Yes, indeed it is. Quite a large number of supporters hold the same view, many going one step further and saying that Frank isn’t up to the job, is out of his depth, doesn’t know English football well enough, can’t communicate with the players effectively, has lost the dressing room and ultimately needs to be replaced. All of which, in my opinion—and I’ve given it some thought, avoids the real reasons for why we’ve gone from playoff contenders to a relegation battle in a fairly short space of time. Whilst Smith being replaced by Frank may have been the tipping point adding to problems that already existed, it wasn’t the cause. But I can well understand why people may want to view it in that way.
Undoubtedly it played a part, as did the sudden death at 28 of Rob Rowan the Technical Director, who was an immensely popular and influential figure at the club. This happened just after Thomas Frank took over and you can’t underestimate the negative impact that this had on everyone at the club.
The stats make quite interesting reading. The turning point (and I watched this game) happened away at Ipswich on the 18th September. 1-0 up in the first half, we came under a barrage of aerial balls put into the box and the inevitable happened, the ball was scrambled over the line and it ended up 1-1. Yet another game thrown away from a winning position. Bear in mind, Ipswich are bottom of the table and probably the worst side in the division!
Prior to that, under Smith the results were decent, but bear in mind 4 of these games were at home where we’ve traditionally been very strong. P7, W4, D2, L1. So one loss in the opening 7 games, which was away to Blackburn. Then the 1-1 draw to Ipswich and after this you see the change under Smith’s next 4 games: P4, D3, L1! So four wins in the first 7 games then 4 draws and a loss in the next 5. Why did they suddenly stop winning? Thomas Frank took over on the 16th October and his record is even grimmer losing his first 3, won one, lost the next 3, drew one, lost the next 2, won one, drew one. So…
Under Smith: P12, W4, D6, L2
Under Frank: P12, W2, D2, L8
Those results are pretty revealing in themselves and I think you can see that many of the problems were pre-existing under Smith that took a combination of events to turn previous drawn games into losses under Frank. They went from drawing games to losing them—fine margins most of the defeats were by one goal, no side has taken us apart, on the contrary—we’ve gifted far too many easy goals.
The long term aim is unquestionably to achieve promotion to the Premiership. In my opinion that’s more a question of when not if because I know how driven our owner is in achieving his objectives. Which of course springs up the question of why it hasn’t happened before now? The simple answer is because there hasn’t been any real urgency to do so! The media facilties at Griffin Park is the biggest problem and the bottom line is, we’d need to receive special dispensation from the Premier League to continue playing there, hence the building of the new stadium. It really doesn’t make any sense to make a big push towards achieving promotion until we’re in the new stadium. So we’ve pretty much been ‘treading water’ in the Championship until the new stadium is ready.
Four consecutive top 10 finishes I think confirms we’ve been there or thereabout each season, but simply lacked that final push of hanging on to key players in the January window and bringing in quality additions that we’d need for a concerted push for promotion, but you can understand why that hasn’t happened.
I do understand that. All I can say is that I would really urge any interested Exeter City supporters to have look at how the club is actually run. I’m confident they will be genuinely impressed at just how well run the club is—from the management structure, coaching right through to ‘care in the commumity’. Special was perhaps the wrong word—different is probably a better one.
Thank you!
I would like to take the opportunity to wish all Exeter supporters a Happy and successful New Year and hopefully promotion at the end of it.
As this is the Watkins thread, it’s appropriate that I finish with a note about him. It’s been noticed (and commented on) that in his last two games as a starter against Birmingham on Saturday and as a sub today against Norwich his performances have been a bit below par. There might be a number of reasons for this, but I’ve read several comments saying he looked disinterested and his mind seemed to be elsewhere. Whether this suggests an impending move in the January window is anyones guess, but at the moment he looks like a player who doesn’t want to be where he is. So I’ll leave that one with you all to ponder over.
