StockholmSyndrome

Interesting that you should say that, caleyboy. I have a friend who works for Tullochs and a few years ago she also told me that in her opinion David Sutherland wasn't really a football man. This isn't to badmouth him or anything, just interesting that more than one person has this opinion of him.

BTW, why is my post at the head of this topic? It doesn't make a lot of sense in this context and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that I had seemingly started a topic I had no knowledge of!! For a moment I thought someone at work had hacked into my account Back on topic, I was quite disappointed when Sutherland and Savage couldn't work together, as IMHO this has hampered the club's progress. The public falling out they had after Savage resigned was needless and didn't make us look good, not least because they appeared to be behaving less like experienced businessmen and more like a couple of small angry boys arguing over a toy. As to what Sutherland's real intentions are right now, I guess only he knows that.

If that's true then it's pretty paltry. Even I earn quite a bit more than that!

That's as may be, but it's remarkable how, even in tough times, individuals and organisations can find the resources to do something if they really want to do it. Anyway, as you've pointed out, Brewster's contract is up at the end of the season, so it surely wouldn't cost that much to pay him off now?

If the board really wanted to do it they would find the money somewhere.

Yes, very constructive Ralph. :thumb04: Unfortunately, it seems pretty obvious that Mr Brewster's man-management skills are not what they should be. To be brutally honest, I'm quite glad that he's not my boss.

It frustrates me that this same pattern gets repeated year after year after year. At best the club is incredibly naive in this respect, and I would agree that Bennett is not doing his job. We've lost so many good players over the years because of this kind of incompetence.

I'm not baring anything, I intend to wrap up as tightly as possible this winter! Seriously though, we cannot go on the way we are now, as it can only lead to disaster. Right now I would jump at the chance of having Robbo back: I have tremendous respect for him and his record while he was with us speaks for itself IMHO. I'm not a huge fan of taking back former managers, but he's the one I would take back if it were up to me. If the board had had any sense last year they would have employed him or someone like him.

I still find it hard to believe we play 4-5-1 at home!! I miss us actually playing football like we used to. We used to be real good at that once...

Top Gear!

To be honest, I don't see how this discussion could make things worse. Brewster presumably already knows what was said to him, and by some of the comments here it also seems to have been pretty obvious to anyone else in the vicinity as well. Any damage will have been done by now. What I will be interested to see is what, if anything, will happen next between Brewster and the players.

However, up until now it has always been a rarity at our club. In fact, I can't recall ever having seen our players talking back to or swearing at the management, and the fact that they now seem to have started doing this makes me suspect that things are definitely going very wrong in the dressing room.

I don't think there's anyone at all who welcomes failure. Jay_7 hits the nail on the head when he says that ICT are not performing as well as we know they can. That, IMHO, is why there are so many disappointed people on here. An awful lot of what's been on offer this season has been sub-standard and lacklustre, not exactly the sort of thing most people enjoy; "endure" would be a better word. Most of the "moaning" is because we know we can do better, but have consistently failed to do so this season.

1. Ability to work with people and motivate them. 2. Ability to put personal differences aside and be dispassionate when making decisions, so that what he decides benefits the team, not just him. 3. Good communication skills. 4. Logic, tactical knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge. That's four that are most obvious to me, but there's lots of skills involved in being a decent manager, quite a lot of which Mr Brewster seems to lack, IMHO.

Very little. I'd make my excuses and leave, as I doubt he'd enjoy my opinions about the way he runs the team.

You sound quite bitter, Johndo. I can't say I blame you, in fact I agree with most of the points you make. I've felt increasingly over the last couple of seasons that the club has lost the "family" feel it used to have. There is no bond with the supporters any more, no feeling of "togetherness". It's very sad, and also very worrying for the future.

We don't need Mr Perfect, just Mr Adequate.

The first manager I had made my life a misery. I know I didn't work as well as I could have done at that time, as my confidence was at rock bottom. I can't imagine that it's any different for footballers. If a decent squad is consistently underperforming, it must say something about the man in charge.

All this talk about "belief" gets my back up. Belief is only possible for so long without evidence to reinforce it. If one is given no evidence, belief tends to disappear pretty quickly. Anyway, like probably most other fans, I have plenty of belief in the team; we have some good players out there, and it's not lack of belief from the fans that's hindering them, it's lack of direction and awareness from our so-called manager. Until we get someone who knows what he's doing, we will be incapable of moving forward.

It's just getting embarrassing now. He should walk before he has the chance to do any more damage.

I can't stand Russell Brand and I don't understand how he managed to get a career in the media in the first place given that he can barely string a coherent sentence together half the time. I'm glad he's got his comeuppance. Jonathan Ross is grossly overpaid and I don't find him funny at all. It's been calculated that every licence fee payer has contributed ?1 toward his huge salary. If he goes as well, then good riddance.

We still need a striker who's experienced a this level, though. We really shot ourselves in the foot when we let all our experienced strikers leave without replacing any of them. I remain to be convinced about Barrowman: there's a gap the size of the Great Glen between division 2 and the SPL.

A season where we play to our potential, produce good entertaining football like we used to and at least try to finish as high as we can would be nice.

As has been pointed out, relegation would be a disaster for the club's finances. Unfortunately though, life in the SPL isn't exactly a bed of roses either. One thing that's bothered me for a long time is that being in this league is no fun, for a number of reasons. This is probably one of the least competitive leagues in the world and the monotony really gets to you after a while. I really miss the fun days out we used to have visiting all sorts of grounds all over Scotland and being able to mix with other fans inside the ground. Unfortunately, however, if we want our club to survive in its present form, the SPL is what we're stuck with.

Hi Mrs Jnr, I've been learning German for a couple of years now and would be happy to help if I can. Just PM me and I'll see what I can do.