The King is dead, again

Nigel Adkins has left his managerial role at Prenton Park by ‘mutual consent’. The 8th manager appointed by Mark Palios has now gone. It remains to be seen if we will have a 9th managed appointed before the fabled ‘takeover’ is complete.

8 managers in 11 years. This may be par for the course in the modern game, and two of those managers were Micky Mellon, but it suggests that post Tranmere our current Chairman shouldn’t be setting up an Executive search company. The only real success was during Micky Mellon’s first period. The optimism of that time has long since dissipated. 

In truth Micky Adams, Mike Jackson, Ian Dawes and Nigel Adkins failed to deliver the success we craved for. More worryingly, it’s almost 5 years since we have appointed a manager with any degree of longevity. Added to this some of our back room staff have been around on the scene longer. Andy Parkinson has spent a decade on the coaching staff, Joe Murphy has been with us 5 years, Neil Danns has been here over the past three seasons. Andy Crosby has been asked to take charge for our game on Saturday. Whilst he has joined the club relatively recently there is a sense that our back room staff have become too complacent. The view has been expressed that we need a radical overhaul. In the current circumstances that seems unlikely to happen.

There are now 13 games left to rescue our season. 6 home games, 7 away. The toughest matches are our home game against Port Vale, the following away game against Grimsby and the away game against Bradford. And then we also have Doncaster due at our place and Crewe. These are all teams that have realistic chances of currently challenging for promotion. We have a three games that currently look like not mattering against Cheltenham, Fleetwood, Chesterfield and our final game away at Newport County. However, such is the inconsistency of the Division any of these clubs could find themselves back in contention with a few successive wins. Then there are matches against fellow strugglers including  Bromley Accrington, Harrogate, Barrow, 

Our recent run of games represented our best chance of piling on points. Now we will really have our work cut out if we are to accumulate 47-48 points that may see us reach safety. I suspect we need 6 wins at least, and to pick up three or four draws if we are to stand a chance.  This is a tall order at the best of times, it’s even tougher with a squad that lacks confidence and has key players missing through injury. My understanding is that Kieron Morris will be back in contention for the weekend, albeit he is unlikely to start. It may be that some of the players who have been ruled out beyond the end of the season find the motivation to haul themselves back in to contention.

Parting company with Nigel Adkins at this point in the season seems like a public relations stunt. The decision should have been taken 6 weeks ago, but it was ducked. We are tenuously clinging on to our EFL status. This may be our great escape. Don’t count on it.