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No doubt in my mind the squad is stronger. The only problem is that we were able to get the players we got are because they were just happy to be playing football again.
No other clubs wanted them for the same reason we’ll be struggling with them for the foreseeable future, little to no match fitness.
Do you really think if given the choice Hill would bring in players so short of match fitness ?
Hill only went down that route because that was the only route he was able to go down.
If Swann didn’t run this club so recklessly to begin with he wouldn’t have had to completely slam the brakes on monetarily. This is what has caused this to begin with.
Becoming a chairman of a football club and spending 115% of your total turnover in the hope of championship football, taking out loans you know the club won’t be able to pay back isn’t a sound business model.
What gets me is, is that he wouldn’t run his hotel business in such a way and yet comes here and does exactly that while completely destroying the club in the process.
It’s ok uptheiron backing him but it’s his actions which have caused this and the embargo. If Swann didn’t run this club so recklessly we would probably have had the money to tie us over during the pandemic and we wouldn’t have needed the loan in the first place.
No problems with the players Hill has brought in as they’re better players than what we had but they’re so short of match fitness.
Ironically we have the same fitness problems than what Hill was faced with when he first became manager. Only way they’re going to pick up now is through match time and double training session. Sad thing is that it will take time, time we can ill afford to take waiting for them to get up to speed.
Says it all when Swann can’t even be arsed to turn up and watch us anymore…he caused the mess and now he’s playing the role of the disappearing man.
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The 115% wages to turnover in the 2014 accounts was only the start; subsequent years were 156.7%, 132.1%, 131.6%, 137.0%, 143.0% before the funds dried up to 77.8% in 2020.
If I had to choose between the ‘astute businessman’ and the ‘hobbyist’, I know who I think has been the better custodian of the club over the years…
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Honestly the man takes the piss. Swann’s now is all for cost cutting and saving the club after he’s near enough ruined it. Cutting costs after 12+ million in debt ?
I find it interesting that he couldn’t find the money to pay off the loan he knew would help the club stay up and yet spent all that money he full well knew we couldn’t afford to spend.
Swannster couldn’t even find it within himself to pay it off despite signing the clubs assets off to coolsilk.
I’ve got to be careful what I say here but put it this way, he makes Dick Turpin look like an amateur. I bet he won’t turn up now for the rest of the season, he’ll swerve us like the plague.
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However you look at it – the squad has surely improved, hasn’t it?
The fact that that match fitness is sadly lacking does not mean that Hill has not done everything anyone could have done to ameliorate our terrible situation.Results & performances would suggest otherwise so far.
The big question is why did all these signings have to wait for the last minute? We should have ready to go at the end of December. How many games have we played in January, five or six? If we’d got those players – even half of them – in at the start of January, we might conceivably have a prayer.
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You know the answer to your points Ferrite, we all do, one-man to blame and it’s not Keith Hill.
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Ferrite: maybe the players we actually signed were not the intended players, just what was left when everyone else had their pick…as usual for us.
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You know the answer to your points Ferrite, we all do, one-man to blame and it’s not Keith Hill.
It’s interesting. When Cox was here Ferrite was eagerly pointing out that the problem went beyond the manager, now it seems that the manager does have some fault. :-)
It must be said that Cox seemed to be in approval of at least some of the duds we’ve signed, and left them unfit, so cannot be whitewashed as some great manager. He was useless. :-)
However, the common denominator is Swann! :-)
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As has been said many times on many threads…Swann IS the root cause of all the ills at the club.
Swann decided he wanted to pursue the vanity project of becoming a the owner of a Championship club. HE told us not to panic as the ground redevelopment would make it all sustainable. HE loaned money to HIS club so HE could spend more money than HIS club had. When HIS vanity project fell through, HE chose to take HIS clubs ground as payment for the loans HE had loaned to HIMSELF.
Despite saying the ground transfer was a ‘temporary’ thing (which goes against his previous statement), the ground and surrounding land are still owned by Coolsilk, and it appears that Coolsilk are doing nothing with it; i.e. not fixing the broken scoreboard, not doing any development of the ground / surrounding land etc.
Disclaimer: All the above is just a stated opinion based on the information I have. It is not intended to cause harm, distress, or defame Peter Swann, or his business dealings.
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Alcy makes a good point.
Maybe the club was talking to other players before the window opened. But for various reasons the deals didn’t materialise and Hill had to scrat around late on.
The speed the Loft transfer went through would back this up, and didn’t we have a replacement lined up?
As for the reasons why the signings didn’t happen – answers on a postcard!
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It’s interesting. When Cox was here Ferrite was eagerly pointing out that the problem went beyond the manager, now it seems that the manager does have some fault. :-)
I’m just a bit baffled by how Hill is seen as some sort of a messiah among Iron fans. I realise this is partly due to how miserable the football had got under Cox and how Iron fans are desperate for some fresh hope but Hill’s not had much of an impact on the pitch so far. Hopefully it will come.
It must be said that Cox seemed to be in approval of at least some of the duds we’ve signed, and left them unfit, so cannot be whitewashed as some great manager. He was useless. :-)
I’ll leave it to better people than me to judge the fitness thing, I’m not entirely sure about that. He deffo signed some duds though! And his team was just awful to watch – that Barrow away game was a particular low.
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I can’t speak for certain, but they seemed to be tired out by minute 60 every game. That seemed like a lack of fitness.
I think we needed to try something different to Cox and Hill has a good track record, so it’s natural to have some hope. :-)
Unfortunately the calibre of players has not been good, and we may have left it too little, too late. As CT points out, many of the original targets would have shunned us because of the dire situation. :-(
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Let’s be right guys Cox got the people’s vote because he was an ex player and local lad who had done well professionally in the game as a player. We all wanted him to succeed because of his history with both town and club and that’s why he got the benefit of the doubt for so long. Keith Hill is not above criticism nor should he be but the records of the two men mangership wise are miles apart. Hill is the more experienced better professional manager, he like any good manager needs space and time and good fully fit players to improve us. At the minute the new players early on look better picks than those Cox brought in( or cygnet ) but need time to gel as a unit and above all get bloody match fit. These aren’t issues Hill can wave a magic wand at and they will disappear overnight it’s gonna take time which unfortunately we don’t have. It is what it is guys, suck it up and carry on.
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Club run by ‘Hobbyist’ – a professional operation and debt managed.
Club run by ‘Professional in entertainment industry’ !! – amateur operation.
I think a reasonable summation.
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Steve Wharton hardly missed a match home and away. It was SWANN who said, at the first forum he held in the exec lounge, that the previous owner had run the club as a hobby, and that things would inorove greatly and the club would be in a much better position when he left. Well look at our Club now, we dont even own the ground or assets. We don’t have a decent group of directors showing any motivation or will to get us out of the current situation which they have created, and have a chairman who doesn’t even bother to attend matches. In my opinion Simon Elliott has just been brought in as a smokescreen to try and deflect blame, the same as SWANN blames supporters.
“I’m just a bit baffled by how Hill is seen as some sort of a messiah among Iron fans”
Ferrite, nobody is saying he’s the next coming of Alex Ferguson but he came here with a squad filled with shit and unfit players.
Now thanks to Swann not paying the loan off he’s had to go down the unfit players route again to replace the other no mark once unfit players.
All comes down to the embargo. Swann said ” I’ll do everything in my power to make sure we’re not relegated”
Fast forward weeks later he refused to pay the loan off and get the embargo taken off. I don’t blame Hill as these players he brought in are definitely better than before but he was forced to bring in unfit players who are going to take time to get up to speed.
TIME WE DON’T HAVE !
Question Swann’s actions, don’t blame Hill.
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Honestly the man takes the piss. Swann’s now is all for cost cutting and saving the club after he’s near enough ruined it. Cutting costs after 12+ million in debt ?
I find it interesting that he couldn’t find the money to pay off the loan he knew would help the club stay up and yet spent all that money he full well knew we couldn’t afford to spend.
Swannster couldn’t even find it within himself to pay it off despite signing the clubs assets off to coolsilk.
I’ve got to be careful what I say here but put it this way, he makes Dick Turpin look like an amateur. I bet he won’t turn up now for the rest of the season, he’ll swerve us like the plague.
At least Dick Turpin wore a mask, you knew you were getting robbed.
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When hearing quotes n comments like ” building for the future” it concerns me … obviously alluding to a future in the NL and even lower ???, looking at the current teams in the NL Scunny would be in the bottom half at best… aka Southend.
Following the Oldham loss and looking how we played (didnt gel and looked unfit) the next fixture against Walsal is massive and Saddlers fans are labeling it as the biggest game of their season and a must win for both sides… another 0-0 or 0-1 then
Doomed …SAD BUT TRUE
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I still name Neil Cox as the worst manager in the club’s history.
Lack of respect from players; weird systems; players out of position; lack of real fitness; poor choices of player – need I say more?Maybe too, as an inexperienced manager, he felt that he could not mount any challenge to bad decisions from above. If so, that denotes weakness.
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Think your right les but Dickie Rooks runs him a close second.
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