Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:16 pm  

Did anyone else see McManus interviewed on Boots n All about the performance of the team?

I was bemused by his view on things. He expressed complete confidence in Brown et al and the team, believing we are actually a top four club, just having a blip, and that we will come good as the season comes to a close. Clearly he has been watching another Saints this season! Either that or he has been away so much that he hasn't actually watched many of our games at all. Anyway, according to McManus Brown is brilliant, the coaching staff are brilliant, the team is brilliant, in fact the only people who are not brilliant are the fans. We are apparently irrational. (I would like to know when fanhood came with the requirement to be rational?)

I was (yet again) annoyed by (yet another) dig at the fans. I wonder if he realises just how patronising he can sound?

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:42 pm  

My guess he realises that slagging off the whole team and coaching staff in public is not the best way to get them all onside and playing at their best.

It's easy to come on here and slag people off because you don't have to go in there tomorrow and face them all.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:45 pm  

Sorry you need to be challenged on this. I was invited to Headingley by the Leeds club due to railway community work I had done for them. I think it was the game three years ago, we won the game and the boardroom emptied early and I was luck to end up with Eamon his lad and Joe Nicholl. Cut a long story short my friend and I missed the train. Those guys got us home and if Eamon is patronising then I am a Wiganner. He is for a very intelligent man so grounded it is unbelievable and loves the club with a passion. Yes at times he must feel he cant do right for doing wrong and I have been totally cheesed off this season. In closing some blame must be apportioned to Eamon especially on recruitment. However Langtree Park is a great legacy and the cladding gate issue was an oversight that we could all have been caught out with. A new stadium in a double dip recession in a town on its knees that took some doing he literally dragged all the stakeholders with him until photo shoot time.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:06 pm  

Loz wrote:

Sorry you need to be challenged on this. I was invited to Headingley by the Leeds club due to railway community work I had done for them. I think it was the game three years ago, we won the game and the boardroom emptied early and I was luck to end up with Eamon his lad and Joe Nicholl. Cut a long story short my friend and I missed the train. Those guys got us home and if Eamon is patronising then I am a Wiganner.

Anyone and everyone can be patronising in the right circumstances. McManus's digs at the fans - we have to stay rational, according to him - are patronising, as was his praise of the support the away fans gave to the team at Cas. The away fans ALWAYS give excellent support!

McManus is indeed an intelligent man but that does not preclude an ability to be patronising. I would have felt more sympathetic towards his message had he shown some empathy with fans rather than instructing us to be 'rational'!

The most intelligent people are often the most clueless when it comes to other people.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:07 pm  

Harry Pinner wrote:

My guess he realises that slagging off the whole team and coaching staff in public is not the best way to get them all onside and playing at their best.

He gushed about the team and the coach. The only people he criticised were the fans, yet again. So I don't think he considers the team or the coach to be anything other than the best.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:52 pm  

It should be looked at just a bit of meaningless PR waffle.

I don't think he seriously blames the fans; but what can he do publicly? He can't slag off the coach and team in the open and then expect them to improve.

He must have some strong private doubts though about how its going and how this slump is going to end and whether he has the coach and players to do it.

He can say what he wants on TV but it won't stop him dumping brown if and when he feels he needs to regardless of public praise.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:11 pm  

Empathy was definitely missing. Don't expect him to bag everyone even if he is critical of
some behind closed doors. However some recognition of under performance was needed.

With regard to being rational , glass houses and stones comes to mind.

Recruitment over the last few seasons has been anything but rational.

He has done a lot of good things that others before haven't but
has turned into a caricature of old school board members (pop magnets, bike shops owners
and JPs) and has taken on their worst habits.

Has surrounded himself with ex-pros from the glory era and seems to be blind to the
decisions/attributes that made him a breath of fresh air when he first started.

He is pretty much unrecognisable from that man.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:27 pm  

Gerry Mander wrote:

Empathy was definitely missing. Don't expect him to bag everyone even if he is critical of
some behind closed doors. However some recognition of under performance was needed.

Exactly.

And it is interesting that there is an article online in the Star and the Reporter today and both have little digs at the fans. The club really do need to be careful about criticising the fans because ultimately the club needs the fans. McManus needs to reconnect with the fans rather than alienate them.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:36 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Did anyone else see McManus interviewed on Boots n All about the performance of the team?

I was bemused by his view on things. He expressed complete confidence in Brown et al and the team, believing we are actually a top four club, just having a blip, and that we will come good as the season comes to a close. Clearly he has been watching another Saints this season! Either that or he has been away so much that he hasn't actually watched many of our games at all. Anyway, according to McManus Brown is brilliant, the coaching staff are brilliant, the team is brilliant, in fact the only people who are not brilliant are the fans. We are apparently irrational. (I would like to know when fanhood came with the requirement to be rational?)

I was (yet again) annoyed by (yet another) dig at the fans. I wonder if he realises just how patronising he can sound?

Yet again you are putting your own spin on things to suit your agenda. Seeing a grown woman, and a teacher as well, to be so blatantly petty and in many ways dishonest, is absolutely pathetic.

McManus used the word rational a few times but never in direct reference to the fans. For all you know he could have been referring to the media reaction. He also said the club has great supporters and our reaction has been understandable.

Why you insist on continuing to "support" Saints is confusing because all you ever do is slag off the current regime and do everything in your power to belittle McManus and Brown.

Re: Chairman on Boots n All : Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:38 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

He gushed about the team and the coach. The only people he criticised were the fans, yet again. So I don't think he considers the team or the coach to be anything other than the best.

At what point did he criticise the fans?