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The pressure is mounting on Alan Cork

Wrexham and Swansea have parted company with their managers in the last 14 days. Will Cardiff City make it a September treble?

Statistician John Heyda offers his poetic thoughts from the USA.
I wasn't one of those so mesmerized by that big-bucks production Titanic that I had to keep going back time and time again to experience the same story-ride over and over again.  Once was enough for me.  The movie wasn't that bad, but it did seem as though once the big ship hit the iceberg everything just seemed to go straight down from that point on.  Hitting the iceberg was a bit of a letdown as well.  Envisioning the movie as a remake, I thought perhaps the movie's makers might take some liberties with the original script as so many other remake artists have done with their projects and serve up something new, like a new ending.  I dared to hope the ship would come up on the big 'berg but then just narrowly miss it so that the rest of the ride into New York could offer something never before seen on the big screen.  It wasn't to be, however.

So it is with the 2001-2002 Bluebirds.  We've seen this movie at least once before.   In 1999-2000 it was evident enough that with Captain Burrows at the helm the good ship Bluebird was bound to rip into the iceberg of relegation and head straight down to the dungeon's icy depths.  Knowing what must surely lay ahead, you thought surely the front office would relieve Burrows of his duties and let a steadier hand steer the crew and paying customers to safe harbour.  But no.  Instead Burrows stayed in charge until the inevitable encounter with the iceberg (that unforgettable Luton game).  Too late to salvage anything at that point.  (Insert Ayre jokes here.)  The ship went pretty much straight down. 

Two years later and I'm crazed enough at this point to see the same scenario played out with an almost entirely new crew.  Captain Cork busily rearranges deck chairs on the Titanic while everyone else's gaze is directed upwards and outwards to the vast ice fields looming up on the Division Two horizon.  Will we see the same scenario played out in just the same fashion as two years ago?  Will the skipper stay in charge until all is lost?  Two years ago City finished 21st.  As of this evening I see three sides I'm 100% sure are worse than City --Bury, Northampton, and Wrexham -- but no more.   Nearly impossible to
imagine but could this year's squad finish 21st?  You wonder.  Could it get as bad as it was two years ago, the year of Faerber, Schwinkendorf and the Taihuttu flirtation?  Consider the deck chair rearranging syndrome now on display and tell me the warning signs aren't there. 

Rearranging deck chairs means (a) getting so caught up in routine as to totally miss the big looming iceberg picture, or (b) responding to concerns that you're not seeing the big picture by tinkering and fussing about at the scene's periphery when a dramatic change of course is called for.  You will have noticed that under (a) Cork always:

* Leaves Weston out there for the full 90 minutes no matter what.

* Always takes Hamilton off in the midst of the second half (in each of his last six starts to be exact).

* Always assigns Hughes a spot on the bench and never sends him on, even for a single minute.  That's six matches and counting now after QPR.

* Makes no half time adjustments while his counterparts always seem to suss out what the second half will require of them.

* One could go on and on.

Under (b) Cork tinkers as follows:

* Defies logic and leaves a backup keeper out of the list of subs, then inserts Kendall for the Northampton and Huddersfield matches, then goes right back to the "devil may care" defiance of going keeper-free on the bench.

* Fusses endlessly with midfield personnel.  Boland starts four but does duty on the bench in another four.  Bonner starts three but rides the pines in another five.   Starts Hamilton, sits him, starts him, sits him, starts him again.

* Fiddles ad nauseum with the likes of Brayson, Legg, and Low.  What to do with them?   Brayson's a sub, then a starter, then a sub, then a starter again, and against QPR a sub.  Legg's a starter, a sub, a starter.  Low's a starter, a sub, then does a disappearing act only to return as a sub.  Not to mention the many ways in which they're shuffled about the pitch from position to position.

* Acquires Thorne but can't resist the urge to tinker and so eases him into action only in the 58th minute, fouling the Bluebird nest at the Abbey.  Gets Bowen back from injury but eases him in only in the 61st minute on Saturday, then never gets around to using him at all at QPR.

* One could go on and on.

Now it might be said, of course, that there's always a randomness to selection and substitution patterns but I'd suggest that with Cork it's not so random as it might look.   There's a depressing pattern of predictable inanity to these proceedings, so much so that you can set your clock by it.  Anything to look busy, eh?

The one hope is that Sam will apply last year's model instead.  Imagine Blobby staying on after the twin debacle of Hull away and Orient away.  Imagine the persistent Blobby tinkering with hmm maybe starting Earnshaw hmm maybe not while wondering what the problem could possibly be.  Instead Cork takes over and does the one thing needed (and about the only thing he's done to date) -- start Earnie.  City soar up the table and out of the icy depths. 

Bottom line here: Dramatic change of course needed.  Now.  That IS a freakin' iceberg just up ahead.

Fans at the game last night also share the same opinions.

"I have resigned myself to not even making the playoffs this season as long
as Cork and/orAtkins are in charge they must be the two most clueless managers in the division."

"I'm afraid to say that if we play with the same system on saturday the first bad mistake of the game will see the crowd turn on cork and from then on we all know what happens. scoular, andrews, ashurst, williams, may, hibbitt, burrows etc. will cork be brave enough to step back from the abyss, i beleive only a major change of tactics, relenting with playing players out of position will give him any chance of retaining his position. sam please, please sort it out."

"Sam says Cork is like a son to him, well Sam it's time to disown your own. Cork (and Atkins) out before the story of Hammam turns from one of rags to riches into a comedy of errors."

"Out of this world support, Premiership Chairman, First Division Players, Third Division Manager. Sort It out Sam! "

"We have some super players at this club and their potential is being thrown away. And so are the points. We will soon have to write this season off unless radical Managerial changes are made. And it`s costing us - how many more off the gate next Saturday?"