Joe Royle

[sirbobby]

Done good??

Done Bad???

Time to Change??

[ATB]

He's done well except the teams phsycologist needs to be shot

[squiz18]

hes done f**king brilliantly

[Paul B]

Given the resources he has done a fantastic job. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't have a clue, no offence.

Give him another £1000 a week - if we can afford it!

[budgiebasher]

The big pictures says he's down brilliant, just a shame he hasnt sorted the defence out after 3 seasons

[DeIpswich]

He has done brilliantly. But enough of the squabbles with Pablo, enough of the stupid loans (Bowditch) and more youth players must be brought forward into the first team scene.

[Frankie]

He's done great, if you'd of been offered the job knowing full well how much finacial (ergh spelling!!) trouble we were in and that if we didnt get promoted how many players we where guna lose you would have said no thank you! he brought in some quality loan signings and a few quailty players, good on him!!

[sirbobby]

I think he has done well as he can, Defence is bad situation though, Start there and work forward.

De-Vos in my eyes is not worthy of a new contract, he is a nice bloke but I dont rate him.

And can we change our game plan, no more having shefki as target man, and no more long balls pumped up there.

[sirbobby]

O and another thing, when we signed Scowy we changed, for whatever reason's we changed, Unsettled the vibe!!!

[Rach]

Done good, but can't help thinkin that we need a change, we can just never do it in the games that count

[rossi]

Done good, but can't help thinkin that we need a change, we can just never do it in the games that count

Agreed. He's done a good job on the resources he's had, but we still bottle the big games and he hasn't sorted the defence out. I think we need some fresh ideas.

[ITFC10]

Yeah hes done a good job this season, his had a tight budget to work with, and has done a excellent job with it, as with all seasons there are always gonna be positives and negatives. But on the whole thanks Joe again for this season, lets just hope we bounce back even stronger next season!

[Dazza]

Done good, but can't help thinkin that we need a change, we can just never do it in the games that count

Agreed. He's done a good job on the resources he's had, but we still bottle the big games and he hasn't sorted the defence out. I think we need some fresh ideas.

Rossi, I cant believe that.

Who else can we bring in now? This is nearly Royle's taylor made team. The next manager will only have to lose key players and be expected to finish above 3rd.

We have had a good season, so why change things?

[ITFC10]

Nope..i think we should keep Royle, i think he is the man to lead us forward to the things we want, and thats to make the Premiership, i heard of talk sport some fans saying about getting a new manager.

But im a fan of Joe Royle, and his done a excellent job with what he has had so far.

[phily bon bon]

I agree a bit with rossi here Dazza.If we had something like half a defence we would have walked this league a couple of seasons ago.I dont know about you but EVERYTIME I see us play home or away I expect us to conceed(regardless of the oppostion)and thats NOT good. ,BFJ has had years to tighen it up and a handful of clean shhets a season is just not good enough.

[Mork]

You gotta give him another season, he's taken us in the right direction, position wise, for 3 seasons in a row.

I don't truly believe any other manager, of whatever class, could have got anything more out of our current squad.

[Jus]

Royle's Parting shot on Town's youngsters: "You are talking about a very young youth cup side, most of who can play next year. So They're going to be eighteen months to two years off and those are them that come through.

"And I'm not being negative, I don't think anyone in the world could accuse me of being negative. But you can't pin your hopes on a FA Youth Cup side."

Sounds like no chances for them next season.

[McDonna29]

Dunno if there's 'owt in it, but there might be...

My housemate (who isn't really into football) says she heard Derek Bowden giving an interview on Radio 4 saying that BFJ had signed a 2 season extention on his contract...

[Missblue]

Definataly done an excellent job. Didn't think we'd of finished 3rd at the start of the season, he's done well bringing in the players he has, Strengthened our squad. Plus he's a nice bloke! And very funny

[Jus]

Had signed that ages ago. Bad move in my opinion, he should have been give a one year, and a second promised if we went up, I still think we made that decision too early as Isaid at the time.

[ITFC10]

Give him one more season, and see what happens

[Foxy Lady]

Royle's Parting shot on Town's youngsters: "You are talking about a very young youth cup side, most of who can play next year. So They're going to be eighteen months to two years off and those are them that come through.

"And I'm not being negative, I don't think anyone in the world could accuse me of being negative. But you can't pin your hopes on a FA Youth Cup side."

Sounds like no chances for them next season.

Joe has done good in my opinion,considering what he has had to work with etc.Most of us were unsure when he got the job,I was,but now Im glad he did.

But seeing what Jus has put has me slightly worried........I know some of the youth squad wouldn't be ready for the first team BUT there are some that are.At least 7 players out of the youth squad play in the reserves.
My concern is that some of these youngsters will go to other clubs if Joe is not considering to bring them through.
We have a good squad but most of our squad are older than average,30+ somethings can go on for a while but their pace is not there.
We need our youngsters they are our future and as we have no money as such for players they are our future team.

So come on Joe back down and bring them forward,build our team from them,and they won't let you down.

[toby]

Quite right Foxy, we need to be known as a club where youth players can progress to the full team (unlike Arsenal, Manchester Utd, Chelsea etc) otherwise we won't be able to attract the cream of the young talent as we have done recently.

[Bluebird]

Quite right Foxy, we need to be known as a club where youth players can progress to the full team (unlike Arsenal, Manchester Utd, Chelsea etc) otherwise we won't be able to attract the cream of the young talent as we have done recently.

Totally agree with above and Reuser's post, and would add that some of these youngsters couldn't possibly be any worse than Horlock, Santos, Dinning & Scowcroft to name and shame but a few. The youngsters would be cheeper too

[Lewis]

Does anyone have the feeling that Joe may have taken us as far as he can though? I mean, there's not much else the poor guy can do except turn around and go again next season. With the limited budget he has he's done a tremendous job, but maybe its time for a new, younger, (possibly hungrier) manager to have a pop at taking us back to the big time?

Note: This isn't a pop at Royle at all as I think he's done a terrific job.

[toby]

No I reckon stick with Royle.

The same thing happened with Burley remember and he got us there in the end.

The team has improved every year under Royle despite administration and our recent "fire sales" and don't forget 7th, 5th, 3rd... we know what's next!



Champions 2005-2006!

COME ON YOU BLUES!

[Jus]

Without meaning to say I told you so. I did predict that much of this would happen at the end of the first season with Royle in charge and I got shot down in flames when i said that the youngsters may not get used as much as they should by him. Joe was a good quick fix and has done well, but I believe we need something long term.

At the end of last season I said a full rebuilding process needs to start as the quick fix hasn't worked. This season we surpassed all expectations for much of the first half of the season, but since the game against Wigan first time around we haven't really been the same team and have struggled against the better sides.

We need to blood these youngsters, we have the best crop coming through now that we have had since Wrighty, Dyer and Scowcroft came through together, we must make use of them and not waste the talent we have.

Obviously they are not ready yet, but apart from Richards and Westlake, who only came in because the fact we had so many injuries dictated it, Royle has seemed very relucant to use youngsters, look what happened to Murray who's now at hibs, rather than playing him Royle would change formation.

Ask Dean McDonald, we were crying out for him to be on the bench last night, but because of Joe's relucance to use youngsters we had two holding midfield players on the bench. Where is the sense in that. Collins Barron and Mitchell have hardly got a look-in all season either, despite people tipping them to be involved a lot more this year. Even if Nash was fit I'm not sure he'd have featured.

Sure Joe's done a good job, but I don't think he's the man to blend the best youngsters we've had for a while into the team, and give them the football they need. We need someone younger who will sit around and build our team over a few years, rather than someone going for a quick fix.

Oh, and the feud with Pablo was childish. Who knows what could have happened if we played him rather than Scowcroft when Shefki was out. Could have been the difference between automatic and play-off.

[Lewis]

Without meaning to say I told you so. I did predict that much of this would happen at the end of the first season with Royle in charge and I got shot down in flames when i said that the youngsters may not get used as much as they should by him. Joe was a good quick fix and has done well, but I believe we need something long term.

At the end of last season I said a full rebuilding process needs to start as the quick fix hasn't worked. This season we surpassed all expectations for much of the first half of the season, but since the game against Wigan first time around we haven't really been the same team and have struggled against the better sides.

We need to blood these youngsters, we have the best crop coming through now that we have had since Wrighty, Dyer and Scowcroft came through together, we must make use of them and not waste the talent we have.

Obviously they are not ready yet, but apart from Richards and Westlake, who only came in because the fact we had so many injuries dictated it, Royle has seemed very relucant to use youngsters, look what happened to Murray who's now at hibs, rather than playing him Royle would change formation.

Ask Dean McDonald, we were crying out for him to be on the bench last night, but because of Joe's relucance to use youngsters we had two holding midfield players on the bench. Where is the sense in that. Collins Barron and Mitchell have hardly got a look-in all season either, despite people tipping them to be involved a lot more this year. Even if Nash was fit I'm not sure he'd have featured.

Sure Joe's done a good job, but I don't think he's the man to blend the best youngsters we've had for a while into the team, and give them the football they need. We need someone younger who will sit around and build our team over a few years, rather than someone going for a quick fix.

Oh, and the feud with Pablo was childish. Who knows what could have happened if we played him rather than Scowcroft when Shefki was out. Could have been the difference between automatic and play-off.

Completely agree with that. A rebuilding process was mentioned but all that happened this season was signings which merely papered over the cracks of the problems we have. The midfield still slow and lacking width and the defence still crying out for someone with GOOD distribution skills and some pace.

I would rather see us try to mould a side over a period of 2-3 seasons and stand a greater chance of stabilising in the Premiership when they go up, rather than sign players coming to the end of their careers who see it as a final stop on the way to retirement.

[rossi]

Done good, but can't help thinkin that we need a change, we can just never do it in the games that count

Agreed. He's done a good job on the resources he's had, but we still bottle the big games and he hasn't sorted the defence out. I think we need some fresh ideas.

Rossi, I cant believe that.

Who else can we bring in now? This is nearly Royle's taylor made team. The next manager will only have to lose key players and be expected to finish above 3rd.

We have had a good season, so why change things?

I don't agree we have had a good season. Sure we did a hell of a lot better than most predicted at the start of the season.
But......................we were top for ages and surrendered a 6 point lead. That shouldn't have happened. And then we freeze in a big play-off game, just as we did last season.

The fact is, we wern't good enough for promotion this year............we wern't good enough last year................and with a further reduced playing budget we probably ain't gonna be good enough next season either. Surely the objective for any team in the Championship is promotion to the Premier!!!!