#herewego

[sandgrown]

Give DA the job on short term brief of keeping us in League 1. Disappointing decision by Stephen Robinson if he leaves. I am unconvinced about his ability as a manager. He signed a number of players not good enough for League 1 and certainly has shown us no loyalty abandoning us at a critical time in our fight for survival in League 1. Signing a 3 year contract didn’t mean anything to him obviously.

But he was charming and smiled all the time. He loved to chat and talked the talk. Done us over big time.

Spot on there BW

[RedRedWine]

Got to admit that I'm massively disappoint at the timing of this. Some unfair comments about recruitment - yes some of the lads he brought in at short notice haven't been quite good enough at times, but it was a difficult brief and ultimately he was taking a gamble on some lads that basically other clubs at this level didn't want. A Motherwell fan posted on here that there is a lot of wastage with his signings - tbh I think you have to accept that given the market we are in. But its not all been bad - and certainly not to the extent that is being expressed on here in my opinion - we are Morecambe FC in our first season at this level in our 101 year history and ultimately we are currently 1 point from survival, our target at the start of the season. We fell away around Christmas time, but since then have improved again - and now look competitive in every game.

I think most people feel let down by the lack of commitment more than anything. Stephen applied for this job a little over 8 months ago having known about and happy with the challenge in front of him. He sold the whole club a vision about implementing a structure to make us successful and sufficient long-term, by recruiting and developing talent. Based on that vision he was given a three-year deal. He was allowed to bring in who he wanted to long deals (some of which we might be stuck with), and let go people who he did not want to work with. He seemed happy and enthusiastic about the role, but leaves at the first real opportunity. Perhaps he's not settled in the area - who knows? He's basically been a load of hot air all along who is clearly adept at talking a good game. I do vividly remember him getting defensive about things a while back - saying something along the lines of "this club was in the conference north 10 years ago" - which we obviously were not as we have never played in the conference north, or operated at an equivalent level since the mid-90's... and have in fact been an EFL club for 15 years.

Also a little frustrated about the club in this - if Stephen wants to go then long-term that's for the best (although see the first part of your job through to the end of the season). I don't understand why we have been left so wide-open to this happening, and allowing it to happen now. The reported compensation of £100k does not feel enough given the length of time remaining on Stephens contract. If the shoe was on the other foot and it hadn't quite worked out and the club wanted to move on (unlikely, we've not sacked a manager since Jim Harvey nearly 20 years ago and represent one of the most secure jobs in the EFL) then I'm sure it would have cost the club much more to do this. I assume there was a clause in the contract - and if so this has clearly not been a good one that protected the interests of the club very well. We're just clearly too nice!

I feel let down for the players - they've shown a great level of commitment so far, especially of late where performances have improved. It's time to get behind them now more than ever. Hopefully they still want to see the job over the line, even if their manager does not for whatever reason (most likely pure greed). Only last week Stephen was saying how he could not fault the players as they were giving him everything - a shame that he feels he can't repay that to the end of the season.

In terms of the clubs next move - they need to get this appointment right and operate quickly, which I'm sure they will be doing. IMO you have to at least consider Derek Adams for the short-term. I know he left after promotion at Wembley, but as others have said - he seems like an honest and committed person... honoring a verbal agreement when Hearts wanted his services and his contract here was unsigned, and also seeing the job through last season even though the interest from Bradford was widely known. Who knows, that might have been detrimental to his chances of success at the Bantams as he basically was in the same position as Robbo; a short window to do deals and playing catch-up. He proved when he was last here that he is able to get results and already knows the club and senior pros. We don't know if he would be interested - but if he could keep us up it would be another feather in his cap having failed at Bradford. I do feel it would require some of the directors eating humble pie after some commented publicly that they believed they'd upgraded the managerial position in appointing the bullshit boogie man! I would be willing to throw in a pack of Tunnock biscuits and a bottle of Irn Bru to sweeten the deal.

But whoever comes in, have confidence in the BOD to get this right. People were initially stunned when Jimbo wanted to leave - and questioned who would be interested given how bleak the situation appeared at the time. I guess we are used to longevity in the manager role, but perhaps we shouldn't be anymore. Ultimately that departure led to club appointing the most successful manager in our history (Derek Adams). Who knows who might be interested coming here now? We still represent an exciting opportunity to the right person - and believe it or not its actually never been a better time to be the manager of this club IMO given how much it has progressed and its future ambitions. No offence to St Mirren - but I just don't see what that job offers long-term, although that is probably me being biased.

[sandgrown]

"The Club has reluctantly granted St. Mirren permission to speak to Stephen regarding the position".

"Reluctantly"? Why not say 'NO'?

The psychological impact upon the players could be massive. Any "we're all in this together" has proven to be bollocks. If you were a player would you be thinking 'well Robinson thinks we're going down and jumped ship...'

Any optimism I had left has pretty much evaporated.

So much for Robinson saying he was with us for the long haul and to develop the club.

good post Keith, and will a new manager be put off by two managers dumping us within six months thinking what's wrong at Morecambe ?

and why do we always seem to grab the first offer that's put on the table ?

[P/T Indie]

"and why do we always seem to grab the first offer that's put on the table ?"

a hangover from the little old Morecambe days when we used to hardly sell anyone and thought any offer was a great one as we were desperate for cash.

St Mirren apparently got £250K compensation for their manager so are £150K in profit!

[vvm]

Got to admit that I'm massively disappoint at the timing of this. Some unfair comments about recruitment - yes some of the lads he brought in at short notice haven't been quite good enough at times, but it was a difficult brief and ultimately he was taking a gamble on some lads that basically other clubs at this level didn't want. A Motherwell fan posted on here that there is a lot of wastage with his signings - tbh I think you have to accept that given the market we are in. But its not all been bad - and certainly not to the extent that is being expressed on here in my opinion - we are Morecambe FC in our first season at this level in our 101 year history and ultimately we are currently 1 point from survival, our target at the start of the season. We fell away around Christmas time, but since then have improved again - and now look competitive in every game.

I think most people feel let down by the lack of commitment more than anything. Stephen applied for this job a little over 8 months ago having known about and happy with the challenge in front of him. He sold the whole club a vision about implementing a structure to make us successful and sufficient long-term, by recruiting and developing talent. Based on that vision he was given a three-year deal. He was allowed to bring in who he wanted to long deals (some of which we might be stuck with), and let go people who he did not want to work with. He seemed happy and enthusiastic about the role, but leaves at the first real opportunity. Perhaps he's not settled in the area - who knows? He's basically been a load of hot air all along who is clearly adept at talking a good game. I do vividly remember him getting defensive about things a while back - saying something along the lines of "this club was in the conference north 10 years ago" - which we obviously were not as we have never played in the conference north, or operated at an equivalent level since the mid-90's... and have in fact been an EFL club for 15 years.

Also a little frustrated about the club in this - if Stephen wants to go then long-term that's for the best (although see the first part of your job through to the end of the season). I don't understand why we have been left so wide-open to this happening, and allowing it to happen now. The reported compensation of £100k does not feel enough given the length of time remaining on Stephens contract. If the shoe was on the other foot and it hadn't quite worked out and the club wanted to move on (unlikely, we've not sacked a manager since Jim Harvey nearly 20 years ago and represent one of the most secure jobs in the EFL) then I'm sure it would have cost the club much more to do this. I assume there was a clause in the contract - and if so this has clearly not been a good one that protected the interests of the club very well. We're just clearly too nice!

I feel let down for the players - they've shown a great level of commitment so far, especially of late where performances have improved. It's time to get behind them now more than ever. Hopefully they still want to see the job over the line, even if their manager does not for whatever reason (most likely pure greed). Only last week Stephen was saying how he could not fault the players as they were giving him everything - a shame that he feels he can't repay that to the end of the season.

In terms of the clubs next move - they need to get this appointment right and operate quickly, which I'm sure they will be doing. IMO you have to at least consider Derek Adams for the short-term. I know he left after promotion at Wembley, but as others have said - he seems like an honest and committed person... honoring a verbal agreement when Hearts wanted his services and his contract here was unsigned, and also seeing the job through last season even though the interest from Bradford was widely known. Who knows, that might have been detrimental to his chances of success at the Bantams as he basically was in the same position as Robbo; a short window to do deals and playing catch-up. He proved when he was last here that he is able to get results and already knows the club and senior pros. We don't know if he would be interested - but if he could keep us up it would be another feather in his cap having failed at Bradford. I do feel it would require some of the directors eating humble pie after some commented publicly that they believed they'd upgraded the managerial position in appointing the bullshit boogie man! I would be willing to throw in a pack of Tunnock biscuits and a bottle of Irn Bru to sweeten the deal.

But whoever comes in, have confidence in the BOD to get this right. People were initially stunned when Jimbo wanted to leave - and questioned who would be interested given how bleak the situation appeared at the time. I guess we are used to longevity in the manager role, but perhaps we shouldn't be anymore. Ultimately that departure led to club appointing the most successful manager in our history (Derek Adams). Who knows who might be interested coming here now? We still represent an exciting opportunity to the right person - and believe it or not its actually never been a better time to be the manager of this club IMO given how much it has progressed and its future ambitions. No offence to St Mirren - but I just don't see what that job offers long-term, although that is probably me being biased.

Hard to argue with any of this. Very well put.

I think generally his recruitment was ok. He had limited time to throw together almost a full team and any manager would have to gamble a bit on some turning out well and some not.

We had a decent start to the season but there was clearly no plan B when things started to fall apart. January signings helped refresh things a bit but unclear over the last month if we have been improving or maybe falling back into old habits.

Could be a blessing in disguise if we can get someone in who can rally the lads and grind out some results until the end of the season. Derek would be my choice.

[redrobo]

The club quite rightly will make no comment about the amount of compensation and the figure quoted is in my opinion pure paper speculation.

The players have an ideal opportunity to show their true potential tonight v Rotherham because suspect that a number were far from happy with the Judas methods and tactical awareness.

Whoever takes over will be saddled with some players on 2 year contracts who are obviously not up to EFL1 standard and hopefully have it in their contracts that IF the club are relegated then those contracts are null and void.

As for DA taking over I am no fan of his BUT the survival of our great club in EFL1 is far more important than my opinions about DA. If he comes in and does what is needed then I will be the first to say a big than you.

Long term maybe DA would feel that our club has progressed off the field to such an extent that life with us would give him some stability that he may feel he needs going forward. Yes he would still have issues about a training ground but the Uni is an excellent base for the majority of the season and maybe work being undertaken on the pitches to improve its drainage would be welcome. I recall the Head groundsman stating in an earlier interview acknowledging that further work on the pitches was needed so maybe a return could be on the cards. After all Bradford use a school for their training base.....

[BerlinWaller]

Looks like the snake drove up there in his club car as well. Good riddance.

[RedRedWine]

Looks like the snake drove up there in his club car as well. Good riddance.

He'll probably claim the mileage too.... the greedy bastard.

[fulwoodshrimp]

No tears at his departure. Didn't deliver on the pitch any improvements that in his interviews he recognised. Lets see how he does at St Mirren.

[redrobo]

Just hope he and his assistant have problems getting rid of their houses in Heysham assuming that they didn't rent property knowing that their time with us was going to be short until an opportunity to return North of the Border came up.....

[P/T Indie]

He kept moaning house prices were too high around here,maybe that's another reason for going back north, imagine the shock he would have if he went down south!

[al1]

Cannot have a recent former player in charge,look what happened last time!

[black morse]

Cannot have a recent former player in charge,look what happened last time!

We weren't relegated!