Michael Wilde

[Rockford's Love Child]

I was reluctant to put this on the site, as the current rumours may be BS, but it has been suggested by several sources that this guy has either bought, or is close to buying Rovers. He is the former Southampton chairman who was in charge when they went into administration and narrowly avoided being liquidated. He seems less than popular with the majority of Saints fans, for obvious reasons.

As I say, the rumours may be nonsense but the Southampton forums do at least support the suggestion that he has made an offer for the club.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wilde

Local lad made good.

Still hope the Trust gets the club.

 

[Boz]

His time at Southampton doesn't inspire.

 

[bigmart]

one of his firms has just been liquidated

 

[frenchrover]

This rumour seems to have some credibility to it when linked to the new manager being George Burley, particularly as Burley was Southampton's manager during Wilde's first period as chairman of Southampton (2006/7) and who is looking to get back into football management having failed to get the Inverness Caledonian Thistle job for which he had been quoted as "being interested". A worry about this ownership is Mr Wilde's link to house-building and Rover's having land potentially available for......house-building! It just makes you wonder whether any interest in the club which Mr. Wilde may have is about the future of Tranmere Rovers FC or is seen by him as a "nice little earner"
Whether we like it or not (I personally hoped they would manage to get control, having subscribed myself) I think the Trust's ambitions to own the club are now a "busted flush" although I hope I'm wrong.
Having said all of this something has to happen at management level at the club as we are now in a dire situation under Ronnie Moore and it would be interesting to hear from those supporters who were saying earlier in the season give him until after Christmas. However dressed up, 2013 has been a disaster for Rovers under this management team and I think the change of ownership issue is the only reason Ronnie is still in the job.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Having said all of this something has to happen at management level at the club as we are now in a dire situation under Ronnie Moore and it would be interesting to hear from those supporters who were saying earlier in the season give him until after Christmas.

As it happens, my opinion has not changed at all (I assume you are referring to people like me ?) : if investment becomes available under new owners, I would like to see Ronnie given at least until the end of the season. Having seen all but one matches this season, we have been no worse or better than in any of the seasons under Parry. It is strange that you discuss the takeover issue at length but fail to recognise that our struggles on the pitch in the last five years (apart from one season under Moore) are inextricably linked to the financial constraints we are operating under.

When a reasonable budget has been available to him, Ronnie has never finished in the bottom half of this division in a 15 year career, let alone experienced relegation.

With regard to the takeover, I would hope that the new owner will work in tandem with Johnson and the Trust in the short term at least, to maintain some stability.

 

[bigmart]

Ronnie should be sacked we have had an appalling year and I find it amazing people still defend him, yes we haven't got a big budget but its not just down to that. He has made by and large poor singings this year (except Lowe )and the squad has had no balance to it at all and hasn't had all season. As for saying it no worse than under Parry wow that's hardly a cause for celebration is it.

If the new owner is Wilde or someone to put some money into the club I wouldn't trust Ronnie to spend it well & would think a new owner would want their own man in.

Our record for 2013 speaks for itself virtually every other club would have sacked their manager by now.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Ronnie should be sacked we have had an appalling year and I find it amazing people still defend him, yes we haven't got a big budget but its not just down to that. He has made by and large poor singings this year (except Lowe )and the squad has had no balance to it at all and hasn't had all season. As for saying it no worse than under Parry wow that's hardly a cause for celebration is it.

If the new owner is Wilde or someone to put some money into the club I wouldn't trust Ronnie to spend it well & would think a new owner would want their own man in.

Our record for 2013 speaks for itself virtually every other club would have sacked their manager by now.

Every manager we have had since 2009 has been operating with both hands tied behind their back and has struggled as a result. Some of the players brought in in the summer were poor and there are gaps in the squad: that is because we pay s**t wages and get largely s**t players as a result; we don't have a suffcient budget to have a balanced squad of our own players. This would have applied under ANY manager, whether Les Parry or Jose Mourinho.

How is our situation any different from Colchester / Gillingham / Crewe / Stevenage / Notts County / Shrewsbury (other than the fact we are not currently in the bottom four) ? The poorest clubs occupy the bottom half of the table and we are one of those clubs. Our goal is to stay up this season, as it has been every season for the last 5 years. We still have a decent chance of doing this. Yes, it would be better to see us 15th rather than 20th, but the ultimate objective is simply to stay up and the manager should not be sacked unless it it become impossible for us to achieve this.

I stated above that Ronnie has never been relegated from this division and has never finished below halfway when he has had a reasonable budget. Would you care to dispute those facts ? Or do they not fit with your simplistic argument ?

I have had this conversation with you so many times before I really don't want to rake over old ground again. We are not currently in the relegation zone and if money becomes available, in my view, Ronnie should be given an opportunity to improve the squad, at least until the end of the season.

 

[bigmart]

We have no balance to the squad we currently have 2 defenders available for the game tomorrow, he has wasted money on brining in rubbish players. Funny that Yeovil are in the championship and richer clubs are in league 1.

We have been dire for a full year would you care to dispute that?

We need a fresh manager with fresh ideas otherwise we will go down. as ive said any other manager at a club would've been sacked by now

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Whether other clubs would have sacked their manager is beside the point: many sackings are ill-informed and counter productive and there is no reason we should make the same mistakes as other clubs.

The season lasts from August to May, not January to December: last season we finished 11th, this season we are not currently in the relegation zone. So, yes, I am well aware of what has happended in 2013, but you don't get promoted or relegated for your performance in the calender year.

We did not have a proper balance to the squad under Parry or even last season under Moore when we more successful: this is because we can't afford a squad of 25 of our own players and are very reliant on loan signings, as are many of the poorer squads in the division. We brought in some rubbish players in the summer, but we did not necessarily waste money: we did not have significant money to 'waste' in the first place.

Yeovil have the smallest budget in the Championship and will be relegated as a result (spot the connection ?). Last season they over-achieved in League One. This was the exception, not the norm. We are not under-achieving any more than Notts County / Crewe / Stevenage / Gillingham / Carlisle / Colchester are : we are where we would expect to be given our resources. The wealthier clubs in League One are at the top of the table with the exception of a couple of under-achieving clubs (Bristol, Sheffield) who will still probably finish higher than they are at present; the poorer clubs are in the bottom half of the table. This applies in every division. Our goal is to stay up, not to win promotion or even finish in the top half, although it would be great if we could over-achieve as we did last season and finish above half way.

 

[bigmart]

We are in a total mess with 2 defenders currently for a game tomorrow against wolves. if Ronnie stays in charge all season we will be relegated.

I admire you sticking up for him but the fact is we have no balance to the squad and haven't had all season there is no planning in place just look at our current squad.

argue all you want about finances but the fact of the matter is that half decent planning and organisation we could have assembled a half decent squad and properly balanced squad but hey just take the easy answer of money

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Money is not an easy excuse, it is the obvious root of our problems. We have an experienced manager and he has been unable to put together a decent squad of permanent players with the resources we have available. We are always going to be heavily reliant on loan players and vulnerable when injuries hit. We are in exactly the same position as 7 or 8 other clubs in League One with low budgets.

We actually have six defenders in the squad who could play tomorrow, but four of them are injured.

You can scapegoat the manager if you want, just as you did with Parry, but it won't change the fundamentals of the situation. Unless we receive investment we will struggle and will be involved in relegation battles in most seasons.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

u want about finances but the fact of the matter is that half decent planning and organisation we could have assembled a half decent squad and properly balanced squad

How do you know this ? How easy do you think it is to put a squad together with our resources ? We can all identify weaknesses in the squad, but whether we have the money to address the problems without weakening the squad in a different area, is another matter entirely.

Just to give an example, when we signed Horwood Ronnie stated that he was not great quality but that he was the best that was available to us with the wages we were offering.

To give another example, yes a couple of other permanent defenders could have been signed, but in that case would we have been able to afford Lowe's wages ?

 

[bigmart]

we could have afforded to sign least another 1 defender on a permanent basis instead of wasting wages on a player who we all knew had bad injury record in Sodje.

Also we bring in Hateley who is a competent midfielder and can cover right back, then gets dropped doesn't get mentioned for ages then suddenly is injured.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

We needed to sign Sodje to make up numbers as we only had three players up front, one of whom (Akpro) has a bad injury record and has barely scored for a year, and another (Stockton) is just a kid learning the game. I agree that Sodje is rubbish, but after paying Lowe's wages we probably did not have enough money for a decent number two striker. Apparently, we approached Mooney but his wages were way beyond what we can afford (so even Orient are paying much higher wages than us).

I agree that Hateley should have been more involved but Jennings can do a similar job, probably better. It seems there was a faling out between Moore and Hateley, but that happens with all managers at times, not just Ronnie.

 

[bigmart]

Openly being critical of your players especially the loan players cannot help matters and could be behind the reason for McNulty & Ridehalgh not staying, rumour has it this is the reason behind Mcnulty going back but may just be a rumour.

With no game after tomorrow till the 11th is it too much to ask that the ownership issue might be resolved and announced?

 

[frenchrover]

Let's hope so Bigmart as we cannot continue the way things are at the moment. There is no doubt that Moore's public humiliation of his players has badly effected team spirit and it's no surprise that McNulty no longer wishes to be at TRFC.

 

[Boz]

I would agree that Ronnie's public slating of players hasn't helped our cause. He does appear to fall out with more players than most, which cannot help for recruiting loans. He also has very fixed ideas on central defenders, need to be built like Lurch and clear the lines quickly, hence he never gave Will Vaulks a chance. While I accept RLCs point about budget as being a significant factor in our position, it is not the only one.

If Wilde is taking over, I'd sincerely hope that George Burley isn't our next manager. Didn't he leave a previous job under something of a cloud? He's not been involved in managing for a while and would be a poor choice, unless the road to oblivion and asset-stripping is Mr Wilde's aim.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

There is no doubt that Moore's public humiliation of his players has badly effected team spirit and it's no surprise that McNulty no longer wishes to be at TRFC.

In fairness to Moore, most of the speculation regarding his 'falling out' with players is just that at the moment - speculation. So I am not sure how you can assert that his behaviour has unquestionably damaged team spirit.

I am basically saying about Moore what I have said about every manager in recent seasons: if it appears he can keep us in the division he should stay; if it looks certain he will take us down (as was the case with Barnes and Parry when they went) he should be replaced.

I agree with Boz that any new owner should not have preconceived ideas about bringing his mates to the club, regardless of their ability or experience of managing a team in our circumstances.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Due to our small budget and small squad, we are only ever a couple of injuries or suspensions away from a crisis. That's never going to change until the club gets its hands on some money. Imagine if Ryan Lowe gets suspended or even worse, injured..... The manager can only be blamed for certain things.

I've always had reservations about Ronnie, but the thought of George Burley being our manager brings me out in hives. Having watched him 'managing' Scotland, I'd not let him near a pub team, let alone Rovers. Also, he's been dismissed from a couple of jobs (Hearts, Derby) in very curious circumstances.