Alex Neil
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2012
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- 10,068
Who didn’t want to leave?
OP
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2012
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- 31,105
Fisher
Really looking forward to this.
Overall I enjoyed the AN era although the last year did drag and really he should've left in summer 2020 but guess having a BCD season created uncertainty and perhaps he wanted to see if that would've helped get in play offs, didn't as home form was worse than usual.
It was exciting when he came in though. 2017 saw DJ,Browne and Pearson mature into top end championship midfielders, Ben Davies rescued from league 1 obscurity and over time he matured into a good defender at this level. Robbo came into his own after McGeady left and Barky was a solid option on the other side. You also had Maguire looking really good until his first bad hamstring injury . Pretty sure there was also a horrendous defensive injury crisis in the winter.
To miss out on play offs by a point was gut wrenching and set the tone for his reign of being a nearly team so intrigued what his thoughts are on that Jan 2018 window when Hugill was sold for daylight robbery and yet hardly any of that was invested back into the team.
Same for the Jan 2020 window. Key players were two years older and that certainly felt a now or never period with them all just having 18 months left. Who did he want that window? Did he even want Scott Sinclair?
Alex Neil was a guy with a plan who could coach and improve players. Exactly the manager you give backing to. Can't really say the same about the present incumbent.
Overall I enjoyed the AN era although the last year did drag and really he should've left in summer 2020 but guess having a BCD season created uncertainty and perhaps he wanted to see if that would've helped get in play offs, didn't as home form was worse than usual.
It was exciting when he came in though. 2017 saw DJ,Browne and Pearson mature into top end championship midfielders, Ben Davies rescued from league 1 obscurity and over time he matured into a good defender at this level. Robbo came into his own after McGeady left and Barky was a solid option on the other side. You also had Maguire looking really good until his first bad hamstring injury . Pretty sure there was also a horrendous defensive injury crisis in the winter.
To miss out on play offs by a point was gut wrenching and set the tone for his reign of being a nearly team so intrigued what his thoughts are on that Jan 2018 window when Hugill was sold for daylight robbery and yet hardly any of that was invested back into the team.
Same for the Jan 2020 window. Key players were two years older and that certainly felt a now or never period with them all just having 18 months left. Who did he want that window? Did he even want Scott Sinclair?
Alex Neil was a guy with a plan who could coach and improve players. Exactly the manager you give backing to. Can't really say the same about the present incumbent.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2016
- Messages
- 14,836
😢
And so the great Alex Neil history re-write begins.
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- Aug 16, 2022
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- 6,333
I enjoyed Alex Neil’s team in his first two seasons. However something changed in his third season. Yes we were top of the league (for a day) but it just felt similar to this season. We played shit football (played well occasionally) but were clinical and had a high number of penalties.
I don’t buy into his excuses. He chose to sign a three year contract at the club, he knew how we operated but money talked. He effectively gave up in his final season.
His points weren’t much better than this season (yet he is lauded as the saviour by some on here.) only in his first season did he do well and we came close to the play offs.
The other two seasons we fell away with six games to go. Sound familiar?
So, why is Lowe's league win percentage identical to AN?
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- Aug 16, 2022
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- 6,333
Lowe’s is actually bigger by 0.2%. Both below average managers. Both have failed here. Alex Neil got 3 and a bit years. Lowe is almost at three years. Time to give someone else a go.
People still live off Alex Neil’s first season. One point off the play offs! Points record after that means he didn’t improve players. They regressed.
OP
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- Apr 6, 2012
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Of the available realistic replacements, he's still the best though.
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That doesn’t make sense though. Why sack a manager for someone who a)had a lower win percentage than him, b)effectively gave up in his final season and c)points wise was only three points better than the current team (first season aside.)
If the club want to aim for the play offs sack Lowe and look continental. Sacking Lowe to appoint Neil is just desperate and lasher esk.
OP
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Because he isn't just a one-trick blagger and genuinely cared about the club and players.
As I posted on the AB thread, after selling Hugill and Robbo for £18million, somewhere out there in a parallel universe Alex Neil had a PNE strikeforce of Gyokeres, Keiffer Moore and Adam Armstrong to choose from.
No wonder he was pissed off in the end. £5million for those 3, but Hemmings thought Nugent v2.0, Moult and Bodin were better value.
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Cared about the club. Yet in his final season his players performed like he sounded in his interviews.
Granted he could have any of them strikers. However Moore and Armstrong were before robinson were sold. Also gyokores and Armstrong chose the club they were already at loan at. He still chose to sign a contract. That was after he failed to sign moore and Armstrong.
I don’t like the hierarchy. I wish they fucked off. However a club should never go back. I stand by that stance. I just don’t really have much respect for a manager who acted like he was going West Brom, got more money and then fucked us, the fans and the players over by giving up in his final season.
OP
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"after he failed to sign moore and Armstrong...." lol.
So we could have had Moore and Armstrong up front, with Robbo and Barky either side AND still have made £5million in profit after Hugill...? Great.
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Well no we would have had moore or Armstrong?
You missed the other point. Because a year after we failed to sign them both he extended his stay for three more years. Yes three more years knowing the constraints he was working under. He can’t have been that pissed off with that massive pay rise. ‘Loved the club’ my ass. Took the players and fans as mugs.
He had a great first season though. Wow!
Lowe did pretty well in his first six months. Even last season I thought was acceptable on the whole given the club's failure to back him signing an RWB and then the botched Archer transfer saga, both were in the same window and handicapped a solid start to the season.
Last summer though he was backed by this club's standards especially in the final third so I found it very difficult to accept some of the winter displays v QPR, Watford, Sheff Weds. Then in the run in you get similar performances v the same clubs!
Last few months been reminiscent of where the club was in early part of 2021 so that win percentage is rapidly decreasing and that will probably continue start of next season given what is likely to be lost upfront.
Yeah I wouldn't want AN back just like I don't want Davies or Grayson back. They did their best, should've been backed more at key points and now they're all passed their peak.
Think AN will end up back in league one with Birmingham or somewhere like Derby if they sack Warne. He won't be that in demand given how bad his year at Stoke went.
And we still don't have a replacement! 🤣
Don't particularly like Alex Neil but will give this a listen as I'm intrigued to hear his take on what went on.
Stockley must've been signed ahead of Kieffer Moore. Both were linked in the same period I think.
Maguire was the one that was unlucky as he looked excellent in the first few months in terms of settling into the team's style. So many bad injuries. Bodin I guess also could've come off as he was scoring loads in league one and on fringes of the Welsh squad.
One thing that did annoy me about AN is if you didn't fit into his style you were quickly dumped. Andre Green was in that 2019 squad I think but hardly played despite starting a play off SF for Villa a few months before. Intrigued what he says about Tom Bayliss if he's asked about him. Hodgson certainly has plenty of questions for that period if he's done his research.