Shezza Must Stay!!

I agree, I want Sheridan replaced, but that's not just any old replacement - a proper search for the best available manager is what's required. Of course the Eddie Howe success story could be touted as reason to give Wotts the mantle, young manager, club legend, blah blah. But Bournemouth, regardless of their Russian bucks going to playing budget (cos to be fair to them, they've not really splashed it about here and there, that Artur cost them like 70 grand), invest off the field onto training ground facilities and sourcing a quality coaching team to compliment Howe. Everything was in place to make the job as easy as possible for him, not that its an easy job. When was the last time our training facilities got a good dusting?

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

I'm still supporting the only proffesional at home park the manager! look who wants him sacked bitter old bigots like Harper uber nerdy kids, and those who dont like him because he's "Northern" lacking in armwaving passion? wtf? Give him a promotion winning Budget Brent, and he will get the club promoted if thats what you want!!!! he done it before with Chesterfield, most of Sheridans biggest critics are sad gimps who have never kicked a ball in their lives yet have probably won champions league on their playstations! dont blame the manager look further upwards. Stick with Shez or its relegation with Wotton.

Agree with you SS68.I don't pay much attention to these self-righteous types who spend years lecturing others about softly softly, live within your means, slow growth etc, then when you get a manager in who keeps the club in the football league under very difficult circumstances and oversees two seasons of progress with distinct improvements in many areas on a budget which Mr Starnes has confirmed is indeed on course to break even, turns with the rest of the wolf pack. Subliminal authoritarian bum kissing exercise would be Dr Greenskins diagnosis.

X Isle wrote:

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

I'm still supporting the only proffesional at home park the manager! look who wants him sacked bitter old bigots like Harper uber nerdy kids, and those who dont like him because he's "Northern" lacking in armwaving passion? wtf? Give him a promotion winning Budget Brent, and he will get the club promoted if thats what you want!!!! he done it before with Chesterfield, most of Sheridans biggest critics are sad gimps who have never kicked a ball in their lives yet have probably won champions league on their playstations! dont blame the manager look further upwards. Stick with Shez or its relegation with Wotton.

Agree that Wotton isn't the answer, he looked even less interested and motivated than Sheridan at Adams Park.

The rest though just smacks of taking up a position just because it opposes what 'the enemy' thinks, being Contrary Mary for the sake of it.

Doesn't it just?

"Pasoti seems to not like Sheridan, so we will militantly back the poor fella."

We can get a better manager than this and deserve one.

If Greenskin wants a manager who can keep us up in exceptionally difficult circumstances, we should try giving Carl Fletcher another call.

X Isle wrote:

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

I'm still supporting the only proffesional at home park the manager! look who wants him sacked bitter old bigots like Harper uber nerdy kids, and those who dont like him because he's "Northern" lacking in armwaving passion? wtf? Give him a promotion winning Budget Brent, and he will get the club promoted if thats what you want!!!! he done it before with Chesterfield, most of Sheridans biggest critics are sad gimps who have never kicked a ball in their lives yet have probably won champions league on their playstations! dont blame the manager look further upwards. Stick with Shez or its relegation with Wotton.

Agree that Wotton isn't the answer, he looked even less interested and motivated than Sheridan at Adams Park.

The rest though just smacks of taking up a position just because it opposes what 'the enemy' thinks, being Contrary Mary for the sake of it.

Maybe Wotton recognized the tactics and team where wrong.... and failure was inevitable.....and was resigned to the fact.

ejh wrote:

X Isle wrote:

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

I'm still supporting the only proffesional at home park the manager! look who wants him sacked bitter old bigots like Harper uber nerdy kids, and those who dont like him because he's "Northern" lacking in armwaving passion? wtf? Give him a promotion winning Budget Brent, and he will get the club promoted if thats what you want!!!! he done it before with Chesterfield, most of Sheridans biggest critics are sad gimps who have never kicked a ball in their lives yet have probably won champions league on their playstations! dont blame the manager look further upwards. Stick with Shez or its relegation with Wotton.

Agree that Wotton isn't the answer, he looked even less interested and motivated than Sheridan at Adams Park.

The rest though just smacks of taking up a position just because it opposes what 'the enemy' thinks, being Contrary Mary for the sake of it.

Doesn't it just?

"Pasoti seems to not like Sheridan, so we will militantly back the poor fella."

We can get a better manager than this and deserve one.

If Greenskin wants a manager who kept us up in exceptionally difficult circumstances, we should try giving Carl Fletcher another call.

WTF are you blathering on about?

ejh wrote:

X Isle wrote:

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

I'm still supporting the only proffesional at home park the manager! look who wants him sacked bitter old bigots like Harper uber nerdy kids, and those who dont like him because he's "Northern" lacking in armwaving passion? wtf? Give him a promotion winning Budget Brent, and he will get the club promoted if thats what you want!!!! he done it before with Chesterfield, most of Sheridans biggest critics are sad gimps who have never kicked a ball in their lives yet have probably won champions league on their playstations! dont blame the manager look further upwards. Stick with Shez or its relegation with Wotton.

Agree that Wotton isn't the answer, he looked even less interested and motivated than Sheridan at Adams Park.

The rest though just smacks of taking up a position just because it opposes what 'the enemy' thinks, being Contrary Mary for the sake of it.

Doesn't it just?

"Pasoti seems to not like Sheridan, so we will militantly back the poor fella."

We can get a better manager than this and deserve one.

If Greenskin wants a manager who kept us up in exceptionally difficult circumstances, we should try giving Carl Fletcher another call.

You must be joking of course.......he's part of a winning backroom support for high flying Bournemouth.....he's tasted success....how on earth would he be interested in being a manager of a visionless PAFC.

ejh wrote:

Mr. President Angry wrote:

Paven wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

ejh wrote:

Mr. President Angry wrote:

I dont accept that only living in plymouth will make you a better manager of plymouth argyle. Its just another stick to beat northeners with like it was with simon walton. Kind of xenophobic if you ask me.

If Saint Paul Wotton himself was manager, and wasn't around the players from Saturday to Wednesday, then he'd be subject to the exact same criticism.

Especially if our side had just conceded 5 set piece goals, where very few appeared to know what they were doing.

Nothing to do with not liking northerners, just an opinion - a professional football manager ought to be in and among his players during the working week.

If Sheridan isn't committing to it, I am sure plenty of other candidates would be willing.

Do you have any conclusive evidence, as opposed to spiteful tittle tattle, that Sheridan is "not around the players from Wednesday to Saturday"?

Yep, I know that he goes home after every away game for a few days to see his family but the players must return to Plymouth. Wotton takes Monday training.

the bastard!!! how dare he see his family

Why don't you try not going into work for the first two days of the week?

Tell your employers you want to spend time with your family, so it's OK.

I used to walk on central park every Sunday, the players always used to have a warm down session on Sundays and have a reflection on the last game. Presumably Shez misses this too when he stays up north.

Does it not cross your mind even for a nano second that its in the terms of his contract apon accepting that he can go home after away games for a few days and the board sanction it?

Sheridan is a proven, experienced manager at this level. He's taken teams up from this league and wasn't too far away from doing it with us, despite being hampered by a budget which, quite frankly, was a disgrace for a club of our size.

He should be congratulated for what he's achieved here, not vilified because he's northern, doesn't wave to fans, sees his family once a week etc etc. Some numpty said he doesn't take training every day. Well, actually not all managers do. That's why you employ first team coaches.

I'm not a huge Sheridan fan, but he gets on and does his job and doesn't worry about much else. He doesn't like the media much and he's his own man when it comes to relations with the fans. Fine with me. He's done a reasonable job in difficult circumstances for a Chairman who knows bugger all about football. (who, incidentally spends 1 day a week on PAFC business).

What annoys me about this situation is that you get kids going on about no plan B, it should be 4-4-2, he should take training etc, when they clearly know sod all about how a football club works. If he had given them a wave or two or smiled at them they'd be orgasmic, but as it is, it's bandwagon jumping. The prevailing wind says that Sheridan's crap so therefore he is and he has to go.

I don't mind if he's here next season. I don't think he'll stay and if not, then we'll see who comes in - who's next in line for wannabee, acne ridden, football manager playing 'experts' to criticize because he's playing so and so out of position and he hasn't waved to all parts of the ground.

Think about it if Sheridan stays it could be the catalyst to protests against Brent on pasoti.

PlymptonPilgrim wrote:

What annoys me about this situation is that you get kids going on about no plan B, it should be 4-4-2, he should take training etc, when they clearly know sod all about how a football club works. If he had given them a wave or two or smiled at them they'd be orgasmic, but as it is, it's bandwagon jumping. The prevailing wind says that Sheridan's crap so therefore he is and he has to go.

So football clubs don't play 4-4-2 or have alternative systems? Please enlighten us all to how football clubs work. 

If Sheridan stays on for next season than he/the board have got to learn from the realities of this season. We threw away our promotion chances by not having a competitive squad and by not being ready to accept 3-5-2 might work against some teams well its not going to against others mainly away from home so adapting a different tactic or 2 is something to work on too.

There are loads of far better managers than Sheridan without a doubt, but none in my veiw would come to Plymouth Argyle in a million years! the club has no ambition, a part time owner who has no money, a half finished ground with no realistic prospect any time soon of a Grand Stand Replacement, non league training set up that has not changed in forty years so all in all just be grateful to Shezza that he's even considering keeping the job.... because like it or not were not an attractive proposition! Thats not being Contrary just realistic.

argyl3 wrote:

Think about it if Sheridan stays it could be the catalyst to protests against Brent on pasoti.

like the Porkster will let that happen

It goes against my grain to be slag off either players or manager. I'm an Argyle fan and I want us to do as well as we can (and I firmly believe that is far, far better than we are currently doing) but I am not unrealistic about what can be achieved, how fast it can be achieved or what needs to be done to achieve it.

The beauty of football lies in its simplicity. The scoring system could barely be simpler and even the tactics involved boil down to either get it forward sharpish or retain possession at all costs. Nothing complicated there either.

Football as a business is brutally ugly. No matter what the club, who the manager is or what the team is what really matters is how much money can be put into the team. Keeping it simple again the teams at the very top (Chelsea, Man City etc) have the most money enabling them to field the best players and it creates the best teams. At the other end of the scale (Accrington, D&R etc) the opposite applies. In most instances it could be argued that the actual playing of games is pointless. Just get the chairmen to get their wallets out, compare for thickness and award trophies accordingly.

Obviously, despite there being truth in the broadest sense in the last paragraph, some teams do better and others do worse than their financial situation suggests they ought, or might, or could and surely it is this against which success should be measured?

If it is true that Sheridan had the 7th best budget in the division it scarily matches the fact that Argyle finished 7th in the League. So that's not success but it isn't failure either.

Likewise if, as suggested, the club set Sheridan the target of getting into the play-offs the fact is that we got into the play-offs. Just as long as he wasn't expected to win the play-offs then Sheridan has hit his target.

Looking at this dispassionately Sheridan has done a pretty decent job with the resources he has. Not a brilliant one that we can all coo lovingly about but a decent one that doesn't represent disastrous mismanagement. The indications are that Sheridan squeezes out of the system exactly what Brent is prepared to put into it.

Therein lies the rub. No matter what the level of resource put into the team there can never be any guarantee that it will work. Increasing the budget from 7th to 3rd ought to see us promoted but it probably wouldn't work like that. If a team is going to buy its way out of a division it needs to comprehensively out-spend its competitors for it to be likely to work and even if league regulations allowed that, which they don't, it would need us to have an owner that could stump up the money, which we don't.

That leaves us with a choice: stick or twist. We're holding 16 and the next card could be anything. Failure is far easier to achieve than success.

Maybe changing manager is the answer. Maybe the next bloke will over-achieve according to resources. Maybe that is what we need. It's a gamble though. Maybe he won't succeed, maybe we'll go backwards.

It it were I making the decision then I'd stick with what I know. There is almost no likelihood of the wheels coming off under Sheridan so the disaster option is unlikely. Continuity is important, he has been in place for some time now and every bone in my body screams that chopping and changing all the time is both ineffective and expensive.

What really seals it, Sheridan's retention that is, for me is that a) we probably can't afford to sack and pay him off and b) he is a useful flak attractor.

While we're all moaning about Sheridan living up north, or standing there with his arms folded or being unfriendly in interviews we are not focussing on the size of the budget he has to work with, the absence of progress in replacing the grandstand, doing something about providing decent matchday facilities for fans, filling in the atmosphere sink that is the Mayflower Terrace and all of the rest of it. Quite simply the more flak Sheridan cops the easier the ride dear ol' infallible Jimmy gets. And that's what matters most of all, ain't it?

That's the nail hit on the head.

In this division it's the quality of the manager that is more important than the players.

Can you say that on paper Wycombe had a much more superior playing staff than we did ?......wasn't one of Wycombe's best players.... Hayes a flop at Argyle ?......but in a well organized and managed team he became a star striker......scoring three goals against us this season.....was this not basically the same Wycombe that avoided the Conference last year on the last day of the season ?

Probably half a dozen managers in this league could have got Argyle promoted.....and Sheridan was obviously not one of them......so we must raise our ambition levels Mr Brent and get a winner in.

Did not Bournemouth miss the Conference by a whisker and then come through the leagues with an inspirational young manager in charge......with good foundations in place you start attracting the better players.......they still have two or three players who fought against dropping into the Conference in their team/squad......where is the spark in our owner/directors to start the rise from mediocrity......no real desire beyond balancing the books at the end of the day can be seen by the fans.

The right manager is the crux of all things and if James Brent cannot see that then he is the wrong owner.....we're beyond being saved from administration now....we need to kick on from here......the right set up and we should sail through Div 1/2 into the Championship and then it becomes a harder ball game, we just need to get there first.

Elias wrote:

If a change is made the new bloke needs to be in by 1st july to grab those out of contract players.
Personally i think he ll stay for another season then leave.
Its only 4wks until the fixtures come out.

I think you are right! Whatever the shortfalls in personality, charm, planning a campaign, recovering from 0-1 down JS has so far achieved 'saved from non-league' then 'mid-table' then 'play-offs' So next it must be top 3 which fits in with his contract. I'd be surprised if he goes.

Hayes was useless with us. That's true but he was a Hayes on his way back from long-term injury loaned out to a little club so he could run around and get fit.

Once fit he seems to be a different player.

And a much nastier one.

I don't see any of this as evidence either way regarding the relative merits of Sheridan and Ainsworth. Ainsworth has done well this year, make no mistake, but they are not promoted yet and let's not forget how badly Wycombe did last year - and maybe they are one of the 6 with a better budget?

There is nearly always going to be someone somewhere who could be pointed at has having done well elsewhere and good for them for doing so but would they have done the same here? We'll never know, of course, but not all mangers successful in one place succeed in the next. Success, or at least the absence of failure, seems to hang around people like Pulis and Sturrock like a bad smell which is what makes people like Pulis and Sturrock so remarkable.

Were I to point a finger at a manager and say "I want him" it would, now as it was last time, be Keith Hill. It's an appointment begging to happen and I'm certain it would be good for both parties concerned - just as long as Brent was able to back him here as much as he is backed there.