The Lounge

[Colum]

It just may be a crunch time for the club over the next few weeks. Thankfully there are several other clubs playing just as badly as us at the moment. We play two f them over the next fortnight.

Northampton got hammered today and had a sending off. They’re up next at their place. We need (dare I say should) win that game. Following that I’d expect a battering against Rotherham at home, followed by another massive six pointer against Plymouth at home.

If we were to get six points from those three games, the vultures calling for heads to roll just may go elsewhere. Here’s the thing though. Failure to get just four points from these games will be considered a failure by many including me. Oh and I’d want to win games by more than a 1-0 margin or suffer another goalless draw.

[rob]

The game at Oxford can be summed up by 2 things. Darius Charles playing striker and Neal Ardley sitting glumly on the bench. A centre half at centre forward sums up our woes and is not the answer. Sadly he was no better than Macdonald who was equally ineffective. At Blackburn Ardley’s management helped win the game. Yesterday his lack of management ensured we failed to win.It seemed like he was resigned to defeat from the moment they scored. That must have rubbed off on the players. For the first time I found myself questioning whether he is the right man for the job or not. I think we may know by the end of the Plymouth game. Here’s hoping…..

[onyadon]

The dispiriting 3-0 loss at Oxford sapped a lot of confidence in Neal Ardley to hold on to his job. Sure, it is not yet (yet) time to remove the gaffer, but the clock is now well and truly ticking on what will be a wrenching decision for the Dons Trust and Club Executive. Neal likes to point to stats but the real stats are becoming painfully obvious: just two wins (3 draws) in 12 League games, just five goals this season (and five goals in the last 18 games when you count the last six -barren- games at the end of last season) and just three wins since the triumphal win over the Frannies 21 games ago (March 14). And it’s 40 games since AFC Wimbledon won both halves of a league match (Bury 5-1 November 19, 2016). That is relegation form. Neal Ardley often talks about being ‘brave’ but the conservative-minded manager now has to be ‘really brave’ to hold on to his job. It remains to be seen whether Ardley can break his mould to revive the team’s fortunes and save the season. This week Ardley will have been the AFC Wimbledon gaffer for five years; he is the fifth current longest-serving manager in English football. The way things are spirralling it may not be for much longer. Defeats in the next few games against Northampton (a), Rotherham (h) and Plymouth (h) could force the issue to a head. I personally hope Neal Ardley does find a way to turn things around, but he is paying for his costly mistakes, principally by not signing a tall striker and now trying to cover up that glaring inadequacy by using centre-back Darius Charles as a stop-gap striker.

[Colum]

Yep. 100% agree with recent comments. The graffiti is on the wall, but the paint isn’t yet dry. For the first time NA’s post match summary showed a manager with no answers to the problems. He looked a forlorn figure. He talks about the players being low of confidence, but he should take a long hard look in the mirror as well. I feel sorry for him. Even resorting to playing Darius up front has failed. In short, the players he’s brought in aren’t up to the task. That’s 100% his fault.

Part of me would like to see the likes of Egin, Hartigan, Kaja, and company being given a run in the team. They can’t be much worse, and it just may be the key that unlocks the door. Trouble is, if that fails, there is nowhere else to go.

[Colum]

Unlike Neal Ardley’s first season, the talk is no longer about whether he can keep us up, but whether he’ll get the chance.

[Windlesham Don]

When we hit these sticky patches I always feel it is worthwhile to take a step back and try to look at the long term view. It is easy to get caught up in the depression of a poor run of results, but in the history of AFC Wimbledon half a season of poor form will count for little. If we choose to sack our manager, of course, then that will be a far more significant event in our history.

Neal Ardley has done very little wrong in his five year tenure with us – saving us from relegation back to the Conference, building a squad capable of out-performing his budget and getting us promoted after a wonderful run of performances and that unforgettable day at Wembley, and last season staying up comfortably and once again out-performing his budget.

The truth is, that if he even marginally under-performs his budget in League 1 then we will be relegated. We are a very small fish in the League 1 pond, we have to accept that, but is it unreasonable of us as supporters to expect out-performance season after season?

Yes, the manager has got things wrong – his recruitment last close season was terrible, and this close season it has been mixed. He had no choice but to allow our two best players from last season to depart, and for a fraction of their true value to us. That is the way of the world in lower league football. He has had to build a new squad and adopt a new playing style this season because of it.

It is obvious at the moment that the new squad and tactics are not working. I would question the recruitment late in the transfer window of Trotter and Forrester, which now look like panic signings.

But do we really want to ditch the boss? Do we want to get in someone new, who without doubt will not ‘get us’ like Neal Ardley does? Do we want a journeyman manager who just sees Wimbledon as another job? Can we afford the expense of paying off Ardley’s contract and probably those of Coxy and Bass as well? Can we afford the inevitable demands of a new manager for funds to re-shape the squad? And with no guarantee of any better outcome…

I have little doubt that our manager will be burning the midnight oil trying to figure out a way of getting this squad to perform. But even if he doesn’t, and he fails to turn it around in the January window, I would be prepared to stick with him for the long term – IMO half a season of bad performances does not offset the four and a half years of relative success.

IMO the Board should be looking to help the manager with extra coaching support, but shouldn’t be looking to replace him, even if it means a return to League 2. After all, we will still be a league club, we will still own our club and we will still be returning to Plough Lane within a couple of years…

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