Its time for a change

[turkishm]

It's not the end of the world. With players like Phillips, Eastwood and Corr fully fit, we could still finish top 7. But one thing for sure, Spicer, Leonard, Harris and Benyon need to be squad players. One or Two really strong forward driving midfielders are a must, if we are to go on a bit of a run. The midfield is a shambles at the moment, and a massive weak point, that is allowing even the rubbish teams to pour straight through, and put the defence under too much pressure.

Not won in ages, Shots were an accident waiting to happen. But imo getting rid of PS will get us nowhere. Ialso think we can still get into the top seven with the players we have, but RM must allow PS to get at least one if not two midfield players in, thats if our finances are actualy stopping us at all. But like many on here, im puzzled how Southend can look so good in one game, and so bad in another.

 

[OldBlueLady]

We often trip up against lower placed teams, it's been so for many years. The minute someone started saying they'd lost 7 on the bounce, this was an accident waiting to happen. Just wish they'd given a better account of themselves in doing so.

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

Change in chairman?

 

[Liam AAS]

And like i have already said there has been plenty going on that have been out of sturrocks hands , but the show has to go on and when your players are played off the park by barnet with only 2 points and aldershot a team that had lost 7 in a row then questions need asking.

The effort put in tonight was criminal as were the tactics. (AGAIN!)

Its not acceptable.

I'd love to know what you would consider the right tactics?

 

[Jam_Man]

Sturrock has a full squad - all being paid - a lot more than Tilson had -

plus Sturrock is competing against clubs operating on gates of 1.5k and similar -

plus someone told me the only reason Tilson got promoted was cos of Eastwood and Sturrock has got Eastwood -

What a bizarre argument to make, Tilson had Eastwood in his prime.

Agree with your first comment, the performances against Barnet and Aldershot are not good enough. We dont actually have a full squad as we only have 2 central midfielders, however we still have enough players to have won those games.

Change in chairman?

Im not Rons biggest fan but last night the buck has to stop with the manager.

Im certainly not advocating Sturrock should go, far from it, but last night was not acceptable.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

Lets be clear. Im always willing to give anyone coming into the club a chance and have done with paul sturrock .

I also feel that without paul coming in when he did that we may well have gone into non league football.

My point is that we have never played the way under sturrock that the fans would like to see. Last season we put up with it because it was getting results and it could be justified.

This season we have been stripped of our best players either they have been sold injured or just plainly refused to play for the club.

You could argue that this is not the managers fault and rightly so , but the show must always go on and any manager worth his salt should be able to push the club on again.

I think with this in mind some of sturrocks signings have been really poor. Spicer Straker and benyon are some of the poorest players we have had down at the club for 10 years.

I think that maybe sturrock as wiley an old fox as he is needs to be replaced with a younger or hungrier manager from non league.

Every week its the same old excuses wether we are playing top of the league or bottom.

That performance tonight was as bad as i have seen from a southend side , particularly first half and given it was against a side that had lost 7 straight.

The excellent fan base that was built under rons early tenure of the club has evaporated and this tonight was a close to being back to Alvin Martin and Allen Little etc as i can remember.

Its imperative to get out of this league as quickly and im afraid that under Paul sturrock we will not get out of this league for a few seasons yet.

I actually beleive we have a much much better squad than our performances suggests and that to me tells me that we are not getting anywhere near the levels we should achieve and the buck stops with sturrock.

You can say that this is a knee jerk reaction , but like i said i have never been a fan , but have accepted that we got results. We are being embaressed this season regularly and people will not suffer this poor excuse for football at £21 a go.

The club cannot afford to lose 1000 people off the gate and this we must be down by about that much gate wise.


Thanks for all your hard work Paul , but its time to give some younger or hungrier blood a go.
I would agree that we have a much better squad than our performance suggests, though I would add..........when they are all match fit.

A certain braintree town manager would do for me.

would agree that we have a much better squad than our performance suggests, though I would add..........when they are all match fit. I understand your pain and it is one we all feel, yet I fear that your solution is one that would treat the symptoms but wouldn't cure the disease. I'm afraid the disease, we are stuck with for the forseeable future, we can only hope that we will pull through.

 

[superblue24]

It's not the end of the world. With players like Phillips, Eastwood and Corr fully fit, we could still finish top 7. But one thing for sure, Spicer, Leonard, Harris and Benyon need to be squad players. One or Two really strong forward driving midfielders are a must, if we are to go on a bit of a run. The midfield is a shambles at the moment, and a massive weak point, that is allowing even the rubbish teams to pour straight through, and put the defence under too much pressure.

Pointless. Paul Sturrock (by his own admission) is not very tactically astute in knockout competitions so what good will finishing in the play-offs do us?

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Im not sure we could do better than Sturrock. He gave us our highest points total last season and has brought in some brilliant players (Clohessy, Phillips, Hall, Bilel, Cresswell,). However too many times at home we have been slow off the blocks, I cant remember the last time we tore into a team from the off. You can say he has had his hands tied but I dont buy this 100%. Its been stated we have one of the highest wage budgets in the division. Im not sure who has been in real control of transfers and scouting over the last 12 months or so but the signings of Benyon, Martin, Straker, Smith(early days but looks a dodgy keeper), Flood, Spicer look poor. Why bring in Clarke Harris if he isnt good enough to start? Why werent the likes of Mcallister given trials at the start of the season?
However it was not Luggys fault we lost our 4 top scorers from last season and arguably our most consistent player of the last 3 years Anthony Grant. When a player wants to leave there is little you can do. Our squad is midtable, we dont have goalscorers the likes of Gillingham and Vale have. If we finish around 12th that is as good as it gets for me.

 

[ryansm05]

Yeah, let's sack the best manager in the football league who is able to cope and manage a side in such a dire financial state. Instead bring in a 'younger or hungrier' manager and give him next to nothing to spend, a wage system that is regularly paid late to staff and players, a fan base that expects to replicate Arsena'ls style of play and an expectancy that we should be be challenging in the Championship.

Sturrock has done exceptionally well under the circumstances, and maybe not all his signings have been the best, but he managed to get us to the playoffs last year with a fairly average squad. This year, that sides been stripped bare and we haven't exactly a budget to go and replace the talents of Hall and Mohsni.

Paul Sturrock has brought a sense of unity and togetherness to the club, and if we remember how things were not so long ago, it really isn't that terrible of a situation.

Let's try and get behind the big man!!!

 

[Firestorm]

The one thing I would change at the moment is our scouting policy.

Over the past 20 years or so the majority of our better players have been on the way up when they joined the club , we have had a couple who were young and released by top clubs who saw SUFC as a springboard to improve, but with a couple of notable exceptions those who are slowly sliding down the leagues have been failures.

Before the next window the club should be out there looking at those players screaming for their chance to play in the league, the next Hall, Gower , Freddy, etc etc

 

[united we stand]

Yeah, let's sack the best manager in the football league who is able to cope and manage a side in such a dire financial state. Instead bring in a 'younger or hungrier' manager and give him next to nothing to spend, a wage system that is regularly paid late to staff and players, a fan base that expects to replicate Arsena'ls style of play and an expectancy that we should be be challenging in the Championship.

Sturrock has done exceptionally well under the circumstances, and maybe not all his signings have been the best, but he managed to get us to the playoffs last year with a fairly average squad. This year, that sides been stripped bare and we haven't exactly a budget to go and replace the talents of Hall and Mohsni.

Paul Sturrock has brought a sense of unity and togetherness to the club, and if we remember how things were not so long ago, it really isn't that terrible of a situation.

Let's try and get behind the big man!!!

i'm with this
shock horror some of Sturrocks signings have not worked. Can someone please pin point a manageer who has not made bad signings, or one that has made great signings , but then let them go before they became great ?

We don't have a centre midfield, do people not think taht this palys on the players minds when they walk out . They are meant to depend on each other and to trust each otehr, but that must be very difficult when you look at the teamsheet. If your left/right back is not the best you can cope, but you can't cope if your midfield is over run.

 

[EastStandBlue]

...See the luck we've had, could make a good man turn bad?

 

[mattytheshrimper]

The hardest thing for me personally to accept is the excuses Sturrock lists out before and after every game. He seems to have a very negative attitude, does he not think other teams have injuries etc? Also the lack of ideas on the pitch even from something so simple as a throw in we still look clueless.

 

[MR G]

Agree its time for a change....

Its time for the owners to give the manager enough money to build a side that can compete at this level and get out of this division
Its time to get behind our decent manager
Its time to build a team where the half decent players we do have don't sod off at the first opportunity because they can see we are going no-where fast...

 

[Dick Bate's Protege]

...See the luck we've had, could make a good man turn bad?

Southenders of the World, unite and take over...

 

[ryansm05]

...See the luck we've had, could make a good man turn bad?

Please, please, please.. let me get what I want, this time.

 

[Westcliff Shrimper]

The one thing I would change at the moment is our scouting policy.

Over the past 20 years or so the majority of our better players have been on the way up when they joined the club , we have had a couple who were young and released by top clubs who saw SUFC as a springboard to improve, but with a couple of notable exceptions those who are slowly sliding down the leagues have been failures.

Before the next window the club should be out there looking at those players screaming for their chance to play in the league, the next Hall, Gower , Freddy, etc etc

Well said - and I think one of the biggest failings of the club in the last 25 years. We seem to have the youth system under Ricky Duncan doing well (we are producing players, unfortunately the way things are, most of them seem to get sold before they reach the first team, but I digress) but the scouting system is a shambles.

In the South East of England, there is a thriving non-league system, with teams seemingly having decent players that we should be looking at. Why don't we have better relations with non-league teams that could give their up and coming players a route into league football and we could send our better youngsters there?

I agree totally with the statement above - Gower, Hall, Clohessy and Eastwood all came from non-league and there must be others. It really annoys me when a non-league player local to us signs for another club miles away.

Who is our Chief Scout, and does he have anyone working for him?

 

[Beverly Hills Cop Blue]

Paul Sturrock did restructure the scouting network soon after the start of his first season here. In fact it supposedly stretches across Parts of Europe and maybe even in Scandinavia. This is not to say I'm a Sturrock basher however.

 

[IloveShrimp]

Perhaps its the coach!

 

[Tommy2holes]

Yeah, let's sack the best manager in the football league who is able to cope and manage a side in such a dire financial state. Instead bring in a 'younger or hungrier' manager and give him next to nothing to spend, a wage system that is regularly paid late to staff and players, a fan base that expects to replicate Arsena'ls style of play and an expectancy that we should be be challenging in the Championship.

Sturrock has done exceptionally well under the circumstances, and maybe not all his signings have been the best, but he managed to get us to the playoffs last year with a fairly average squad. This year, that sides been stripped bare and we haven't exactly a budget to go and replace the talents of Hall and Mohsni.

Paul Sturrock has brought a sense of unity and togetherness to the club, and if we remember how things were not so long ago, it really isn't that terrible of a situation.

Let's try and get behind the big man!!!

What makes you think that sturrock in the best manager in the league?

Dire financial state? Do you think the likes of morecambe and the like on gates of just 1500 odd complain about financial constraints.

In terms of finance sturrock has a very very good squad of league 2 players which most other managers in this division would be envious of.

The fact is we have players that are not properly motivated not prepared tactically and not played or used correctly.

The fact is that since sturrock took over the entertainment value has dropped and of recent makes a mockery of the £21 that the club has asked supporters to fork out.

The club cannot afford for crowds to drop anymore, so either the club has to reduce the cost of attending to make the pain of parting with cash easier or change in style is required that people want to watch.

Sturrock has done a job. He has not been succesful for a long time now and if we just want to just push along in league 2 maybe with an outside chance of getting promotion then keep him, but we need to get out of this division as financially its crippling the club.

No blood with bolder ideas and more fan friendly way of playing the game is required.

No one expects to see arsenal type football , but we i do expect is that the players we have got play to there potential and at the moment they are nowhere near that and that is not acceptable.