Rugby Raider wrote:Think Radford must now be on the last few minutes of borrowed time.
I've never been his biggest fan and always sensed (though not proven) that he may have been in Pearson's ear to get rid of Gentle on the promise that he'd do a better job, of which he never has.
As a life long fan for over 40 years now, I've always stayed positive regarding Hull and expect improvement is never far away.
With the close season recruitment, I'd shared others view that we just judge Radford 8-10 games in and post Easter Monday is a good time with us having played most of the teams by then.
Even with the defeat last night, I would still stick with assessing the situation in a few weeks, however during half time last night my view changed. At the end of the half, my positivity remained. We'd started strongly and had demonstrated in other games our ability to score more freely this season. A couple of early second half tries and we'd be back in with a shout.
Then came the changing room images. Clear as day, you see Radford walk through and out of the far end of the dressing room with a 'talk to the hand' dismissal to at least one of our players. To me, that moment showed things aren't right in our dressing room. This, followed by a very public 'Coaches asked to leave' endorses that view.
Of course, all sports have teams that have clear the air talks, but these are usually behind closed doors, a day or two after a defeat and if reported, done so a few days after the event.
So if things aren't right in the dressing room and there's s divide, then we've reached the point of no return. If this is the case, then Radford's position is untenable and he will have to go now.
I have had similar thoughts to you regarding the nature of Radford's appointment and how I have viewed his progress since then.
Chronologically, my feelings have been outrage, denial, disbelief, resignation, more resignation, optimism and latterly wild excitement. Spattered of course throughout with hope when we've strung a good patch together.
I've never wanted him to fail, just expected him to and I've explained my reasons for that more than monotonously over the last few years, so won't go there again.
But I just can't get my head around what's happened in the last three weeks. It's just not logical to see such a capitulation within a side as we've witnessed.
I agree completely with your interpretation of the 'hand dismissal' as he walked out of the dressing room. Look at the reactions of the players, particularly Frank and Ellis. That's a clear indication that something's not right and the player's meeting afterwards backs that up, even if it did only mean the senior players wanted privacy while they rallied the troops. Why the need to rally disconcerted troops in the first place and why couldn't Radford do it? This smacks of a split at best in the dressing room, even if it's not yet completely lost.
And how many times have we seen that before?
Given this, that Radford has once again been 'loose tongued' in front of the media (and it's not the first time he's done that either - Shaul, Lineham?) is
not the issue, it's the fact that the senior players felt the need for that unprecedented meeting in the first place.
Just my interpretation of events and hope I'm wrong.
