Cifuentes OUT

[JonnyBoy]

17 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

Coventry squad are showing the difference that being confident and having a positive mindset can have. Individually you could argue we have better players but they are mentally not there. I think that shows with James and Ramsey being the most care-free players we have, the rest have had everything drained out of them. 

 

I think 2, max 3 would get in Cov's starting 11 

[Guest worth_the_wait]

35 minutes ago, dmayne7 said:

But is that actually the objective? It is for us as a fanbase but I've been thinking about this over the last few days; we simply don't know what his directive is. He's not helped himself by going big with the narrative around his the young players but it wouldn't surprise me if he's been told that it's promotion at all costs. Or then that they've also told him he must use the young players. It's seems quite possible that he's been given mixed messages from the clowns in charge. Then you've got the massive amount of egos and bad eggs who'd stink the place out if they don't play, and the club has probably limited chances of us selling them.

 

This should have been a perfect opportunity for Top/Rudkin to come out and ask for a bit of patience as the team is in need of a rebuild and we want to focus on using the academy, but they're allergic to open communication.

Good points.

 

The manager might want to throw a few more youngsters into the team.   But it's a very risky strategy.     

 

Play the kids, lose 7 on the trot, drop into the relegation zone (even with a PSR points deduction), and that's the manager sacked.    Whilst it's frustrating, you can understand why managers often go for the "experienced" players.    And yes before anyone say, we think half the "experienced" players are c r a p.

[Stadt]

35 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Don't forget the massive advantage of parachute payments.

 

Coupled with the fact that Fatawu will be sold for a shit load and the fact that we should now finally be outside of PSR issues and a lot of high earners will be off the wage bill, I think we'll spend heavily next summer.

We’ll need to spend to replace the volume leaving but we won’t have that much. We’ll

still have some losses in the 3 year rolling window. Plus we’re just a loss making operation generally (lots of staff, training grounds, slumping commercial sales)

 

We’ll have parachute payments but they’re paying the Macquarie loans back plus they taper off quite aggressively - drops down to 45% of the full payment in the second season so about £36m I think (could definitely be wrong).

Trouble is we’ll invariably lumber ourselves with some crap again 

[trooky]

1 hour ago, RowlattsFox said:

Coventry squad are showing the difference that being confident and having a positive mindset can have. Individually you could argue we have better players but they are mentally not there. I think that shows with James and Ramsey being the most care-free players we have, the rest have had everything drained out of them. 

Lampard has had 33 games and 11 months to get his ideas across, let's judge Marti after the same period. 

[teblin]

2 minutes ago, trooky said:

Lampard has had 33 games and 11 months to get his ideas across, let's judge Marti after the same period. 

Lampard took on a team that hasn’t been in the top flight for 20 years. It’s not all down to Marti but he’s being judged against different standards.

[Dahnsouff]

8 minutes ago, teblin said:

Lampard took on a team that hasn’t been in the top flight for 20 years. It’s not all down to Marti but he’s being judged against different standards.

Not sure in one breath we can lambast our recruitment whilst we were in the top flight, and then suggest being in the top flight was to our conclusive benefit.

[kingfox]

2 hours ago, kenny said:

My concern is that the ball is moved too slowly so we nullify our own attacking threat. By the time the ball gets to Fatawu or Monga its 3 on 1. This should mean there is an overload in other areas, but we manage to make it so that we are crowded out at all times.

 

As it stands, he doesn't appear to have an attacking plan in place.

 

Under Enzo ball, it was clear that he wanted to slow the game down to snail pace then attack quickly when ready. The wingers were always supported by the 8's and they stretched the pitch wide to leave room for Vardy.

 

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

I think we move the ball quicker under Cifuentes and the 1st half vs Pompey was the 1st time I've seen two 8's running on with gusto to create space for the front three. I think it's very disjointed still because of the defensive combination. We need more athleticism at full back, Aluko for Thomas would be the obvious switch and I'd honestly go Nelson and Okoli and try and be more aggressive across the back line to engage the space.

Comparing statistics to the 23/24 season, the pace of play in the Championship has certainly picked up. Under Maresca our direct speed was 1.61, making us the fifth slowest. Under Cifuentes it’s currently 1.74, but we’re currently the joint fourth slowest team in the league actually along with Middlesbrough, but a large factor to Middlesbrough’s good start to the season is their defensive work. 
 

As myself and others have pointed out, both in attack and defensive, some of our current statistics are seriously shoddy. 
 

Fatawu currently leads our xG statistic, but of Championship players he just about squeezes on Opta’s first page in 49th place. It evidently shows we can’t keep relying on Fatawu to score a worldie every week. Bloody Jannik Vestergaard ranks 2nd for us for xG, that’s just laughable. 
 

If these metrics continue, we have a mid-table finish written all over us. 

[teblin]

6 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Not sure in one breath we can lambast our recruitment whilst we were in the top flight, and then suggest being in the top flight was to our conclusive benefit.

No, I’m not saying it’s right but only 2 years ago we won this division. So rightly or wrongly marti will be judged against that.

[Guppys Love Child]

On 21/10/2025 at 21:48, DB11 said:

No point changing manager every few months when we have the same useless and uninspiring squad 

I agree.  But.......

 

 It's how he's using this (useless and uninspiring) squad that he should be judged on. Its obvious from the individual performances on the pitch who cuts the mustard or not,

 

Soumare the Jogging Donkey, Wout with his weekly brainfarts, Ayew looking to fall on his @rse in the hope of gaining free kicks or his passback I promising areas routine. Daka who couldn't score in a brothel in Amsterdam with 10 Euros in his hand, we know who the culprits are, and their actions are costing us week after week but Marti is continuing to pick them. 

Our alternative "senior"player's  it pains me are just as bad, your  BdCR's, your Skip's  so put your money where your mouth is Marti and play some of the youth.

 

It can't be any worse, yes they.may make mistakes but our senior players have being doing just that regularly and for months on end.   If his not willing to explore this as an option and continues as is, well he can't complain when he gets his P45

[jv1]

Mid table manager and mid table squad of players - get used to it - find a way to enjoy your football even if that’s not coming from the club , the players or the manager

 

im bored of being angry and cheesed off about the whole thing - hard to not lose the plot watching games like Tuesday - its painful isn’t it 

 

ill just be concentrating on taking my dad & daughter every week and us chatting about football nonsense and trying my best not to lose my temper - my expectations are currently zero- we are truly woeful  - after the points deduction I’m thinking staying up this year is going to be a challenge 

[Sly]

I don’t think that you can call this squad poor to be honest.

 

Footballers at this level are not that different in terms of level of ability. This is why when 1st plays 24th it can be 0-0 after 90 minutes as they cancel each other out. 

 

What sets them apart is football IQ and tactical awareness. 
 

I think the muppets that are King Power though will quickly realise, whilst not investing may have saved them a few quid in the short term; getting out of this league is a nightmare and we’ve been spoilt with great Coaches / Managers in Maresca and Pearson and the setups and team they had around them.

 

You can’t expect to build the same quality Pyramids of Giza with expert builders, if you have a child telling them what to do and not an exceptional leader. 

[honeybradger]

50 minutes ago, trooky said:

Lampard has had 33 games and 11 months to get his ideas across, let's judge Marti after the same period. 

Why are we comparing ourselves to Coventry who are 1st and ahead of ourselves by some distance.

 

We are 9th, a more apt comparison would be to Cifuentes's previous team in QPR who are now sat above us at 8th. Both managers been in position for a similar period.

[Ric Flair]

55 minutes ago, trooky said:

Lampard has had 33 games and 11 months to get his ideas across, let's judge Marti after the same period. 

Lampard improved Cov almost immediately and hasn't really suffered a drop off. This season they have then taken it to the next level despite their fans and a general sense of a poor summer transfer window.

[Foxin_Mad]

3 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

Still he hasn’t got them players so can’t really compare it as we havent bought one defender in the window and lost 6 first team players and that is our main problem area, We have a limited squad sure he can make some changes he’s only had 11 games in charge though

 

Also not easy to score goals when you don’t have a striker capable of doing it 

Its not easy to score goals when you piss about passing between centre backs. The squad was bloated and needed clearing out. This manager has more than enough players to create a reasonable attacking side that can create and score enough chances not to be mid table in this division. He is absolute garbage and needs to go before we are relegated, which will happen if he stays imo. 

[OntarioFox]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Not sure in one breath we can lambast our recruitment whilst we were in the top flight, and then suggest being in the top flight was to our conclusive benefit.

It's an albatross around our neck, really. The standards we expect as fans are higher - doesn't make us entitled, we've just seen what hard work and the right attitude can produce, even when your options are technically limited.

 

We've had diminishing returns for the best part of a decade now, while throwing a top-six Premier League budget at it, and there aren't any clubs (besides Wrexham) daft enough to take the dross we've signed off our hands.

 

I honestly feel the window we've had was decent (except for Carranza so far). They're the caliber of player we want - both JJ and Ramsey have a decent skillset and seem to have a good attitude. But nothing changes until the awful, underperforming or in some cases downright toxic personnel we're still stuck with (Faes, Soumare, Skipp, Daka, Thomas, Vestergaard, cases to be made also for Ayew, Choudhury, Kristiansen and even Winks) are moved on. That's half the matchday squad who have question marks over their ability or attitude.

 

The likes of Cov don't have that problem. Their squad will be on low wages and feel they have a point to prove. A lot of the morons in our own squad probably think they've already 'made it' and see this season as a stop-gap before another payday comes along.

 

Obviously it comes with the asterisk of them all being on loan, but like I said it was a decent window on the whole and a low risk one too. We brought in at least two players that improve the team and got rid of a handful of wastemen. But the issue is, the level of rot in the squad is so high that it's barely scratched the surface. All we've done is chiselled the first icicle off a frozen turd.

Edited 23 October 2025 by OntarioFox

[Manwell Pablo]

6 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Never said Ruud was competitive, and he was worse than Cooper but I also don't think being last for pretty much every metric under Cooper and relying on Hermansen every game is competitive but sure thing.

 

Had we had people running the club with any kind of initiative when it comes to appointing managers, things could of perhaps turned out different

 

Whilst I find that very difficult to believe, there is still only one metric that matters. It was pretty much a well known fact RVN was going to be the replacement, that is what irked me most about his dismissal. 

 

But I wont ague with the second point. Ideally, we wouldn't have hired either of them in the first place. 

[john ridley]

The difference  between us and Cov is a number of things down to Top ,and Rudkin mainly.Cov don't train at a 5 star country club ,haven't got many big time Charlie's who've  played in the Premier,arnt  on obscene wages and would see promotion as a step up to better things. The main thing is they want to be there ,play for each other and whether  you like him or not Lampard has turned them around almost  instantly. They've  got an owner who's  got the place  buzzing like we were under Pearson ,also theyve been  starved of not much success so to be top and scoring  for fun you can see why they're  going to take some stopping.

[Winstonthedog]

7 hours ago, Stuntman_Mike said:

Calling for him to go at this stage is daft.

Very much so ... he has to have a full season and hopefully some additions in the next window... its difficult near impossible to get a tune out of the deadwood and players who are near the exit door 

[Winstonthedog]

3 hours ago, john ridley said:

The difference  between us and Cov is a number of things down to Top ,and Rudkin mainly.Cov don't train at a 5 star country club ,haven't got many big time Charlie's who've  played in the Premier,arnt  on obscene wages and would see promotion as a step up to better things. The main thing is they want to be there ,play for each other and whether  you like him or not Lampard has turned them around almost  instantly. They've  got an owner who's  got the place  buzzing like we were under Pearson ,also theyve been  starved of not much success so to be top and scoring  for fun you can see why they're  going to take some stopping.

We have a good few players who have played in the Premier league ... but very very few who are Premier league players .... and that's the difference 

[Claridge]

19 hours ago, murphy said:

Wolves and Palace had us out of the relegation zone, not Cooper. 

They gave us the points😳

[Dahnsouff]

Anyone know how long it took Pearson to a) clear the decks, and b) implement his style on the misfits he took over?

Understand Pearson was obviously a more appealing no-nonsense persona mind.

[Ric Flair]

10 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Anyone know how long it took Pearson to a) clear the decks, and b) implement his style on the misfits he took over?

Understand Pearson was obviously a more appealing no-nonsense persona mind.

1st time or 2nd time around? 

[Dahnsouff]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

1st time or 2nd time around? 

Both

[RedSoxUK]

As it gone yet?

[jv1]

I judge a manager on if I honestly believe I could do a lot better personally as gaffer with what we have available- I gave him benefit of the doubt first 2 months but not any more - I absolutely 100% would do a better job with our squad than he is doing and that quite frankly is pathetic - OUT