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JW The "humble pie" thread


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Well what a difference a few weeks makes as well as some very good results to boost the spirits of even the most grumpy Boro fans!

I will be the first to hold my hands up and admit I was, along with many others, not best pleased with Woodgate's appointment and was soon calling for his head due to the way things were going, yes I was very concerned that, due to the financial issues surrounding the club, it seemed we were relegation certainties and JW did not seem to have a clue what to do.

I was wrong, I did not allow him the time, was too impatient and totally forgot that it would take sometime for players to get over the Pulis ethos and the mindset engraved within their footballing aspects.

Thank fully I declared on the forum that I was going to get off his back a few weeks ago and that was because we could all see improvements developing and a coming together of the team and this was before the run of four.

So if you are reading this thread Woody, a big well done, keep it going and you are ok...……………….so far!

You and the team have brought some bounce back into the fans!

Also well done for all of the members who always said  "give him time"

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Whilst we've done really well in the past few games, I'm not going to declare Woodgate as our answer to Klopp just yet. I'm delighted that we've won 4 games on the bounce, but considering the quality of the squad at Woodgate's disposal, we should never have been in the mess that Woodgate got us into before then.

Edited by p_mards
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It’s gone well the last months, but we’re not out of the woods yet.

Still a lot to do and Woodgate has almost been forced into the way we’re playing.

At the end of January if things are still looking bright and we’ve moved up the table - then we can start to be enthusiastic! 

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I'll just say what I always think. Look at clubs in the Prem and beyond who constantly change their manager as soon as things start looking bad. The managerial merry-go-round is not something anyone should want to be part of. And if you're going to hire a rookie manager to begin with, with a longer term vision of where you want to be, it seems utterly pointless to talk about sacking said manager when there is still so many games and points left to win. It was and surely always will be a disruptive journey.

Sure, if you were so disappointed with the hire at the start then you can absolutely come out and say you've never supported it from the start. But even then, you're sometimes just sat waiting for a good opportunity to be proven right and get rid in favour of whatever else comes our way. I know it's not our job to decide who the next manager should be but this is no different to any other team's fans who want and sometimes get the sacking they so desire without considering the realistic alternatives. So you kind of have to ask yourself maybe... is anything better than this? I truly believed people last year when they said anything is better than Pulis and yet within a couple of months of this season, some people were already saying they'd rather him than Woodgate so 🤷‍♂️

I'd like it if more people simply sat on the fence and gave him time and backed him to get it right until it's actually too late to do so. I'd like it if we did that for all our managers, to be honest. But especially Woodgate, not because he's Boro Boro Boro, because he's a rookie and I absolutely cannot subscribe to the idea that he is at fault for accepting a job beyond his level of experience, he needs time if he's gonna get it right. If he got it right from the off, he'd have been incredibly fortunate. The fact he didn't is nothing less than I expected.

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It's one good spell. This phrase has been used to the point of annoyance on here recently (I'm guilty of using it too) but credit where credit is due. There are promising signs that we're moving in the right direction. However, I refuse to have the knee jerk reaction that he has completely turned it around and that he's suddenly proven himself as a good manager. The first part of the season wasn't long enough to conclude he was a bad manager, and this turnaround in form isn't enough to conclude that he's a good manager. He's a rookie, he needs more time. Hopefully this upward trend will continue.

I'm still disillusioned with the way the club is being run. I, like many others, despite all evidence telling us not to, trusted the club in the summer and backed their new plan. They essentially took a hot steaming dump on that faith. One month of good form will not rebuild that trust. A good January transfer window will help repair the damage. This links to Woodgate because, although it's not his fault, he is representative of a lot of the club's failings - their appeal to parochialism probably being the most obvious one. It is now agonisingly clear that he was appointed not because he was the most talented candidate (if there even were any other candidates), but because he was cheap, a local, and would submit to the board. If he does end up being Klopp 2.0 then it wasn't a tactical masterclass from the club, they just got lucky.

Edited by RealSlimSladeyy
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Not humble pie just yet. It’s only really improved for the past handful of games. I’ll happily give him credit for the way we’ve faired in the past month but there needs to be more before I’ll eat that pie. But if we can keep up for the remainder of January then I’ll start to come around. If we somehow manage to go into February only 4-8 points off play offs then I’ll be very happy. 

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1 hour ago, RealSlimSladeyy said:

It's one good spell. This phrase has been used to the point of annoyance on here recently (I'm guilty of using it too) but credit where credit is due. There are promising signs that we're moving in the right direction. However, I refuse to have the knee jerk reaction that he has completely turned it around and that he's suddenly proven himself as a good manager. The first part of the season wasn't long enough to conclude he was a bad manager, and this turnaround in form isn't enough to conclude that he's a good manager. He's a rookie, he needs more time. Hopefully this upward trend will continue.

I'm still disillusioned with the way the club is being run. I, like many others, despite all evidence telling us not to, trusted the club in the summer and backed their new plan. They essentially took at hot steaming dump on that faith. One month of good form will not rebuild that trust. A good January transfer window will help repair the damage. This links to Woodgate because, although it's not his fault, he is representative of a lot of the club's failings - their appeal to parochialism probably being the most obvious one. It is now agonisingly clear that he was appointed not because he was the most talented candidate (if there even were any other candidates), but because he was cheap, a local, and would submit to the board. If he does end up being Klopp 2.0 then it wasn't a tactical masterclass from the club, they just got lucky.

Spot on this, mate.

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Has Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth scene 6 verse 3 " 5 games a season duth not make squire " I will wait until the end of the season before I start rethinking what he and Gibson have done to this club between them . So much heart break so much pain and I still ain't in no forgiving mood DS.

To many bad things still going on at The Riverside for such a quick turnaround.

All I will say is I am finally happy now I can close the bathroom window no more thoughts of throwing myself out or perhaps drowning myself then throwing myself out.(Its really depends on how much Jameson's I drink.) 🤪

Edited by Motor Mouth
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It's been a brilliant fortnight and he deserves credit for that. It also shows how quickly things can change in this league for better or worse - a spin of defeats and we could easily be looking over our shoulder again.

Let's see what happens in the transfer window and the next run of fixtures. If we finish top 10 playing (mostly) like this and hold onto everyone bar Randolph & Britt then I think we can feel confident about the future. 

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1 minute ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

It's been a brilliant fortnight and he deserves credit for that. It also shows how quickly things can change in this league for better or worse - a spin of defeats and we could easily be looking over our shoulder again.

Let's see what happens in the transfer window and the next run of fixtures. If we finish top 10 playing (mostly) like this and hold onto everyone bar Randolph & Britt then I think we can feel confident about the future. 

Gibson might start believing we can hold our own with this present squad and not buy or loan any other players. But still sell Randy and Britass and pocket that money for his holidays.

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2 minutes ago, Motor Mouth said:

Gibson might start believing we can hold our own with this present squad and not buy or loan any other players. But still sell Randy and Britass and pocket that money for his holidays.

Hopefully he won't be so naive! The ITK guys in the transfer thread seem to think incomings are in the pipeline. 

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4 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

Hopefully he won't be so naive! The ITK guys in the transfer thread seem to think incomings are in the pipeline. 

🤣 I never listen to any ITK people I just wait till the window closes and the loan window and then look at all the bits the cat as dragged in and wonder how the fukk we are gonna manage with them leftovers that no bugger else wanted.

Which is normally the case and a millions miles away from what the ITK guys were saying.

Now thats years of experience talking SS.

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We won the last two games playing well.  We won the previous two playing poorly and getting some good fortune.  When did we play well before that?  The Charlton game and Hull game until Johnson got sent off?  We were lousy at Forest until somebody, somewhere, had the bright idea that attacking the opposition might give us some sort of chance.  We were abysmal at Leeds.  We weren't all that good at Swansea although that gets lost with the two red cards, but we we scored out of nowhere in that game to get back into it in the first place.  So I'd say it's a little premature to be writing the 'all is well' posts.

Where there should be optimism is that we have played with a different mindset in the last couple of games.  How much of that is part of some well orchestrated plan and how much has been dictated by circumstances, I'm really not sure.  Some of the changes have been forced upon us somewhat - Spence wouldn't be in the side were it not for injuries for example and I'm not sure Coulson would have been in as much had Johnson not been suspended.  McNair got suspended so Wing got back in (eventually).

I'll feel more confident about him and us when I see the teams he selects when everyone is available and our mindset in those games.  I'll say this though, over the last couple of games I felt like we were playing something closer to what Woodgate actually wanted to see from us at the beginning of the season and I've been moaning about that for a while now.  I'm happy with that and I hope it continues.

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5 hours ago, Downsouth said:

Well what a difference a few weeks makes as well as some very good results to boost the spirits of even the most grumpy Boro fans!

I will be the first to hold my hands up and admit I was, along with many others, not best pleased with Woodgate's appointment and was soon calling for his head due to the way things were going, yes I was very concerned that, due to the financial issues surrounding the club, it seemed we were relegation certainties and JW did not seem to have a clue what to do.

I was wrong, I did not allow him the time, was too impatient and totally forgot that it would take sometime for players to get over the Pulis ethos and the mindset engraved within their footballing aspects.

Thank fully I declared on the forum that I was going to get off his back a few weeks ago and that was because we could all see improvements developing and a coming together of the team and this was before the run of four.

So if you are reading this thread Woody, a big well done, keep it going and you are ok...……………….so far!

You and the team have brought some bounce back into the fans!

Also well done for all of the members who always said  "give him time"

Whatever your thoughts, or othets, we're still all Boro fans

I quoted on flyme that I loved his press interview, probably the reason I was happy with his appointment, gullable maybe, but think with his comments about my teams will pay high, fast tempo football when the players needed to change their outlook in training, maybe if get said he'll be building his teams to play that way

I loved it when he spoke passionatly after each match & still do with his bouncing Teesside accent 

Keep it going Woody

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