Poor form and a manager under pressure: Sounds familiar?
As I trudged up the steps to leave the Milton Keynes stadium, not long after transfer-listed Chris Conn-Clarke’s cross dipped under the bar to salvage a point, I was struck by déjà vu.
Almost a year on, we have another manager on the ropes with a terrible run of form, unfazed by the mess he’s in, and unwilling or unable to deliver a Plan B.
After listening to another uninspiring round of interviews where he drones on emotionlessly, offering little other than to robustly chastise a local journalist for daring to suggest the £600k wonder-kid striker from the National League who scored 31 goals last season was played out of position on the wing.
Whether he likes it or not, Luke Williams is under pressure, and it’s probably worse than you think.
The managerial sackings have begun
Although the season is just over a month old, we are already well into sacking season so Darragh wouldn't be the first chairman to pull the trigger.
Wycombe fired their manager recently, and within hours an AI-generated photo was doing the rounds on X: Ashvir Singh Johal, grinning, holding up a Wycombe Wanderers scarf at Adams Park.
Ashvir was hired not long after the Panjab Warriors took over Morecambe, and his terrible run of form and overly optimistic post-match interviews became a laughing stock across social media.
He’s remembered for barely winning a game and delivering another relegation for the embattled club.
If you were to compile a list of the worst managers or recent times, he would get a good chunk of votes.
Ashvir was in charge at Morecambe for 28 league games.
Would it surprise you to learn that Luke Williams has only won one more game than Ashvir in his last 28 games?
Ashvir Singh Johal | Luke Williams | |
Played | 28 | 28 |
Won | 5 | 6 |
Drawn | 6 | 8 |
Lost | 17 | 14 |
Points Per Game | 0.75 | 0.93 |
We signed a manager to challenge for the top of the table, and he’s statistically comparable to the guy that became a meme for how terrible he was.
Two wins in twenty-one league games
This statistic has divided Posh fans and the UpThePoshcast hosts. Is it fair to reach back into the depths of last season to criticise the manager?
Should Williams be judged across seasons?
0%YES! It's the same manager
0%NO! New season, clean slate
However you feel about it, that Bradford game on the 14th February was when our form fell apart.
Since then, Luke Williams has a 9.5% win rate, and this season alone, his win rate is 16.7%.
Ashvir was sacked for returning a 17.9% win rate on his poor run.
Can he turn it around?
Fans were hopeful that a Luke Williams transfer window and pre-season would be the spark that pulls Peterborough out of our nosedive from promotion chasers to relegation battlers.
Williams and Darragh raided Premier League academies for a crop of young, technical ball-playing footballers to implement the Williams formula.
We also signed one of the standouts from the National League, Danny Ormerod, for £600k to bolster our attacking options. A classic Peterborough move.
Despite the talent in the squad, we cannot find a way to win a game. Our biggest asset, Harry Leonard, barely has a ball to chase in the box.
We have scored the fewest goals in the league, with just four to celebrate this season.
More worryingly, Williams opts to play 17-year-old Bolu and our National League star striker out wide over Ethan Williams, a winger from the highly respected Manchester United academy that we waited patiently all summer to sign.
What can we change?
We are quickly reaching a point where something needs to change.
Unfortunately, we don’t have many levers to pull.
The transfer window is shut, and as Darragh often laments, we can’t keep buying players to replace those we recently bought who are not good enough.
Luke Williams is as stubborn as Fergie and seems to hope that if he keeps doing the same things, he’ll get a different outcome at some point.
Will Darragh have enough and sack him?
It’s a real possibility given Darragh’s emotional investment in the club, and I would imagine the “I love you gaffer” texts have changed tone drastically in recent weeks.
I’m not so sure we can afford to buy out his contract, and even if we did, who else will touch this basket case of a club?
After years of bouncing between Darren Ferguson, Steve Evans and Grant McCann, Williams felt like a solid “grown-up” choice.
But it’s not working.
Will it click?
Like many Posh fans, I was willing to give Williams time to make this squad click.
I felt that we were just a game or two away from thumping another team in the way we did last season. Watford felt like a turning point, but beating their academy wasn’t the catalyst we had hoped.
It’s clear we have ability and play attractive football, but our mentality is shredded when we concede, and we cannot create enough chances to compensate for regular defensive calamities.
I don't think the blueprint Williams wants to implement is possible with the players in our squad, and he won’t consider an alternative.
Our football is boring, our results are terrible, our home attendance is falling, and we’re 21st in the league.
We don’t have much time to turn it around.
Based on his interviews, Williams already seems defeated. There’s little enthusiasm or hope in his messaging.
A loss against bottom-of-the-table Doncaster, yet to win a game, could force a change.
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