Hurst takes a swipe at fans

Surely whether his touch is good or not, isn't even the point ?

Based on outfield contribution alone on Sat he deserves his place in side.
Whether it will continue or not we'll see but the Headline "Lenny has to earn his place in Grimsby Town team, boss stresses" seems to suggest it's not 1 way traffic or he's guaranteed anything.

Now if we had 2 Lenny's (cue jokes !...), I'd be slightly concerned about goals long term.
But we're trying to find someone who can feed off Lenny. (who I guess will also get a fair share too !)
Simple as that for me.

Quoted from grimsby pete

It's ok for posters on here to call for him to be sacked or call him clueless,

He reads the Fishy and answers a question and he gets slated for it,

He can not win.

It's ok for posters to call for him to be sacked because this a forum and this may be there opinion. That's what they are for to air your opinions.
'He can not win' because he's a sh1t, boring and negative manager. This is just my opinion though.

Quoted from barralad

Your whole focus when you post on here is narrow minded criticism of one player who wears the colours of GTFC (and the manager). Most of the time you only mention other players in connection with how badly done to they have been in relation to LJL.

I certainly don't need a lesson from you in respect of freedom of speech. As it is a "message board" I have always assumed that that gives ME the right to say what I think and challenge opinions that I don't necessarily agree with or does saying what you like only apply to your side of the fence? How you respond to my "challenge" is of course up to you.

I support Hurst as manager of GTFC because I follow the somewhat quaint notion that he is employed as a professional football team manager. I on the other hand am a recently retired civil servant whose direct involvement with football ended on the "Ploggers" 20 or so years ago. I don't believe that I know better than someone who is paid to do the job. I also am not party to what goes on behind the scenes at B.P. I'm not always happy with what goes on on the pitch but generally I can keep a sense of perspective when posting on here or writing an article about a match I've been to. Perhaps you should try it-you might actually like it...

To someone with your narrow focus it may appear that my comments are pathetic but before you go too far down the road of criticism on that point I suggest you re-read your continued references to "favourites" and conspiracy theories. As I said-belongs in the school playground...

My 'narrow minded criticism' as you call it is a relatively new thing. I absolutely love the club and have very rarely criticized the players or management as much as I have in the past year.

That's down to 2 things that have happened at the same time, I moved 200 miles away and the football got insanely boring. So when you travel 400 miles round for a home game and you see the shite served up it tends to grind on your gears. My view is we have a manager who would prefer to focus his whole game on 'not losing' and just scraping by. Despite the fact that season in and season out now we are in no way prepared for taking on teams in the play-offs. He has a shocking rotation policy which explains the annual post Xmas decline. He hypocritically stands by players through thick or thin whilst openly criticising others. He's happy to say 'well we got to the play-offs' but who cares when the football is so shite for 46 games and then we're miles off the play-off sides when we get there? Why is that any different to playing with some balls and finishing 10th? We still end up with the same fixture list the season after.

His man management towards certain players is questionable at best, not only the recent Winfarrah debacle but many others in the past. He has a total inability to adapt to ANY tactics, he has one way of playing, one dimensional negative crap in the hope we nick a goal. His terribly negative approach cost us the game in the first leg of the Gateshead play-off games and for that alone he should've lost his job, not only that but we all saw Gatesheads weakenesses in the first leg and all thought he'd adapt to that for the second, did he? Did he balderdash. Let's face it, the sending off was the only thing that forced us forward and look at how good we looked then.

It's one thing after another with the guy and I'm sick of it. I've been saying all of this for a year now and been slated for it, people are now slowly starting to see the obvious flaws with our manager. So should I just accept that I support the club and get on with the fact our manager has drained away my love for going to watch us? I've never felt so uninterested in going to games in my whole life and it's all down to one man & his tactics. I want to go to Blundell Park and see Grimsby scaring the excrement out of opposition, going at them and tearing them apart. There's no willingness anymore, the players are there so where's the problem? It's the man dishing out the instructions.

Perhaps Hurst should see the reason so many people are criticising his 'successful' team is the fact he's sucked the joy out of it in the process.

If Paul Hurst leads us to promotion, I promise the Fishy I will get his name tattooed on my bottom. Quote me on that.

Quoted from pontoonlew

My 'narrow minded criticism' as you call it is a relatively new thing. I absolutely love the club and have very rarely criticized the players or management as much as I have in the past year.

That's down to 2 things that have happened at the same time, I moved 200 miles away and the football got insanely boring. So when you travel 400 miles round for a home game and you see the shite served up it tends to grind on your gears. My view is we have a manager who would prefer to focus his whole game on 'not losing' and just scraping by. Despite the fact that season in and season out now we are in no way prepared for taking on teams in the play-offs. He has a shocking rotation policy which explains the annual post Xmas decline. He hypocritically stands by players through thick or thin whilst openly criticising others. He's happy to say 'well we got to the play-offs' but who cares when the football is so shite for 46 games and then we're miles off the play-off sides when we get there? Why is that any different to playing with some balls and finishing 10th? We still end up with the same fixture list the season after.

His man management towards certain players is questionable at best, not only the recent Winfarrah debacle but many others in the past. He has a total inability to adapt to ANY tactics, he has one way of playing, one dimensional negative crap in the hope we nick a goal. His terribly negative approach cost us the game in the first leg of the Gateshead play-off games and for that alone he should've lost his job, not only that but we all saw Gatesheads weakenesses in the first leg and all thought he'd adapt to that for the second, did he? Did he balderdash. Let's face it, the sending off was the only thing that forced us forward and look at how good we looked then.

It's one thing after another with the guy and I'm sick of it. I've been saying all of this for a year now and been slated for it, people are now slowly starting to see the obvious flaws with our manager. So should I just accept that I support the club and get on with the fact our manager has drained away my love for going to watch us? I've never felt so uninterested in going to games in my whole life and it's all down to one man & his tactics. I want to go to Blundell Park and see Grimsby scaring the excrement out of opposition, going at them and tearing them apart. There's no willingness anymore, the players are there so where's the problem? It's the man dishing out the instructions.

Perhaps Hurst should see the reason so many people are criticising his 'successful' team is the fact he's sucked the joy out of it in the process.

If Paul Hurst leads us to promotion, I promise the Fishy I will get his name tattooed on my bottom. Quote me on that.

Fair play to you for your travelling. Not sure if I could do it. I'm also a tad sorry that you have such a dystopian view of things. It just doesn't seem that bad to me. I honestly think that if I felt like you I'd find another hobby. That's not meant to be a clever reply but if the joy has gone out of it for you then in the interests of your sanity (and your wallet!!) you almost owe it to yourself!

Aye I've certainly found myself doing that, I think i've missed 4 games out of pure choice (being able to get there, having the money etc) and just not bothered. All 4 of those have been in the past 2 seasons, it speaks volumes, especially when you don't feel entertained even when we win.

That said the squad is good, i'm sure of that and I'm sure somebody could take us up with an extra striker.

Yeah I was gonna say the same actually !
Very well done for the travelling and support but agree, I'd put your own mental wellbeing first if it's that's frustrating !

Now onto my gripe...

Quoted from pontoonlew

He has a shocking rotation policy which explains the annual post Xmas decline.

Sorry that's just rubbish !

Assuming this "rotation" involves NOT playing the "best players" every single game, you might say he's done bloody well to reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons.

You then go on to say in the next sentence...

Quoted from pontoonlew

He hypocritically stands by players through thick or thin

i.e. supposedly the complete opposite ?

In any case aren't you suggesting LJL is removed from the team ?
Sounds like squad rotation to me !

Until you can explain why it's "shocking", I'll assume you don't have an in depth knowledge of the pros and cons of "rotation" (to be fair very few do !) and you're adding 2 + 2 = 5.

I welcome all opinions (and even agree with some of your points) but wish fans would stop making what look like "buzz statements" without offering any evidence to back up their claims.  

On the subject all these:
"going downhill since Xmas",
"it's been the same for the last 2 years"  

statements bear no true reflection to reality - i.e. the reality of reaching the playoffs !

Now if you think reaching the playoffs isn't good enough or the football is "shite" (agree it's not wonderful) that's fine.
But please don't try to bend the reality curve down making out it's gone downhill when in truth, it's been in a dead straight line.

Quoted from pontoonlew

He's happy to say 'well we got to the play-offs' but who cares when the football is so shite for 46 games and then we're miles off the play-off sides when we get there?

So if offered you a playoff place this season you wouldn't take it ?

Quoted from pontoonlew

If Paul Hurst leads us to promotion, I promise the Fishy I will get his name tattooed on my bottom. Quote me on that.

You do know Paul Hursts full name is Paul Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff Hurst  

Quoted from 120797

Yeah I was gonna say the same actually !
Very well done for the travelling and support but agree, I'd put your own mental wellbeing first if it's that's frustrating !

Now onto my gripe...

Sorry that's just rubbish !

Assuming this "rotation" involves NOT playing the "best players" every single game, you might say he's done bloody well to reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons.

You then go on to say in the next sentence...

i.e. supposedly the complete opposite ?

In any case aren't you suggesting LJL is removed from the team ?
Sounds like squad rotation to me !

Until you can explain why it's "shocking", I'll assume you don't have an in depth knowledge of the pros and cons of "rotation" (to be fair very few do !) and you're adding 2 + 2 = 5.

I welcome all opinions (and even agree with some of your points) but wish fans would stop making what look like "buzz statements" without offering any evidence to back up their claims.  

On the subject all these:
"going downhill since Xmas",
"it's been the same for the last 2 years"  

statements bear no true reflection to reality - i.e. the reality of reaching the playoffs !

Now if you think reaching the playoffs isn't good enough or the football is "shite" (agree it's not wonderful) that's fine.
But please don't try to bend the reality curve down making out it's gone downhill when in truth, it's been in a dead straight line.

So if offered you a playoff place this season you wouldn't take it ?

On a slightly irrelevant note, welcome back 80s. I did wonder what had happened to you after the old fishy was closed down and was sorry to see that you didn't return.

Glad that you're back as I enjoyed reading your posts.

Utm

80s - Look at our recent record after Xmas and look at the selection consistency and tell me there isn't a distinct correlation.

Quoted from pontoonlew

80s - Look at our recent record after Xmas and look at the selection consistency and tell me there isn't a distinct correlation.

You're confusing correlation with causation.

I'm sure there were MANY MANY factors that changed in that time period.

For example, it could have been the height of the grass on the BP.

I could take a chart showing it to be longer after Xmas and say
"Ooooh look it must be the grass that's the problem !"

Wouldn't necessarily make it the real reason though !

If you want a real reason as food for thought, perhaps the crippling fixture backlog we had (which often makes rotation more necessary !) is a good place to start.