Inaction speaks louder than words.


Tranmere Crest

By David Sindall
February 10 2025

Last week our Chairman put out a statement explaining that Nigel Adkins would remain as manager. Apparently our perception that changing managers mid season will improve results is a misguided one. It seems that every club that does this is wrong. We are foolishly indulgent to think otherwise.

I have read Mark Palios’ words many times and each time I am left with a sense of despair. ‘In Nigel’s case, we have a manager with huge experience, a track record of many successes in his career, and a genuine passion for a club he has supported all his life’. It’s worth looking at the evidence behind that statement.

 

Nigel Adkins may have huge experience but that doesn’t justify his retention. Week in week out we see a team that is struggling, team selections that lack coherency and team tactics that make little sense. Quite how this huge experience is being applied to the massive disaster that is taking place is shrouded in mystery. He took Reading down from the Premier League to the Championship . He has flirted with disaster elsewhere. Aside to Southampton, he is rarely mentioned in affectionate terms. 

 

Then there is the ‘track record of many successes’. Adkins has managed at Bangor City, Scunthorpe Utd, Southampton, Reading, Sheffield Utd, Hull City, Charlton Athletic and now Tranmere. Only his period at Scunthorpe can be deemed a success. He was there for 4 years and was successful. However, this was 15 years ago. He has never repeated the early success. In his other jobs he has repeated a pattern that has emerged at Rovers, early success followed by failure. He left Charlton in October 2021. Two years later he joined Rovers. A manager of such vast experience was not snapped up by any other club until he joined Rovers. Given his many success it seems odd he was out of the game for so long, but maybe his ‘achievements’ with our club offer evidence as to why this is?

 

We were also told that Nigel has ‘a passion for a club he has supported all his life’. Most home matches you will find about 80% of the crowd are the same. Passionate people who have supported Rovers all their lives. That’s not a qualification for being a manager of anything other than a pub team. Yet the words of our chairman are all that matters.

 

‘I cannot see what is to be gained by gambling on a less experienced/successful manager, with no real connection to the Club and who would be brought in to manage a squad that he has not chosen’ explains Mark. Odd that this didn’t apply to any of the other managers who have been dismissed by the current owners, including Keith Hill sacked before the play offs. Is this a confession of past failure? Or is it an abdication of our Chairman’s responsibility as owner? Worse still what does it mean in practice? Adkins will manage us in the National League and then the National League North? After all he is passionate about the club and vastly experienced. He has more than 2 years on his contract to run. 

 

In my open letter I tried to give Mark Palios the benefit of the doubt. That was a mistake. There can be no doubt. It would seem that Adkins serves Palios well, a yes man, a useful idiot who will run the shop until the new owners take over.  The argument for the retention are just a further  demonstration of the smoke and mirrors we have become used to. We will sue the Football League,; We dream of taking the club to the Championship; We will build a new stadium; We will establish a golden share. The list is endless. 

 

The  club will be sold for 50 pieces of silver. It feels like  the Chairman is abusing the trust supporters have placed in him. Nothing is achieved by sticking with a failing manager. We are hurtling towards the National League. A club without a manager capable of changing our situation, a club with a chairman unprepared to act. This is a disaster in which supporters are being treated as fools. We are being failed,  treated with contempt. 

 

54321, that’s your club gone. 

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Inaction speaks louder than words.
Discussion started by Total Tranmere (IP Logged), 10/02/2025 06:47
Total Tranmere
Total Tranmere
10/02/2025 06:47
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Bored rover
Bored rover
10/02/2025 07:14
SM suggests there are no financial tests in NL for new owners, it will all infold over the next 3 months. Should we be relegated and the deal goes through quickly or it goes through before the season ends we will get the answer

Palios appears to be squarely putting the blame for all this on us fans, for being thickies who don't understand football. I wouldn't mind if he was Bryan Robson but he played about 13 games for a@#$%&Tranmere side he's hardly Pele himself.

All we need now is Nicola on the pitch at half time @#$%& screaming "Lets be aving you"

The clubs an absolute Circus, Saunders the jester up front cant even concert one on one with the goalie on the half way line and a whole half a pitch to run at, more injuries than A&E how many come backs is Norris on now? He'll be out injured again for the Notts County Game.

Starting think they are players just avoiding the situation

I wonder where the idea for a golden share came from? Wonder if went something like this

"Heyyyyyy Gett in here!!! what's this you've been fkn googling"

"What?? I was errmm errm ermmmm what was I doing oh yes , I was researching Golden Shares, you know for the sale my finger must have slipped"


"Mark JT here whats this God Damn Golden Share Im reading about you god damn SOB"

"Sorry JT google troubles with the Mrs, you offspring of a lady"



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:02:10:07:35:08 by Bored rover.

LocalHero
LocalHero
10/02/2025 11:48
Adkins was only a success at Scunthorpe, but was also only a success at Southampton. It feels a little like the argument is coming before the evidence.

He won the league twice with Bangor, so hardly a failure. At Hull he kept them up from a relegation battle and gave them a solid mid-table finish the next season. They've only finished higher once since then, and won't this season.

I'm guessing lots of the people rewriting his career were the same ones calling for him to get the job a few years ago. He hasn't got us to the top of the league like we'd want, but he seems the perfect person to keep until the end of the season.

This feels a lot like the last Brian Little season. He was appointed with big expectations but never got the promotion he was hired for. His last season really showed why it should be his last, but keeping in position when things were going wrong meant we had the experience for the run-in we need. This season feels similar.

Last time we gambled on sacking a manager in the middle of relegation battle was when John McMahon replaced Ronnie Moore. With hindsight (and at the time) that looks crazy. Switching managers doesn't always help.

A lot of a relegation battle is having the right manager who has the experience for the battle they are in. Adkins knows this league, know how to work with low resources and has grinded out results from a similar position.

Look who we are up against:

Mark Hughes at Carlisle - very good in Premiership relegation battles, but only job in the EFL was him failing to get success at Bradford, mostly through having tactics designed for Premiership, not League 2, players. He's only ever been at clubs who have expensive players. He's not a manager I would want in our position.

Derek Adams at Morecombe - A manager whose first experience of a relegation battle was with Ross County last season. He stormed out of the club, saying the players were all rubbish and couldn't handle the pressure. Aside from this, he's always managers clubs in the top half or fighting for promotion. He'd be a good appointment next season, but he's not the manager we need now.

So of the bottom three managers, I'd take Adkins every time for the relegation battle. Let's look at some of the names suggested as replacement:

Aldo - Not managed in 25 years, showed no interest in another club and lost the only relegation battle he was involved in.

Ronnie Moore - Good in relegation battles, but hasn't managed in 9 years, is now a head scout and 72. If he's happy in a job with low pressure, why put him in a highly pressured job.

Steven Naismith - Bookies favourite. Did well last season at Hearts, but sacked after a dreadful start and a new manager has turned them around. Ok, but not grinding results with a losing team.

Wayne Rooney - Bookies second favourite. That says it all in terms of the available options.

You can add in any number of ex-players who haven't managed before. If you look at the options available, I can't see one better than keeping Adkins for the rest of the season. I don't think he's looking like the right choice for next season, but I can't see someone more suited to getting us out of this mess than him.

Bored rover
Bored rover
10/02/2025 12:26
Quote:
LocalHero
Adkins was only a success at Scunthorpe, but was also only a success at Southampton. It feels a little like the argument is coming before the evidence.
He won the league twice with Bangor, so hardly a failure. At Hull he kept them up from a relegation battle and gave them a solid mid-table finish the next season. They've only finished higher once since then, and won't this season.

I'm guessing lots of the people rewriting his career were the same ones calling for him to get the job a few years ago. He hasn't got us to the top of the league like we'd want, but he seems the perfect person to keep until the end of the season.

This feels a lot like the last Brian Little season. He was appointed with big expectations but never got the promotion he was hired for. His last season really showed why it should be his last, but keeping in position when things were going wrong meant we had the experience for the run-in we need. This season feels similar.

Last time we gambled on sacking a manager in the middle of relegation battle was when John McMahon replaced Ronnie Moore. With hindsight (and at the time) that looks crazy. Switching managers doesn't always help.

A lot of a relegation battle is having the right manager who has the experience for the battle they are in. Adkins knows this league, know how to work with low resources and has grinded out results from a similar position.

Look who we are up against:

Mark Hughes at Carlisle - very good in Premiership relegation battles, but only job in the EFL was him failing to get success at Bradford, mostly through having tactics designed for Premiership, not League 2, players. He's only ever been at clubs who have expensive players. He's not a manager I would want in our position.

Derek Adams at Morecombe - A manager whose first experience of a relegation battle was with Ross County last season. He stormed out of the club, saying the players were all rubbish and couldn't handle the pressure. Aside from this, he's always managers clubs in the top half or fighting for promotion. He'd be a good appointment next season, but he's not the manager we need now.

So of the bottom three managers, I'd take Adkins every time for the relegation battle. Let's look at some of the names suggested as replacement:

Aldo - Not managed in 25 years, showed no interest in another club and lost the only relegation battle he was involved in.

Ronnie Moore - Good in relegation battles, but hasn't managed in 9 years, is now a head scout and 72. If he's happy in a job with low pressure, why put him in a highly pressured job.

Steven Naismith - Bookies favourite. Did well last season at Hearts, but sacked after a dreadful start and a new manager has turned them around. Ok, but not grinding results with a losing team.

Wayne Rooney - Bookies second favourite. That says it all in terms of the available options.

You can add in any number of ex-players who haven't managed before. If you look at the options available, I can't see one better than keeping Adkins for the rest of the season. I don't think he's looking like the right choice for next season, but I can't see someone more suited to getting us out of this mess than him.

Nigel, that you?

Kenny_Crons
Kenny_Crons
10/02/2025 12:34
Quote:
LocalHero
Adkins was only a success at Scunthorpe, but was also only a success at Southampton. It feels a little like the argument is coming before the evidence.
He won the league twice with Bangor, so hardly a failure. At Hull he kept them up from a relegation battle and gave them a solid mid-table finish the next season. They've only finished higher once since then, and won't this season.

I'm guessing lots of the people rewriting his career were the same ones calling for him to get the job a few years ago. He hasn't got us to the top of the league like we'd want, but he seems the perfect person to keep until the end of the season.

This feels a lot like the last Brian Little season. He was appointed with big expectations but never got the promotion he was hired for. His last season really showed why it should be his last, but keeping in position when things were going wrong meant we had the experience for the run-in we need. This season feels similar.

Last time we gambled on sacking a manager in the middle of relegation battle was when John McMahon replaced Ronnie Moore. With hindsight (and at the time) that looks crazy. Switching managers doesn't always help.

A lot of a relegation battle is having the right manager who has the experience for the battle they are in. Adkins knows this league, know how to work with low resources and has grinded out results from a similar position.

Look who we are up against:

Mark Hughes at Carlisle - very good in Premiership relegation battles, but only job in the EFL was him failing to get success at Bradford, mostly through having tactics designed for Premiership, not League 2, players. He's only ever been at clubs who have expensive players. He's not a manager I would want in our position.

Derek Adams at Morecombe - A manager whose first experience of a relegation battle was with Ross County last season. He stormed out of the club, saying the players were all rubbish and couldn't handle the pressure. Aside from this, he's always managers clubs in the top half or fighting for promotion. He'd be a good appointment next season, but he's not the manager we need now.

So of the bottom three managers, I'd take Adkins every time for the relegation battle. Let's look at some of the names suggested as replacement:

Aldo - Not managed in 25 years, showed no interest in another club and lost the only relegation battle he was involved in.

Ronnie Moore - Good in relegation battles, but hasn't managed in 9 years, is now a head scout and 72. If he's happy in a job with low pressure, why put him in a highly pressured job.

Steven Naismith - Bookies favourite. Did well last season at Hearts, but sacked after a dreadful start and a new manager has turned them around. Ok, but not grinding results with a losing team.

Wayne Rooney - Bookies second favourite. That says it all in terms of the available options.

You can add in any number of ex-players who haven't managed before. If you look at the options available, I can't see one better than keeping Adkins for the rest of the season. I don't think he's looking like the right choice for next season, but I can't see someone more suited to getting us out of this mess than him.

The key to this is how confident we are that results will be ground out. At the moment, we aren’t grinding anything out at all so the argument for staying with the status quo is very weak.

If we can grind out two results this week in the home games, the argument for not making a change becomes weaker.

It’s only results that should guide us on a managers capabilities, not opinions on how experienced he is. Results at the moment are giving a very clear message.

MESSAGES->author
hong kong rover
10/02/2025 12:47
For our final 17 games i'd rather have the tea lady running the team than Adkins.

Mikebee59
Mikebee59
10/02/2025 14:13
Sadly it looks like we are stuck with the Adkins diet of verbal diarrhoea, baseless over positivity, tactical naivety, questionable team selection, ridiculous timing of substitutions and a thoroughly demotivated playing staff.
May the Lord have mercy on stringy Bob!

MESSAGES->author
CleeHillRoadROAR
10/02/2025 14:56
Quote:
Bored rover
I wouldn't mind if he was Bryan Robson but he played about 13 games for a@#$%&Tranmere side he's hardly Pele himself.

286 appearances for Tranmere puts him in the top 30 of all time. And 33 goals. I’m not saying he’s the perfect owner but I do think his motivation has been to sort out the club that he considers his footballing home, or at least to get it into a better state than when he arrived, rather than to make killing out of it.

ALOTBSOL
ALOTBSOL
10/02/2025 16:31
[

[en.m.wikipedia.org]

Bangor was over 30 years ago.

Have a look at the stats post Southampton to see the real trend.

The world of football has changed since his Scunthorpe days.

Management styles need to adapt according to the players available.

Especially when it is clear the current approach is failing.


quote LocalHero]Adkins was only a success at Scunthorpe, but was also only a success at Southampton. It feels a little like the argument is coming before the evidence.

Bored rover
Bored rover
10/02/2025 16:37
Quote:
CleeHillRoadROAR
Quote:
Bored rover
I wouldn't mind if he was Bryan Robson but he played about 13 games for a@#$%&Tranmere side he's hardly Pele himself.

286 appearances for Tranmere puts him in the top 30 of all time. And 33 goals. I’m not saying he’s the perfect owner but I do think his motivation has been to sort out the club that he considers his footballing home, or at least to get it into a better state than when he arrived, rather than to make killing out of it.

If he wasn't in it to make a killing the club would have sold years ago, and the last attempt wouldn't have fallen through as he'd have said, well well Im in for 7 million the club needs new investment, we'll take 5 to 7 million rather than the 15 agreed, where as he never and was/is holding out for 15 million and bearing mind PJ wrote off about 7 million when they bought the club your argument he's not in it to make a killing doesn't hold water.

MESSAGES->author
CleeHillRoadROAR
10/02/2025 16:51
Sorry bored I disagree. If his motivation is the good of the club there are numerous reasons that could influence whether or not he sells at any particular moment. But more importantly, I don’t buy the idea that at the age of 60 a guy with the skills and connections that Palios had in 2014 would choose to buy a deeply struggling and underinvested fourth tier football club and have him and his wife spend most of their time and energy for the next decade in the public eye trying to sort it out with the main aim of making money. There are far easier and less risk-laden ways for a guy with those skills and resources to do that. To me it’s far more likely that someone who has already invested 7 years and first team 286 games into a club who also has a rare set of relevant professional skills thinks that he is the man who can turn things around. He may not have fully succeeded but this is much more likely to be his mindset than angling for pure profit.

Ingleboro08
Ingleboro08
10/02/2025 17:00
Raby mere was hired from a local farmer. It has never been Rovers property.

The tea lady along with a lot of other staff were made redundant during covid.

Bored rover
Bored rover
10/02/2025 17:16
Quote:
CleeHillRoadROAR
Sorry bored I disagree. If his motivation is the good of the club there are numerous reasons that could influence whether or not he sells at any particular moment. But more importantly, I don’t buy the idea that at the age of 60 a guy with the skills and connections that Palios had in 2014 would choose to buy a deeply struggling and underinvested fourth tier football club and have him and his wife spend most of their time and energy for the next decade in the public eye trying to sort it out with the main aim of making money. There are far easier and less risk-laden ways for a guy with those skills and resources to do that. To me it’s far more likely that someone who has already invested 7 years and first team 286 games into a club who also has a rare set of relevant professional skills thinks that he is the man who can turn things
around. He may not have fully succeeded but this is much more likely to be his mindset than angling for pure profit.

They didn't think they would be here a decade later , the club was for sale the day they bought it as they openly said, they found the club was in a far worse state than thought once they got the keys. Thought it would be "A lick of paint Mr Fawlty" and out the other side.

Bored rover
Bored rover
10/02/2025 17:20
Quote:
Bored rover
Quote:
CleeHillRoadROAR
Sorry bored I disagree. If his motivation is the good of the club there are numerous reasons that could influence whether or not he sells at any particular moment. But more importantly, I don’t buy the idea that at the age of 60 a guy with the skills and connections that Palios had in 2014 would choose to buy a deeply struggling and underinvested fourth tier football club and have him and his wife spend most of their time and energy for the next decade in the public eye trying to sort it out with the main aim of making money. There are far easier and less risk-laden ways for a guy with those skills and resources to do that. To me it’s far more likely that someone who has already invested 7 years and first team 286 games into a club who also has a rare set of relevant professional skills thinks that he is the man who can turn things
around. He may not have fully succeeded but this is much more likely to be his mindset than angling for pure profit.

They didn't think they would be here a decade later , the club was for sale the day they bought it as they openly said, they found the club was in a far worse state than thought once they got the keys. Thought it would be "A lick of paint Mr Fawlty" and out the other side.

Also doesn't get round the point that the consortium they are selling to are the same that fell through so if it was for the benefit of the club he'd have reduced the price and sold if he still wanted extra money could have held onto some shares and sold them to the consortium at a later date

Loyden1
Loyden1
10/02/2025 17:22
Quote:
hong kong rover
For our final 17 games i'd rather have the tea lady running the team than Adkins.
shes gone hkr weve signed 2replacements from man utd. Thats unless theyre playing tmrw🤣

Eric01 Tranmere
Eric01 Tranmere
10/02/2025 22:08
Quote:
CleeHillRoadROAR
Sorry bored I disagree. If his motivation is the good of the club there are numerous reasons that could influence whether or not he sells at any particular moment. But more importantly, I don’t buy the idea that at the age of 60 a guy with the skills and connections that Palios had in 2014 would choose to buy a deeply struggling and underinvested fourth tier football club and have him and his wife spend most of their time and energy for the next decade in the public eye trying to sort it out with the main aim of making money. There are far easier and less risk-laden ways for a guy with those skills and resources to do that. To me it’s far more likely that someone who has already invested 7 years and first team 286 games into a club who also has a rare set of relevant professional skills thinks that he is the man who can turn things around. He may not have fully succeeded but this is much more likely to be his mindset than angling for pure profit.

I agree. I believe his intentions were and are good.

DevonExile
DevonExile
11/02/2025 13:28
Whatever, his current inaction and response to a situation that stems from his own decisions tarnishes his legacy and deservedly so. Leaders are judged on impact not intention

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