Ashley and Cornelius haven,t been set up. They were just the cheap option for Adkins. All managers get the sack eventually and it doesn,t necessarily look bad on their cv.
What does look bad on Cornilius cv was appearing in the Sky Documentary. He was the dominant character while Ashley, wisely in my opinion, hid in the background and said little. So when things like, insisting, for the sake of the Sky program, that certain players were good enough for the first team, when they clearly weren,t, putting players on that hadn,t warmed up, then get injured, using a ridiculous amount of players during the season, then narrowly avoiding relegation, he got the blame.
I think they both should have gone, as they were equally to blame for last season. Ultimately it is Adkins who sets the agenda and unless he changes course on this insistence on youth policy, he might have done already, we,ll have to wait and see on that, there will be no upturn in the teams fortunes.
As for Ashley this season, I think he should be given a little longer and see how it goes. I don,t think he,s what we require though. He doesn,t have the standing in the non league game that other managers have to attract experienced players,or the contacts or nous of this level of football. Not necessarily all to do with budget either, obviously a big budget makes it easier, but if Corinthian Casuals can hold their own and compete in the Premier Division, with little or no budget, as they have done for several years now, then surely we can too. The trick there is an experienced manager who can identify and attract the right sort of players to compete at that level, something we have no chance of doing at the moment.