As a matter of interest who are these people you refer to who 'absolve Radford from any mistakes' ? Even Radford himself admits making mistakes and I doubt there are many out there that vehemently disagree with him in that regard. Who are these people that annoy you so much ?

Gentle would have rather had Youngquest instead of Lineham & McDonnell instead of Shaul, on both occasions it was Radford who pushed the claims of the two youngsters.
I don't think anything else needs to be said.

There's one a couple of posts above yourself for starters. "Absolve Radford of any mistakes" might be a sweeping comment, but there's a lot who seem to want to pin blame on Gentle as much as possible and just gloss over what Radford did wrong.

To be honest I think this idea that there's a swathe of 'annoying' Radford disciples defending his every action cannot be backed up with any real evidence as your post proves.

The frustration for me is that Adam Pearson, in trying to keep people of his and Radford's backs, has just tried to pin the blame of Gentle/McRea. Yes I'm sure we have had players earning far more than they are worth, but this doesn't even begin to excuse our performances from last season. Yet people have bought it.

I don't have a Mrs B style catalogue of quotes, and I'm not going to go trawling through threads to find them. But plenty of people won't say a bad word about Radford yet are happy to pin it all on Gentle.

Just a few posts up we have a guy claiming Gentle wanted McDonnell instead of Shaul, but Radford intervened. The way I remember it was that Shaul acted like a spoiled brat when he was sent to York on dual reg. Gentle wasn't happy but Radford stuck up for him. Oh and McDonnell was and still is the better fullback.

As for Youngquest. It's no different at all to what Radford did with Colbon. Lineham, like Lancaster, was an unknown, and we needed wing cover. Yet people are happy criticise Gentle for NOT, signing Youngquest.

I'm not a Radford hater. I just don't like the fact that a guy who, imo, did a good job for us, is being scapegoated to cover the failings of others.

I agree with a lot of that, well said.

I don't.

It's odd that, for some, Radford bashing is perfectly acceptable as a reason for poor performances, but any suggestion that previous regime(s) might have contributed is attacked with disgusting and abusive comments.

Who has used "disgusting and abusive comments?"

Gentle wasn't perfect, but he undoubtedly took the club, which had been in decline since 2006, on an upward trajectory. I don't know why he was sacked, but on the face of it I reckon it was either a knee jerk response to the Huddersfield game. Or, more likely, Pearson thought he had been stitched up by some of the contracts that Gentle and McRea had pushed through.

Now I don't know what players were earning, and it's probably true that Arundle, Crookes, Pitts etc where earning way above the market value, but the fact remains that Gentle got a lot more out of his players in the two seasons he was here than Radford got out of his last year.

Poor management in the past doesn't hide the fact that Radford led a squad of very capable players to 11th place.

I'm not steadfastly against Radford being coach, but I'd have a lot more respect for Pearson if he just came out and said, "I wasn't happy with the way the previous guys went about their business, I gave Lee the job a couple of years earlier than I would have liked to. He has a lot to learn but we believe is the right man and we will stand by him."

... but he has.

This is getting very OT as usual.

Isn't that more or less exactly what he's said ? Pearson has also admitted to making mistakes - the main one having being persuaded by Gentle and McRae to either sign, or release, players that we shouldn't have done. In the case of signings it's well documented that the value we got on many contracts was a nightmare.

Pearson will rightly remove Radford if he doesn't produce the goods.

Mcrea was told he was leaving in may & I was told radford &last were getting the job on the way TO the challenge cup semi. So no knee jerking.
Radford was up against it from the off. Gentle had tied massive amounts of the cap to non value players. He had recruited to play a certain way eg fast n mobile pack - he admitted getting this wrong. He also had an experienced organising half with a kicking game in holdsworth.
Radford made mistakes but I think his recruitment this yr is spot on for what we need. Some of the lads given a go will be much better prepared n he himself can only be better for last yrs struggles.
Some terrible games last yr but we finished with a positive points diff from 11th. 2nd in league for breaks. Made more breaks scored more tries kicked more goals and made less tackles than the yrs before 6th place finish. Lost 9 games by 8 points or less (I think it was. Can't be bothered to check) these statistics all point to small tweaks that could improve our fortunes fairly easily. Main one for me being a big gob organiser and a good place/goal kicker which Pearson has backed by paying a fee. To many fans knee jerking last yr without really looking at what we had going on. 10 games in if we're looking rubbish I shout n moan as much as anyone but I like the look of the balance of our squad. Won't win the comp but think we can have a good season that'll bring some more entertaining games than last ye

yes and with a lot of egg on his face

Possibly. But there's plenty of egg to go around if Radford does well. And that's what we all want as FC fans.

Don't we ?

I reckon all posters negative or positive want this. There are quite coherent arguments on either side on this very thread and others. Personally, I am not sure Radford is upto it, we came 11th, but, to mitigate that, it was with a lot of narrow defeats that could easily be reversed.

My fear is our halves for next year, as I am not sure either will be quite what we need, but the great thing is we have youth in that area.