It appears that other than going back to De Canio the majority of fans now want (demand) a British Manager. Names such as Stuart Pearce, Alan Curbishley, Glen Roeder, Paul Ince, Dennis Wise & Darren Ferguson are being thrown around but for what reason? Are we in the belief that the only managers that will get you of this league are British or that somehow these men have what it takes to get us deal with both Briatore and a promotion campaign?

A year from now if we are a top 6 side and our best players have been playing regularly and we've invested more money into the first team people will have forgotten about Sousa, Dowie and those before them. Others (myself included) will still think that something should have happened this season. We already had an English manager, we already had a manager with experience in the Championship, we already had a manager with the knowledge of the opposition, we already had a manager who has taken a team from the Championship and into the Premiership. How many of the managers being touted for the job now can tick all those boxes. Curbishley may be the only one of those who has taken a team up but when was he last in charge of a Championship club? The answer 99/00 - from that league only 10 of the 24 teams are still Championship sides - hardly equates to a lot of knowledge about our opponents. Curbishley is the one man from that list who wouldn't work under Briatore.

So what are we left with? A group of managers who have little experience of working in this league, a group of managers who have little knowledge of getting teams promoted from the Championship (completely different league to League Two - Mr Ince and Mr Ferguson). Whoever is given the job will get my full backing but was Dowie doing such a bad job anyway? How about Sousa in comparison?

Arguably our best players are Vine and Buzsaky, some (myself included) believe the influence of Rowlands is huge and that he could walk into pratically any team in this league. Agyemang is another who gives an alternative option which we've missed since he was injured. So how did they all do under Dowie and Sousa? Note their availability under both managers compared with under De Canio:

Under Dowie
12 league matches - 13 goals (1.08 goals per game)

How many matches did Buzsaky play? 7 out of 12 (58%)
How many matches did Vine play? 0 out of 12 (0%)
How many matches did Rowlands play? 10 out of 12 (83%)
How many matches did Agyemang play? 8 out of 12 (66%)

What percentage did all three appear under Dowie? 52%
Total goals scored by all three under Dowie: 3
Total points available under Dowie: 36
Points achieved under Dowie: 18 (50%)

50% points achievement equates to 69 points over the course of a 46 match season. Last season 69 points finished 8th. If last season was about survival and this season was about improvement then from 14th to 8th would have been a good achievement especially with 4 of our core players only playing 52% of the time.

Under Sousa
23 league matches - 22 goals (0.95 goals per game)

How many matches did Buzsaky play? 0 out of 23 (0%)
How many matches did Vine play? 1 out of 23 (4%)
How many matches did Rowlands play? 9 out of 23 (39%)
How many matches did Agyemang play? 7 out of 23 (30%)

What percentage did all three appear under Sousa? 18%
Total goals scored by all three under Sousa: 1
Total points available under Sousa: 69
Points achieved under Sousa: 32 (46.3%)

46.3% points achievement equates to 64 points over the course of a 46 match season. Last season 64 points finished 10th. A slight improvement on 14th but this was with 4 of our core players only playing 18% of the time. The 4 made 16 out of a possible 92 appearances (1 appearance per player per match = 92). Buzsaky couldn't make an appearance under Sousa but played in all but seven of De Canio's teams while Vine played in all but six.

Under De Canio
34 league matches - 50 goals (1.47 goals per game) - Only WBA scored more goals in this period

How many matches did Buzsaky play? 27 out of 34 (79%)
How many matches did Vine play? 28 out of 34 (82%)
How many matches did Rowlands play? 32 out of 34 (94%)
How many matches did Agyemang play? 17 out of 21 (81%)

What percentage did all three appear under this manager? 84%
Total goals scored by all three under this manager: 30

Sousa and Dowie are now in the past but both were on course to make improvements on last season. Both did it without some of their key players. As I've already said in a year from now if we are in the top 6 and more money has been invested I ask people to remember that Dowie and Sousa were not failures but were doing the job without key players and the extra investment which a new manager would have been given.