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11 users thanked author for this post.
I suspect a proven ability relating to the reproduction of loaves and fishes is a prerequisite – or at the very least membership of the magic circle.
4 users thanked author for this post.
Let’s not expect higher standards from Hill than of any other mortal.
99.9% of people who work do so out of necessity to one degree or another.
I’ve no idea how well financially secure Keith Hill is but I assume an income is welcome because even a casual observer wouldn’t have termed it a dream job when he took it.
Let’s be honest as well, if everyone had enough integrity and honesty in the UK, say tomorrow, to tell their boss exactly what they really thought of them, then there’d probably be 16 million unemployed the day after.
2 users thanked author for this post.
A bit harsh on Hill I think.
Whatever he may think privately he can hardly say publicly (well, perhaps not until he departs anyway). He has to try and be seen to be positive rather than just throwing in the towel.
Hill is a proven manager. His stats over nearly 2 decades don’t lie.
We have had other experienced managers – Robins, Alexander, Hurst etc – all of whom have been successful before and after leaving the club.
That paints a picture and illustrates the the real root cause.
It comes down to budget directly affecting the quality of the players any manager can bring in – pure and simple.
When you have a sub standard budget you end up with a sub standard squad.
That’s what we’ve got.
We can critique Hill’s tactical nous on match day and we can question his signings – but the reality is he’s been forced to rearrange the deckchairs on a sinking ship on a weekly basis because he hasn’t received the support needed to be able to bail it out.
We’ve got a non league budget and a chairman and executive management team who have overseen that – and whose own ability level will be ‘well suited’ shall we say to non league football – which is exactly where we are heading.
Whether we had Hill or Jurgen Klopp in charge – the end result would be the same.
6 users thanked author for this post.
Scunthorpe United have already lost far more than EFL status
Hits the nail on the head in the last couple of paragraphs.
The conclusion seems to be that he’s gambled and made incredibly costly mistakes on other peoples tabs.
9 users thanked author for this post.
A few rogue chairmen to blame in amongst that lot.
We’re not run as a hobby and there’s no way we’re going down though so we’re ok.
5 users thanked author for this post.
The point I suppose is that we signed players whose prospect of gainful employment elsewhere was limited.
If the story is to be believed we have a budget that would place us in the bottom half of the national league which means trying to bring in quality, unless you’re going to try and run with a squad of 14 or 15, is virtually impossible.
The fact Hill knows the players in question in some respects is almost irrelevant.
I’m sure he knows hundreds of players, but we can’t afford most of them.
You only have to look at the game time and recent scoring records (or lack thereof) of the players who he’s brought in to realise why we were able to afford them and why we didn’t have to beat off an army of other clubs to get them. Basically we were left scavenging for left overs and scraps on deadline day.
Being kind, defensively I don’t actually think we’re that bad, and as a side I don’t see a lack of effort – but the lack of quality in the middle of the park and further up the field is absolutely frightening.
It’s significantly worse than I can ever remember and I go back nearly 50 years – and have seen lots of dross, particularly back in the 70’s (when crowds were significantly lower than now might I add).
That comes down to wages, pure and simple. We can’t compete with the rest of the division in terms of players who are sought after to any extent.
Assuming we go down, then under Swann sadly we’ll face exactly the same issue in the National League next season.
It doesn’t matter to an extent who he puts in charge either.
If you’ve got a crappy 3 wheel van that’s 40 years old you can put Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel and he’s still not getting a ton out of it down the motorway.
3 users thanked author for this post.
Just woken up thinking about our issues and current plight…..
I have to be careful what I post because some people with incredibly large egos but increasingly small pockets police this and other social media platforms looking to pounce on the little man with any opinion that doesn’t quite suit their own lofty opinions of themselves.
I wil say this though – the current regime needs to get out and get out quick (even if it’s a case of resigning from the board but staying as majority shareholder for the time being).
There are good people, with the best interests of the club at heart, who won’t (or are prevented) from going to watch this wretched outfit by a man who turned up long after (and who will be gone long before) these proper supporters.
The current situation makes me want to vomit, as does the rotund one in charge.
11 users thanked author for this post.
Hippo must be one of the few players who gets to drop down a division, out of the league as well, but feel like he’s won the pools.
Top scorers in the building are now Burns and Jarvis with 2 apiece.
Top assist provider left is Beestin I think with 1.
You couldn’t make it up really.
1 user thanked author for this post.
It’s just depressing.
They’re so short of the requisite quality all over the park it’s quite frightening as to how someone managed to actually assemble such a poor squad at a professional level.
Sometimes just a couple of signings can turn a struggling side around but I don’t think that’s possible with this lot.
You’d need half a dozen quality acquisitions to even scratch the surface and I think we can safely say that isn’t happening so I agree, we’ll all be spared any last day agony – we’ll be down long before then.
1 user thanked author for this post.
3-2 wildly flattered them – Rovers should have had about 8 – and probably would have had if it hasn’t been for Watson and some wasteful finishing.
Had we equalised late on it would have been a scandal really but it’s a small positive to take from the game I suppose.
There’s no hiding from the fact though that for the first 89 minutes we were absolutely appalling.
We didn’t even play like a national league side – it was worse than that.
There was no tempo, no movement and most of them looked as if they’d struggle to pass wind, let along the ball.
There weren’t many out there tonight who will be playing league football next season – and for good reason – they aren’t good enough by sone distance.
Remind me again – who is in charge of recruitment and which genius hired him?
7 users thanked author for this post.
That nearly ignores the fact he has managed to turn us into a wholly unsaleable asset.
Riddled with debt he’s incurred, ground in hock, no playing staff of any quality, anything not nailed down worth more than a tenner sold, and destined for the national league and beyond.
1 user thanked author for this post.
It was a pathetic statement and a public relations disaster, in keeping with previous efforts.
No apparent self awareness or acceptance of a catalogue of errors.
The usual pass the buck mantra – it’s not my fault, its not my head of recruitments fault – it’s C-19’s fault, it’s the fans fault, it’s the players fault – it’s anybodies fault except the man making all the decisions.
The ‘manipulation of the truth’ line was sad and comical in equal measures.
The table doesn’t lie, the debt position doesn’t lie, and the absence of a ground doesn’t lie.
Who needs to manipulate the truth when the truth speaks volumes.
Just pathetic excuse after excuse.
19 users thanked author for this post.
Ah, the golden year of 81/82.
Home to Wigan midweek – got beat 7-2. Remember it well.
FA Cup 3rd round at home to Hereford when the floodlights failed when we were all over them – and beating Halifax away 2-1 when MOTD were there.
The squad list actually had some good names on it but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
A lot of those guys – Green, Partridge, Grimes etc we’re right at the end of their careers and weren’t regulars.
O’Berg was out injured for a large chunk of that season as well from memory and Cammack only came back from Lincoln for the last few weeks of the season.
So, in the round, they were a pretty poor side.
But, they were comfortably better than this lot and a number of those players were in the 82/83 promotion squad.
Their record of 7-9-7 at home is comfortably better than this lot will do and they only finished 2nd bottom on GD.
You need to go back to the mid 70’s to find incompetence on the current scale – and the facts support that.
2 users thanked author for this post.
Reliance on loans in the last few years have played a part in where we are now I reckon.
Look at any side near the top of any division and virtually none of them will be reliant on loan players. The spine of those sides will all be permanent signings.
Of course, the loaners we attract are usually readily available because the bigger clubs have a never ending supply of hopeful 19 year olds with no league experience and crucially, they’re ridiculously cheap which fits our business model.
The problem of course is you are just padding out the squad numbers on the cheap, and as you slip down the league structure your chances of striking lucky with the loan system (an Ivan Toney or Beckford etc) diminish to virtually nothing.
Does anyone seriously think there is a premier of championship club out there who will do a subsidised loan deal with Scunny – and provide us with a player they think anything about at all?
Would they send a player who fits in with their long term plans to Scunthorpe in the state we’re in to try and bail us out for 4 months in a League 2 relegation dogfight?
The answer is ‘no’, and so that’s why in the recent past we’ve got lads who are more likely that not going to be playing non league football in the not too distant future – and the parent club knows they probably aren’t going to make it, so it matters little where they send them.
I thinks it’s almost certain that only permanent and experienced signings in this window will stand a chance of possibly saving us.
I don’t think there is an expectation amongst anyone on this board that there must be a queue of kind hearted millionaires looking to buy the club nor is there an expectation that we have a given right to be even moderately successful.
But, the argument above from 99 seems to be akin to ‘better the devil you know’ which in this case is flawed.
This isn’t about funding, this is about bad decision making.
Football club ownership is voluntary. No one forced Peter Swann into Scunthorpe.
No one forced him to choose us over Lincoln City who he was also talking to.
No one forced him to explode the playing budget with a series of early high profile signings that he knew we had no prospect of funding without his continued bankrolling of the show. Note use of the word ‘continuing’ there.
If he didn’t know the future implications of his actions at that fine then more fool him.
No one forced him to make multiple share issues and certainly no one forced him to end up hocking the ground to the parent company to pay for his own past decisions.
No one forced him to make a series of promises relating to the club and the ground.
We now have what is surely the smallest budget in the league but yet we are not the smallest club.
There are some sides in league 2 who will still be behind us in terms of income and numerous more who are comparable.
We have seen, over the last 4 seasons, a systematic dismantling of the club through bad decision making and a now apparent ‘wash my hands of the whole affair’ attitude – snd that is why we are where we are – not because we aren’t run by a multi millionaire who is happy to pump cash in.
There are lots of similar sized clubs above us in the pyramid who don’t have wealthy owners but survive to their means with quiet dignity (and avoid becoming a laughing stock).
There are times this season, for the first time in a long time, that I’ve been genuinely embarrassed watching us.
Swann takes the credit for that so in this case ‘better the devil you know’ doesn’t apply.
I’d take virtually anyone at this time – millionaire or not – as long as they have the best interests of the club at heart.
16 users thanked author for this post.
That I think is the key.
Whether you rated him or not, letting Loft go tells you everything you need to know.
Anything not nailed down and worth more than a tenner gets sold – so the only striker we have with any sort of experience leaves the building without an experienced replacement coming in. All we get is another cheap short term loan.
As I say, whether he’s a long term loss is irrelevant.
His performances last season were materiel in keeping us up and if you have any intention of trying to stay up this season you aren’t parting company with one of the very few sources of goals you actually have unless you are looking to trade up.
All this nonsense about him leaving on a free in the summer is rubbish as well.
Relegation will come at a much greater price than the £50k or whatever they chiselled out of Rovers and everyone knows it, or at least should do.
2 users thanked author for this post.
We’re a long way off the bottom of the curve yet.
This is the weakest side I can remember, and I go back nearly 50 years.
The last time we finished in the bottom 2, back in 81/82 – there were players in that side – such as Andy Keeley, Bob Oates, Cammack, Neenan etc who would absolutely walk into the current side.
Anyone who thinks the National League is as low as we’ll go is in for a rude awakening as well even if we survive as a football club – this lot would be bottom 6 in that league as well.
For that, Swann has to take full credit. We are being penalised for his profligate and ultimately fruitless early spending.
Bad decision has followed bad decision – whining excuse has followed whining excuse – and everyone will surely agree that the numerous statements he’s made over the years as to the future of the club and the ground have not been borne out in truth.
Had he any intention of trying to repair the damage he’s inflicted the loan would have been paid off and there would have been early incomings.
The departure of Loft and the arrival of a replacement with no league experience tells you all you need to know.
We’re off down without a shadow of a doubt and Swann takes full blame – not Covid, not the supporters, not bad luck, not the players, not the plethora of ex managers – just Swann.
I’d have more time for him if he owned up to his failed stewardship of the club and owned his mistakes rather then blaming the world and his wife for his own miserable shortcomings.
11 users thanked author for this post.
Anyone with any credibility won’t take the job without the promise of serious money to spend in January – which will also mean paying the loan off.
It would be a remarkable sea change for Swann to suddenly reverse tactics which he has employed over the last 3 years and suddenly start spending big again.
As for Cox – I have little sympathy for him because he knew what he was letting himself in for when he came.
That said, he can’t be blamed for our league position.
If the players aren’t good enough as a whole then it doesn’t matter if you have a tactical and motivational genius in charge – you still have a sub standard side.
Any argument that it’s ‘Cox’s side’ is rubbish as well.
It’s a side assembled on the cheap, laughably no doubt with input from our ‘chief scout’.
Cox has played the cards Swann has dealt him – full stop. Whether he played them badly is irrelevant – it was a crap hand and he simply couldn’t win.
2 users thanked author for this post.
The problem at this club isn’t Cox – in the same way it hasn’t been the fault of the half a dozen who have gone before him.
He’s a manager not a water diviner.
The problem is the systemic poor decision making and what appears to be the blind arrogance at the top level of the club -which has degenerated into nothing more than an abject comedy over the last 3 seasons.
4 users thanked author for this post.
