you clearly missed the "exterminate cats" piece from Gareth before he call the nix fans who were worried about the league positions pathetic. All you guys suggesting the Gareth wasn't pointing at you when he said the fans are unsophisticated and pathetic clearly aren't worried about us being dead last and losing badly then? Or did you simply not post in the league/table thread? IMO all sports fans are worried about their team's position on the table - it's a massive part of what we care about - if caring about where my team finishes, and being angry about a sudden shift of targets for the club is pathetic then I am it.
apart from my comment above on the "extermination" hyperbole, which I will add was in the context of comments about left of Lenin, and hence is by insinuation linked to Lenin's very real policies of human extermination, and which I believe also misrepresent what Morgan has actually said about cats, lets look at why we might be last.
1. Sure we are last, for now, but not yet miles off mid table.
2. We may stay there, at the end of the season, but I think maybe not, if a few people hold there breath, get on with the job, mend a few bridges, and we get a fully fit and non-suspended team on the park; including Ifill, Sanchez, Muscat all playing.
3. And we are yet to see what else the club may do about it. Cernak today may not be their only measure.
4. And lastly, is bottom of the table Gareth's fault? Some like to think so, and this fuss won't have helped, but I would disagree.
- we have had injuries, untimely suspensions and some poor luck and refereeing decisions go against us
- and regarding the change in tactics issue, if you read carefully what has gone on you can maybe can see that
a) the change of tactics was planned pre-season and Ricki was part of this
b) clearly, it would seem, Ricki choose not to tell the players about this, and
c) I suggest, it would also seem that Ricki did not tell his Board that he did not plan to tell the players, nor did Ricki apparantly suggest it might be unwise for player morale to talk about this new tactical approach openly for now. Maybe neither guy is at fault here, but they were lacking an agreed communication strategy on that.
d) Unless you call Gareth a liar, Ricki was given full control of implementing the new approach.
e) Welnix has given Ricki the full salary cap, other sides do not have big marquees either, relative to say Ifill and Dura (and yes I appreciate those guys under the cap does limit money available for the rest of the squad, so this is my weakest argument I think), yet we are still last.
f) The league has taken a big jump imho and we have been somewhat caught out. How many were saying we were going to have a crack at top two at the start of the season. Well the squad hasn't got any worse.
So who is responsible for the position on the table? In my view a few things have contributed, but certainly not all Gareth Morgan's fault. I woudl say at least partly we have underperforming players, partly we have had untimely suspensions and injuries and partly we have a morale problem which hopefully can be smoothed down. And partly the league has become more of a dogfight than we expected.
The thing I think fans can legitimately be concerned about is the lack of marquee players and the ability to build a good enough squad to play entertaining and winning football without that extra spend. And the way in which the change has been implemented on the pitch. But it's yet to be proven, I think, based on a)-f) above, that we cannot finish at least reasonably on the table. Given the jump in the leagues standing maybe that's not too bad this year. Maybe, if we do get the squad performing well with all players on the park, we could yet surprise.
Anyway, just my thoughts. People will agree with some, disagree some. I don't claim it's all right. But It's a slightly different perspective from talking about Gareth's "extermination policies".