What would you do if you were Justin Rees

[PIERS]

Get some loaners in . Get us out of this ****heap

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Maybe not if those supporters then use the in-house west stand food bar???

I think the point was the quality of the in house stuff is inferior to the Eat Street food. People won’t spend more in the ground they’ll eat outside Roots Hall, before they arrive. Hopefully there are plans for next season.

 

[Liam AAS]

Such poor form at a crucial time ought to set alarm bells ringing. I din't think a five year plan entails more of the same inconsistency which is the prevailing characteristic of Maher's stewardship.

There are 3 outcomes to a football match and Kevin Maher's win %age is not just above 33.3%, it is the highest of any manager from the last 20 years. He has done this despite all of the factors that have been repeated here ad nauseam.

Manager*	Games	Win %
Steve Tilson	358	39.7%
Paul Sturrock	161	41.6%
Phil Brown	251	39%
Chris Powell	66	36.4%
Mark Molesley	45	17.8%
Phil Brown v2	16	25%
Kevin Maher	182	41.8%

*Waddock and Sol Campbell omitted because of factors


This season has been a hard watch at times but you are trying to drag this man's reputation through the mud and I simply will not have it. Maher has been an extraordinarily successful appointment and at the end of this season he'll get his first proper run at a summer transfer window since 2022 (that [calendar] year we signed Cardwell, Husin, Miley, Scott-Morriss, Kensdale & Taylor)

He deserves this chance. I know that Rees & COSU are going to give it to him. I just hope that he can really find those players that make a difference.

 

[Liam AAS]

Get some loaners in . Get us out of this ****heap

They just take them back

 

[blues exile]

There are 3 outcomes to a football match and Kevin Maher's win %age is not just above 33.3%, it is the highest of any manager from the last 20 years. He has done this despite all of the factors that have been repeated here ad nauseam.

Manager*	Games	Win %
Steve Tilson	358	39.7%
Paul Sturrock	161	41.6%
Phil Brown	251	39%
Chris Powell	66	36.4%
Mark Molesley	45	17.8%
Phil Brown v2	16	25%
Kevin Maher	182	41.8%

*Waddock and Sol Campbell omitted because of factors


This season has been a hard watch at times but you are trying to drag this man's reputation through the mud and I simply will not have it. Maher has been an extraordinarily successful appointment and at the end of this season he'll get his first proper run at a summer transfer window since 2022 (that [calendar] year we signed Cardwell, Husin, Miley, Scott-Morriss, Kensdale & Taylor)

He deserves this chance. I know that Rees & COSU are going to give it to him. I just hope that he can really find those players that make a difference.

Perfect illustration of how statistics do not tell the whole story. Perhaps breaking down the win percentage into each season might be more useful eg this season under 30%. I won't bother to respond to emotional remarks like 'trying to drag this man's reputation through the mud' when the facts speak for themselves.

 

[Richard Hearn]

Maybe not if those supporters then use the in-house west stand food bar???

That would only happen if the food was of equal quality, which currently it most certainly isn't.

 

[* ORM *]

Perfect illustration of how statistics do not tell the whole story. Perhaps breaking down the win percentage into each season might be more useful eg this season under 30%. I won't bother to respond to emotional remarks like 'trying to drag this man's reputation through the mud' when the facts speak for themselves.

You’re actually a Russian AI bot and I claim my £5

Reading between the lines of one or two of your posts I’m coming to the conclusion that you want Maher out?

As for the purpose of this thread I would advocate, AGAIN, that people go back to the statements of Justin and consortium at the time of the takeover. As far as I can make out they’re well on the way to achieving this season’s objectives and that includes on the field results irrespective of where we end up.

For anyone that still thinks we should do a Wrexham ditto the above paragraph. We have one of the smallest squads in this league and long may that continue. I am in no doubt at all that we will be strengthening the squad and shedding a few before next season starts.

 

[Thundersley Blue]

Perfect illustration of how statistics do not tell the whole story. Perhaps breaking down the win percentage into each season might be more useful eg this season under 30%. I won't bother to respond to emotional remarks like 'trying to drag this man's reputation through the mud' when the facts speak for themselves.

You are only seeing what you want to see.

 

[GBJ]

You are only seeing what you want to see.

Feelings > facts

 

[Liam AAS]

Perfect illustration of how statistics do not tell the whole story. Perhaps breaking down the win percentage into each season might be more useful eg this season under 30%. I won't bother to respond to emotional remarks like 'trying to drag this man's reputation through the mud' when the facts speak for themselves.

I have presented the facts in full. You are moving the goalposts because YOUR argument has more holes than a goal net.

You were talking about his whole stewardship, now just this season? I know who the real inconsistent one is here.

 

[Holy Joe]

That would only happen if the food was of equal quality, which currently it most certainly isn't.

Not necessarily - the profit margin on the in-house offering is likely to be higher - so even if some people opt to not eat at all, as long as some choose to eat at in-house, who would've eaten at the van, then profits could be higher.

Ultimately we don't know the commercial arrangements so impossible to tell. But I think we do know that fans aren't prevented to go through the gate to stop them getting to the van - that's an unfortunate consequence.

 

[blues exile]

I have presented the facts in full. You are moving the goalposts because YOUR argument has more holes than a goal net.

You were talking about his whole stewardship, now just this season? I know who the real inconsistent one is here.

Nothing inconsistent on my part. You can select what stats you like but the fact remains under Maher we are stagnating in an awful division and have taken a step back this season from a near miss last year in terms of a play off place. The standard of football is awful, former key players like Bridge, Miley and Husin are arguably in decline and most of the new signings this season have failed to impress. Very liitle cause for optimism, still less for blind faith in someone who has failed to deliver.

 

[Liam AAS]

Nothing inconsistent on my part. You can select what stats you like but the fact remains under Maher we are stagnating in an awful division and have taken a step back this season from a near miss last year in terms of a play off place. The standard of football is awful, former key players like Bridge, Miley and Husin are arguably in decline and most of the new signings this season have failed to impress. Very liitle cause for optimism, still less for blind faith in someone who has failed to deliver.

The intellectual gymnastics are truly unparalleled.

 

[blues exile]

The intellectual gymnastics are truly unparalleled.

 

[Kris]

Has anyone suggested a credible replacement for Kev yet?

I'm not saying that those who want him gone now will be wrong but as it stands I think it's a case of being careful what you wish for.

For what it's worth, I hate swearing but football brings out the worst in me. Even in Sunday league football I was effing and blinding all game, which our management team always found funny because they knew that off the pitch I was a gentleman (according to them anyway!).

Maher is clearly someone who uses foul language to battle those who criticise him. Is that wrong? Probably. But I also remember Michael Timlin responding to a fan in the South Upper who criticised him for giving away cheap fouls with some absolutely horrid language including the C word. People in the front row had to calm him down and in fairness he apologised.

To be honest I'm surprised that some posters weren't expecting this from Maher. I've never known a player booked for dissent on so many occasions.

 

[blues exile]

No gymnastics involved, my feet are firnly on the ground! 182 games in charge and still no nearer the promised land.

 

[Exiled Shrimper]

Nothing inconsistent on my part. You can select what stats you like but the fact remains under Maher we are stagnating in an awful division and have taken a step back this season from a near miss last year in terms of a play off place. The standard of football is awful, former key players like Bridge, Miley and Husin are arguably in decline and most of the new signings this season have failed to impress. Very liitle cause for optimism, still less for blind faith in someone who has failed to deliver.

This was Tom Lawrence's opinion on performance at the CEO Forum last month:
"This year we set the KPIs but it was an imperfect storm, so of course we'd like to be in the playoffs and, you know, we'd like to be outperforming our wage budget, which I suspect we're not far off, but next season will really see a closer tracking of the KPIs and deliverables that we have."

Hardly the picture of stagnation that is being painted. If we're "not far off" outperforming our wage budget, I'd suggest we're around where COSU expected us to be given the position they found the club when they finally took control.

It could just be that Maher's biggest issue is simply how much he over-performed in 2023/24 with a threadbare squad and a ten-point deduction. That, allied to losing the spine of the team (permanently in the case of Kensdale and Cardwell, and temporarily in the shape of Andeng-Ndi and Miley for much of this season), are the prevailing on-pitch factors at play, in my mind.

Maher's challenge is whether he can re-build the squad (which takes time, but that process has already started with the acquisitions of Hayes, Morton, Parillon) and, when the time is right, phase out some players that haven't just been incredibly loyal to him, but to Southend United. For some, that time may be fairly imminent, for others, they will still have a part to play, but as squad players rather than starters; it will - I expect - be a gradual transition rather than throwing out two-thirds of a squad that has challenged for a play-off place this season.

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

No gymnastics involved, my feet are firnly on the ground! 182 games in charge and still no nearer the promised land.

Perhaps you might want to look at the circumstances?
BTW, the National League thought KM the manager of the 23-24 season, not the league winners or anybody else.
I guess they too got it wrong, eh?

 

[RHB]

When I was a young teen in the 60s I worked on Harpy on Lower Thames Street. To get there I often went down Tower Hill, and lunch times I would often listen to the bloke that was at Speakers Corner there every lunchtime putting the world to rights. To my mind he was talking bollocks, but he believed it, and no amount of me trying to convince him otherwise worked. In the end I gave up. Nothing to do with this thread but It's strange the things that pop out of your memory.

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

When I was a young teen in the 60s I worked on Harpy on Lower Thames Street. To get there I often went down Tower Hill, and lunch times I would often listen to the bloke that was at Speakers Corner there every lunchtime putting the world to rights. To my mind he was talking bollocks, but he believed it, and no amount of me trying to convince him otherwise worked. In the end I gave up. Nothing to do with this thread but It's strange the things that pop out of your memory.

...and in that same vein there was a politician in the 60s called Iain Macleod who said: "never argue the point; just repeat yours..."