David Sharpe is Stags' new chief executive

[oldweststander]

I’d just like to know where the hell is our midfield? A pathetic performance from that area in particular. No cover for the defence at all. Lincoln players had 10 yards of space around them all the time. Abject in reality.

The lack of midfield creativity and calmness has been apparent from the first game.
Everybody wants the ball then treats it like a hot potato. O'Keefe who in my mind works his socks off, is being called upon more and more to move the ball forward, thought Perch was OK in a holding role but Clarke and particularly Maris have been extremely disappointing. The back three look unsure but I feel, on Saturday, Stone looked more assured than Stech has so far.

[MTFCMusings]

It’s more of a structural problem, rather than an indivisible problem IMO. It’s no coincidence that every midfielder doesn’t show for the ball, they’re playing to instruction. Perch showed on Saturday because he was specified to sit in front of the defence.

[Tippy Tappy Football]

It didn't take David Sharpe long to fire Malky Mackay at Wigan Athletic. He was appointed Chairman on 3rd March 2015 and sacked Mackay on 5th April 2015. He also sacked Gary Caldwell after 14 games in late October 2016 after Caldwell got Wigan promoted to the Championship. He then appointed Warren Joyce as Wigan manager on 3rd November 2016 but sacked him four months' later on 13th March 2017. He appointed Paul Cook as manager on 31st May 2017.

"Sharpe was appointed as chairman after his grandfather's resignation in March 2015. At the age of 23, he became one of the world's youngest football bosses. Sharpe's appointment came with shock and scepticism from both fans and the media as the youngest chairman in English football. Sharpe’s first major decision was to sack Malky Mackay on Easter Monday after a 2-0 home defeat to Derby County. With 5 games remaining till the end of the season Sharpe appointed former club captain Gary Caldwell, however Wigan Athletic fell short and were relegated to League One.

The 2015/2016 season, Sharpe and Caldwell’s first full season, saw the club winning League One and being promoted to the Championship.

Ahead of the new championship season further recruitment was made for key players such as Jordi Gomez, Nick Powell and Dan Burn. In the championship season 2016/ 2017 and after a run of 14 games with only 2 victories Sharpe made the bold decision to sack Gary Caldwell. Sharpe appointed Warren Joyce from Manchester United who came highly recommended from well-known names such as Sir Alex Ferguson. Joyce had previously turned down manager roles at Burnley and Blackburn. However, results didn't bring the change that the appointment of a new manager had expected. In March 2017, Joyce was sacked. The club was now in a relegation battle and Graham Barrow took over as caretaker manager.

After relegation was confirmed Sharpe made the decision to approach Portsmouth for their manager Paul Cook. Cook was appointed in June 2017. Wigan managed to keep star players and under Cook dominated League One"

[gazza1988]

I’m not saying it’s pretty or anything, but we are not playing ‘hoof ball’ gotta take a step back sometimes and try and look at it fairly, despite the poor start and performances recently.

How about pointless kicks as hard as possible as far as possible?

Seriously though has anyone noticed that we like to take a touch and then pass? We looked our best with one touch passing or using out touch to get around players. It could be I was just hyper-aware last night but we almost appeared to take a touch or 2 and then pass to the player in the most space (usually a defender or goalkeeper) most of the time it was passed back into defence for defence to play as long a ball as possible to absolutely nobody in a amber shirt.

I want us to be successful but the mark of a successful team is one that still grinds out points even without playing well. Evans managed it and Flitcroft managed it which is why they did better in the league than we are now.

[stagmanrob]

As good as we are off the field, there has been no direction on it.

No serious thought out philosophy to run throughout the club.... no set DNA of this is "Mansfield Town FC" if you will.

I think Sedgewick has gone on about it time and time again on here if I'm right? (Apologies if not and it's the wrong poster) and I agree.

I seriously hoped by Sharpe becoming a DOF originally, that was to address JR's shortcomings on the football side, and clear as day to see lack of football knowledge.

Now he's the CEO, does that give him greater scope to be the man though to give us a DNA in the near future? Whilst ever COVID is an issue and the Radford's are in Portugal, you'd expect so. But given it's their money, and if they were able to be here more regularly, my opinion is that his influence will be far more watered-down.

Am I right in thinking that JR's appointment of Cox (his only really successful one) was taken with a lot more consideration and included a board vote?

His other appointments have included internal ones of Murray, Russell and Dempster who were pretty disastrous. External ones with big budgets - Evans and Flitcroft - whose styles of play are chalk and cheese.
Coughlan is another rookie on the face of it, little experience, with seemingly no real research from JR on what style he played, it was a case of, 4th in the league above with little money, and he lives locally.

In short, I think JR needs to let a football man do the football side of things, and that should be David Sharpe.

Only then can we create a club that has a continuous sense of direction on the field.

There's a reason we associate certain clubs with a certain brand of football. The question is, what is ours?
It's changed more than Carolyn's wardrobe, and therein lies the problem for me.

[ParisStag]

As good as we are off the field, there has been no direction on it.

No serious thought out philosophy to run throughout the club.... no set DNA of this is "Mansfield Town FC" if you will.

I think Sedgewick has gone on about it time and time again on here if I'm right? (Apologies if not and it's the wrong poster) and I agree.

I seriously hoped by Sharpe becoming a DOF originally, that was to address JR's shortcomings on the football side, and clear as day to see lack of football knowledge.

Now he's the CEO, does that give him greater scope to be the man though to give us a DNA in the near future? Whilst ever COVID is an issue and the Radford's are in Portugal, you'd expect so. But given it's their money, and if they were able to be here more regularly, my opinion is that his influence will be far more watered-down.

Am I right in thinking that JR's appointment of Cox (his only really successful one) was taken with a lot more consideration and included a board vote?

His other appointments have included internal ones of Murray, Russell and Dempster who were pretty disastrous. External ones with big budgets - Evans and Flitcroft - whose styles of play are chalk and cheese.
Coughlan is another rookie on the face of it, little experience, with seemingly no real research from JR on what style he played, it was a case of, 4th in the league above with little money, and he lives locally.

In short, I think JR needs to let a football man do the football side of things, and that should be David Sharpe.

Only then can we create a club that has a continuous sense of direction on the field.

There's a reason we associate certain clubs with a certain brand of football. The question is, what is ours?
It's changed more than Carolyn's wardrobe, and therein lies the problem for me.

Nail absolutely smashed ont ed.

[scotsstag]

As good as we are off the field, there has been no direction on it.

No serious thought out philosophy to run throughout the club.... no set DNA of this is "Mansfield Town FC" if you will.

I think Sedgewick has gone on about it time and time again on here if I'm right? (Apologies if not and it's the wrong poster) and I agree.

I seriously hoped by Sharpe becoming a DOF originally, that was to address JR's shortcomings on the football side, and clear as day to see lack of football knowledge.

Now he's the CEO, does that give him greater scope to be the man though to give us a DNA in the near future? Whilst ever COVID is an issue and the Radford's are in Portugal, you'd expect so. But given it's their money, and if they were able to be here more regularly, my opinion is that his influence will be far more watered-down.

Am I right in thinking that JR's appointment of Cox (his only really successful one) was taken with a lot more consideration and included a board vote?

His other appointments have included internal ones of Murray, Russell and Dempster who were pretty disastrous. External ones with big budgets - Evans and Flitcroft - whose styles of play are chalk and cheese.
Coughlan is another rookie on the face of it, little experience, with seemingly no real research from JR on what style he played, it was a case of, 4th in the league above with little money, and he lives locally.

In short, I think JR needs to let a football man do the football side of things, and that should be David Sharpe.

Only then can we create a club that has a continuous sense of direction on the field.

There's a reason we associate certain clubs with a certain brand of football. The question is, what is ours?
It's changed more than Carolyn's wardrobe, and therein lies the problem for me.

Says it all, and very well.

[arsene wengers coat]

As good as we are off the field, there has been no direction on it.

No serious thought out philosophy to run throughout the club.... no set DNA of this is "Mansfield Town FC" if you will.

I think Sedgewick has gone on about it time and time again on here if I'm right? (Apologies if not and it's the wrong poster) and I agree.

I seriously hoped by Sharpe becoming a DOF originally, that was to address JR's shortcomings on the football side, and clear as day to see lack of football knowledge.

Now he's the CEO, does that give him greater scope to be the man though to give us a DNA in the near future? Whilst ever COVID is an issue and the Radford's are in Portugal, you'd expect so. But given it's their money, and if they were able to be here more regularly, my opinion is that his influence will be far more watered-down.

Am I right in thinking that JR's appointment of Cox (his only really successful one) was taken with a lot more consideration and included a board vote?

His other appointments have included internal ones of Murray, Russell and Dempster who were pretty disastrous. External ones with big budgets - Evans and Flitcroft - whose styles of play are chalk and cheese.
Coughlan is another rookie on the face of it, little experience, with seemingly no real research from JR on what style he played, it was a case of, 4th in the league above with little money, and he lives locally.

In short, I think JR needs to let a football man do the football side of things, and that should be David Sharpe.

Only then can we create a club that has a continuous sense of direction on the field.

There's a reason we associate certain clubs with a certain brand of football. The question is, what is ours?
It's changed more than Carolyn's wardrobe, and therein lies the problem for me.

Literally what I've been saying for months. Each appointment is a polar opposite of the last, resulting in squads that are built to play a variety of ways, but do none well.

The board are without Vision, strategy, or plan. I doubt they know the difference, as such we have no remit for a managerial appointment.

It's a shambles.

[bobbystagsfan]

It's not really a shambles if you put it into perspective with other teams recently. Imagine if you were a Bury fan or Macclesfield. I bet their fans would do anything to still be able to support a league team.

Look at Oldham, it wouldn't surprise me if they went as well looking at how they're being run over the past few years. Bolton nearly went bust in league one and that was before the pandemic, Southend look like they've got a lot of debt too which could put them in trouble.

I know a lot of fans are frustrated with the lack of progress on the pitch recently, but I really do feel some fans need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It could be better, but it could be a hell of a lot worse.

[Sedgwick]

As good as we are off the field, there has been no direction on it.

No serious thought out philosophy to run throughout the club.... no set DNA of this is "Mansfield Town FC" if you will.

I think Sedgewick has gone on about it time and time again on here if I'm right? (Apologies if not and it's the wrong poster) and I agree.

I seriously hoped by Sharpe becoming a DOF originally, that was to address JR's shortcomings on the football side, and clear as day to see lack of football knowledge.

Now he's the CEO, does that give him greater scope to be the man though to give us a DNA in the near future? Whilst ever COVID is an issue and the Radford's are in Portugal, you'd expect so. But given it's their money, and if they were able to be here more regularly, my opinion is that his influence will be far more watered-down.

Am I right in thinking that JR's appointment of Cox (his only really successful one) was taken with a lot more consideration and included a board vote?

His other appointments have included internal ones of Murray, Russell and Dempster who were pretty disastrous. External ones with big budgets - Evans and Flitcroft - whose styles of play are chalk and cheese.
Coughlan is another rookie on the face of it, little experience, with seemingly no real research from JR on what style he played, it was a case of, 4th in the league above with little money, and he lives locally.

In short, I think JR needs to let a football man do the football side of things, and that should be David Sharpe.

Only then can we create a club that has a continuous sense of direction on the field.

There's a reason we associate certain clubs with a certain brand of football. The question is, what is ours?
It's changed more than Carolyn's wardrobe, and therein lies the problem for me.

Literally what I've been saying for months. Each appointment is a polar opposite of the last, resulting in squads that are built to play a variety of ways, but do none well.

The board are without Vision, strategy, or plan. I doubt they know the difference, as such we have no remit for a managerial appointment.

It's a shambles.

Yep ive been banging on about this for ages now. Ive never heard anyone say "playing the Mansfield Town way" because we have no footballing identity until the recent times of throwing money at big players regardless of how we play...

Time to evolve, set a philosophy and stick to it through thick and thin. Were not expecting to be Barcelona but were seriously lacking an identity and we go through a series of polar opposite managers and squads.

Honestly think Demps could have kept us up, P28 W7 D11 L10 would probably have evened out at something like W13 D16 L17 who knows but then we would have had the chance to start again, a clean slate but we've given GC a longer contract and missed the chance to start clean.

[Amber Andy]

I totally agree. Furthermore the speed of the appointments have always been a concern of mine. Yes, Dan even David Flitcroft's.

I take the view it should be a selection process with the three best candidates interviewed. I expressed this concern when GC was appointed, when no one else seemed to be in the frame. Infact I was ridiculed on here for saying so ( a danger for all of us on stagsnet, I know ).

Maybe the next appointment, whenever that is, will not be rushed and hopefully a wider range of candidates are considered.

[garlic]

Segdwick, Arsene Wengers Coat and yourself Stagmanrob have all been banging on, with myself, about a lack of ethos. The club has no identity no continuity of style which the next manager/s must continue. It lurches around looking for to buy itself success instead of building up for success as Crewe have just done. Unfortunately I cannot see it changing anytime soon.

[MTFCMusings]

As good as we are off the field, there has been no direction on it.

No serious thought out philosophy to run throughout the club.... no set DNA of this is "Mansfield Town FC" if you will.

I think Sedgewick has gone on about it time and time again on here if I'm right? (Apologies if not and it's the wrong poster) and I agree.

I seriously hoped by Sharpe becoming a DOF originally, that was to address JR's shortcomings on the football side, and clear as day to see lack of football knowledge.

Now he's the CEO, does that give him greater scope to be the man though to give us a DNA in the near future? Whilst ever COVID is an issue and the Radford's are in Portugal, you'd expect so. But given it's their money, and if they were able to be here more regularly, my opinion is that his influence will be far more watered-down.

Am I right in thinking that JR's appointment of Cox (his only really successful one) was taken with a lot more consideration and included a board vote?

His other appointments have included internal ones of Murray, Russell and Dempster who were pretty disastrous. External ones with big budgets - Evans and Flitcroft - whose styles of play are chalk and cheese.
Coughlan is another rookie on the face of it, little experience, with seemingly no real research from JR on what style he played, it was a case of, 4th in the league above with little money, and he lives locally.

In short, I think JR needs to let a football man do the football side of things, and that should be David Sharpe.

Only then can we create a club that has a continuous sense of direction on the field.

There's a reason we associate certain clubs with a certain brand of football. The question is, what is ours?
It's changed more than Carolyn's wardrobe, and therein lies the problem for me.

Said it for ages too, agree.

[stagmanrob]

Segdwick, Arsene Wengers Coat and yourself Stagmanrob have all been banging on, with myself, about a lack of ethos. The club has no identity no continuity of style which the next manager/s must continue. It lurches around looking for to buy itself success instead of building up for success as Crewe have just done. Unfortunately I cannot see it changing anytime soon.

Trying to rack my brain thinking of clubs who have an identity that are of similar size to us, and Crewe is the best example. They've always been notorious for youth development, and blips of relegations have usually followed from the selling off of their best assets and having to start again with a new intake of youth.
But they have never wavered from how they want to play from the first team downwards into the youth academy.

The more recent club to follow suit, is Exeter. They peresevered with one manager for a very long time in Tisdale, which probably helped though. And I suppose being fan owned with a lot of fan input played a big factor in that as well. When Tisdale moved on, they chose to promote from within to continue their DNA though, and they need commending for that.
Impressively they have sold on a lot of youth players for big profit. I would hazard a guess that our facilities now are better than at least Exeter's (maybe not Crewe's as I'd assume they have re-invested given their long success) so imagine if we developed a good ethos, just what benefits it could reap in the long-term.

I think Steve Hymas has shown his frustration on here in the past of having put a lot of his own time into the youth side, only for the first team manager to ignore it completely. That again boils down to any ethos of the club being non-existent.

I seriously hope Sharpe stays long enough here to have a productive influence.

[Amber Andy]

Segdwick, Arsene Wengers Coat and yourself Stagmanrob have all been banging on, with myself, about a lack of ethos. The club has no identity no continuity of style which the next manager/s must continue. It lurches around looking for to buy itself success instead of building up for success as Crewe have just done. Unfortunately I cannot see it changing anytime soon.

Trying to rack my brain thinking of clubs who have an identity that are of similar size to us, and Crewe is the best example. They've always been notorious for youth development, and blips of relegations have usually followed from the selling off of their best assets and having to start again with a new intake of youth.
But they have never wavered from how they want to play from the first team downwards into the youth academy.

The more recent club to follow suit, is Exeter. They peresevered with one manager for a very long time in Tisdale, which probably helped though. And I suppose being fan owned with a lot of fan input played a big factor in that as well. When Tisdale moved on, they chose to promote from within to continue their DNA though, amd they need commending for that.

Exeter is an excellent example.
I think the last time we had a semblance of that was in the Greaves era.

[ParisStag]

There are definitely clubs at our level with 'identities', whether good or bad, and they usually do well. Lincoln created a strong brand and tenacious style of play. Wycombe have a comraderie and very 'competitive', long ball style. Wimbledon of the 80s had the same. Fleetwood had a fast attacking style. All those teams, above all had a manager with a plan and great squad harmony.

[stag324]

Nice to be on thread that is a healthy debate, for a change.

For me, yes building from the base up is the right thing to do but that starts with our scouting system.

Last I read I think Martin was our most successful scout, which not saying I don't value his opinion pretty much sums up our scouting system.
Get this right and the right players will come here and we can then start to produce the right calibre of players to come into the first team.

We do need to stick with a manager for at least a couple of seasons as it will take time to create a winning time.
GC has bought in a younger squad, with some great potential, but thats all it is at the moment. They need time to gel and probably over the next 2/3 windows tweaking to get the right blend.

Re past appointments - I do think the Radfords are both emotional characters and have lead with thier heart when making appointments. Moving forward having David in position should allow a more experienced football person lead any recruitments for the club.

I would also look to bring in extra board members on this basis, because again we have emotional people sat around this table

[cassellswasmagic]

There are definitely clubs at our level with 'identities', whether good or bad, and they usually do well. Lincoln created a strong brand and tenacious style of play. Wycombe have a comraderie and very 'competitive', long ball style. Wimbledon of the 80s had the same. Fleetwood had a fast attacking style. All those teams, above all had a manager with a plan and great squad harmony.

Very true. I would say, long ball is not bad if it gets results. Long ball does get catagorised as bad but if you have a good target man and a foil for him (I’m thinking Rhead and Green) it’s very effective and can be good to watch too. It’s when it doesn’t work, it looks horrendous.
As someone has just posted, it’s great to see some proper debate. Sharpe has to have the time to get things right and also GC must be given more time. Wycombe’s manager was 90 minutes away from going into non league and probably being sacked, now look at them. COYS.

[Sedgwick]

Segdwick, Arsene Wengers Coat and yourself Stagmanrob have all been banging on, with myself, about a lack of ethos. The club has no identity no continuity of style which the next manager/s must continue. It lurches around looking for to buy itself success instead of building up for success as Crewe have just done. Unfortunately I cannot see it changing anytime soon.

Trying to rack my brain thinking of clubs who have an identity that are of similar size to us, and Crewe is the best example. They've always been notorious for youth development, and blips of relegations have usually followed from the selling off of their best assets and having to start again with a new intake of youth.
But they have never wavered from how they want to play from the first team downwards into the youth academy.

The more recent club to follow suit, is Exeter. They peresevered with one manager for a very long time in Tisdale, which probably helped though. And I suppose being fan owned with a lot of fan input played a big factor in that as well. When Tisdale moved on, they chose to promote from within to continue their DNA though, and they need commending for that.
Impressively they have sold on a lot of youth players for big profit. I would hazard a guess that our facilities now are better than at least Exeter's (maybe not Crewe's as I'd assume they have re-invested given their long success) so imagine if we developed a good ethos, just what benefits it could reap in the long-term.

I think Steve Hymas has shown his frustration on here in the past of having put a lot of his own time into the youth side, only for the first team manager to ignore it completely. That again boils down to any ethos of the club being non-existent.

I seriously hope Sharpe stays long enough here to have a productive influence.

The thing regarding our academy and one thing Steve doesn't get is the standard....

Kellan and Timi both played in a really successful premier league 2 side. The top tier of youth football and they come out about league two/one level. Our kids are a million miles from that because we mostly pick up other teams cast offs at exit trials rather than scouting local talent.

There is a way into the first team for our kids but the chance is slim, we need that club ethos to get them playing how the first team want to play and we need a clear strategy of loaning them out to a good standard of club like how we've Knowles at county rather than local sides like rainworth etc