Poll: Should Noel Hunt be sacked?

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Ange Postecoglou Is available

[Getthebeerens]

Stick with Noel for me. I believe it will it come good and I think this will be some short term pain for a longer term gain. Not a fan of sacking managers and would rather change at the end of a season if things have not progressed as we would like. But understand if we are in the same situation at Christmas then a decision would need to be made.

Hope we can now build on yesterdays performance.

[Wizard]

A club that barely existed a few months ago and the fans are desperate to get rid of a guy who’s given his all for this club for many years. No wonder football’s in such a state. SMH.

[grey_squirrel]

A club that barely existed a few months ago and the fans are desperate to get rid of a guy who’s given his all for this club for many years. No wonder football’s in such a state. SMH.

Given his all = totally irrelevant
Sleepwalking towards relegation with a charlatan = totally relevant

[Wizard]

A club that barely existed a few months ago and the fans are desperate to get rid of a guy who’s given his all for this club for many years. No wonder football’s in such a state. SMH.

Given his all = totally irrelevant
Sleepwalking towards relegation with a charlatan = totally relevant

Would prefer to be relegated with a Reading man in charge than finish 17th with some random bloke running the show.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Ange Postecoglou Is available

It's his level in fairness, he did well at Celtic.

[RoyalBlue]

A club that barely existed a few months ago and the fans are desperate to get rid of a guy who’s given his all for this club for many years. No wonder football’s in such a state. SMH.

Given his all = totally irrelevant
Sleepwalking towards relegation with a charlatan = totally relevant

Would prefer to be relegated with a Reading man in charge than finish 17th with some random bloke running the show.

I'm sorry but I find that sort of comment astounding!

If that really is the case, then we might as well fire all of the expensive management & coaching staff and just appoint a long-serving junior member of staff. Never mind the consequences, at least we haven't got an outsider in charge!

[morganb]

Given his all = totally irrelevant
Sleepwalking towards relegation with a charlatan = totally relevant

Would prefer to be relegated with a Reading man in charge than finish 17th with some random bloke running the show.

I'm sorry but I find that sort of comment astounding!

If that really is the case, then we might as well fire all of the expensive management & coaching staff and just appoint a long-serving junior member of staff. Never mind the consequences, at least we haven't got an outsider in charge!

Would prefer to finish 17th with some random bloke running the show than be relegated with a Reading man in charge

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Ange Postecoglou Is available

It's his level in fairness, he did well at Celtic.

That’s harsh on league one

[Clyde1998]

Noticed we've played eight of the current top ten in our first twelve games. That balance is probably a factor in our current league position.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Noticed we've played eight of the current top ten in our first twelve games. That balance is probably a factor in our current league position.

Or are they that high in the table cos they got 3 easy points off us?

[West F]

A club that barely existed a few months ago and the fans are desperate to get rid of a guy who’s given his all for this club for many years. No wonder football’s in such a state. SMH.

The club very much existed a few months ago. The idea of it ceasing to be is frankly absurd. If we were still at Elm Park with crowds of 5000, then maybe yes. There would be a chance that there was no value to anyone in going on. Couhig fought tooth and nail to secure the ownership of the club and used legal means to leverage his takeover. We were not a charity case, we were an opportunity.

We were also a fanbase that would accept anything over the ownership we had. It is very important as it makes us compliant, because many fans believe that if it wasn’t for Redwood the bulldozers would roll in and sweep it all away as valueless scrap.

We have literally gone from one extreme to the other. An owner with far more money than sense, to one with far more sense than money. As with most things in life, there is a middle way.

Noel got the job because there was no alternative candidate. It is up to him to now earn the right to stay in post. Sentiment does not come into the reckoning in an industry that is ruthless and results based.

[Hound]

Managing a pro football team is also an incredibly privileged position. You have thousands, maybe millions who’d love to do that job

Noel had a fair bit of luck in getting then job tbh, he wouldn’t have had a look in with normal owners at the time

I don’t think he really needs or deserves anyone’s sympathy particularly, or special treatment either

[morganb]

A lot of the discussion here seems to revolve around sacking Noel Hunt which comes with a certain amount of emotion attached

Perhaps the discussion should really be around sacking the Manager of Reading - In business-speak It is the role not the person that needs to be reassigned

You would expect that on certain dates Couhig would look at points on the board/position in the table rather than the "what-ifs" around future matches yet to be played or even performances. Surely points earned are the be all and end all of football.

[Z175]

No.

Whoever the manager is it would be silly to recruit so heavily in the summer and then change 10 games later.

Cardiff game was the first time the press worked since Knibbs was sold (after the first match of the season!)

I think Noel Hunt brings not just passion, but a "defend as a team" structure and also mid game tactical tweaks to wrestle back control over games.

These players haven't delivered yet but it could just suddenly click. Doncaster are 12th in the league - if we win our next 2 games we will be ahead of them!

[Clyde1998]

I wrote an article for The Tilehurst End prior to the Cardiff game and went on Monday evening: https://thetilehurstend.sbnation.com/20 ... continuity

It's a long one, but covers a number of topics which hadn't been in the typical discourse and attempts to give a balanced opinion on why sacking Hunt wouldn't my preference.

I did leave out a few points, as the objective was to get it finished prior to Cardiff. For logistical reasons, it couldn't get on the website until Monday evening.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

I wrote an article for The Tilehurst End prior to the Cardiff game and went on Monday evening: https://thetilehurstend.sbnation.com/20 ... continuity

It's a long one, but covers a number of topics which hadn't been in the typical discourse and attempts to give a balanced opinion on why sacking Hunt wouldn't my preference.

I did leave out a few points, as the objective was to get it finished prior to Cardiff. For logistical reasons, it couldn't get on the website until Monday evening.

Thanks - good read.

The demographic thing re Twitter/X is interesting....there's always been this assumption (often from non users) that its largely a kids only area, but the majority of RFC opinion formers on there that I know certainly are not.

Seems last night that Couhig's visit was unscheduled, and his vocabulary has certainly changed since the STAR meeting......reckon Hunt could have been gone if last night and maybe Sat had gone the wrong way.

[Fezza]

To misquote Brendan, “if you’re given the keys to a Honda Civic you can’t expect it to drive like a Ferrari!”

RC has bought one solid striking option to replace 80% of the goals from last season. We needed more than just Marriott and we needed him sooner than we got him. The team looks like it’s improving under NH.

[WestYorksRoyal]

To misquote Brendan, “if you’re given the keys to a Honda Civic you can’t expect it to drive like a Ferrari!”

RC has bought one solid striking option to replace 80% of the goals from last season. We needed more than just Marriott and we needed him sooner than we got him. The team looks like it’s improving under NH.

Not really a good comparison. A Honda Civic is a Honda Civic and a Ferrari is a Ferrari. Whereas footballers are humans who can grow, develop and improve. Obviously Hunt was never going to be provided with players of a similar quality to Smith and Knibbs - they moved up the pyramid for a reason and would be beyond a L1 club to sign now. So really the question is can Hunt and his team help develop what we have to be of that quality too? Marriot is the experienced end product who we need to help maintain his level for as long as possible, but you look at Lane, Kyerewaa, Elliott, Doyle, O'Mahony and Ehibhatiomhan and think there is potentially a lot more there with the right coaching and system. Look at Azeez where he is now and check out messages on this forum 2 years ago for a good example.

So we're not asking Hunt to be a racing driver get more out of the slower car. We're asking him to be the F1 engineer to build the killer car.

[RoyalBlue]

To misquote Brendan, “if you’re given the keys to a Honda Civic you can’t expect it to drive like a Ferrari!”

RC has bought one solid striking option to replace 80% of the goals from last season. We needed more than just Marriott and we needed him sooner than we got him. The team looks like it’s improving under NH.

Not really a good comparison. A Honda Civic is a Honda Civic and a Ferrari is a Ferrari. Whereas footballers are humans who can grow, develop and improve. Obviously Hunt was never going to be provided with players of a similar quality to Smith and Knibbs - they moved up the pyramid for a reason and would be beyond a L1 club to sign now. So really the question is can Hunt and his team help develop what we have to be of that quality too? Marriot is the experienced end product who we need to help maintain his level for as long as possible, but you look at Lane, Kyerewaa, Elliott, Doyle, O'Mahony and Ehibhatiomhan and think there is potentially a lot more there with the right coaching and system. Look at Azeez where he is now and check out messages on this forum 2 years ago for a good example.

So we're not asking Hunt to be a racing driver get more out of the slower car. We're asking him to be the F1 engineer to build the killer car.

And, if people want to use that analogy, as you intimate, a good experienced mechanic can improve the handling and performance of a Honda Civic anyway! In contrast, an apprentice technician might struggle.