Is Bumpy under threat ?.According to a report by George Dobell in tonights Express & Star.His posistion will be discussed in the next board meeting in three weeks time.

Pure paper speculation, I hope.

Note the key words: George Dobell in that tale.

As in bearsfans forum poster/contributor George 'Unbiased' Dobell.......

Bumpy has no case to answer: unless it's guilty to the accusation of not taking short term measures by signing Kolpaks!

Can't see it at all, maybe in a review at end of season, what would firing him now solve?
We seem to be turning it around,and IF we win tonight we will be in a fantastic position especially if Northants beat Somerset. Kabir should be back for next round of LVCC games,who knows in that format?

Isn't Steve on the board and be at the meeting anyway?

Maybe he's planning on sacking himself!

Another headline on Sky today confirming that WCCC management are totally backing Steve Rhodes . In football language this would translate to his imminent departure but the chief exec confirmed that WCCC is not a football club.

Bill Athey's departure at the end of the 2000 season , partly as a result of losing to to Kent in the sunday league and being relegated as a result , was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the current problems , so I would be very surprised if a major re-organisation of personnel did not happen in September , unless performances significantly improve on the field. If not and we lose Davies and Whelan I see very little hope for Steve Rhodes to stay in his job .

Sunbeam my interpretation of today's announcement is that nothing will change.
Rhodes, Solanki and Batty will continue as before.
My guess is that the cost of membership will increase in 2010 while the amount of cricket is reduced further.
All we can do is decide if we want to continue to put money into the County the way it is being run ON the field.

All this seems to assume that Rhodes has been doing something wrong!

I am sure I will be accused as seeing everything with Rose tinted glasses and possibly having been slipped a fiver by the management or something to write this but......

To begin with in the last two seasons the team have won one trophy and gained promotion to Division 1, a record a lot better than most teams.

Rhodes had a team in place at the beginning of the season which looked a little light in the batting department but good enough to win a couple of games, consolidate and stay in Div 1 and maybe make the later rounds of a couple of the 1 day games in various forms.

This has not happened as several of us have noticed and commented on (quite rightly!) but is this his responsibility and should he be the one with his head on the block. My answer would be partly and pobably not.

A lot of this hinges on how much can be seen without the benifit of hindsight, and I would suggest that a large part of it could not. Smith did not have the best season last season but then everyone is entitled to one bad season. Hick needed to be replaced and Moeenwould suggest was that long term replacement and saying how much we miss GAH is fine but quite frankly, the money that Moore and Solanki are being paid, they should be stepping up to the plate and taking a little of the pressure off Ali. The batsmen have not fired all season long but anyone who has read Ed Smith's book about a year in Kent will know that most of this is probably not technical anyway. The keeping has been similar to last year, I would have hoped that Rhodes might have passed on some tips to Davies but his batting has been reasonable and his keeping has at last not gone backwards and at the moment that is deemed to be acceptable by most clubs.

The bowling has been wayward. The opening partnership that I would suspect had been hoped for has not been fit. Now could this have been seen without hindsight? I would suggest that the possibility had been seen which is why arif was given a contract (despite the fact he has come to nothing) and it is always a possibility. Rhodes will have acted on the best advice from the surgeons who had suggested that there was a reasonable chance of Jones being able to play. Add to this Kabir's injuries and we were always starting from a position of weakness and what can be done about it? Not a lot.

I am not sure bearing in mind the clubs financial position and the fact that even if we offer silly money there is an air of the poor relation that struggles to attract big names that Rhodes has been in a position to do much other than pick the best players he has and hope they find some form. When the second team players have been given a chance they are poor (either through lack of experience or talent) and there have been glimmers from all of the team at some point.

He has started to look at other players from other teams butdue to the financial situation (all the fault of the American mortgage system if our beloved Primeminister is to be believed) and other factors he has not been able to pick anyone else up. The team has decided that kolpaks are not the way forward and are a quick rather than a cheap fix so what else can be done here?

What I am saying in a round about way is that The coach can have a limited effect at best and I do not think that having someone else at the helm would have made the blindest bit of difference.

I expect to be shot down in flames for saying this but I really do not think that sacking Rhodes is even the beginning of the answer to our problems.

Winning promotion is one thing ; staying in division one is something else.
I do not , for one moment , believe that Steve Rhodes will be dismissed at the end of the season. Whether he wishes to continue is another matter.

An expensive gamble was taken with Simon Jones and it has cost us dearly.

Sadly cricket IS going down the football route, whatever TheNewt says. WCCC now have to earn as much money a s possible due to the increase of players saleries etc. With WCCC and other counties going down this route they have to accept the fact that fans will be on the players/coaches backs when things are not going well.
This is not a dig at anyone at the club honestly.

`Jobs for life` is today`s mantra at new Road! Don`t you ever believe that in sport!

" I do not , for one moment , believe that Steve Rhodes will be dismissed at the end of the season. Whether he wishes to continue is another matter." wrote Sunbeam.

As we've read today, he's got a job for life from the Club's point of view which is plainly farcical.

Rhodes's judgement regarding players abilities has been found wanting this season with pitiful team selection and blind faith in certain players, and signings that were no better than what we had.

" Smith did not have the best season last season but then everyone is entitled to one bad season. " wrote X-ray Steve.

Rose tinted ? Just a bit, X-ray !

You reckon Smith's 2008 was bad, you look at his 2007 ! He has not hit a Championship century for 3, YES THREE years, despite batting at No.4 in virtually every LVCC match, and still he's never dropped on form ! Nor for that, not even dropped down the order. I cannot believe that there can be any other comparison like this with any other regular No.4 on the circuit. Then we make him coach !

it's not hindsight, it's boring old facts and figures.