: Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:05 pm
It's the board's fault that Cullen wasn't in a position to try to stop the rot 12 months ago by not allowing him to remove some of the bad apples last Summer. Once that happened his authority wasn't worth a carrot & the players were able to play to the levels they determined rather than following their coaches direction.
It's the boards fault that they promised a top class coach, only to saddle us with Jimmy Lowes for months. That resulted in a crap preparation for the season. The board must have approved the appointment of Jimmy's mate from the gym.
I got slated on here for suggesting our team won't be ready & we're scacrificing stamina for size. Lot's of the usual numpties were orgasmic with the "Ooooh look at the guns on him" bullshit. Funny enough we have a team that can't sustain a decent level in any game for more than 50 minutes. Who'd have thunk it....well anyone with eyes should have.
What we needed first was to emply a coach who had both the ability & the authority to motivate the team & to follow a game plan. Then to remove anyone who doesn't want to be here. There's signs of that.
We then need to examine our recruitment policy. Stop hiring injury prone players and stop renewing contracts to continually injured players. The release of Reardon doesn't give another player the chance to take his shirt & shine. It frees up a seat in the North stand, nothing else.
Then there's the hardest part. We need to get to a certain standard in the next few months. The main reason for this must be to make us attractive to next years signings. Langer, Nicau, Wood, Gee etc all left here shouting our praises & what a great club it is to be a part of. That got us Johns. What the love do you think King & Monaghan will tell their mates when they return. What would make Yeaman leave a stumbling Hull side to come to us ??? Well shag all at the minute. Gleeson left here and on his interview he said we had so much in place but he realised that he's stagnating & will never win anything with us. That needs to change.
We've started to change the culture. Smith looks to have a broad brush to do things his way, & looks to be the man for the job. Our players need to have a sence of personal proffessionalism that's all but gone. Smith seems able to motivate them to show a bit more pride. We'll see.
