Rjc-1988

I am not necessarily saying that Billy Dodds would be top of my list either but the way that some people rubbish guys like Dodds is laughable. He got Caley into the Play Offs, a Scottish Cup final without any significant financial backing. Has managed at Premier League level and is well connected. Compare that with Bartley who has zero managerial track record, and who talks a great game but delivers the square root of nothing. I know who I would rather have at the helm.

I agree totally - it is not so much if we want him …………would he want Queens? To me at least with someone like Billy Dodds you know what you are getting - a seasoned campaigner, no more bullshit, more sensible playing style. Obviously no guarantee of success until squad can be re-vamped but a safe pair of hands to hopefully solidify our lofty L1 status.

I can’t believe that MB is still in post - what more evidence to the BOD need to see that the playing side is an utter unmitigated shambles. I also find it astonishing that some people think that Billy Dodds would be a disastrous replacement. Really? What calibre of replacement do we realistically expect to get? An experienced Manager with a great knowledge of Scottish football and loads of contacts - sounds great compared to what we are having to put up with at present.

This is a phrase that comes up a lot in the context of MB - “he has added professionalism to the club”. Many Queens’ fans make this claim. I am intrigued to know what the evidence is that supports this view. Surely, good recruitment, good selections, good formations, good tactics, entertaining football all translating into good results = professionalism. All I see is us getting progressively worse under MB - he has certainly hoodwinked a good cross section of the support but at the end of the day the results and the league table don’t lie.

Absolutely - Bartley’s record is a total embarrassment. He is unconsciously incompetent and is in total denial about the extent of the problem. BOD font seem to see it either.

Stats tell their own story - not a solitary shot on target. Let’s not kid ourselves Dundee Utd had 35 shots last week and without a tremendous goalkeeping display from Stone we would have got humped. Bartley in total denial about how bad we are - we play very unattractive football and are basically unwatchable. This cannot be allowed to continue. No wonder Accies were desperate to get the game on.

Trust the Hamilton ground staff to get the game on. Looks like our horrendous record at NDP is set to continue.

For me what the results against Aris from Cyprus highlights more than anything else is just how spineless and totally inept our Scottish Premiership teams are. Aris went into the two games against Rangers with absolutely no fear of the Old Firm, were not scared of the blue Rangers jersey, were not intimidated by an Ibrox full house.Their players were NOT beaten before they started unlike Old Firm Premiership rivals who invariably write off all points against Celtic and Rangers and sit back and attempt to keep the score down both home and away. It is truly pathetic. Aris are a team probably much smaller than Hibs , Hearts and Aberdeen. They don’t have a big European pedigree in fact I suspect they will have rarely qualified previously. What this highlights is that Rangers and Celtic for that matter are very modest performers when you start to apply some reality to the proceedings. Teams like Hearts, Hibs etc need to look at what Aris did and apply a dramatic change of outlook or continue to allow the OF to build up embarrassingly large points deficits by Xmas every year.

Having repeatedly squandered the opportunity to get some home points on the board in “winnable fixtures” we now face two very tough away fixtures back to back. As all Queens’ fans will know our record at NDP is frankly abysmal and then we face a strong Mo side who are going well. Hopefully last weeks great result will galvanise the squad to perform to the same standard. It will be interesting to see if broadly the same players get a chance to build on that performance. Invariably when we have done ok wholesale changes appear the next week. Would certainly like to see Walker feature - yes he can be frustrating but no other player in our ranks could have made that second goal last week out of nothing. We need to get some league wins from somewhere - hopefully starting tomorrow.

Of course Dick’s methods were very much “old school” and last season’s performance was much more what you would expect from a PT side in the Championship. That said be very careful what you wish for. There are plenty of “new breed” Managers who watch Man City and think that the way forward is to play out from the back and essentially “pass the ball to death” with no end product. Sorry to see the Campbells leave the club when on the end of a cup shock. To be fair there is no disgrace in losing to Spartans - they are a brilliantly run club who are definitely on the up. Might have been better for them to call it a day at end of last season. Sad to see the Campbells being barracked after the game - they deserved better but that’s football. Reminds me a bit of Peter Houston’s last game in charge of Falkirk - got slaughtered by the Falkirk faithful after being a huge success over many years. We all know what happened to the Bairns in the aftermath of his departure.

“Palmerston always a really tough place to go”………….. Great result - typical Queens when you least expect it. Surely players can take confidence from that result and start winning some league games.

All very fair comments. Several non league clubs with much smaller infrastructure and support put our communication and media interaction to shame. It is particularly disappointing not to get a brief highlights package even goal clips. It is all symptomatic of a wider decline. If you don’t keep striving to improve other minnows will overtake us - just ask Brechin, Berwick etc. On the subject of Skyline I valued his input just not his condemnation of anybody holding a different view to his.

Yes I worry that you are spot on. Saturday is a free hit and buys a bit of time just in the off chance we somehow get a very improbable win. I think what this sorry debacle highlights more than anything else is the folly of giving Managers longer term contracts at this level of football …………especially untried Managers with zero track record.

To be fair his track record as a Manager is excellent considering he invariably manages unfashionable clubs- but he has been at the helm at Leeds and Sheff Utd. You don’t get jobs of that scale if you don’t have “something about you”. More worryingly we still have MB in charge - Saturday’s cup game matters little in the greater scheme of things but when the league campaign resumes there surely has to be a change of direction??

I can’t believe for a minute that Warnock would seriously think about managing us for the sort of money we pay. I would be astonished if that were true.If by some quirk of fate he was prepared to join us I would take him in a heartbeat.If you look at his track record it is incredible in the context of QOS and our meagre track record. He has won umpteen promotions with small clubs, took Cardiff into the Premier League, and in his last job kept Huddersfield in the Championship when that looked unlikely. On top of that he is certainly entertaining - makes Marvin’s post match interview on Saturday look pretty tame. True odds of him coming - 100/1+ so it is probably all academic.

I am not in any way questioning your feelings for the club I am questioning why on earth we would want to create an exorbitant cost structure to accommodate MB as head coach?

I don’t understand why we would want to contemplate retaining MB as Head Coach when his mis-management of the playing side has put us in such a dire position. Unless I am missing something there are literally no positives!! I think many supporters thought he was the “real deal” when he arrived (I wasn’t one of them because I don’t set much store on excessive rhetoric from a novice Manager who has no track record) but the penny has well and truly dropped now. You only need to listen to the true diehards in the Travel Club to get a feel for supporters’ sentiment and these guys “live and breathe QOS”. I wish the guy well but the future can’t be with us ………….can it????

I can’t honestly believe that the Club could contemplate having MB in post for next match. Admittedly the cup match is surely a write off barring a monumental shock but the prospect of him continuing at the helm for League business is surely not an option? Looking at the league table we are one of 4 clubs who are relegation candidates. With new Manager, FC Edinburgh are not a lost cause by any means , Annan look at least on a par with us as are Stirling. Don’t see Alloa being dragged into the scrap so we are two of 4 obvious candidates. The rest of the teams certainly look noticeably stronger than the current bottom 4 barring a turnaround. BOD have stabilised the club financially which is no mean feat given our dreadful attendances in past few seasons but a relegation to L2 on their watch is unthinkable but far from impossible.

Absolutely spot on - the arrogance of any Manager to think that they can pre-empt exact match day scenarios and pre-coach players at this level of football is delusional to say the least. Recruitment is the number one priority followed by adapting a style of play that suits your players. Positive encouragement and good motivational skills complete the picture but stick to the basics and keep things as simple as possible.

Sadly that is the fact of the matter. Talking excessively is one of his faults and on this occasion he just “kept digging”. He is clearly feeling sorry for himself but the job at this level is a brutal one and with results and performances like we have witnessed there is nowhere to go. He probably can’t understand why he is being so unsuccessful but let’s not forget our position last season was masked by one variable - Ruari Paton’s goals and assists. Take them out and we were basically as bad last season as now.

I have said previously that football is an instinctive game and players respond to developments in a match literally in a split second. It strikes me that the level of coaching that is taking place is way over the top and is not allowing players the confidence and freedom to express themselves on a match day. The biggest problem, of course, is that he recruited this squad and it is packed full of players who no other FT clubs wanted and who are simply not good enough. What Marvin describes in his interview is prevalent at every FT club in the country at our level :- — young guys who can’t live on the wages without a partner with a good job or Bank of Mum and Dad - young guys with too much time on their hands and some getting hooked on gaming - players dis-respecting their FT status by not “looking after themselves” in terms of stretching, eating, gym work Sadly, this is the scale of the challenge for Managers at this level - it is truly a thankless task but people want to put themselves through it and some like MB just can’t “make it happen”. He can’t continue now as much for his own sanity as anything else. As to “what next” that is for others to decide but if we are to persist with same model it has to be quality over quantity but that will take more investment.

Personally I don’t believe that but if it is true and Bartley offered the club a way out of this shambles and rejected it then I am gobsmacked.

Notwithstanding the contractual aspect I am astonished that MB was allowed to remain at the helm this long. Cannot possibly continue - if allowed to see out his contract we could be Lowland League bound. Change required and some experienced players needed pronto. Obviously a complete reset required but first priority is to stay up and with this squad that is no easy task for anybody coming in.

Are you seriously advocating that we keep him?

You really can’t make it up.