If you think my support of Powell is unwavering, then you haven't been reading my posts correctly.

(As for Pep, it's purely a personal opinion, but if you think winning trophies with the sides he has managed is a better achievement than what Ferguson and Mourinho have done, then fair enough, but I think you're wrong).

He’s trying to save face after I’ve been telling him for weeks we’re absolutely shocking and that Powell should go. He said it was all fine though because we was top. We’ll be out the top 6 in 3 weeks time maybe then he’ll see the light.

Weren’t you trying to justify how it might not be powells fault our linespeed is absolute tosh by doing the basics? Wouldn’t you say the basics of a side aiming to win silverware is making sure our defenders are running up and meeting the attackers head on set after set? Because I certainly would.

Pep has spent less than United in city’s period of dominance and they can’t get anywhere near city. Everyone will see how good pep is when he eventually leaves and the standards drop

Yes, of course the standards will drop, they will have had all the trophies took off them and hopefully relegated... #115

I think you and I both know that won’t happen, assuming you’re a United fan I can see why you’re clinging onto it, United had the treble and three in a row on English clubs and City wiped them both out in a month. Must sting.

'Trying to save face'??... my stance on Powell as always been quite clear - we finish in the play offs this season and he will get a third season. Presently, we are 2nd, whether we finish top 6 is up in the air (as it is for most sides right now).

You guys call yourselves supporters, but let's face it, you're all just waiting for him to be sacked so you can all say you told us so. Bit sad that you only become vocal when you smell the blood of someone who you decided to turn against at the earliest opportunity.

I genuinely hope we finish top 6 and he stays on merely to boil more of your knee jerking p!ss ....

Wow won’t have a word of negativity against the Wire but it’s ok for football.

Christ, please don't insult me that much....

Yeah, everybody has had a run of bad form this year and most have had a run of good results. Think how bad Hull looked a while back and Leeds losing to Wakey. Or Wigan only winning one out of five before today.

16 games gone, we've lost 5.

Genuine question. Do you believe we will win a GF under Powell this season or perhaps in 2024?

I personally hope he does, but deep down I don't really believe it.

For the avoidance of doubt I'm not calling for his head unless the Top 6 is in serious doubt.

This season, almost definitely not. I think it's always been a 3 year plan.

As for next season, who honestly knows - I've learnt not to get my hopes up (the pessimist is never disappointed, as Sophie Ellis Bextor once sang - she must be a Wire fan too

), but if we didn't I'd probably be as vocal as anyone on here to say he'd have to leave.

He's an Everton fan which explains the clear acceptance of mediocrity.

As an Everton fan I know about how pointless and damaging it is sacking managers at the whim of moron fans who their pants everytime they have a few bad results, or believe they have a manager who isn't good enough for their club...

The coach is important but just as important to a successful team is the type of leaders within the team and the relationship that the coach has with those players.
Take Melbourne as an example. You can see the type of relationship that Bellamy had with Cameron Smith when Smith overtook Bellamy's try scoring record. Bellamy speaks very highly of Smith and Smith made sure that standards were maintained across the playing group.
Take Saint Helens. Roby is that leader and commands the respect because of who he is, how he conducts himself and what he has achieved. As well as being the best hooker in the comp for 15 years he is a great leader. If saints had not had Roby for the last 4 years I doubt they would have 4 in a row (maybe 2 in that time)

We all know the leaders at Wigan and Leeds when they had success.

I get the feeling that Powell thought that McGuire was going to be that leader. Somebody that would not accept others not giving 100%

but that fell to pieces in that friendly against Leigh.

We have signed some fantastic players like Clark and Williams but even Williams has admitted that he is not a natural leader.
If Powell is here for a while then he needs to identify a leader(s)within the group and start to build that relationship. Talk to them, listen to their ideas and concerns and start to build leaders who will not accept stands dropping.

I know people still have doubts but I would be leaning on Danny Walker as one of those players to lead on the field. If he is not at the point quite yet to lead he will be in the future.

Very good points. I agree that leaders on the field are huge and identifying them is a big part of the coaches job. Again I will bang on about Ratchford and Matautia who are not only NOT leadership material but poor ability wise as well - those are poor choices by the coach. Ratchford even managed to talk Powell out of dropping him at one point last season - that's just weak. Powell also brought Holmes along to be a leader - he was more interested in his campervan and playing wise was dreadful. So on a crucial aspect of coaching - identifying leadership - Powell is failing miserably.

Surely due diligence on McGuire would have exposed a few red flags. While there’s no doubt he was a good player, his career has been tarnished with suspension and disciplinary issues spreading from hair pulling to abusing officials. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes, and Morley was a leader with a colourful disciplinary record, but that was largely for “big bloke hitting another big bloke” type issues, which clubs are more likely to roll the dice on. We must have looked at the behavioural pattern and took a calculated risk on him. Can’t say there were no warning signs.

The same could be said of Vaughan in truth, I think he was sacked by St George on his “third strike” for off field issues.

If we’re looking for a squeaky clean, behavioural led, rebuild, then we’re going the wrong was about it. I’d argue we have gone willingly into these more risky deals because they were cheaper, owing to the risk.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

As an Everton motto the textbook definition of irony.

If only it was true of the wire although I do wish we would try to live more to our own Latin motto at times.

'A few bad results' without the risk of repeating myself this is more than 'a few bad results'. Daryl Powell has lost 23 SL games out of 43 meaning we have lost over half of the games he has coached. In addition, he has also never managed to beat Wigan or Saints here having played them both a total of 7 times losing 7. We genuinley haven't played well since week 7 - that's almost 3 months ago.

To take on the big boys ,we need to play like the big boys . All this standing off at ptb is losing us too much ground whereas the teams doing well are the teams who rush the ptb and keep the team in possession starved of go forward. Playing the ref is what they do ,knowing it is not in the interests of the spectacle of the game for the ref to enforce too many infringements.
As far as our present team goes ,we had a good start but other teams have caught up & overtaken us & maybe some of the better babies, that we could do with now, were thrown away with the bathwater.

Due diligence being "2 minutes of googling his name".

Answer to the question… Very!

I wonder what due diligence found on Les Boyd?

There was no law west of Wigan in those days.

Or google.

Good topic.

I’ve always believed, you don’t particularly need to be a great tactical coach/ ex player to be successful.

My thought process…if Alex Ferguson walked into the HJ and offered to put things right. I am 100% convinced that he would.