away wins have come under his tenure.
JB is the better manager because he has the better home record.
Posters used to say we only win when Sheehan plays, well that has well and truely been proved wrong.
We play better when Sam puts his left sock on first.
How about some statistics to figure out why we are great when we play at home in the week (7 wins, 6 on Tuesday with 20 points out of a possible 27, 1 on Friday) but so poor at home on Saturday (only 1 home league win all season). Do the players think they are on a 5 day week and take the weekends off?.

It doesn't take much to live inside your head, does it? Silly boy. :-*

Calling me a boy when you are using phrases that teenagers use on social media like live inside your head hahahahaa

T0sspot

Ouch! Muppet and tosspot. And you call me incapable of a reasonable response. I think I've made you my bi'ach! ;D

Ps. You should change your name, because one thing you can't do is keep your cool.

School holidays is it?

Says the clown throwing around terms like tosspot and muppet just because someone refuses to validate your opinion. Fool.

Tip - if you are going to troll someone, don’t become rattled yourself.

I called you those because you asked me about Brady’s woeful form, I gave you a detailed reply and then you made some crap joke about “conjecture” again. You clearly don’t have anything worthwhile to add to the debate or to meaningfully disagree with what I was saying so you are trying to troll me instead. 🤷‍♂️

Trust me, I'm not rattled by much in life. Certainly not by some self-opinionated internet nonentity. ::) As for yourself, the mere fact that I described something as woeful, and that then led you on a dictionary tirade as to 'how dare I descibe JB's team as performing woefully', well, I think that says all that needs saying about you. You're entitled to an opinion, but you'll have to learn that so is everyone else.
Feel free to carry on throwing insults, but I'm sticking to the viewpoint that a number of recent results have been woeful. I fail to see how you can believe differently. But, hey, it's your opinion.

Now, you'll really have to excuse me as I'm just about ready to be getting home. And you need to be getting to bed too, otherwise you'll never get up for school. ;)

I'm not looking for a bun fight but my thoughts are this.

I started going in 1981 aged 10. Since then the highest we have been in 40 years is under Ian Atkins and 90 mins from division 2 (Championship) at the lowest we've been fortunate to hang on to our league status, so in all that time somewhere between 45th and 92nd.

Despite appointing 24 different managers in all that time, never more than a 3/4th division team and any manager that has shown real potential has been off as quick as they can. In my opinion JB with Rico and Sammo could maintain a comfortable existence without this charade. How much have we spent over the years on manager contracts?

This time its different, I see JB as our Wilder, laugh if you wish! A county man through and through and this is his job, he's deeply connected to every level at the club and so are Marc and Sammo, we appoint A N Other manager again and guaranteed they will be off to a Birmingham, Charlton, Pompey etc at the first sign of success. JB wouldn't leave for some struggling bigger club he has too much invested here.

Of course there must be a caveat, should we be clearly bombing at the bottom of the league a change would need to be made but I doubt that would happen. Give them time and support and in a couple of years we might even go that step further. By the evidence of the last 40 years we wont by appointing another Cook, Tisdale, Barton, Cotterill, Sheridan, Gray or Lunghi for that matter.

Give him the job now and let's judge the football next season, not on what's happened this one.

I am not sure what the fuss is. It is obvious he will be manager but unfortunately not perhaps for the reasons we would wish. He is quite simply the cheap option and KT knows he can get away with it because he is a popular chap.

The sad fact however is that there is no real strategy and plan for progression because the ambition of the owners is not football-related. Sure they would like us to be as high in the efl as possible because then we would be easier to off-load once the asset-stripping is complete. However, I don't think they are really that bothered because they can walk away once they have achieved their aim.

In regard to the Brady Bunch, I believe they have been way too cautious in a lot of these 17 odd games and that has cost us our league status. You could on the other hand say they haven't lost us our position in the 3rd division cos Curle was doing quite nicely at that. I take the long view that this season is a dead one. We couldn't watch it, we were more than fortunate in achieving promotion, we didn't put together a decent side and we played a brand of football that was well over it's sell-by date. All in all, next season we begin as though none of it had happened, if only I could forget the football we have played...

Great post Mr SOG, the penny is finally dropping on good old Kelvin.

Yes it was a good post and free from party political point scoring too! SOG raises some decent points and he is right to criticise the Brady Team for timid selections and substitutions in the first 10 or so games. After the Ipswich game it appears we may at last be firing on all available cylinders! The acid test of course will be the this coming Saturdays game. A positive result will increase the players confidence. If the others drop of the pace it will make an interesting last two games!Not forgetting Rochdale of course! What does he mean by strategy etc can the latter day bible thumper clarify please?

Right with you on this one and remember your namesake well. I'm slightly earlier (1978) but essentially the same supporting experience. I maybe go a couple of extra seasons of us being really sh*t!
I think I want to stick to Brady as any alternative isn't going to fill us with excitement, will definitely add huge uncertainty and I don't trust the owners to back them anymore on the pitch. Moments like Graham Carr and Chris Wilder can't really be planned for and come along once in a blue moon. OK, KC got a promotion which was a great achievement but in freaky circumstances. The only other way is to do it with finance and that clearly isn't going to happen anytime soon.

At least see how it turns out and you have a decent idea after a dozen games which end of the table we are likely to end up.
If we are in the unlikely scenario of doing a 'Sheff Utd' and the owners really value our status, there would be plenty of time to bankroll a new manager and Jan window.

It is a tough one as JB has clearly been dealt a tough hand but has had a bit of time to show what he can do. He gets my vote for a clean slate next season and can't fault his passion and I think he is probably respected by the players that he's had to work with. We never really know that side of things.

Throwing insults? I think you've now called me clown, fool, your "bi'atch", nonentity - any more? My post was not a 'dictionary tirade' it was a detailed reply in good faith to your question about so-called woeful form. It is not my fault that you did not have the nous to form an intelligent reply to it
and nor did I appreciate your attempt to troll me. I actually think it is quite funny how wound up you have become following your own attempt to wind-up! But this is petty and boring so I will sign off positively:

Enjoy the weekend, let's hope Cobblers can do the business. And all aboard Jon Brady's League Two promotion party next year, it is going to be jolly good fun :-*

We should keep JB, not because he's the cheap option but because the money saved would be far better spent on buying decent players. The current management are perfectly capable of managing a L2 team providing they are given decent resources.

An exposè, excellent. I guess you are just about to bring tangible proof that our player budget is in bottom couple in league1 and would be bottom half league 2. When you do I will be happy to believe, I won’t hold my breath though as my guess is you have as much genuine knowledge as the rest of us as to our player budget and how it compares to other clubs.

And there’s the rub, what’s the point in getting promoted back to L1? We can’t sustain it because we don’t have the resources under the current Chairman and board.
If we had a proper East stand with boxes and conferencing etc 7 day income, more match day income maybe even a hotel, THEN we would have the income to survive in L1 and even prosper.
You only have to look at the likes of Boro, with a chairman who holds his nerve with players and INVESTS back into the club, their striker cost £1.2m FFS.
It all boils down as to why the current board are here and that is to make a pile of money from a land deal.
They will be gone as soon as it lands in their banks AND if the contract isn’t caveated correctly we will be left with some cladding bolted onto that hideous mess of a stand.
Then the buckets will be out and KT and his chums will be counting the cash.

That’s fair enough, tangible proof, I think you can see where our budget is without having the list of wages in excel in front of you, we are being relegated, we have a handful of L1 standard players the rest are all loans.
I do have sources of information but I’m certainly not going to reveal them on a public forum.
The chairman has openly said we don’t have the resources to compete in this league hence the Chinese’s debacle.

And yet you still couldn't resist a final pop. I've just changed my rod and line, in the hope you'll stop biting on every post I make, right? It's not all about you.

Just let it go now

I have, mate.

I agree with much of that. The only thing I'd say is to let the season play out before any decisions are made. We have turned in some awful results recently, and should we fail to perform in any of the final games I think that needs taking into consideration. Although I expect JB to get the job, there have been some strange tactics and even stranger substitutions thrown in with his tenure. Such as, having insisted players won't play unless they perform in training, and intimating Chucks and Jones belong in that camp, he then throws them into the side. Are they training better, or did circumstances force his hand? I appreciate all managers make - what appear to be - odd decisions at times, likely some of which are based around things we aren't privy too.
Like I say, he'll probably get the job. But there is no need to make a decision just yet

I do wonder how many injuries we have, this has been intimated at a couple of times now by Brady. If we are struggling to put a team out and with most of this team not being good enough for League 1 then that may explain some of the performances. I am not saying this is the case I just wonder.

I do think we are at a crucial point with the Club now and we need to be looking long term, whether thats with the Brady Bunch or someone from outside I do think now is the time to look at a long term appointment so only bring someone new in who can agree to that. I can't see us staying up now so it needs to be someone with a view to doing more than just survive in League 2, I know I have previously said that Brady should be in charge whatever, but we do need to remain in the League as I can see some changes coming in the next year or 2 after this super league debacle. So for me it would be Brady but failing that someone who agrees to a long term vision for the club.

The trouble is, tying someone down to a long term tenure is an expensive route to travel if/when it eventually goes wrong. I agree with the sentiment, though.

Which managers would be on your shortlist out of interest Jolly?

I haven't looked to see who is about since JB was appointed. I have to say, even at that stage, it is the first time ever that I've looked at available managers and been totally unenthused. Though I wouldn't mind poaching Michael Duff. ;D

Brilliant young manager yes but I don’t think we have any chance with him; would imagine he’ll get a shot at a top League One club or even Championship club before long. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go to Barnsley when Valerian Ismael is inevitably given a bigger job.

Also I can agree with you that there is a real lack of exciting available managers out there, which makes me more keen for the club to allow Brady the chance to continue.

Glad to have shared the pain! Yet I still wouldn't swap my County Ground memories for anything in the world!

I would keep Brady. With his own players we will play better football in league 2. If we're promoted it will better equip us to stay up. We need a change of ethos. It's all a bit 'Groundhog Day' with us struggling to stay in League One with every attempt. The sort of football we played last season [if you can call it that] can get you promoted out of League 2 but is far less effective above that level. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results.  

KC problem was that he lost Oliver, Goode, Wharton, Cornell, Adams and Morton somewhat difficult to lose and then replace those players?

Doesn’t Duff just play a similar style to KC? a return to sticking a load of tall players in the team then every throw in the opposing half being launched into the box!

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about it either Steven.

I hope Brady gets the job for next season. One of the things that has made the end to the season almost bearable is his passion and love for the club.
He's got things wrong, and will next season but that's part of the development. He might not have the best connections (I dont actually know for sure) but Rico does and if we appoint a DOF or scout then that can plug the gap.
Having the stability going into next season is also more likely to persuade some of the players like Watson to stay than an unknown coming in who might not play you.

I haven't changed my position on Brady. I suggested him and Sammo be put in charge before Curle left and I haven't been disappointed.

Yes, he's probably made a few mistakes here and there but he's tightened the defence up and got us playing, for the most part, much better football. The players look more engaged and Brady's interviews are a breath of fresh air.

Where he has made mistakes is in being a little too cagey in games against other crappy sides. I guess there's a fine line but we've probably erred on the side of been too conservative in those matches, but if we'd gone into them with an all out attacking mentality and lost we'd be knocking him for being too gung-ho!

I do think some of the discussion after the Gillingham game around this sort of thing has been unfair. We, all of us, complained that Curle had no plan B and that his subs were ineffectual at best and baffling at worst. Brady has shown he can recognise when it isn't working and make positive changes to affect a different outcome but when he does, he's accused of being "reactive" because he got it wrong to begin with. Who'd be a football manager! ;)

I had said previously I'd give Brady until the end of the season and then make a call depending on whether he kept us up or not. I think I've seen enough already though to suggest he's the right man to take us forwards and would really like to see him given a chance to see what he can do with a side he's built himself.

I completely concur, given KT “ the football mans” track record on appointing managers and the budget we will have next season  JB will get his chance.
The managers job at NTFC is poisonous because the funds are simply not available.

Manwork your relentless stalking of KT continues and still you carry on spending his (or DB's) money.

Why not try coming up with a tangible alternative instead of theory!

I hope the Brady bunch are given the opportunity to continue next season......and further seasons.

It sadly doesn't work that way mate. If results are poor and the fans start demanding change (and they will) Jon Brady will end up the same way as countless managers before him. On the scrapheap.

I hope for his sake and the clubs that results will be good and everything will be rosy.

Spot on, it’s not as though any chairman likes sacking managers, it costs them lots of money and makes them look stupid for appointing them in the first place. How long managers last is mainly down to the fans and to a lesser extent whether the players when a manager loses the dressing room. If Brady is appointed and has a bad spell whether he stays or goes will be down to us.

Did he win the club in a raffle? I’m not stalking him, he’s the fcuking chairman, honestly the IQ of some of our fans beggars belief.
Why should I come up with an alternative? He’s the footballing man who got the club for a pound. He’s after the £100m+ profit for the land and development NOTHING ELSE.
I’m not the one who showed the council £4m for the completion of the east stand then reneged on it.
He owns the business and has a legal requirement to run the club as a going concern, not racking up an enormous debt.

Lots of talk about Brady's passion and interview prowess. I loved KC's passion and some of his interviews. He waffled sometimes but was good for a quote and engaged very well with the media, locally and nationally and was a good representative for us. Brady takes an age to get his points across in interviews. Neither is a reason to hire or fire mind.

'I'm  not stalking him'...LAUGHABLE !

How many hundreds of posts have you repeatedly aimed at KT, it beggars belief?

You question our IQ but we are aware of the facts and can make our own minds up, it is you who needs to look in a mirror!

Maybe we should have more patience? We've been mostly 4th Division for 50 odd years so demanding new managers doesn't seem to work!

We just have to give Brady, Marc and Sammo a go and for me its not the cheap option, its the correct one, a great opportunity. Assuming we're in league 2 next season it will be a lot more fun to watch than KC's last season in league 2, if you take out the slightly fortunate covid jump into the play off's.

The biggest factor for me is if they do succeed as I reckon we have a much better chance of keeping them (and players) rather than the whole deck of cards collapsing again.

We've already seen names mentioned here just a few months back, "who could do a job," but they failed miserably and probably cost a fortune too!

i think JB knows that in order to have a chance , you need a fighting budget .
The better players need to be kept and if that’s going to happen , bargain basement salaries can’t be paid .
The recruitment structure has to change and training facilities need addressing .
If you don’t get these conditions - clear off and do something worthwhile when you are a well established coach and run a business of your own .
Be in control - don’t let them control you .

This confirms your hunch...whether KT agrees is another matter!

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/brady-would-want-certain-things-in-place-before-taking-the-cobblers-job-full-time-3215850 (https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/brady-would-want-certain-things-in-place-before-taking-the-cobblers-job-full-time-3215850)

I’ve corrected it for you.

I have nothing against KT particularly and have no answer to who could replace him but there is no doubt the club is going nowhere with this regime .
The best players get sold year after year and the stadium is not being developed .
The club has to be sold for us to progress , there is no question .

Every lower league club sells their best players, for once we actually got decent money out of the Goode transfer.

The stadium development is a weird one, it’s obviously goes hand in hand with the development of the surrounding land. KT is obviously not going to spend good money on the ground while there are uncertainties about the development which will fund it. On the other hand any profit out of the whole thing disappears as time goes by as it’s linked to a lower league club that hemorrhage money, it’s surely in the owners interest to get it done as soon as possible. So unless any new owner is a massive benefactor who wants to spunk away their massive wealth I don’t see any difference with new owners.

As for progression outside of what the size of the club prohibits that will only happen in the short term if we get extremely lucky with manager and recruitment, or in the long run see above about extremely wealthy benefactor willing to throw away their money.

Even though he got the club on the promise he would finish the east stand?

Was that not also with the promise of being able to develop the surrounding area? If as you have suggested he has zero interest in the club and can make +£100m on the land then it makes sense to get the whole thing (land & stadium) done ASAP so you can sell the money haemorrhaging football club and walk off with as much money as possible?

I'd let that particular non legal 'promise' go if I was you, they will not be 'finishing' the East Stand until they get the land to develop.
If they don't I'll be joining you, at the top of the Express Lift Tower, to vocally express my own 'concern'.  ;)

;D He would have as well if it wasn’t for that pesky council.

Be careful of the space harpoon.

if you were a pro footballer why would u sign for NTFC?

Not to further your career
Not to enjoy the training and work facilities
Not to be at a 'all-in it' together family club
Not to be at an ambitious, forward thinking club

Time some more supporters start thinking and asking why we cannot attract or keep decent players.

Oliver is a big case in point, we got promoted, went to wembley, played to his style and yet couldn't wait to leave, Morton and Wharton didn't choose to come back. WHY?

So I don't think it is a simple as the manager or the budget, especially in comparison to others as I believe we have to pay extra for players as we can't offer them anything other than higher wages and easy motorway access.

What does that broken 'promise' tell you about our Chairman and his plans for YOUR club?

"OUR" club.

Comedy gold.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/34938496

Other than players moving on to bigger teams paying more wages I don’t see a whole lot of our decent players leaving. Obviously Oliver is the exception who it could be said made a lateral move although Gillingham could be said to be more established in league 1 than us, as he’s never stated his reason we will never know.
Wharton stayed to fight for his place at his home club while it seems likely that WBA send Morton to Lincoln because of links with Appleton.
Mills was quite happy to reject Forrest Green a club that fulfils a lot of your criteria to jump up a league.
I would imagine there is a myriad of reasons why players choose the teams they sign for but I’d guess wages, contract length, size and league position of the club are probably the biggest.

TBF they must be sweating on ever seeing their money back after the past 6 years clearly not going to plan.

I have always wondered why he is wearing a funeral suit on that interview!

I'm very grateful for KT saving the club but it would be in all our interests if he sold up. Set a realistic price to cover some of his loses but forget about cashing in on any redevelopment. The club isn't being run very well and really needs a new direction. 

Remind us again how you're not stalking him  ;) >:D

If the land deal is anywhere near as lucrative as manwork has suggested there is no way he is leaving for some of his loses, I would want all of those loses paid plus a good percentage of potential profit from the land redevelopment. With all the red tape over the whole thing nobody else is going to touch the club with a barge pole. I would imagine we will have to wait until the whole process is done before a change of owner.

Then someone else comes in and in all likelihood like most other clubs our size we remain in league 2 with the odd trip up to league 1, a minute chance of the championship and a bigger chance of the conference. After a while fans get restless, demand change, the cycle continues.

Don’t forget when he and his partners acquired NTFC the day before this interview the main parcel of land under CDNL was not included and the insolvency actions on that separate business was not concluded until early 2017. So any talk of development couldn’t have been defined by realisation of that land at that point unless it has been promised well ahead of insolvency procedures.
 It was smart manoeuvring on their part and the polar opposite for NBC.

Either way five years on what have we achieved? Two promotions and most likely two relegations and a significant accumulation of debt without development progressing in any meaningful way.

Cardoza was offered £27m for the land and turned it down.

Your source is?

I thought it was 24 million? Either way, that figure was quoted in the media.

Another thread that's turned into the redevelopment thread  ::)

There I was thinking it was about Jon Brady  ???

Ta.

It is. And I hear Jon Brady was very upset about the death of Prince Philip. There we go. Back on track. ;D

John Brady gets my support, loving the fact he wants assurances before he takes the job full time.
He is basically saying he’s not going to take a job where your hands are tied, very sensible and savvy.
Will be very interesting how that goes down with KT?

+1 and I wasn't expecting 'fighting talk' with staring relegation in the face. Brave, stupid or keeping his integrity intact? It couldn't have been a fun time for him personally so don't blame him at all. I am sure that he has been working all hours and it must have been emotionally and physically draining, for a lot less money than a lot of us earn.
I hope he gets the opportunity to have a proper go.

i have a feeling KT won’t like being held to ransom over the job but someone is telling the truth about the state of the club here .
It’s run on a shoestring and is bargain basement under this chairmanship

Where is all this stuff about Brady making demands coming from?

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/brady-would-want-certain-things-in-place-before-taking-the-cobblers-job-full-time-3215850

Not necessarily "demands", just wanting assurances over things and changes in places before he'd consider taking on the role.

It’s dicey reporting by the Chron after a supposed interview and article on Brady actually taking the job! Fair amount of assumptions and in any case nobody knows what these demands/assurances are. So the conspiracy theories circulate! Bit like Boris and his wallpaper episode?

competitive budget , recruitment strategy , personal terms , training facilities i would suggest .

I have not bothered to look at the club’s accounts but as far as I’m aware the club usually runs at a loss. Forgive me if I’m being naive but if the club was run more extravagantly wouldn’t the losses be huge and potentially dangerous? Are other smaller clubs than us that bring in less revenue than us spending more on their budgets? If so how? Have they all got wealthy benefactors?.

Fcuk me you want to know everything, you say you haven’t looked at the accounts but go on to say it’s run at a loss?
KT won’t invest anymore in the club and he’s said as much, he’s waiting for his lottery ticket to come up at the council, who’s going to wait the longest?
Your Gareth aren’t you  ;D

Does KT take a salary and expenses, out of NTFC does anyone know?

Yes I’m Gareth! that’s why I’ve been slagging off our recruitment and strikers all season!

I can’t buy the logic that our budget it so much worse than much smaller clubs who bring in much less revenue, that we cannot complete. I just don’t believe these small clubs all have wealthy benefactors willing to fund huge loses that they would need to have much bigger budgets than ours!.

I guess it depends on expectations of owners, is running the team at roughly break even not enough? how much is it acceptable to spunk away into the club a year, £500k?, £1m?. You use the word invest but outside of weird land deals money put into small lower league teams is far from an investment, there’s no return or profit. I think in general being an owner of a small league club is insanity and probably an ego or prestige thing.

I’m sure he does but is that different to any other club?.

But he is also accountable for the money they “spunk away”. The fact is they are millions in and we are no better off on/off the pitch. Six years later, ‘saving the club’ can only take you so far and who knows what other outcomes there would have been? They pretty openly came here with an investment project in mind that has turned very sour or stretched beyond the initial timeframe. If the slot machine doesn’t pay out they’ll never recoup their cash. Totally agree, lower league owners are nuts.

The sooner there is a resolution in whatever form it takes concerning the whole land deal and everyone can move on the better.

All I know is KT and DB would be nowhere near our club if it wasn’t for the land, as I have said as long as the council caveat the deal so that the football club are protected and get their fair share of the profit then all well and good.
I completely agree no one in their right mind would buy a lower league football club, it’s OK if your willing to throw X million at it as something to stave off the boredom if your worth tens or hundreds of millions.

Knowing how things tend to go in these situations, I would suggest the biggest risk at the moment is the relationship between KT and DB? I don’t know anything regarding this specifically, but as a general observation when things don’t go according to plan and become expensive, partnerships often have a tendency to unravel? Whatever you may say about their motives or conduct as owners I think it’s fairly obvious things have not gone as expected?

It’s inconceivable that they wouldn’t? Otherwise any eventual profit, whether it be from the sale of the club or whatever would be unnecessarily higher increasing the tax liability? They would be entitled to facilitate both at reasonable levels. So from a business sense I would say almost certainly, unless they are using another vehicle to off set the liability at a greater margin? By way of clarity I am guessing that the tax liability on a salary would be higher than the corporation tax offset, so legitimate expenses would be more likely?

Corporation tax. NTFC. That is the funniest thing I have read in ages!

Tax will be calculated based on the  tax band you're in. The more income you earn, the higher your tax band, which means you'll pay a higher amount of  tax. Income tax bands are designed to make paying tax as fair as possible to everyone, so that those who earn the most, contribute more, but thats not how it works cos they have good accounts that live in Higham Ferrers, and they sometimes need electrical work.

The Lithium’s not working is it Frank?

Seems to be a Brady love in on the radio. I’m not sure, no away wins and couldn’t beat any of the sides around us when needed

Excellent and eloquent interview about the current situation and future requirements by Jon Brady.

I hope he is involved in a Director of Football or Manager role.

The time is run out for KT's blustering and a detailed plan AND TIMESCALE needs to be given to fans, for the off field expansion of facilities and on the field a 3 or 4 year plan!........................this month to keep supporters onside!

Tough one this. If Brady started with his own players instead of Curles shyte would be we going down?

I think I have to agree with you Clarity. Something needs sorting QUICKLY -  either way.

I don't think Brady is the answer. Some of the games he has been way too reluctant to go for it. Today was embarrassing, they should have gone hell for leather and they showed a gutless performance. One of the worst teams I have ever seen at the pity-us arena. The more that go the better including contracted players, until we see the back of the duracell bunny we will see little change.

I think some people are underestimating the mental "kick in the b*llocks" that the outfield players must have felt, after dominating for 20 minutes, the first time the opposition get in our half they score down to an individual mistake.

Are you seriously suggesting our goalie is s***e?

Mitchell should never have let that in, but Kioso didn’t close HIS man down quick enough!

Yes there were mistakes further up the pitch but that doesn't excuse the fact the the first 2 goals were massive errors by Mitchell

week after week Mitchell costs us .
Bring Cornell back

I didn't really rate Cornell but he's streets ahead of Mitchell, as stated on another thread, Lee Nicholls is out of contract at MK, got to be worth a shout?

Mitchell is possibly the worst keeper we have had in a long time.

Cornell howler today. Also an absolute clown.

As I see it, the remit for whoever comes in next season is to rebuild a team with more of a spine to it, with the quality to actually create some chances, to fire that team up sufficiently to win more games than they lose and, ideally, have a tilt at the playoffs (although with the shoestring budget that we're likely to be on, playoffs should be a hope rather than an expectation). I honestly couldn't name a candidate out there who I think is a realistic target for us and would be a better bet than Brady.

Give him the job for 12 months, or, if his conditions aren't met, I wouldn't even mind seeing Sammo and Rico given a crack with an experienced DoF - I actually think Sammo was one of our better managers over the last 15 years and at least had the team playing some entertaining stuff and scoring goals, which is going to be an absolute must if we're not going to have the budget to go for promotion next season (I can't sit through a season of finishing 12th playing Curle-ball).

 NTFC Nut, For christ sake !!!! Sammo, really ? He was that good  he has done nothing as manager since he was sacked. All 3 of them need to go back to the youth set up, if you think that one or all three of them are the solution then i really do give up.

David Oldfield the current Oxford City manager for me. If not, Paul Tisdale, he's always been quite successful in league 2. Another is Kenny Jackett, but he's well out of our league.

It’s a real heart versus head scenario - we’d all love the Brady, Sammo, Rico and Razor team to work (and the cynic in me wonders if KT knows that this is also the cheap option) but it’s got to be whoever is the best man for the job. Having said that if it comes down to KC picking another new Manager I don’t think any of us would have any confidence in that decision based on his track record.

He was unlucky to be sacked and we've had far worse since, many of whom (Johnson, Page, Hasselbaink) were people with 'track records'. What competent manager do you actually think is going to come here and work for peanuts, sign players for peanuts, get that team motivated to play for the club and give absolutely everything they've got even when the chips are down?

Brady knows exactly what's needed & I'm glad he's not committing to anything until he's discussed the future identify of the club with KT...however if KT does not agree with Brady then i honestly expect someone like Mark Cooper to be appointed!

I've gone from wanting him long term to not wanting him to wanting him...but now Im firmly,  'top bloke but no thanks'.

Reasons?

1. Failure to beat any of our bottom of the table rivals. 5 attempts to do so. Time wasting against Rochdale at 0-0 etc. Way way too negative.
2. Failure to win, even one game away from home.
3. Way too stubborn. Started off with a single striker flanked by two wide players, and simply wouldn't move away from it despite most of our goals coming from set plays, from defenders and midfielders (Watson). When he was forced to move away from it because of injuries (Ipswich) Jones and Chuck played superbly, yet he reverted back to 'type' as soon as fitness allowed him to do so in the following game. We then score twice after he changed it (at 2-0 down) yet for the next game, again...back to 'type'. Couldn't make it up.
4. Reactive not proactive. Always waits until we go a goal down before changing things.
5. Subs. Just terrible, most of the time. Takes off the wrong players, keeps the wrong players on the pitch (Hoskins yesterday was bloody awful), and brings the wrong players on. This is a very regular ocurrence.

If he didn't have a top personality, and was more monotoned in his interviews (like KC was), there is absolutely no way people would want him as our manager. Its Austin all over again!  ;D

I agree with all that Drilling, it’s either Oldfield or Wilkin for me and as soon as possible. 

Austin and Brady are a way apart, as Austin wasn’t that honest was he? He spoke about players and how hard they worked in training, how some were so good they were unplayable on their day, going hunting all that stuff? In a matter of weeks he turned on them, and the players probably knew he didn’t rate them all along, seeing through the rhetoric as shallow motivational speeches? You can’t tell me Austin didn’t know what he had from the get go, and if he didn’t he failed there as well? I don’t really mean to have a pop at the bloke because you can only play the hand you are dealt, but I think Brady is a bit more genuine in his communication? Statistically irrelevant of any record the next bloke may have we will probably go backwards again if Brady goes. Keep the 3 of them together with some continuity for a change. Brady, Sammo and Rico are as likely to be as good as anyone with the passion and desire for the club to do well thrown in for free?

So recalling your former opinions on change of Managers was it correct to dismiss KC?  I for one believe your former analysis was perhaps correct. Certainly on here the vociferous few on here got there way!

There is a very very long and tedious answer to that Evers and I was having a conversation regarding the circumstances around this topic with someone earlier. TBH I can’t be bothered as its water under the bridge, would take the patience of Tolstoy to write and has all been said before in bits and pieces. As indeed has most of the stuff these days?

I'm now of the opinion that it doesn't really matter who the manager is.

We've seen managers come and go. Occasionally we get lucky and achieve some short term success. Carr, Atkins, Wilson, Calderwood, Wider and Curle have all got us promoted from the 4th tier.

But any success is never sustained. At best we might hang around in League 1 for 2-3 seasons but the wheels always come off eventually.

We simply don't have the infrastructure to sustain a League 1 club.

We are a tin pot little club just off the M1, that play in a dilapidated Mickey Mouse stadium with no training facilities. How on earth can any manager achieve anything tangible under these circumstances? Any short term success is in spite of, not because of.....

Until we address these issues we're destined to just go round and round in circles and never get anywhere.

Spot on.

According to the sun cobbler's keeping tabs on Derek Adams at Morecambe.

Derek Adams is exactly the man that I’d be throwing money at if I was owner of the club.....

He came across as a really bad loser at Plymouth, with comments that were obviously not true, a bit like KC when he was at Carlisle. But you have to hold your hands up and say he's done a great job at Morecambe.

Disagree with this except the opening statement!  Brady almost certainly would not agree. To many on here we are a great Club with a proud history! Not sure why you feel the need to publish such an OTT opinion? Grudge?

Given that we may be trading places with Morecambe it would be interesting to see if he actually wanted to come here.  Looking at the League 2 table is incredibly depressing - more than likely no Cambridge and a complete lack of local derbies.

Possibly true but why would he swap Morecambe for us? He might get them promoted or at least in the play-offs. If they are in the play-offs and fail to get promoted it could be the end of May before we can appoint him. By that time we'll behind the clock in transfers dealings and player contracts.

We still have the big local derby against Stevenage where Alex Revell appears to be doing a decent job after they just avoided relegation last season. Maybe due to signing players of the calibre of Lines and Martin.

A very good point - whatever KT does he needs to do it as soon as possible so we get our retained list and recruitment sorted.

             Good, truthful post, the problem is with a few on here is the truth hurts! It hurts me but at this moment in time I can't see anyway forward or anything changing.

Grudge? What are you on about?

What's OTT about it anyway? It's my opinion about the state of our club. If you disagree, fine - you're entitled to put forward your arguments to the contrary. Which by the way you haven't done. Saying we're "a great club with a proud history" doesn't really cut it.

Thought JB, MR and Sammo overachieved with what they had, injuries and near unplayable pitch. Hope JB is given chance and backing next season. The infrastructure, as it stands, is a huge handicap to whoever takes over next season.

Chester are a great club with a proud history...Not lost this year either... ;D

We are what we are, L2 or lower  is our level, no money = no decent players..and no dreams..Although maybe we could win the National League and FA trophy at some time in the future.

If you disagree, set up a poll asking what year we will be playing in the Championship alongside the scum..
That scum team down the road seem to do rather better...

Brady is the right man IMO.

Cares about the club massively and isn't just here for a pay check.  I think he's an excellent football coach and is someone I believe can finally properly integrate and develop youth team products into the first team squad.

He's the first manager since Wilder that is worth listening to pre and post match.  He gives honest and detailed reasons of why things are happening that make sense without throwing players under the bus.

I completely accept there is a risk involved with him taking the job and he WILL make mistakes as he has already shown.  But I think he will learn from them and will adapt as all good coaches do.

My only concern is whether the job is too big for him emotionaly.  Mentally he seemed too affected at times this season and it isn't going to get any easier when it's your full time.

A bit harsh. We are an L2-L1 yo-yo club. Always have been always will be.

Jon Brady, Jon Brady, you made a right Mare
All along, out along, down along lee
For I want fore to go to Wetherby Road
All along, out along down along lee
With Sam Hoskins and Bolger
And Miller and Seal
All along out along down along lee

A pay check??
Yuck, I feel ill.

Do you think he means czech? Nedved maybe.

To their fans Chester are probably a great club but they never made it to the old Division 2 let alone the old First Div of Charlton, Vernon,Bell, Stiles etc
 
You are entitled to your opinion and best of luck to you! If you wish to believe your debilitating mantra; the majority of supporters probably don’t share it. I was bitterly disappointed with the display on Saturday as I prefer them to go down with a fight!

Wetherby rd is this the one in Harrogate or Grangetown area in Sunderland? If Grangetown that's were GPC came from; he kept quiet about that!

Jon Brady will tell anyone exactly what is required to move this club forward.
The person that needs to stand up and be accounted for is the chairman .
Why is our budget probably the lowest in the division ; what is the medium term plan ; where has the money for Goode gone ; how committed are you ; what the hell is happening with the east stand .
Whether the manager is jB or not , those questions have to be answered otherwise any manager will have the same issues

yep , we know the answers although i would dispute that budget figure .
The point is , it is the board of directors and not the manager that need to stand up and be accounted for because they are getting away lightly with inertia .
No manager could have realistically done any better with the quality of players we have and the budgets in place .
There is no plan .

Returning to JFH his win % in his first spell at Burton was 61.1% and so far since his return is 56.5%
With us it was 23.8% and before that with QPR was 27.7%. Chalk & cheese.

This, followed by the predictably myopic response from Evers.

The east stand tells you all you need to know about the club. Huge potential but fucked up at every conceivable opportunity, even Wilder was sick at the sight of it. We're bloody lucky we have Brady here who actually gives a shit.

No other manger will come here and see a future, get us promoted or in the play offs next season and it buys them a ticket to somewhere else.

Sums up the situation perfectly. I do hope we give Brady a chance, because at least he cares about NTFC.

i think JB should be given the job now so that he can plan for next season early and get his recruitment staff in place quickly .
There should also be someone that sits above the structure to co ordinate the youth policy with first term policy and plan for future seasons rather than the immediate requirement of results .
The chairman needs to nail his plans to the mast as well with regards to where the club is heading and what provisions he has in place regarding the stand and the financial backing of the club to move it forwards .
JB has complete integrity and is a well respected coach .
Let him get on with it and let’s hear something significant from our owners .

From what JB said after the match on Saturday it's not a question of being given the job quickly so he can make plans for next season. There's no doubt he loves the club, but he's clearly not going to take on the job without some chance of success. He made it quite clear that if offered the job he won't commit until he has a clear view of KT's plans for the club.

just caring about the club is not enough to change the approach to running the club.It is a Catch 22 Situation and always will be until some honest and wealthy benefactor comes along and runs the club in the right way. Brady has no track record on player recruitment and this is where the greatest weakness area is with the Cobblers and has been so for a long time at least back to the times of Graham Carr.

I would be amazed if JB get the role, he’s had the audacity to challenge KT and make him do something he has never done, communicate his intentions about the club going forward.
I fully expect to see a journey man manager in place around mid June with the usual BS around targets identified, offers made etc etc, once the season tickets are committed too, we will be left with a mid table L2 team, some on here will be over the moon.
As some have said they don’t give a sh1t what league we are in as long as they can go and watch it.

Atkins (just one off the top of my head) was good at player recruitment. It was the way he got them to play that became the issue.

My whispers tell me the emphasis is on quick decisions and getting a head start on the summer...

Brady is already making a head start, he's putting a marker down on Sunday  :P

If that’s the case the starting line up should include only loan players that have a possible future at the club, no one whose contract is ending and will not be offered terms, no one that is going to be transfer listed, no one not very good, start the two lads that have been on trial at Sunderland!

Starting at a distinct disadvantage as we’ve only got enough for a five a side with rush keepers!

That would suggest that Adams isn’t in the frame (assuming he ever was) as he wouldn’t be a quick decision due to Morecambe being in the playoffs. I’m not totally adverse to the Brady bunch but I have got some reservations.

Won’t be Adams no, pretty certain he wasn’t seriously considered

It is a strange one. In virtually any other circumstance JB wouldn't get a sniff at the role. Regardless of how much we foot the blame at KC's door, he did have a prolonged spell in charge. I think the stat was we would have been 16th/17th or something, or survived anyway. I don't know if that could change with the last couple of results. Either way, his performance hasn't made it a straight forward recruitment decision.

I still want him to get it in view of the picture you paint, which is exactly what would happen if we go elsewhere. We could have a Wilder but the likelihood is we won't, especially as I'm sure the budget strings will be tight.

At JB's level it also becomes a financial decision. It's a bit like these semi-pro footballers who make more money playing and working a regular job than they would as a pro. He already had other paid work, so depending on whether he received a bolt on or what they offered him it could sway his decision. He may also not want the lifestyle and stresses of being a FT pro manager, it can't be for everyone and he mentioned the hours and sacrifice he has been putting in.

Ah, the good old Sun getting it right as normal! Any other names in the frame or can’t you say? I think I would like Kevin Wilkin to be given a go.

Getting rid of Tracey is a start...

https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/2021/may/simon_tracey/ (https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/2021/may/simon_tracey/)

Perhaps Brady or new man has a preferred option for chief scout already lined up...

Tracey might rock up at Oldham if KC get's the full time gig there...might even take BAS of our hands ;D

yes, taking a team of journeymen and mostly unheard of but seasoned pros to 2 wembley appearances in 2 years was simply disgusting

BAS what a player....... what the fcuk was Simon Tracy doing, utter desperation comes to mind.
It’s really no surprise he’s gone.... can you imagine the conversation last summer, right Simon go and find us a 20 goal a season L1 striker, he comes back with BAS.

And Danny Rose who is pretty much just as bad

I don’t know for certain, however, my £1 would be going on Brady

With a DOF above him perhaps (Calderwood?)

So bad was Atkins football more than 75.000 people were put off from going to Wembley in 2 years.

Yeah but 70,000 of them had no idea what coloured shirt the team wore.

Myopic  ;D ; shortsighted (yes) and/or lacking intellectual foresight along with you... ...probably 8).
The trouble is that you and your ilk go into a frenzy if anybody challenges or God forbid disagree with you and your perceived aims. There are some on here who go to the trouble to present a lucid counter argument by asking admittedly awkward questions on fan ownership. GPC mostly attempts to answer these queries but you lot sail on without a thought and importantly suggest 4000 fans x £1000...as if? I would recommend that you await to see who is the next Manager and hear his plans for the future and how they involve KT and his team. Then you can plan how to proceed with like minded supporters. In other words use your intellectual powers

This really needs to be framed, the ultimate Kettle and Pot  ;D ;D ;D

I thought the same thing!

Very brave Mr Lid, you'll definitely have Evers after you for that!  ;D

He lives in a world where he actually believes he is Napoleon.

Easy done just have to mention Cornell and Mitchell and he spirals out of control ;)

If Jon Brady is to become the permanent manager, why don't they just announce it now? Does another week make any difference?

I keep hearing this trotted out but do you have any evidence?

All I’ve heard put forward is:

‘KC mentioned good housekeeping’
As there has virtually been zero match day income this season and no teams have gone bust it looks like most if not all teams have practiced ‘good housekeeping’ because of COVID and reduced their budget.
‘KC said he missed out on a lot of key targets’
There is always going to be big competition for the most sort after players and most clubs will miss out on many main targets. Morton & Wharton were 2 key targets which we missed out on because of Appleton’s links with WBA and the other wanting to fight for his place at his parent club. We later found out Miller & Edmondson were another 2 key targets who we were able to sign at Christmas, both have been as poor as the rest of the squad and just prove this summers recruitment process was poor.
‘Look how bad the squad is’
This could be just poor recruitment. We will finish above Bristol Rovers and Swindon so do people feel these these two teams also have lower budgets than the more logical options of Accrington, Crewe Rochdale & Wimbledon?

Happy to be proven wrong but Brady isn’t the right man for me. Tactically he’s shown ineptitude on numerous occasions and whilst he’s managed to get a bit more out of the squad, I don’t think he has the managerial skills to take us forward. It’s still been relegation form throughout the 19 games he’s been in charge. I hope I’m wrong but I can see a Dean Austin type situation happening all over again.

Sweet Jesus, Brady has actually come out and said the squad was worse than last year and won’t take the job unless the budget is competitive, please at least try and read what’s out there before posting!

Please give an example where I go into a frenzy of discontent.

Prefer Belisarius Comrade 8)

 ??? I have never subscribed, support or suggested fan ownership so it appears my assessment was correct. I'm generally supportive of KT if you actually read my comments rather than brushing all those who correctly disagree with you into one convenient heap.

Fan representation on the board, yes, for a club at our level some form of crowdfunding or financing of specific projects, yes.

It appears in this case your "frenzy" somewhat clouded your judgement. Whats the word again? Myopic.

We are all well aware the squad is worse than last year and will finish 3rd or 4th bottom above Swindon and Bristol Rovers. Does that prove our budget is ‘probably the lowest in the division’ No.
I’ll pose the same question as my last post does that also prove Swindon and Bristol Rovers have lower budgets than Accrington, Crewe etc.? with such a uncompetitive budget also how did we finish above the two teams we did?
The recruitment was a shambles. Not signing a big centre forward to replace the starter, signing a host of wide attackers but end up playing them wing back, signing centre backs who seemingly can’t play in a back 5. These are fundamental errors and not down to budget.
As far as reading what’s out there haven’t we just sacked our chief scout? I guess the good thing is if JB does sign we won’t need to have this argument as it will mean our budget is competitive right?.

I suppose the view in Florida is that by saving on a decent manager we can spend it on a beach hut in Moulton instead.

I see a couple of things in Brady’s words. The first part about the squad, I believe he has to say, although I wouldn't disagree with him. He’d be mad to say he had a good squad, but personally  fcuked it up.

The second part about a competitive budget, leans me towards thinking he's our manager next year and knows the budget already. Whether it competitive or not who knows. But every manager I know who either wants the job, or has the job, states that they are ok with what their boss has given them. Well... They say that until it goes wrong.

Looks like Brady as manager with Atkins director of football according to Mark Webber this morning.

Not sure how that will work with the new footballing brand/philosophy that is proposed to run through all the clubs teams. Maybe Atkins has mellowed in his older years, and became a fan of 'total football'!  ;D

He knew when a guy had a premier league left foot though...Cant remember if it was Speading or Hope he made that comment about.... ;D

If this is true I'll be very happy. Atko is still one of my favourite managers and he knew how to get the best out of the resources he had available at the time. He's spent most of the time since he left us scouting for bigger sides, so you have to assume he reported more back to them than "I'd sign their number 9, he's fookin massive and will kick anyone near him!"

He's been around forever, has loads of contacts and an affinity with the club.

Hmm, Atko, Brady, Sammo, Rico, Razor... what a line up of legends! Hopefully they'll get Smudger in as a striking coach and sign Bayo and we'll have the full set!! ;D

Our budget was 1.9 million. I know this to be true because GPC posted this to be the case recently and he's seldom wrong.
Now all we need are similarly clued up posters on each of the other 23 clubs fan sites to post their own figures and all the speculation can cease.

you might all be overlooking the head of recruitment .
The band are back together again ...

You are right I hadn’t actually read the article in the Chron & Echo with James Whiting. Unless anyone is accusing the club of lying I guess the issue of whether we had a bottom for budget has been resolved!.

Calderwood or Atkins?

So no Goalie for your bunch of wizards?

Woody already has a job.  ;D

Please not Atkins. And dont give me any crap about two games at Wembley.

Thats exactly what I thought

Not sure what constitutes a great DOF these days but forgot that Atkins is mid 60's now (where does the time go?!) and seems to be scouting for Wolves after time at Everton and Villa. He is one of the many in the background who will find a role in the game until he calls it a day. I'm sure he's built a tidy pension pot.

I agree, the football might not always have been pretty but the team morale was always high and they fought for everything. Could do with Woody coming back as goalkeeping coach and Heggsy teaching them how to fight!!

Love the story about when Heggsy came in for talks and someone told Big John Gayle "his mate from Wembley" was in reception (they'd had a scrap in the tunnel, apparently!). A few minutes later, once they'd been separated, a bloodied and dishevelled Heggsy said to Atko "I take it you don't want me anymore?", to which Atko replied "Someone who'll take on John Gayle? You'll do for me, lad!" (or words to those effects) ;D

Great story.

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/brady-really-excited-for-cobblers-future-after-changes-but-wont-yet-to-commit-to-the-managers-job-3227013

Not needed, just bury you under the North Stand goal with a large gravestone...
Youll be doing the team a service even in death...

 :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

I actually remember him making this comment,  it was about Bradley Johnson.

A few years difference on this...It was hoof back.... ie..can get it in the opposition box from our box.

BJ arrived after IA had  left by a good few years.

Hope Ian Atkins comes back, we might bloody score from a corner for once!!

I liked Atkins too - suited us perfectly at the time.  He got lucky in particularly with Roy Hunter and then the two full backs he signed Frain and Clarkson. Pretty sure we played wing backs at Wembley?

Correct,  it was post match when he was summariser when he made the at the time outrageous claim about Bradley Johnson ..... but he was right.

Calderwood was ok and tight at defence, but I was SO utterly bored out of my mind, every time I watched us play!!

People used to think we had vuvuzellas, but it was the sound of people snoring.

Never ever ever look back. Look forward! Atko and Col-de-sac are hold hat, they have had their day. We need a bright new future. In Iceland it is freezing but if you visit the natural volcanic pools you can luxuriate in body temperature waters whilst sipping your favourite juice, sparkling or otherwise. The pools have their origin in the core of the earth. We are not retro, we are Door Enige Vrienden Opgericht.

Agree with your short opening sentence. Atko might be a useful man on the committee; done it been there etc. On the other hand to many cooks ...............

A camel is a horse designed by committee apparently? Still think it’s a good idea though.

Told you so  ;)

Keith Hill has been sacked by Tranmere Rovers despite guiding them to the play-offs.  A strange decision by them but I cant help thinking he would be an excellent assistant to JB.  Cant imagine he would come but worth an ask I would have thought.

Eight months on and after an indifferent start, I think we can all agree that JB and his coaching staff are giving us more reasons to be cheerful than any manager since CW...   ;)

Agreed and we look good too!

Absolutely, and if we had sacked Keith earlier and given Brady the transfer window he might have kept us up.

Now who’s fault could that have been 🤔

Whilst I think the above post at the time was balanced, Im so glad I was ultimately wrong! I've read a lot of the posts on this thread, and a lot of people had more faith than I did in the Brady gang.

Yep, he's sold on me!!!!  ;D

Anyone care to guess what wage Brady is on and what wage is Calderwood on?

After reading Shoemakers comments, I would guess CC gets the minimum wage and JB as the boss, gets the living wage. ;)

They are on wages that they are both happy with. If not the dynamic would quickly fail. Same for Rico

i wouldn’t swap our management team for anyone else’s  in the division.
When JB has a chance to root out some dead wood in january i think you will see some gaps being plugged.
I think we have a great team of people who care about the club and are committed .
JB knows his squad better now and also knows where he wants to strengthen . We will get better and are also now playing decent football to watch .

I wouldn't get too carried away as we know how a couple of defeats quickly change opinion.
You have to enjoy the good times as a Cobbler though so long may it continue.
The main concern is if we get a couple of injuries to key players but that's the same for most teams, especially at our level.

If we are not fighting for top three, you'd at least hope we can embed a place in the play offs. Long way to go but we're on a roll.

The key is going to be how they recover from the next run of bad games as its going to happen. They've shown good resilience after the Sutton and Harlepool games which will hopefully serve them well the next time.

Cant decide if the league break is a good thing or a bad thing. Bad because we are on a roll and have momentum, good because it gives Brady a bit of a chance to maybe rest some players who are struggling. After being largely unchanged for 4 games I would think a few could do with a break or to help a slight knock, like we've seen with McGowan. I do hope he picks a strong team though which I am sure he will for Cambridge

It's great that we're now starting to see something approaching the "bums off seats" football promised by JB. This positive approach is similar to how he began when he took over. I can only assume that the overcautious "nullify threats" early season approach was CC's influence. Does this mean that JB has decided to go with his own philosophy over CC's opinions or has the latter finally come round to the merits of a more attacking approach (hard to believe after so many years)?

I don't really care as long as we keep trying to play the way we are. I've said already this season that we should be good enough to impose our game on the majority of sides in this division and come out on top and that is precisely what's happening at the moment. Our more adventurous, attacking play is breeding real confidence throughout the team and greater fluency. Scraping 1-0 victories with a goal from a set piece out of a total of 2 or 3 shots in the whole game breeds confidence in defence but anxiety and frustration in attack. It's very difficult to sustain a promotion challenge based on that.

Who are you thinking? the only real candidates I can see presently are Rose & Bas, since the change to 4-2-3-1 we have too many strikers and neither seem well suited to fill in the lone striker role if needed.

Im not convinced early in the season we set out to be more defensive it was just a case of playing a formation that didn’t suit our best players.