Caldwell out?

[elginCity]

'killed our season' ... 'cost us dearly'... although now lying comfortably mid-table in the 3rd tier ! Given our budget, base, ground and history, we're in a great place right now, that's indisputable, shirley ?

 

[STURTZ]

Nice whatifery. Yes, he needs to defeat invading aliens too. Keeping us in L1 for three season is enough to be considered one of our greatest managers ever? Really? Putting it back to you would you consider surviving by goal difference enough to make him one of the greatest? There’s got to be more than just survival.

Survival for us is having a club at all, success is being top half league 1. That's the way it is I'm afraid, sure we'll win the FA cup one day.

 

[C j phill]

At the moment, off the pitch, we seem a well run, stable, financially safe club which provides the management team (any management team) a solid base. I suspect that we'll see 'basket case' clubs more often in league 1, as teams are relegated from the Championship, or promoted from league 2, having been financially overstretched (Wigan, Reading, FGR), giving us better chances of league 1 sustainability.

GC's challenge is to have a good transfer window, sign two decent forwards, as well as replace those who leave, to reduce the prospect of the terrible losing run that we suffered this season and which provided the angst that some supporters naturally felt.

 

[Spanks]

Survival for us is having a club at all, success is being top half league 1. That's the way it is I'm afraid, sure we'll win the FA cup one day.

Nope. The measures by which we judge are a moveable feast, with all sorts of variables taken into account. We’ve made massive advances off the field of play, as well as on it, and survival in league one (after the last summer’s player churn) is a very solid achievement. The club, and Gary, now need to continue the evolution of this new team that grew from those departures.

If you don’t set advancement as a target, you’ll always go backwards. Demand more, expect more, but never settle for what you have in a cut throat world.

 

[JGrecian23]

Nope. The measures by which we judge are a moveable feast, with all sorts of variables taken into account. We’ve made massive advances off the field of play, as well as on it, and survival in league one (after the last summer’s player churn) is a very solid achievement. The club, and Gary, now need to continue the evolution of this new team that grew from those departures.

If you don’t set advancement as a target, you’ll always go backwards. Demand more, expect more, but never settle for what you have in a cut throat world.

Unfortunately we have a very easily satisfied fanbase. This is proven by the constant 'we are doing well to even compete in League 1' posts, despite it being filled with the likes of Carlisle, Burton, Fleetwood, Shrewsbury, Cambridge, Stevenage etc etc.

It seems no one (or very few) actually really wants to achieve something special.

We now have a manager who is being touted as the best ever in our history (I'll ignore judging that right now) with a bunch of players that everyone keeps telling me are amazing. Surely we should aim higher than we have been?

 

[GrecianGrain]

The old geezer I was sat next to yesterday after 83 mins said ‘I can’t watch any more of this’ and got up and left! I don’t know what it is but for some it seems the way we play really rubs them up the wrong way, even when we’re beating a play-off chasing team and playing some pretty decent stuff?!. His only critique during the game ‘play it forward’ and making angry grumbling noises when we had a mis-placed pass. Only time I saw him clap was for the goal. Can’t please everyone even when you’re winning

 

[The 3 United's]

My colours were nailed to the mast at the tail end of 2023. Not only was it 3 points in 103 days, it’s was turgid, safety first, bilge.

I said then, and I’ll say now, someone was responsible for the September window closing with only Shipwreck left on our books as a (injured) first team ready striker. That absolutely killed our season. What we should be asking now, is still the same… who was responsible, why did it happen, and who is taking the fall for it?

Had we won only 4 games in that three month period (1.33333 wins a month, ffs), we’d be on the fringes of a playoff campaign, and in really good form.

Gary deserves the plaudits for turning it around, even if I haven’t always enjoyed the style, but someone has cost us dearly, and been allowed to get away with it.

Absolutely spot on; but that someone has increased our bank balance by a significant amount.

 

[JGrecian23]

The old geezer I was sat next to yesterday after 83 mins said ‘I can’t watch any more of this’ and got up and left! I don’t know what it is but for some it seems the way we play really rubs them up the wrong way, even when we’re beating a play-off chasing team and playing some pretty decent stuff?!. His only critique during the game ‘play it forward’ and making angry grumbling noises when we had a mis-placed pass. Only time I saw him clap was for the goal. Can’t please everyone even when you’re winning

Wow. Maybe I did go to the game yesterday and I'm older than I realised!

 

[SaintJames]

Nope. The measures by which we judge are a moveable feast, with all sorts of variables taken into account. We’ve made massive advances off the field of play, as well as on it, and survival in league one (after the last summer’s player churn) is a very solid achievement. The club, and Gary, now need to continue the evolution of this new team that grew from those departures.

If you don’t set advancement as a target, you’ll always go backwards. Demand more, expect more, but never settle for what you have in a cut throat world.

Correct. This club of ours is light years away from the club I started supporting and which constantly demoralised me for years (it's a hard habit to break). it's a zillion years from the club I worked for and the term well run was more apt for my car than my club (sorry Ivor God bless your soul). A nod to the past is always relevant as we can't ignore that we have largely been pretty crap for almost our entire existence and spending 90% of our existence in the bottom league is frankly embarrassing. However, it is what it is we can't re-write our past but we can do something about our future! Therefore, Gary has a very very low bar to become one of our most successful ever managers. Spending three seasons in L1 in itself with a nod to the past can be considered successful as an Exeter City manager regardless of whether we are Gary in or Gary out. For me if GC were to remain in post for another three seasons and we finished Top Ten in those three he would de facto join Brian Godfrey as best ever managers if we had five seasons in L1 and three in the top 10.

The challenge isn't for the manager, it's for the fans to start evolving mindset. Clearly we have limitations (financial and ground) however ambitious we are. Stevenage with all their limitations have challenged this season and Lincoln who we are on a par with are in the play off's. With the right recruitmnent (let's not open that debate again now) we can be a Top 10 L1 club challenging for a play off place next season. Gary will be targetting that and I believe so must we as fans

 

[STURTZ]

Progress on and off the pitch should always be our goal.

New ground please!