Fenlon hate-in

[Billy McKirdy]

I expect pelters for this bearing in mind the inconsistent nature of Fenlon's tenure and subsequent results.
But it seems to me that Pat Fenlon will never do for many posters on here no matter how the team performs.
He has an impossible task winning over his critics and even though he's got us on a relatively decent run at the moment. As soon as a crap result like today's happen, the knives are ready to be plunged deeply.
What does he have to do to satisfy the most fervent critics?

[JMac]

A lot of hibs fans do really like him as a person, however a lot of them are just getting fed up with the terrible brand of football he has us playing. The only game I've actually enjoyed due to footballing reasons is the St Mirren game. With the squad we've got, we could be playing amazing football, tearing apart a lot of teams however we never go out to win games. I don't think we should sack him, (We're still top 6 after all) However don't offer him a new contract at the end of the season. He's had plenty of chances to get us playing well and he hasn't succeeded. Yes the results are decent on the whole but with a young up and coming manager with bright new ideas, I think we could easily be the 2nd best team in Scotland.

[Davy Mac]

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A lot of hibs fans do really like him as a person, however a lot of them are just getting fed up with the terrible brand of football he has us playing. The only game I've actually enjoyed due to footballing reasons is the St Mirren game. With the squad we've got, we could be playing amazing football, tearing apart a lot of teams however we never go out to win games. I don't think we should sack him, (We're still top 6 after all) However don't offer him a new contract at the end of the season. He's had plenty of chances to get us playing well and he hasn't succeeded. Yes the results are decent on the whole but with a young up and coming manager with bright new ideas, I think we could easily be the 2nd best team in Scotland.

Don't think we as a club think like a 2nd best team in Scotland, no swagger, we're timid and seem frightened to evolve, although we would win hands down at building a club's infrastructure, just take a look at ER & EM and you can see why we think we would look like a 2nd team in Scotland but I don't think we genuinely believe it or we would probably sell the players either in the aftermath or in the process of doing something special.

Sad but true in my opinion

[cocopops1875]

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A lot of hibs fans do really like him as a person, however a lot of them are just getting fed up with the terrible brand of football he has us playing. The only game I've actually enjoyed due to footballing reasons is the St Mirren game. With the squad we've got, we could be playing amazing football, tearing apart a lot of teams however we never go out to win games. I don't think we should sack him, (We're still top 6 after all) However don't offer him a new contract at the end of the season. He's had plenty of chances to get us playing well and he hasn't succeeded. Yes the results are decent on the whole but with a young up and coming manager with bright new ideas, I think we could easily be the 2nd best team in Scotland.

Is/was Fenlon not a "young up and coming manager" ?

[Fergus52]

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A lot of hibs fans do really like him as a person, however a lot of them are just getting fed up with the terrible brand of football he has us playing. The only game I've actually enjoyed due to footballing reasons is the St Mirren game. With the squad we've got, we could be playing amazing football, tearing apart a lot of teams however we never go out to win games. I don't think we should sack him, (We're still top 6 after all) However don't offer him a new contract at the end of the season. He's had plenty of chances to get us playing well and he hasn't succeeded. Yes the results are decent on the whole but with a young up and coming manager with bright new ideas, I think we could easily be the 2nd best team in Scotland.

Sums it up pretty well

[PeterboroHibee]

I think Fenlon seems like a decent bloke, but I dont think I will ever like him as a manager (unless he changes his approach to the game). Whenever I watch us, there doesnt seem to be any game plan, to the point the players dont look like they even know what they are doing. I think we have a reasonably good group of players, but the football is absolutely turgid, its really not how football should be played in my eyes. This season we have done well to accumulate the number of points we have so far, but when you look at some of the performances we have been unbelievably lucky, with the opposition wasting numerous chances and missing sitters. I also think he is very lucky to still be in a job after some of the horrendous performances/results he has been manager for.

[SouthamptonHibs]

P aa t I'd like a second duck, unwanted and useless must win'on Wed or he must walk ****ing terrible manager

[NORTHERNHIBBY]

The old adage about doing your talking on the pitch has to apply here. Keeping a manager in place because you like him is amateurish. I know it is tenuous sometime to make comparisons with your own life but I really don't like my boss. In fact not a lot of people do but to be fair, he knows that and says his remit is not to be liked but to deliver results based on his ideas and methods.

[Pretty Boy]

Pat may be the nicest man in the world, he's certainly seemed ok the few times i've met him, but his team are killing my enthusiasm for Hibs.

There's an argument for being harder to beat but there has to be a balance. I think i can honestly say i have enjoyed about 1 and a half games this season. I spent most of the 2nd half yesterday playing chess on my phone before nipping to the pub as the 2nd goal went in. Under Pat Hibs are dull as ditchwater.

[Brightside]

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Pat may be the nicest man in the world, he's certainly seemed ok the few times i've met him, but his team are killing my enthusiasm for Hibs.

There's an argument for being harder to beat but there has to be a balance. I think i can honestly say i have enjoyed about 1 and a half games this season. I spent most of the 2nd half yesterday playing chess on my phone before nipping to the pub as the 2nd goal went in. Under Pat Hibs are dull as ditchwater.

The football is rubbish and not getting better. If there was a glimmer of him trying to play some attacking football it would be different. I want him to resign today before he manages to get us beat by Hearts again! (Obv this wont happen and we have him for the rest of the year)

[J-C]

No one hates him just the football he's giving us, killing our club slowly with his eye bleeding guff football.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Here's a question. Yogi or Fenlon?

Yogi got us 4th and got the bullet and if Rod is to be believed left us with this unworkable legacy which Calderclown merely compounded. But Yogi in terms of targets succeeded. But things were in decline and youth was not being developed it seems.

Folks wanted includes :
root and branch change
- Fenlon changed coaching staff and scouting netowkr
rid of deadwood
- Pat shipped out the deadweight sand brought in better players
a change in attitude
- Waters muddied with change in personnel this season but I think there's been some positive changes. Consistency the real problem. To go unbeaten against them for a season should be recognised after those horrible defeats.
introduction of youth
- I'd argue that Pat has done that more than other recent managers perhaps protecting too much but still giving opportunities.
an attractive brand of fast flowing-entertaining fooball
- Fail. Pat just doesn't seem to get across his ideas (I'm guessing) to the players or he's looking to build confidence from a platform built on staunch defense then transitions to more expansive stuff - maybe the players don't have the confidence for that at home - bizarre. Whatever the issue it's his job to resolve it.

Has the other areas of improvement taken it's toll on Pat he took on a huge job and done better in some areas than others. I still think that it'll be a case of others reaping the benefits of his efforts...

[Booked4Being-Ugly]

Fenlon will never take us beyond mediocrity and we will be lucky to make the top six this year.

I think I'm the only one on the forum though that doesn't share the opinion that Fenlon has built a decent squad.

[Winston Ingram]

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I expect pelters for this bearing in mind the inconsistent nature of Fenlon's tenure and subsequent results.
But it seems to me that Pat Fenlon will never do for many posters on here no matter how the team performs.
He has an impossible task winning over his critics and even though he's got us on a relatively decent run at the moment. As soon as a crap result like today's happen, the knives are ready to be plunged deeply.
What does he have to do to satisfy the most fervent critics?

I don't know why it seems like this. I've watched his dross for 2 years and up until this season never wanted rid. I do now because I feel after 2 years, signing nearly 30 players, continual pish performances and bad tactical decisions I've come to the conclusion that he is not capable.

The 'hate-in' as you call is extremely well reasoned if you ask me.

If we started playing well then maybe but after 2 years of pish, I've not seen anything whatsoever to suggest that will change.

[Jack]

One shot on goal in the first half.

45% possession.

From reading that you might think it was a team playing Real Madrid in Madrid.

We were playing Aberdeen at Easter Road and it seems pretty typical of matches of late.

Pat had a mountain to climb in all manner of things when joined the club and has apparently done wonders in many of these things.

However he has to be judged on 90 minutes of football each weekend (and midweek :-) and that is miserable. Many say it doesn't matter the result if we play well. Well what we have now is folk, rightfully greetin in their beer even when we win!

[marinello59]

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What does he have to do to satisfy the most fervent critics?

Resign.

[Saorsa]

He just needs tae go before he drives everybody else away. Nice guy but this just winnae do, it's beyond ****in' awful.

[Bobby's Cinema]

Lets be clear, Pat will hail top six as an achievement. I say again, TWO HOME WINS in 2013. So have we been getting the results? Aligned to this, the argument of "you were moaning we weren't getting the results, and you're still moaning now we're we're winning" doesn't stand up when the football is as god awful as this

[Heisenberg]

Fenlon has had so much time to get it right but we're still lacking in key areas which he had the entire summer to fix. I've lost all patience with him tbh.

[hibsitis]

We are 6th having failed to beat any of the teams above us in the league, four of which almost certainly have substantially smaller budgets than us. We're 2 ahead of the Jags, who have a game in hand. They also should have beaten us recently given the appalling quality of football we played that night.

A lot of comment supporting Fenlon has asked for time for his team to 'gel' as has he. McInnes has had less than half the time Fenlon has and has achieved a lot more. Yesterday we had 45% of possession and no shots on target - and we were playing at home. A good manager outperforms his budget and PF has done the opposite.

My son and I haven't been back since the Malmo game and have seen nothing to tempt me back. Any decent result is just papering over the cracks so evident yesterday. I asked my son yesterday if he was missing Easter Road and he replied, "not really".

The board have not bitten the bullet on Fenlon because their credibility is at stake. Sad but true. Fenlon's approach is designed to limit damage and enable him to point (maybe) to a top six finish and an, on paper, improvement during his tenure, including two (awful) cup finals. The results will be airbrushed when he applies for his next job and both his and the board's contributions will be suitably spun as having steadied the ship and achieved improvement as we wave him goodbye at the end of this season.

[matty_f]

I think a lot of folk are like me in that they desperately want to see Fenlon succeed. I've tried as best as I could to look for positives in what has been a good recent run of results but there is no hiding from the fact that over probably the last 3-4 years there's been only about ten games (if that) where I've really enjoyed the game.
Sitting through games where we muster 3 chances in 90 minutes is not my idea of fun, paying 400-odd quid to do it even less so.

[Cropley10]

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I think a lot of folk are like me in that they desperately want to see Fenlon succeed. I've tried as best as I could to look for positives in what has been a good recent run of results but there is no hiding from the fact that over probably the last 3-4 years there's been only about ten games (if that) where I've really enjoyed the game.
Sitting through games where we muster 3 chances in 90 minutes is not my idea of fun, paying 400-odd quid to do it even less so.

Compare with Derek McInnes, in the job for about 15 mins and Aberdeen just ping it about, mostly on the deck, keep it patient, scored two good goals and never looked under threat.

Meanwhile our football seems to be play it about a bit, give it back to the Centre Backs, who lump it into the Channels, or hope Heff can get a flick on and they make a mistake.

Eye. Bleeding. Stuff.

[jeffers]

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Fenlon will never take us beyond mediocrity and we will be lucky to make the top six this year.

I think I'm the only one on the forum though that doesn't share the opinion that Fenlon has built a decent squad.

You're not. I completely agree. We have a decent keeper and between all the options a couple of decent central defenders. We have some good midfielders and one decent striker. Then consider we have a second choice left back playing right back, a central defender playing left back, almost zero pace in the squad and very little creativity. He has definitely signed some good players, but a good squad ? Not for me. But in saying all that I think a decent manager could have the squad playing a lot better than Fenlon has.

[Bobo]

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I expect pelters for this bearing in mind the inconsistent nature of Fenlon's tenure and subsequent results.
But it seems to me that Pat Fenlon will never do for many posters on here no matter how the team performs.
He has an impossible task winning over his critics and even though he's got us on a relatively decent run at the moment. As soon as a crap result like today's happen, the knives are ready to be plunged deeply.
What does he have to do to satisfy the most fervent critics?

He doesn't do himself any favours by persistently playing players out of position and conceding majority of possession in home games to average teams like Motherwell and Aberdeen!

He gives no belief or conviction to his squad by stifling the way they can express themselves and play in games, he has his team starting games with the frame of mind that they're already a goal behind!

He's the most negative manager I've seen at Easter Road and he has grossly underachieved in building an exciting, winning team to capture the imagination of the Hibs support.

The end of the season can't come soon enough for me as it's pretty clear we'll just make up the numbers again in another bland, wasted season for the club, and it's supporters, who have been deprived of entertainment for so long. By that time Fenlon will hopefully be gone and we'll have another manager who can hopefully break our 7 years of football purgatory, stop us treading water and make Easter Road an enjoyable place to watch football again?

[johnrebus]

Have not seen Hibs since 19th May 2012, and doubt if I ever will again.

Forty five years I think is enough for anyone to be - mostly - pissed all over, for an emotional attachment.


Pat Fenlon has presided over the worst results in our history and yet remains in the job.

We have an owner who does not give a **** and I won't ever bother to comment on Petrie.


But the worst thing of all is our lack of identity.

There is nothing to distinguish us anymore from other Scottish clubs.

We were famous for playing in a certain way, but now even that has gone.


I have nothing but admiration for the 10,000 or so who keep turning up to watch this *****, but my spirit is broken and I freely admit it.

[chinaman]

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The old adage about doing your talking on the pitch has to apply here. Keeping a manager in place because you like him is amateurish. I know it is tenuous sometime to make comparisons with your own life but I really don't like my boss. In fact not a lot of people do but to be fair, he knows that and says his remit is not to be liked but to deliver results based on his ideas and methods.

great post sums it up for me.nice man totally inept
Manager at my team so time for him to bolt. If we lose to that pish midweek he'll surely be ushered out the building.

[JimBHibees]

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Fenlon will never take us beyond mediocrity and we will be lucky to make the top six this year.

I think I'm the only one on the forum though that doesn't share the opinion that Fenlon has built a decent squad.

I agree with that I think it is completely unbalanced and lacks pace and energy. Defensively poor also.

[blackpoolhibs]

I don't hate him, but i do hate his style of football.

[Hibbyradge]

Right up till 1.30pm yesterday, I was going to the game.

Then the memory of our performances against everyone bar St Mirren kicked in and I decided to stay away. I just knew it would be woeful.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that I don't wake up in the night, screaming, after dreaming about the Partick Thistle game.

I fully expect us to play badly and lose on Wednesday, so I'm out, and I won't be back until our style of play improves drastically.

[fishybeaver]

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Right up till 1.30pm yesterday, I was going to the game.

Then the memory of our performances against everyone bar St Mirren kicked in and I decided to stay away. I just knew it would be woeful.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that I don't wake up in the night, screaming, after dreaming about the Partick Thistle game.

I fully expect us to play badly and lose on Wednesday, so I'm out, and I won't be back until our style of play improves drastically.

Stay away pls, as well as winners on the park, we need winners in the stands, not more moaning from people who can't be arse going. We were on a decent run in the last 9 games, have been to 2 Scottish cup finals in the last two years, yet folk like you are on suicide watch because we lost to Aberdeen, due to an individule error, poor finising from our striker and a sucker punch.