Steven Pressley Confirmed as Manager

munchymagic wrote: Apart from Curles first season - where we were shite most of the time then after that Curles sides and then Sheridans side at least showed some fight or if they got beaten then they would change it and be back at it and they managed to turn things around.

But then you remember that Curle took arguably the worst side that many of us Carlisle fans will ever witness and dragged us to safety and then Pressley takes us from the cusp of automatic promotion and mercilessly hurtles us towards mid-table at an alarming rate.

I get the injury crisis but the players are not motivated by Pressley, players that have been given the chance are not giving their all for the manager so therefore I would give TW and Murray the job till the end of the season.

The Pressley appointment in my eyes has ben a disaster - he has had long enough to tell us that he cannot get much out of what we already have, bet we wouldn't have ben so abysmal at the back yesterday if we had the out of favour Gerrard playing.

Just like that baffling decision when he substituted Devitt, clueless.

Simpson came on for Devitt and set up the winner. What more do you want?

The only person to blame for the size and strength of our midfield yesterday was Pressley himself.

You know Stevenage are going to be a physical team yet you play Slater (whose form has been abysmal) in the hub of it all flanked by Scougall and O'Hare? What else do you think is going to happen when you play three midgets in midfield?

It's not accurate to say he didn't have options. He could easily have chosen to play a four in midfield. He could have brought Gerrard back into defence, moving Liddle into the defensive midfield role. He could've started Kennedy - so you would've had both Liddle and Kennedy in front of the back four. That gives you a much more solid core to your side.

The man is completely out of his depth, he couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag.

While he's hardly doing that well, I have no idea why anyone would sack him with four games left when he's out of contract at the end of the season.

You'd sack him if you thought Wright & Murray could do a better job without him (which is probable).

You could also start the process of getting a new manager in place in time to move effectively in the transfer market pre-season.

I needed to add to my post above. Folk harp on about "the three players" lost in January, but four of the players who started the match yesterday were players Pressley signed in January. Two of those players made up the midget midfield three yesterday.

Yes, I think they were the midfield options yesterday and I'm sure Pressley would have considered them.
I think Gerrard has been absolutely superb this season but has struggled recently.
Liddle, for me, has played his best football on the right hand side of a central 3 at the back.
For me, I'm not sure if he's quite mobile enough to play in midfield now. He could be, I don't know, but there's a reason he's not played there more often.
The issue, for me, is not where certain players play or indeed whether they play but the lack of options and lack of depth in the squad at the moment.
And all of that really leads back to the paper thin squad assembled at the start of the season.
As for yesterday, any side, any division, take away 7 or 8 players and they'll struggle.
Look at any top side and even taking away a couple of players has a big impact.
I know you can't turn the clock back and we are where we are but if that side yesterday had Devitt, Etuhu, Grainger, Yates, McCarron, Sowerby, Jones, Nadesan and a fully fit Thomas and Cullen available it's a totally different thing.
I know it's boring saying this but the side from January to the side now is like chalk and cheese.
I think if he'd had won just a couple of games recently with all of those in then fair enough, you'd say then that it's miles off good enough.
As I've said before, and I don't think it can be overstated enough, we must be the only side in the 92 playing without a striker.
I can understand the view that despite the poor season preparation, loss of players, injuries, no striker etc we should be performing better, but for me I just feel the guy's not been given a proper run at things.

‘Move effectively in the transfer market pre season’ Piglet?

With what? The Club is as poor as a church mouse whose wife has run off with the cheese.

Best get Jenks on the phone with Barry.

The big problem is our squad is too thin-in a very thin league.

And the problem with January is that you are scrabbling around for players who often are not currently playing, aren't match fit or are injured.
I've just finished a great book by Ben Smith called Journeyman and he played for Yeovil, Hereford etc and time and time and time again he says his seasons were defined by his pre-season work.
Scougall, Cullen, Gnaouha, Grant and Thomas were all short on game time and fitness - we lost 2 to injury and have seen up and down performances from others.
I don't know enough about the club to know who bought the players in and if it was Pressley then I think you can question some of those.
But what choices did we have and or indded did he have?
The club's losing 20k a week and Pressley had, what, 2 weeks to scrabble around to get the signings in?
Not easy.

It is a good book, gives a real insight into the workings of the game at the lower level and how steve evans works!!

I’m afraid it’s the end of Garden Fete Tombola for us unless someone stumps up for free cash

I'm just watching the game now. The annoying thing is that in the first half we played the better football. We had better players, they had no one who could compare with Thomas or ohare. But they had a better team, they knew where the runs were coming from and they held us at bay easily. A rousing half time talk and its all over, they were comfortablely the better side in the second half. Curle was the same, no ability to put the pieces of a team together

In Pressley's own words:

On taking the job:

I’m coming into this job very confident in what I can do

I understand what the expectations are. I want to be part of those expectations and I’ll certainly push that. I want us to achieve our goal, which is ultimately promotion at the end of the season.

To come here with a situation where there’s a serious opportunity for promotion is very exciting, and it’s something I’m really looking forward to

The intention is to continue the good work…and…build good relationships with the players and try to create an environment that breeds positive results

I’ve got real belief in my work.

Ultimately football’s about winning

On the transfer window

It felt like it was a very important window for me

Thankfully we’ve managed to do the business we wanted to do.

A lot of the business done has certainly been players we identified as top targets and, in my opinion, we haven’t made any panic signings. They’ve all been calculated, and we’re really pleased with that.

We can only identify what we think is the right player for any given position, and that’s what we’ve done

I think we have the nucleus of a very good group now

They (the fans) need to see that the club really does want success and that can only be demonstrated by the signing of players. It was important with the position we’re in that we showed that ambition, and I believe we’ve done that.

Everybody could see that we’d lost players from the group who were part of the starting 11 and that meant we needed players who are as good, if not better, to come in to provide competition and help to plug the gaps

I think we’re all excited about what we’ve put together because another part of a successful team is looking at it and being able to think that you can score goals from almost anywhere. We have that with this group

We are really pleased with the work done. Hopefully we’ll see the benefits of the hard work in the coming weeks.

Seriously. When are people going to stop going on about Cullen being injured as if we've been unlucky with it. Should never have signed a massively unfit crock in the first place.

Given that we wanted replacements who could play right way (you'd think ) it's been a complete mystery why Cullen was brought in...somebody been conned??!!

Or bunged

So why does everyone hate Holdsworth? He brought in Nadesan, Yates and Sowerby at relatively no cost. Surely a massive step forward from the massive incentivised contracts that we were paying to James Bailey, Jamie Procter and Cole Stockton?

Markovitch wrote: So why does everyone hate Holdsworth? He brought in Nadesan, Yates and Sowerby at relatively no cost. Surely a massive step forward from the massive incentivised contracts that we were paying to James Bailey, Jamie Procter and Cole Stockton?

Simply because it isn't the way to run a football club Marko - we are paying for himself whilst we need a striker more than we need him.

The January window was a complete shan - Holdsworth is not going to say that he was in the wrong though is he?

We could go through shedloads of managers before EWM realise that Holdsworth is crap at his job and basically needed less than a striker.

You go from hero to villain very quickly on here-I would rather have Holdsworth than the total ineptitude of recent times.

Laffy wrote: You go from hero to villain very quickly on here-I would rather have Holdsworth than the total ineptitude of recent times.

Screw that Laffy - Holdsworth has gone from villain to [censored] and still keeps his job, he should have been an MP.

When has Holdsworth ever been classed as a "hero" on here?

"Having Holdsworth" has been no different to "the total ineptitude of recent times", it's more of the same.

I'm not surprised you're a fan of unnecessary and costly layers of "governance", Laffy - it's what your much vaunted "restructuring" is all about isn't it?

Presently you have Nixon, you have Clibbens and you have Holdsworth - three men doing the job of one man. Two of them (likely) costing the club a significant wedge every season.

I'm all for having one person in a Chief Exec position, but the current incumbents have been an unmitigated disaster.

All this said, Pressley was given enough backing and resources to hit the top seven in May. The fact he's squandered this and ruined the team is 100% his responsibility.

Wrong Piglet

I see one person in charge-that being PD and his unpaid lieutenants.I would basically chop the rest as they are now irrelevant.In any company, you need a ceo and FD-and am operational guy ie Holdsworth.In an ideal world, you would have one of the three in charge of sales.

So-from the top;

NC, Holdsworth and Suzanne.Clear enough?Of these, only two are on the payroll I believe.

Quite what the stakeholders do is beyond me-you will recall that all were being ‘moved upstairs’ out of the road so to speak.I don’t believe any of them take any money out.

So your ‘expensive’ structure only comprises NC and Suzanne-unless you expect them to work for baked beans too.

The club confirmed that Holdsworths wage was coming out of the club though and not EWM - it might have been at EWM's insistence however but that is just muddying the water which is what they wanted to do.

Markovitch wrote: So when we were 4th in the table it was all down to the manager and nothing to do with Jenkins, clibbins and Holdsworth. Then a new manager comes in, we plummet down the league and suddenly Jenkins is guilty? Nothing has changed other than the man in the manager's chair

Youre right Marko nothing has changed.

The Old [censored] Wouldnt put his hand in his pocket 2 years ago for Curle

He wouldn't do it in the summer to get in a proper manager and decent players.

And he wouldn't do it again in January to sign the three loan players.

Just what is the point of this complete and utter [censored] useless [censored] ?

Really is time him and his family and businesses were targeted and the [censored] driven out before he gets to [censored] up yet another season.

Laffy wrote: ‘Move effectively in the transfer market pre season’ Piglet?

With what? The Club is as poor as a church mouse whose wife has run off with the cheese.

Best get Jenks on the phone with Barry.

The big problem is our squad is too thin-in a very thin league.

Just lock me a [censored] room with the old [censored] i.d make him sign every cheque in the book

newcarlislefan wrote: And the problem with January is that you are scrabbling around for players who often are not currently playing, aren't match fit or are injured.
I've just finished a great book by Ben Smith called Journeyman and he played for Yeovil, Hereford etc and time and time and time again he says his seasons were defined by his pre-season work.
Scougall, Cullen, Gnaouha, Grant and Thomas were all short on game time and fitness - we lost 2 to injury and have seen up and down performances from others.
I don't know enough about the club to know who bought the players in and if it was Pressley then I think you can question some of those.
But what choices did we have and or indded did he have?
The club's losing 20k a week and Pressley had, what, 2 weeks to scrabble around to get the signings in?
Not easy.

2 weeks? You can sign half a dozen players in 2 hours so long as you.ve done your homework.

The problem here wasn't time it was the fact we went shopping at B and M and not at Waitrose.

"The annoying thing is that in the first half we played the better football. We had better players, they had no one who could compare with Thomas or ohare"

I'm up for as much 'head in the sand blind optimism' as the next man but that totally isn't true. This wasn't FGR or Tranmere, this was utter garbage pretty much from kick off to the final whistle. Thomas and Ohare as culpable as anyone else. A centre back pairing of Liddle and Grant who looked like they'd never played together before, one full back who clearly isn't a full back and another who looks like he isn't even a footballer.
And the much hyped midfielders?: poor - every one of them. Scougall looks like a decent gust of wind might blow him over, Thomas might as well have paid his 22 quid and watched the game with the rest of us for the impact he had and if Ohare thinks he has a future at Villa he's delusional - 3rd tier at best.

The lack of a striker clearly isn't helping but the glass half full brigade would have us believe that is all that's missing. Bollocks. We played a striker yesterday - not a great one, but a striker nonetheless - and the midfield did nothing for him. Short of the sort of attacker that makes their own chances - and I can't think of anyone we've had that fits that category other than Bridges or Garner - anyone could have been up front yesterday and the score would have been the same. The midfield were the real weak spot for me yesterday and baring in mind how bad the four defenders were, that really is saying something.

munchymagic wrote: The club confirmed that Holdsworths wage was coming out of the club though and not EWM - it might have been at EWM's insistence however but that is just muddying the water which is what they wanted to do.

No Muncy the club said they were employing and paying him

What they forgot to say however was where the money to pay him was coming from

Shame Jenkins wasn't bright enough to realise that the money from the revolving credit facility then goes straight back on his bottom line

Another thing is if that squad yesterday is that shite then why sign these players loan or short deal full stop - they showed no belly yesterday.

Cue Pressley ramming this home to them and telling them that they are playing for their futures and to show some fight so expect some bookings or early sending off's in my opinion.

munchymagic wrote: Another thing is if that squad yesterday is that shite then why sign these players loan or short deal full stop - they showed no belly yesterday.

Cue Pressley ramming this home to them and telling them that they are playing for their futures and to show some fight so expect some bookings or early sending off's in my opinion.

Or they just roll over and take what's coming

Won't give a shit most of them know hey won't be at BP next season.

Just read in the Times that the Lincoln playing budget is £4m-fourfold increase since 15/16.New training facilities,fan zones,corporate facilities.A club with real momentum-managers contracted to 2022.

We have more potential than them but it highlights what is possible

Laffy wrote: Just read in the Times that the Lincoln playing budget is £4m-fourfold increase since 15/16.New training facilities,fan zones,corporate facilities.A club with real momentum-managers contracted to 2022.

We have more potential than them but it highlights what is possible

People don't like the Cowleys on here - but whatever they do works as they are successful.

Yep, Carlisle as a club has more potential, but this is yet another club, that's been in non-league recently, to overtake us. We can content/cement ourselves to Tinpot2 football but it can't carry on forever - without major change - as sooner or later every league team will overtake us and out we go!

To be frank,I don’t like the way Lincoln manage games but clearly it works and 10k attendances confirm it.Their success demonstrates how investment works-but it takes time and sometimes you have to scrape the bottom before you can improve

They haven't made any great investment, have they? They had a couple of good cup runs which brought in money. The Cowleys used that to strengthen the squad and unlike Keith their expensive signings did the business on the park. That brought the fans back which increased the budget, more good signings and so it goes on. The £1m training ground was funded by a fan's investment scheme.
If we could get 6/7000 for home games we could do this as well.

www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/sport/footbal...-use-healthy-1154245

That's never gonna happen under the present regime.I'm seriously considering not renewing my ST. I definitely won't if they keep Elvis

The issue is the temporary custodians 10 years of this utter cr$p. If they actually sold up to someone with some ambition then the crowds would return to 6,000 - 7,000 then this austerity budget would as you say go. They are the issue what were the crowds when they took over to what they are now?

Looks like from this article it's a 50% drop with them in temporary charge:

www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/17300628.car...-confront-the-issue/

Of course they have invested-including fans as you note-good for them.The article also refers to not being hindered by debt!

We of course have had cup runs too-and football fortune and all the money has been blown .KC splurge in part but also against a backdrop of apathy and mismanagement.Lets call it contraction.

I read this Lincoln stuff and I see ambition and vision, coupled with sensible housekeeping-we have failed on all three counts.KC kept us in the league but that’s where it ends-the rest of his tenure brought poor football and out of control overspending.

How I wish those owed money by the Club would just write it off and start afresh-even the Pioneer sponsor deal costs because it generates zero cash

Laffy wrote: Just read in the Times that the Lincoln playing budget is £4m-fourfold increase since 15/16.New training facilities,fan zones,corporate facilities.A club with real momentum-managers contracted to 2022.

We have more potential than them but it highlights what is possible

As some of us have been saying for 10 years

The peanuts and monkeys phrase springs immediately to mind.

Markovitch wrote: They haven't made any great investment, have they? They had a couple of good cup runs which brought in money. The Cowleys used that to strengthen the squad and unlike Keith their expensive signings did the business on the park. That brought the fans back which increased the budget, more good signings and so it goes on. The £1m training ground was funded by a fan's investment scheme.
If we could get 6/7000 for home games we could do this as well.

www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/sport/footbal...-use-healthy-1154245

And if we employed a decent manager and gave him 500k more than the leagues next highest spenders were giving theirs we could get way more than that.

The only person who fails to grasp that is one Mr Andrew Jenkins

Laffy wrote: Of course they have invested-including fans as you note-good for them.The article also refers to not being hindered by debt!

We of course have had cup runs too-and football fortune and all the money has been blown .KC splurge in part but also against a backdrop of apathy and mismanagement.Lets call it contraction.

I read this Lincoln stuff and I see ambition and vision, coupled with sensible housekeeping-we have failed on all three counts.KC kept us in the league but that’s where it ends-the rest of his tenure brought poor football and out of control overspending.

How I wish those owed money by the Club would just write it off and start afresh-even the Pioneer sponsor deal costs because it generates zero cash

Lets put this crap to bed once and for all Andrew at no point have we ever been the league's top spenders or even in the top 3 and I believe its one season in 11 in the top five highest earners and thats before the extra half million a year that would guarantee success and be self-funding. And thats despite our owner being sat on 17.1 million which i.m pretty sure Lincolns owners arent.

Unlike others, I couldn't care how fancy the football was, give me a win, a few scrapes with opposition fans, cheap beer, decent scran and a good crack and i.m happy as I bet are most of Lincolns fans who don't seem to be bothered that their football isn't exactly inspired by Guardiola is it ?

munchymagic wrote: The club confirmed that Holdsworths wage was coming out of the club though and not EWM - it might have been at EWM's insistence however but that is just muddying the water which is what they wanted to do.

Oh yeah it wouldn't be the first time the owners had lied about something important to the fans and it won't be the last.

CCU wrote: In 07/08 we averaged 7805. The current owners then took over...

That is so sad to reflect on. What's the average this season? Less that 4,000?

That was the best season we've had in years and we played brilliant football. Leeds at home in the league is one of my favourite games ever.

The average is 4,621.

Take away the MK Dons match and that average comes down to 4,329.

NORTHERNSOUL wrote:

Laffy wrote: Of course they have invested-including fans as you note-good for them.The article also refers to not being hindered by debt!

We of course have had cup runs too-and football fortune and all the money has been blown .KC splurge in part but also against a backdrop of apathy and mismanagement.Lets call it contraction.

I read this Lincoln stuff and I see ambition and vision, coupled with sensible housekeeping-we have failed on all three counts.KC kept us in the league but that’s where it ends-the rest of his tenure brought poor football and out of control overspending.

How I wish those owed money by the Club would just write it off and start afresh-even the Pioneer sponsor deal costs because it generates zero cash

Lets put this crap to bed once and for all Andrew at no point have we ever been the league's top spenders or even in the top 3 and I believe its one season in 11 in the top five highest earners and thats before the extra half million a year that would guarantee success and be self-funding. And thats despite our owner being sat on 17.1 million which i.m pretty sure Lincolns owners arent.

Unlike others, I couldn't care how fancy the football was, give me a win, a few scrapes with opposition fans, cheap beer, decent scran and a good crack and i.m happy as I bet are most of Lincolns fans who don't seem to be bothered that their football isn't exactly inspired by Guardiola is it ?

Putting in £500k would guarantee absolutely Fock all unless it was well spent by a good manager. Bit of a problem there isn’t there.

Dancingbear wrote:

NORTHERNSOUL wrote:

Laffy wrote: Of course they have invested-including fans as you note-good for them.The article also refers to not being hindered by debt!

We of course have had cup runs too-and football fortune and all the money has been blown .KC splurge in part but also against a backdrop of apathy and mismanagement.Lets call it contraction.

I read this Lincoln stuff and I see ambition and vision, coupled with sensible housekeeping-we have failed on all three counts.KC kept us in the league but that’s where it ends-the rest of his tenure brought poor football and out of control overspending.

How I wish those owed money by the Club would just write it off and start afresh-even the Pioneer sponsor deal costs because it generates zero cash

Lets put this crap to bed once and for all Andrew at no point have we ever been the league's top spenders or even in the top 3 and I believe its one season in 11 in the top five highest earners and thats before the extra half million a year that would guarantee success and be self-funding. And thats despite our owner being sat on 17.1 million which i.m pretty sure Lincolns owners arent.

Unlike others, I couldn't care how fancy the football was, give me a win, a few scrapes with opposition fans, cheap beer, decent scran and a good crack and i.m happy as I bet are most of Lincolns fans who don't seem to be bothered that their football isn't exactly inspired by Guardiola is it ?

Putting in £500k would guarantee absolutely Fock all unless it was well spent by a good manager. Bit of a problem there isn’t there.

Not that I can see. Don't you think by making it clear that we'd be offering the highest budget in the league plus 500k might just mean we.d also attract a better class of applicant.

Everybody involved in football knows what's good about CUFC as a club, unfortunately, they also know were owned by a completely useless t#wa#t who clearly has no idea how lower league football works and is so senile thinks he can take his 17.1 million stash with him which is why we end up employing dole botherers like Pressley.

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE JOKE..... shows how far our great club has fallen and how it's happy just bumbling along with shitty league 2 status and mediocrity. WHY?? JUST WHY??

The club might be delighted but I'm certainly not and I'm sure I'm not the only one

I think it’s premature - in the play offs then yeah i suppose he deserves another year.

Don’t reach the play off, then he should be long gone really.