New manager for Saturday

[51/84]

Cobblers have a new manager ( Wilder)whos first game will be at WR
I now fully expect there to be a cobblers bounce
As in dead cat bounce
Can we come out fighting and really finish them off before Wilder drags them up from the bottom

At the moment our last manager is being quoted as one of the favourites for the Oxford job.
I wonder if our current one is in the frame
If the board or famns or playershave pissed him off he might just be, after the job he did here until now

[Si Robin]

I don't see Yates going, now or in the summer, unless we finish up in a relegation battle.

[Joey]

Yates will still be manager of Cheltenham this time next year despite what some posters on here say.

[Benctfc]

As much as I admire the job Yates has done in previous seasons unelss we finish in the top 10 this season I would look for a change in the summer. I feel we need a fresh management team to try and pick the club up a bit. Everything at the moment seems to be drifting by. If Yates was here next year after finishing midtable this year I can't see many fans being too happy. Paul Baker and the board will have a tough decision to make.

[horlickfanclub]

if Yates is still here next season I doubt if i will be

[Robin]

There is definitely a big chunk of support unhappy with Yates. Myself I have gone from being unimpressed, particularly during his first full season when he did extremely well to avoid the sack, to starting to believe we may have found a decent manager to becoming frustrated with his inability to address his obvious flaws to now thinking it may be better the devil you know. By that I am saying Mark Yates is not a great manager but at the same time he is not a terrible manager, his signings are in the main excellent for a medium sized league two club but tactically he is poor and ultimately I would not expect him to ever move upwards from us.

[Benctfc]

There is definitely a big chunk of support unhappy with Yates. Myself I have gone from being unimpressed, particularly during his first full season when he did extremely well to avoid the sack, to starting to believe we may have found a decent manager to becoming frustrated with his inability to address his obvious flaws to now thinking it may be better the devil you know. By that I am saying Mark Yates is not a great manager but at the same time he is not a terrible manager, his signings are in the main excellent for a medium sized league two club but tactically he is poor and ultimately I would not expect him to ever move upwards from us.

Agree with that it's up to the board to play it safe and have another season of Yates or risk bringing in another manager and see what happens. I personally would like to see a manager near the start of his career who will bring new ideas and some enthusiasm.

[Robin]

I agree, we should only terminate his contract if we have someone better and in my mind only Grant McCann (and that will be a risk), Sean O'Driscoll and Steve Burr stand out as obvious candidates.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Anything less than a play-off final and a friendly handshake goodbye for Mr Yates please.

[Piro Teknix]

Yates will still be manager of Cheltenham this time next year despite what some posters on here say.

Well if he is then I don't envy Mr Baker's job trying to convince already unhappy season ticket holders to renew them. There is already a great deal of discontent due to the rubbish we have had to put up with this season and it is going to take some powerful initiatives by the Board to convince people that next season is going to be any better and "going with what we have got" will definitely not be acceptable.

[Robin]

We won't make the play offs but should we finish tenth I would be tempted to give him one more season to get us promoted with the same budget.

[51/84]

I to a certain extent agree with you Robin but it looks like he would have to rebuild his team again
Was his trip to Spain taking his eye of the ball

When I wrote the first posting I expected responses about the cobblers bouncing back under a new manager, what I forgot was the nests ability to have a go at Yates

I think the cobblers will have a new manager bounce - how many new players will he bring in
How many will Yates bring in or ship out - according to the videos none
, but then MY does not tell people his transfer business until it happens

[Si Robin]

I have more faith in Yates re-building a team than I do someone coming in with a new broom and the whole club having to start again.

As for Northampton, I think we're all pessimistic about getting a result against them because of our dour home form, but they are bottom for a reason. We need to get at them early and make their confidence drop. If we can do that I think we'll win, but whether we can do that or not is another thing entirely. Methinks it'll be like Bristol Rovers in 2012.

[Piro Teknix]

but then MY does not tell people his transfer business until it happens

Gillespie !!!!!!

[Oldun]

There are so many things that make me feel that a parting of the ways is essential, and the sooner the better. Even today's Echo gives rise to further concerns. How can the manager square " wouldn't want to pay to watch that" with "I've good starting 11" It was the good starting eleven that he didn't want to pay to watch! How's that work? The standard has been at that dire level for most matches this season and there can not be much reason to be optimistic about MY changing it now or in the future. He has had plenty of time. We need a new start.

[CheltRobin]

I'm 50/50 with Yates for next season. Yes, we are in a much more stable position both on and off the pitch since he took over, but can he get us upto L1 and keep us there? That is the big question for me. Also, as the squad will need much re-building over the summer is Yates the man to do it. Most of his signings have been decent, but he will need to find a lot more quality and depth throughout the squad if we are going seriously challenge to stay up in L1 in the future.

He's obviously relying on the board to help him with this - but will they?? They might hold out for as long as they can after the season ends to see who else is available to might give us a better shot at L1 than Yates - that's what I would do anyway.

[Shade]

One of the main reasons I don't want a new manager to come in is because of the one that nearly ruined us. Revolution nearly ending in tragedy. And despite what anyone says the football being "played" back then was so bad that was the only time I nearly stopped going to CTFC games. This is still a world apart from that dismal time when it felt like every trip to WR was for another shocking defeat. At least we still get usually at least 20-60 minutes of decent stuff, and the result isn't almost guaranteed before kick off. Fans are fickle and have short memories - that's the only real pressure on Yates, imo.

[Si Robin]

JP said on the chat the other day he thinks fans are just bored now. Want a change for change's sake. I have to say that I agree with him.

[C.V]

Think that whats been mentioned many times before Baker will have a hard job on trying to attract the current season ticket holders to re-new next season.Cant see any new ones appearing and the casual supporters are even giving us a wide berth.The gates are falling and the prospect of more of the same next season with Yates isnt very appealing.
We could all stick our heads in the sand and pretend this season hasn't been a total right off.But perhaps the wiser ones will talk with there feet thats the worry for Baker and the board.

[Shade]

JP said on the chat the other day he thinks fans are just bored now. Want a change for change's sake. I have to say that I agree with him.

I have no doubt the fans are bored. But is that because the football is particularly boring (more boring than a lot of other clubs at the moment?) or is it because after the last few seasons this one appears dull? No doubt it's frustrating.

[Si Robin]

I'd say it's because people expect us to be challenging every year and because we're not then something's wrong and Yates has to go.

This season could have been a whole lot worse, look at Northampton, and as Robin has said, better the devil you know. I still haven't seen a single candidate that I'd prefer over Yates at the moment, and that includes Steve Burr.

[Robin]

JP said on the chat the other day he thinks fans are just bored now. Want a change for change's sake. I have to say that I agree with him.

Interesting, in what way are the fans bored? League two footy is pretty dire but expensive, people are losing faith in promotion that is the crux in my view.

[C.V]

Definatley not change for changes sake.Its obvious he has taken as far as he can and been found wanting.We had two playoff seasons and this season we now have the weakest squad since we have been in the league.A sizable amount of our fans have become despondant and think the time has come to part our ways.

[hEaLeR]

Definatley not change for changes sake.Its obvious he has taken as far as he can and been found wanting.We had two playoff seasons and this season we now have the weakest squad since we have been in the league.A sizable amount of our fans have become despondant and think the time has come to part our ways.

Smallest squad maybe, not weakest.

[Reliant Robin]

A team can be reinvigorated by a manager (making changes in personnel through signings or loans) it doesn't need a change of manager. I agree with hEaLeR that the squad is too small. Because we no longer run a competitive team in a reserve league, there is nowhere to rehabilitate off-form players or those returning from injury. Our medical/physio staff do a fantastic job patching up the walking wounded and lengthy injuries are thankfully few and far between. But if we are carrying a few knocks across the team and players having to keep going because of the size of the squad, this will affect performances & could explain some of the recent inconsistent form.

Where Mark Yates does really well is in player recruitment. In comparison to Keith Downing who has more than proved his coaching credentials at a very high level since leaving CTFC, Keith Downing found how difficult is was to recruit decent players to a lower league team - players just didn't want to come to us. If we gamble away our current manager, it could quickly turn very sour for us.

[Oldun]

It has gone sour!

[Si Robin]

My point about fans being bored is that this season is pretty much petering to nothingness and there is nothing to get excited about. There's no likelihood of relegation and also no real probability of the playoffs (though you can't rule either out). Not only that, there also doesn't appear to be much, or anything at all, with regard to new signings. Quite literally nothing to get overly excited about.

As such, because there is nothing to really talk about it's much easier to go on about sacking the manager and demand a fresh start, or talking about "the weakest team in our Football League history" when in reality we're not really that bad, and certainly nowhere near as bad as we were merely 4-5 years ago.

In my personal opinion sacking, or not offering a new contract, to a manager because he's got a middling League 2 team (based on reported finances, attendances and general fanbase) to the middle of League 2 after two seasons of finishing in the playoffs seems to me somewhat crass, and just plain wrong.

[Piro Teknix]

I think bored is probably the wrong word, dissatisfaction with watching rubbish would be a better description. I cannot understand this need to keep harping back to how bad things were when Yates took over, Allen was sacked because of that situation and are we really any better off now, I know we are not close to Administration but it seems we have very little money available to strengthen a wafer thin squad.
Si Robin I do admire your undying loyalty towards Yates and I am sure he will acknowledge that when you are the lone person in the stand behind him next season.
Talking of financial matters I notice that Mr Baker has said on various occasions that the Board does not budget for a successful cup run and yet when we do not have one we do not have a budget !

[Uppy]

I agree that people are bored, but it's because the football has been considerably worse than it should be given the players that we have had. The style that we play is dull and the manager refuses to learn from his mistakes. Yates CAN play the right way, but far too often we decide to aimlessly chip it up to a striker with his back to goal 40 yards out and expect things to happen.

[Si Robin]

It's not undying loyalty, it's realism and being annoyed with the way modern football and modern football fans have become. I think it's ludicrous that Mark Yates is the 3rd longest serving manager in the top 4 divisions and it's because fans are so quick to jump on manager's backs because they're club is not challenging for promotion but instead are in midtable. A manager getting sacked for 6 bad results or less is a joke.

If we were in the bottom 6 and looked like we were in serious danger at this point of the season then I could understand it, but we're not. We're having a mediocre season, getting rid of Yates could lead to improvement, but by the same token it could lead to a bad season. I see no reason to take the risk, and given his track record at the club I have more faith in Yates rebuilding and delivering next season than any other person that has been mentioned. This is the man that had us playing the best football many of us have ever seen from a Cheltenham team.

If Paul Baker and he board think otherwise, then I'll back their decision and back the new man, but I think they see it the same as me.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

3-1 home win. No bouncing.

[Benctfc]

Thing is i just can't see us going anywhere with Yates. He will not get us promoted. I just think a parting of ways would suit all parties as to me Yates needs a change as does the club. As a supporter I will be there whoever is in charge next year but backing Yates seems to be getting harder. He comes across as very dull and arrogant which is fine when you're winning but when you're losing it can backfire. Ultimately do i think Yates can take us any further i don't think he can.

[Uppy]

This is the man that had us playing the best football many of us have ever seen from a Cheltenham team.

That's the most frustrating part. We had an up-tempo short passing game that was working pretty well and, as soon as a couple of games went against us, we ditched it. Yet, on the other hand, we seem determined to stick with the direct chest height balls forward, even when it's obvious they don't work.

[vcinthestand]

Yet, on the other hand, we seem determined to stick with the direct chest height balls forward, even when it's obvious they don't work.

Might not be too bad chest high rather than head high or dropping from the sky high