THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

No, I don't think so.

I wouldn't be heartbroken if he did but that doesn't mean I *want* him to go. He has done a good job here but there are red flags too. But I am looking forward to what he can do in the summer and next season.

If MW had been here since the start of the season and we failed to go up, that would be a huge failure marked against him. But the fact is he came in mid-way through, we were 15th or something and downtrodden by GA, and we have been much much better since. We just seem to lack bottle when the big games come.

I can understand how insane it sounds when you look at his win percentage but for me there are still some considerable red flags.

I don’t want him to leave, but if he were to take a job elsewhere I don’t think I’d be gutted.

Ultimately, if you can’t win the important games, then what is the point? He’ll be forever a nearly man.

I certainly wouldn't be "heartbroken" if MW left

For someone who has played at the highest level in defence, he sure hasnt got the best our of ours. Yes most of our defenders were here before he arrived by surely his experience should have slowly improved goals conceded with tactics and formations by now ?

The reason were not going up is leaked goals. Simple. People say we need a brand new defence, we probably do. We have been terrible in defence for a number of years now & need new players in those positions as well as formation changes.

It wouldnt bother me if he was poached, we need someone who can plan from the back & Im not sure tactically hes up to it

Hoping Lewie gets a run out on Saturday, will he get another 1 year contract. Im not so sure

Be nice for the club to arrange a Lewie retiring match pre-season when the time comes. Players like him wont come round again

More than anything this club needs some bloody stability to build upon. If MW was to leave it would be a disaster and mean a 5th manager in just over 2 seasons. During GA's tenure I accepted that promotion was gone. 0 Wins in 11, it was dreadful and we were beyond hopeless. MW really turned us around and got us playing much better football. Only two teams obtained more points than us in the league during his time here (Stockport and Wrexham) meaning we climbed the table, flirted with promotion and ultimately finished in the playoffs. This seemed like an impossible prospect during that dreadful home game against Barrow under GA.

Has MW got things perfect? No he hasn't. But what manager ever does? I am minded to point to Arsenal's form under Arterta when he first joined. Go back and look it up they had a dreadful run of results, but they stuck with the plan and the process and its paying off for them now. It takes time to build a successful winning team. Now more than ever we need to back the process. Whatever happens on Saturday we need to stick with MW. I am confident that if we do the team will only improve, the problems will be resolved and we will become a very very good side.

1 FA Cup doesn't make Arteta anything special and he won that in his 1st season. Anyone can spend the money they have spent and have a go. Yes they have stuck with him and that I do agree with, but do not think for one second Arteta is the pinnacle. This is the same Arteta who blew an 8 point lead last season. If Williamson had done that we would be hanging him out to dry. Fuck me if any other manager in the world had done that there would be questions. Yes they have improved, but that is not very hard to do when they were same as us, punching well below their level. We were a shambles in October and yes he has done well, but we have been thumped hard by a lot of teams, some good some bad. Coupled with draws we should have won and losses that we should have drawn shows to me that there are a lot of questions that a summer window will bring answers to. I want him to stay, but like most if Barnsley want to have him so be it. Like players not a lot we can do about it. We are a shitty league 2 club with zero sway.

We saw the same with RM, who was also a defender at the highest level. We had an horrendous away record under RM. I remember we went many games away from home without picking up a win.

They are two very similar managers, who play a very similar way. I believe they are also close friends who share tactics etc. Both of them have major issues defensively. Manning came in and shored us up all over the pitch, not just in attack.

This absolutely is not an attack on possession based football. I'm all for it and don't want us to change but possession based football doesn't mean you need to be shit in defence.

I agree. We can’t keep sacking managers.

We can't but if he leaves what choice do we have. For some reason he is on Barnsley's radar, probably more so now they are out the play offs so come next week expect rumblings of him off to Yorkshire and the process starts a new

Blimey, the idea that we could dispense with the services of MW is a bit of a shock for me.

What this team and club needs is a period of stability. Now, if MW decides to move on then so be it but he has demonstrated more than enough to deserve a reasonable amount of time to develop us. Hes a million miles from the finished article and pretty much in his second manager job so thats to be expected.

He clearly has some blind spots regarding defensive stability and his comments after games where we have shipped 4 or 5 often demonstrate that. But hes not stupid and he will know that any team conceding as many goals as we do, particularly away from home is always going to struggle to progress so that will need some work for sure.

One of the big issues with this squad in mental fragility, even those players that have demonstrated mental strength previously are suffering from it, its like a contagion. That is not easily solved and probably requires moving on a good few.

I think we need patience with him. This season was more or less written off by GA and that fact we got to where we did was a miracle. Next season we have a chance to start on the right foot and get promotion by design as opposed to default.

If for whatever reason that doesnt happen, then we need to think about MW but more likely need to think about the club management as a whole. It cant always be the manager.

If we don't go up hoping we can improve, like Stockport did this season and go one better. OK might have to rebuild without Dean. Scrapping almost all defenders and starting again. Tripp as key central defender, plus Waller, Ilunga, Scholtz in the squad, and Sandford as 2nd goalie.

Why have a youth team if they're not given a chance... Championship and even Premier League teams, like Brighton, seem more willing to blood youngsters. Soon youths won't want to join us, as stand better chance with teams in higher leagues, which is nuts.

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