Will Covid save Matt Taylor’s job?

[dommers]

No doubt there will be a big silence to that question. Exeweb guesswork = indisputable fact!!

This article from someone who should now would suggest we're in the best state we've ever been?

We survived Covid and financially the club is the best it’s ever been

Julian Tagg gives his thoughts on the end of the season, the state of the club, and that he cannot wait for the fans to return to St James Park

www.devonlive.com

 

[iscalad]

This article from someone who should now would suggest we're in the best state we've ever been?

We survived Covid and financially the club is the best it’s ever been

Julian Tagg gives his thoughts on the end of the season, the state of the club, and that he cannot wait for the fans to return to St James Park

www.devonlive.com

All was roses in May, then. What about Now?

 

[Devon Red]

“Under MT we will never be relegated…… “ Now that really is a sweeping statement! What exactly are you basing that on?! And to think some people think Tisdale had a messiah complex. We are always more likely to be relegated than promoted because of the very position we are in now. We can’t just sign the players we need to step up in results and quality. Like last season (I think!) we enquired about Stockley but couldn’t match the wages. We committed the undisclosed sum for the screen but who would argue against spending that on wages and getting us promoted would have been a better use of the money. I refer you to Mr Taggs explanation about the return on that investment….. Also I don’t think we could sustain life in League One but apparently according to the experts/insiders on here the figures add up.

Clearly nothing is a guarantee but having MT as manager it's as close to a guarantee as it can be.

He's a steady manager, has flaws obviously but generally good. He doesn't rock the boat too much, his recruitment is generally OK and he understands the club and it's capabilities/limitations.

You only have to look at the other clubs in league 2 to see what bringing in the wrong manager can do. Sometimes I think it's better the devil you know, especially when as a club we are punching our weight. If we were struggling near the bottom of the table I'd have a different view on it, but we aren't and won't be.

Regarding your point about us being a sustainable league 1 club, I agree with you, I can't see us being a league 1 club for more than 2 or 3 seasons - as I've said earlier in the thread, we are a League 2 club and there are lots of reasons why that is unlikely to change.

 

[i8cornwall]

Whilst no manager should ever be safe from the sack regardless of results, the hysteria over the recent run of results is ridiculous. It was only a few weeks ago we were talking about automatic promotion.

Call me unambitious, but even if we gave MT the boot, what's to say the person we bring in is any better?! Under MT we will never be relegated and won't blow our budget and go under. To me, having a competitive league 2 side is alright, that's realistically where we should be as a club. We will make the occasional visit to League 1 but then find ourselves back in our League 2 home.

I think people have been watching too much Premier League football, that's not how we do things. Actually a bit annoyed I responded to the thread...

As much as you are entitled your opinion and one that is shared by many others and I fully understand why with what happened in the past but the current stated aim of the club is to be a sustainable league one side, Somthing Nick Hawker has said himself.

This mindset of little old Exeter is why we'll never be anything more then we currently are and one reason why personally I'm (and others I know) are growing disillusioned with the club.

Yes don't go nuts and waste money like a Salford etc but at the very least once the training ground is done actually start to give who ever the manager is a fighting chance in the summer (which granted we sort of did this summer) and the key area of the January transfer window, if that sum isn't enough then those in power at SJP need to find new ways of bring money into the club, if they won't or can't then the question is why and probably do they have the skills to be in that position?

We might give Matt Taylor a fair few quid to spend this January to get us promoted only time will tell but Matt's comments after the loss to Cambridge probably mean we won't be doing that for what ever reason.

 

[Red Devon]

Clubs like City, Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Gillingham etc have always floated between League One and Two and probably always will, I don’t think there is such a thing as this perfect world sustainable League One club notion where a club will stay there forever….football is a very competitive sport and not everything is decided by the strength of a clubs bank account...sometimes a manager will just get lucky with a signing or two like Cambridge did last season a similar thing happened to us when Tisdale took a chance on an unwanted Jamie Cureton...that’s the way it goes in football.

 

[Banksy]

I hope we ‘ take a chance ‘ on an unwanted Jamie Cureton ( lookalike) in this window. With Sam out we could certainly do with a leg up in that direction. Thing is , have we the connections to make it a meaningful signing or will we just take someone else’s dead wood.

 

[ExmouthMart]

Clearly nothing is a guarantee but having MT as manager it's as close to a guarantee as it can be.

He's a steady manager, has flaws obviously but generally good. He doesn't rock the boat too much, his recruitment is generally OK and he understands the club and it's capabilities/limitations.

You only have to look at the other clubs in league 2 to see what bringing in the wrong manager can do. Sometimes I think it's better the devil you know, especially when as a club we are punching our weight. If we were struggling near the bottom of the table I'd have a different view on it, but we aren't and won't be.

Regarding your point about us being a sustainable league 1 club, I agree with you, I can't see us being a league 1 club for more than 2 or 3 seasons - as I've said earlier in the thread, we are a League 2 club and there are lots of reasons why that is unlikely to change.

On recruitment without opening the proverbial can of worms……. Ajose.
Regarding his own position he must know he’s pretty safe from a knee jerk reaction from the Board. Our supporters are unbelievable but there comes a time when the Manager has to be held accountable and can’t keep using the same old excuses and you can’t keep expecting the supporters to get excited about the same old game plan and similar players coming and going. I am old enough to remember Terry Coopers team ( okay and the second time!). You came to Home games and we blew the opposition away. Now you just don’t know what to expect……

 

[geoffwp]

This mindset of little old Exeter is why we'll never be anything more then we currently are and one reason why personally I'm (and others I know) are growing disillusioned with the club.

Ah well, Bolton awaits as you wish us farewell maybe.

 

[Devon Red]

On recruitment without opening the proverbial can of worms……. Ajose.
Regarding his own position he must know he’s pretty safe from a knee jerk reaction from the Board. Our supporters are unbelievable but there comes a time when the Manager has to be held accountable and can’t keep using the same old excuses and you can’t keep expecting the supporters to get excited about the same old game plan and similar players coming and going. I am old enough to remember Terry Coopers team ( okay and the second time!). You came to Home games and we blew the opposition away. Now you just don’t know what to expect……

I said recruitment is generally OK, of course there have been flops but the market we recruit in is high risk (very young and need a chance, older at the back end of their career or injury prone and need a chance). If we were a more attractive club to players I'm sure his recruitment hit rate would be much better.

I understand what you are saying but this discussion about Matt Taylor is massively over the top, we have had a run of 20 games unbeaten this season, we hit one sticky patch and suddenly people are seemingly calling for the managers head, its ludicrous.

We have lost 3 league games on the bounce, disappointing but when you lose 2 of your best players through injury (Dieng and Nombe) and now have further injuries (Hartridge and Sweeney) plus multiple covid cases you just have to suck it up.

 

[SaintJames]

I hope we ‘ take a chance ‘ on an unwanted Jamie Cureton ( lookalike) in this window. With Sam out we could certainly do with a leg up in that direction. Thing is , have we the connections to make it a meaningful signing or will we just take someone else’s dead wood.

Judging by the success of this summer's recruitment (Ray, Nombe, Dawson, Brown and notably Dieng) we are taking other club's dead wood and polishing a turd into silver We are light years away from the era of only recruiting from the Bristol area