" So The Status Quo Is To Remain "

And the Status Quo being the Board continue to back our Manager which I suppose does raise the question of should this surprise any of us. I for one am not surprised afterall following the playoff defeat last May TG made it very clear that the club would regroup and plan to target automatic promotion for this season, if I remember correctly he said immediately following the playoff defeat that we didn't want to go through that again.

So meetings were held the manager was asked to develop a plan which would deliver their expressed target i.e. automatic promotion this season. This whole process coupled with the clear backing of the board to the manager had the effect of increasing expectation levels amongst the fans and it is these expectation levels which are now being used as a stick to beat fans with as our team falter in the attempt to deliver this seasons primary target.

Whilst many fans have been calling for the Managers head this season others have argued that we should stick with him, maintain the status quo as replacing the manager mid season or at this late stage would be to radical a change. Some even argue that by questioning the current performance of the team is to create negativity and people who do this are weak, personally I think that when we passively accept the status quo without challenging or questioning events that is the greater display of weakness.

As fans we should concentrate on affecting what we can affect and the only way we can do that is by supporting the team, not individuals within the team but the whole group. If we do our part then the rest is up to the team. manager and of course the board.

Whatever the final outcome of this season anything other than automatic promotion will be a failure against the primary target, set by the Board and Manager, some may think I'm being unreasonable but I didn't set the target others did and if we don't achieve the target I expect there to be consequences.

These concequences will need to go beyond the development of yet another plan to target automatic promotion next season and I just hope the board will agree with me.

I hope DJ reads this because his total flogging of respect for us and continuous stream of blags he produces when addressing the media is as transparent as his tactics and motivational skills

Status Quo yeah we are going down the dust pipe

Down down deeper and down

when we reach the prem we will be rocking all over the world

Another well thought out post Castle and I can't fault your reasoning.

I watched Match of the Day last night and Aston Villa fans were unvailing banners calling for the head of Gerard Hollier and he has only been there a few months.

We have had DJ for 6 years and in football managerial terms thats a lifetime. We have plenty of evidence to judge him on and that evidence tells us he and his team will choke. It's no good saying 'He's taken us to Wembley 3 times' because the end product is nothing, zilch, zero.

We certainly seem to be heading for another choke so I fail to see why it is not worth taking a gamble and giving Terry Burton a chance to shine over the final 8 games, rather than take another trip down failure lane.

Agree. Im sure when DJ was appointed, [in the summer 05] a five year plan was commissioned, & one of the objective was promotion to the Premiership by 2010, amoung other things. This objective not having been met, a further twelve months were added in order to achieve this business objective. Failiure to achieve this by the end of this sesaon will be failiure on a mamouth proportion, & undrestandably, from a business point of view, would need to result in a total over haul of the total business operation & long term planning of the business going forward. Heads would roll for sure.

will the board roll over and lie down

Another well thought out post Castle and I can't fault your reasoning.

I watched Match of the Day last night and Aston Villa fans were unvailing banners calling for the head of Gerard Hollier and he has only been there a few months.

We have had DJ for 6 years and in football managerial terms thats a lifetime. We have plenty of evidence to judge him on and that evidence tells us he and his team will choke. It's no good saying 'He's taken us to Wembley 3 times' because the end product is nothing, zilch, zero.

We certainly seem to be heading for another choke so I fail to see why it is not worth taking a gamble and giving Terry Burton a chance to shine over the final 8 games, rather than take another trip down failure lane.

Well said Tony, the time is nigh!

Whatever the final outcome of this season anything other than automatic promotion will be a failure against the primary target, set by the Board and Manager, some may think I'm being unreasonable but I didn't set the target others did and if we don't achieve the target I expect there to be consequences.

The bit in bold is spot on.

If we fail to improve on last season, I've always said that that renders Jones' position at the club impossible to maintain.

As it stands, we're not doing worse than last season, so he stays. Fairly simple really.

Cheers Castleblue another good post

I think the expectations of the club and there for the fans ,were raised by TG due to the lack of his inexperience in football.
I think after the play off TG may have thought, that we were so near it ,that it wouldn't take much to get us there this time.

Like a lot of people the bring in of Bellers was the last link in a, for sure winning team for Cardiff this season, or so we all thought. How could we fail now? That was the question we were all asking our self's, and the replys we and everyone was getting back was , YOU CANT FAIL ,not with this squad .After all did the Manager himself tell us, this was the best squad we or he had put together ?

This was also I'm sure the thought not only with us but the board. After all TG was the guy with the money and so the board would go along with anything that TG thought or was thinking,after all he was the money guy, and they all respect that.

Also the Media and all the Fans were also happy to follow in them steps, and why not ? After all we are all willing to except success are we not ?.
But of course behind all the happy happy times now being shown by nearly everyone. We have the Media waiting in the wings for the wheel to come off the happy band wagon, and they didn't have to wait long.

Come November not only did we have a wheel wobble but it come right off and the horses bolted like bats out of hell. Leaving the fans to try some how to come to terms with this yearly on going slump of form yet again.

O Yes our expectations were about to be dealt a big blow, and the shit started to fly, and is still being thrown around now.
We all know the saying , Football is a funny old game, many more twist and turns will come before the final whistle is blown and the last football is kicked. But while that ball is in play and that final whistle has yet to be blown, lets give the players who wear that shirt of Blue with the bluebird on there chest our full backing.
I think in some way we are all guilty of thinking the premiership was ours for the taken,and that it was only who was going to go up with us.
We have all been drawn into over expectations and hope building by words from TG who knows nothing about football and a manager that knows about Football but has his limitations as the players who play for us do. I would say we are all victims of our own high expectaions. If you have seen any of my replys to post you will always see this and its so true ,> NOTHING IN LIFE IS MORE CERTAIN, THAN LIFE IS COMPLETLY UNCERTAIN

Philosophical but ture.