I suppose I was what Ablock would call a "Harry Basher". Not because I particularly dislike the man, but simply because his record over 30 years or so, was nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing like the success story that some would make it out to be.
For me, despite the shambles he took over, I really feel that he should have kept us up with the players he had at his disposal. One only has to look at the way he was outwitted by Fat Sam over both games against West Ham, for evidence not only of poor team selection and tactics, but of a very negative and far too cautious approach. Still, we went down, but only some of the blame can be laid at Harry's door. There were others just as much to blame, including a manager very few of us have any time for and an owner who most of us are delighted with. People make mistakes, but we all need to move on.
Harry did a good job of getting rid of some deadwood over the summer, although one can't help thinking that putting his foot down and finding a way to keep hold of Remy and Adel would have seen us walk that division. The signings of Austin and Phillips were admittedly buying the best players from the Championship in their respective positions, but he still had to get them here so deserves some credit for that.
He seems to have been roundly criticised for having a policy of getting in older and slower players, rather than those who are younger and with pace. At the end of the day, that's simply a judgement call. Whilst I would have preferred the other way, we did go up, just about, so it could be argued that his was the correct judgement. Yes, we did have a lot of injuries, those to Austin and Phillips particularly had an enormously adverse effect on our season, but on the other hand he did have an awful lot of experienced cover most of the time.
I don't think many would argue with the view that we have played some of the most tedious, boring and negative football we have seen for a while, or that some of his tactics and team selections have been bizarre to say the least. But the facts are that under him, we got back up at the first time of asking. The importance of which can only be speculated upon, but personally I feel that it was vital. In fact I'd go as far as to say that it was because of just how important it was, many of us got a bit more down and a bit more angry with it all than perhaps we should have. Having achieved that, he should be given every bit as much credit as he did the blame for us going down in the first place and as such, I think that even those of us with reservations should have the decency to give him our full backing over the summer and let's see how he gets on this time. He has earned that at least.
For me, despite the shambles he took over, I really feel that he should have kept us up with the players he had at his disposal. One only has to look at the way he was outwitted by Fat Sam over both games against West Ham, for evidence not only of poor team selection and tactics, but of a very negative and far too cautious approach. Still, we went down, but only some of the blame can be laid at Harry's door. There were others just as much to blame, including a manager very few of us have any time for and an owner who most of us are delighted with. People make mistakes, but we all need to move on.
Harry did a good job of getting rid of some deadwood over the summer, although one can't help thinking that putting his foot down and finding a way to keep hold of Remy and Adel would have seen us walk that division. The signings of Austin and Phillips were admittedly buying the best players from the Championship in their respective positions, but he still had to get them here so deserves some credit for that.
He seems to have been roundly criticised for having a policy of getting in older and slower players, rather than those who are younger and with pace. At the end of the day, that's simply a judgement call. Whilst I would have preferred the other way, we did go up, just about, so it could be argued that his was the correct judgement. Yes, we did have a lot of injuries, those to Austin and Phillips particularly had an enormously adverse effect on our season, but on the other hand he did have an awful lot of experienced cover most of the time.
I don't think many would argue with the view that we have played some of the most tedious, boring and negative football we have seen for a while, or that some of his tactics and team selections have been bizarre to say the least. But the facts are that under him, we got back up at the first time of asking. The importance of which can only be speculated upon, but personally I feel that it was vital. In fact I'd go as far as to say that it was because of just how important it was, many of us got a bit more down and a bit more angry with it all than perhaps we should have. Having achieved that, he should be given every bit as much credit as he did the blame for us going down in the first place and as such, I think that even those of us with reservations should have the decency to give him our full backing over the summer and let's see how he gets on this time. He has earned that at least.
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