I'm interested to see what people would have done if you can put yourselves into Ray Trews shoes this season.

Let's rewind to just before the end of December 2015. We were 15th in the league and 7 points of the play-offs. Do you sack Moniz? If so, who do you bring in?


You can time-travel and read our views at the time here: 

The season wasn't really going as planned. Although we had some very good, attacking home performances, our performances away were lacklustre at best. Add to that the national embarrassment  that happened at Salford, a lot of things needed addressing. However, I was hoping that the owners would finally stick by an appointment and give him at least a full season in charge. I was sick to the back teeth of hiring and firing managers and the club changing direction so often. 

From my point of view, I would have kept Moniz until the end of the season, which would have been a better time to analyse and re-evaluate everything. After relegation, a re-structuring of the club (such as transfer panel and non-playing personnel), and on top of that so many new faces, I felt a full season would have been a good time scale to assess the positives and negatives of both the managerial and playing staff. 


 

I would have done pretty much the same as you - given Moniz until the end of the season at least.  While I had no great confidence he would get things right, I still think he deserved the chance.  I liked the idea that he was trying to build a playing style and ethos throughout the club so we could produce our own stars for the future.  It was a big change in direction, so would obviously take some considerable time to take effect.  Moniz was handicapped by Branston picking his squad, and there was a clear clash of personalities between the two.  In my opinion Ray got rid of the wrong man.

@Super_Danny_Allsopp some interesting comments in the Moniz thread

 

It would have been nice to know how much head bashing was done behind the scenes as regards getting the defence right, during Ricardo's time. Ricardo going public with his spat with Guy didnt help. One thing I would say for Ricardo, he told people as it is, completely straight. As a supporter, I appreciated this, good and bad. We were all pulling together though Salford, was a real kick in the teeth.

 

Subsequent performances by Bennett and Adams, I go with Ricardo's view on these players

 

Just re-read the thread and have been thinking you can see why the last couple of months have been so frustrating. I would have retained Moniz and evaluated what had been achieved..or not...at the end of the season. A strong chairman might have backed the manager, trimmed the squad, got rid of Branston, made sure we retained Sheehan, and then as a quid pro quo told Moniz in no uncertain terms he should change how he approached away games. 

52 minutes ago, NewNottsFan said:

@Super_Danny_Allsopp some interesting comments in the Moniz thread

 

You might find this one interesting aswell, when we sacked Derry:
 

I noticed I had written this in that thread:
 

Quote

We end up getting relegated, fans stop going and blame Ray Trew, then Ray throws his toys out the pram (again), threatening to pull out.

 

@Super_Danny_Allsopp  @Dangerous Sausage 'I'd take an obnoxious manager who had us challenging at the top over a nice guy who takes us down any day of the week'     

Moniz getting us relegated at Gillingham with his substitutions was where it all went wrong! However once the decision had been made to sack Moniz it really was a no brainier that an experienced manager came in. Who knows if JF will ever be a good manager because frankly I don't  care! I don't blame RT for chucking in the towel but the last thing we needed was an experimental manager. Winter resigning says it all! 

@MuddyPatchPie Winter resigning I don't think has any bearing tbh as he will remain in place for now.

The reality is with a new owner coming in he would, in all likelihood, be moving on anyway so I imagine that if the Huddersfield job is happening for him then maybe they (Huddersfield) have seen it coming and asked him to move?  The timing of the announcement is odd granted...but let's face it ...its been an odd sort of week or two !

@NewNottsFan it doesn't feel quite as bad as it did the night we were waiting to find out if RT was going to put us in to administration! I'm just wondering how long we are going to have to wait to see who is really going to buy us?! It needs resolving quickly. 

I still think it was the right decision to sack Moniz, the team had stagnated, there was no improvement and the defence was still leaking goals, I couldn't see it changing and neither did the owners by the looks of things. The mistakes came after this. I would have looked beforehand, seen who was available and brought them in. If I didn't like what was available, I would have poached somebody and paid the compensation.

I still think it was the right decision to sack Moniz, the team had stagnated, there was no improvement and the defence was still leaking goals, I couldn't see it changing and neither did the owners by the looks of things. The mistakes came after this. I would have looked beforehand, seen who was available and brought them in. If I didn't like what was available, I would have poached somebody and paid the compensation.

You're thinking far too logical! You're fired!

55 minutes ago, ohstanleyaborah said:

You're thinking far too logical! You're fired!

I'll get m'coat

12 hours ago, NewNottsFan said:

@Super_Danny_Allsopp  @Dangerous Sausage 'I'd take an obnoxious manager who had us challenging at the top over a nice guy who takes us down any day of the week'     

Bit unfair that, I was talking about Steve Evans, who comes across as a prat but also has a proven track record. So I stand by my comments  In any case, if Jamie Fullarton had us challenging at the top people would cut him a lot more slack regardless of what else was going on or how he came over in interviews. But we're 17th and playing dreadful football, so he's under fire.

To return to the topic, I honestly don't know but then I'd make a terrible chairman. On the one hand I may have been tempted to get rid if I knew a proven, successful manager was waiting in the wings who could sort our defence out and get us closer to the play-offs. But on reflection I'd probably have given Moniz the transfer window to remodel the defence and turn things around, even then it was very clear we weren't going to get sucked into a relegation fight.

@DangerousSausage  Only joking !!  but you know that ;o)

Moniz had to go because he was a fish out of water in League Two. It just wasn't happening for him, the defence was leaking goals and were losing too many games. But what any individual with common sense and logic would have done is hire a manager with experience of the lower leagues. It's hardly rocket science is it? But no, we had to once again take the Yoko Ono experimental option for the FOURTH TIME IN A ROW by hiring an individual with no experience of English league football. Hiring Fullarton was the final straw.

I was finding it hard to defend Moniz at the time but I do feel we could have afforded giving him the remainder of the season.

Fullarton came in and did well, winning away from home but the merit he earned - he quickly lost and I honestly didn't feel it was the right decision to hire him in the first place. I would have gone for experience, as play-offs was a possibility - yet settling down the squad, reducing its size and getting someone in who knows this division would have made sense. Perhaps allowing Moniz to part wasn't an incorrect decision, provided knowledgeable and steady leadership followed.

The current unrest could have been completely avoided.

4 hours ago, notts-joe said:

The current unrest could have been completely avoided.

I would use the word postponed, rather than avoided. 

5 hours ago, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

I would use the word postponed, rather than avoided. 

I'd use 'avoided' myself, considering the club was in talks to be sold in November allegedly.