By theimps.tk
August 3 2009

Notts County have become a side that have become many people's favourites for promotion, but we delve deeper into why we think they won't win promotion, including the manager with the worst wins:defeats ratio in the entire Football League. There is an undying belief higher up the Football League and among the so-called experts that money in League Two absolutely guarantees immediately success. In reality the accuracy of that statement is about as accurate as saying that terraced stands guarantee atmosphere, in other words complete and utter bollocks. If you look at the record of teams that have come into a lot of money in recent years down the lower leagues then you realise it's a load of nonsense that immediate success is guaranteed.

Hull City were the first example, coming into money in 2001 and buying the supposed "best of the best" of the lower-leagues, only to then finish in a midtable position two years in a row. The third season in and they finally won promotion. Then came MK Dons, a club who had been full of money since their inception earlier this century, however they had to wait several seasons just to have a year where they weren't battling relegation, and even Peterborough had to wait 18 months to win promotion out of this division.

I'm not doubting that Munto Finances' take-over of Notts County FC will inevitably reap it's rewards, but for now I'm casting my doubting eye that they will achieve promotion this season, mainly because their manager is a bit crap. You can have as many of the best players in the division as you want but if you've got a shit manager then you're never going to achieve anything. How in the hell he has kept his job when he has lost almost double the amount of games that he's won in charge at Meadow Lane is anyone's guess. 89 games have wielded a relatively huge 39 defeats, compared to just 22 wins and that is officially the worst defeats:games ratio of any manager within the Football League.

Notts County will achieve absolutely nothing with him in charge and that is why I've actually predicted County to not make the Playoffs this season. They have an excellent squad, arguably the best all-around squad within the division.

Much like Manchester City's abundance of strikers, Notts County appear to have enough strikers to play a 2-1-7 formation. The players capable of playing up front are Lee Hughes, Sean Canham, Ben Fairclough, Craig Westcarr, Delroy Facey, Karl Hawley and Luke Rodgers. The one aspect of those seven is that they mainly consist of strikers who've never had a full run in League Two, or have spent an limited time in the division, other than Luke Rodgers who used to be a very prolific striker at this level.

The midfield has also taken a huge revamp this summer with Ricky Ravenhill and Ben Davies joining from Darlo and Shrewsbury respectively. Both are consistently good performers within League Two and both will bring a fair amount of goals to the table. Neil Bishop also joined from Barnet. The defence only really had one major addition and that was the ever consistent Graeme Lee.

As I said, I have no doubt that County won't be in this division much longer, but I also believe that won't happen until they get rid of McParland. You can't argue that his record proves that he ISN'T  good manager, not good manager losers almost twice the amount of games he wins. I feel that when he gets sacked in later October/early November then County can push on, but that delay could see them finish outside of the Playoff places.

8th : Loadsa money, big names, rubbish manager, Notts County

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 03/08/2009 23:51

theimps.tk
03/08/2009 23:51

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

Dave Imp
04/08/2009 20:17

Nath i will have a tenner bet with you that they get a top 3. I also think that with the good team that they have do you really think MAcparland will be the man in control? I think Sven will be in control from behind the scenes in a big way. Lee Hughes, Karl Hawley, Ben Davies, Luke Rodgers they would all walk into any L2 club and alot of L1 teams. We will see but i can't see County not walking into L1 this year.

Reply Quote Report

StratfordImp
06/08/2009 13:58

Dave - agree.....GOALS GOALS GOALS!!

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net