Quote wolfie="wolfie"looks to me like certain players dont want to play for him for whatever reasons.'"
Trying to be positive, hopefully one important reason is that they know he wants them out, as he should do.
Thinking of King, Tickle and Thorman in particular.
IMO, irrespective of the coaching issue we must stop being a "soft" club where players can take liberties. The best way to address this is to show some players the door even though they have contracts (as in the case of 2 of the players named above).
It's alright not renewing contracts when they expire but showing you're prepared to move someone out when they have a contract sends out the right message that if people don't do their job they can't expect to have one.
This is precisely what Leeds did 5 or 6 years ago. They kicked out at least 3 under contract players and their transformation into a trophy winning club started from there. No longer were they the underpeforming "soft" club where players loved to be for an easy ride.
As I remember it they said yes you have a contract and of course we will honour it, you can stay if you want but you will not be in the first team squad (and basically your career will be going down the drain).
The result - all those identified as surplus to requirements did leave. This is what we must do now.