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I, until the moment Sousa was fired would have called myself a Sousa follower. Now I want to make it clear because even I am now bored with the pro/anti Sousa debates that I and the fellow followers weren't happy with the style of football being played, we weren't 100% happy with tactics, team selections and especially the results. I haven't blindly supported Sousa because I believe him to be some sort of god and from all that I've read on this board I don't think anyone else does. I've followed him, like I followed Dowie, because I believe that he deserved time.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and there are some who will say that 5 months is enough time and if that's what they believe then fine but I beg to differ. I believe that when any manager (even more difficult when foreign) comes to a club and has to inherit a squad without a pre-season that it takes time. All managers have certain styles that they want to see their team play and if they don't have the players for this system you either have to bring players in or adapt to the situation - both again take time.
I was a Dowie follower, why? Because although I didn't go to Swansea to see the poor performance I was witness when we were thrashed 3-0 against Norwich under De Canio and were people calling for his head? No because they were prepared to put all of the other matches into context rather than single out one game. Yes we had gone on a particularly poor run before Swansea but we were a single point off the play offs with more than ¾ of the season to play. Was Dowie given time - definitely not. Why did I stop "being a follower" because he like Sousa now is part of our history and we move on. Will I follow Wise or Ince or Ferguson - most definitely. Rarely do managers take over when a club isn't going in the direction the board want it to and turn it into a instant success. Of course Keane did it at Sunderland but as I said it rarely happens. So if you take a manager then fire them and then fire the next manager soon after you are always left with managers picking up the pieces from the past rather than building the foundations for the future. It is for this reason that I believe QPR fans as a whole should back the next manager and allow him the time to build.
I hope I've cleared a few things up - we weren't overjoyed at the results or the performances but we backed him because we believed he deserved (with a full fit squad) the opportunity to be judged fairly. We can all find stats and make comparisons (I'm guilty of it) but Sousa should have been judged by all of us with a full fit squad not compared with people in our history but judged when every player was available to him and then we could have seen what formation and team he would have put out rather than speculating what he would have done.
Sorry to have rambled but can we put this to bed now?
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and there are some who will say that 5 months is enough time and if that's what they believe then fine but I beg to differ. I believe that when any manager (even more difficult when foreign) comes to a club and has to inherit a squad without a pre-season that it takes time. All managers have certain styles that they want to see their team play and if they don't have the players for this system you either have to bring players in or adapt to the situation - both again take time.
I was a Dowie follower, why? Because although I didn't go to Swansea to see the poor performance I was witness when we were thrashed 3-0 against Norwich under De Canio and were people calling for his head? No because they were prepared to put all of the other matches into context rather than single out one game. Yes we had gone on a particularly poor run before Swansea but we were a single point off the play offs with more than ¾ of the season to play. Was Dowie given time - definitely not. Why did I stop "being a follower" because he like Sousa now is part of our history and we move on. Will I follow Wise or Ince or Ferguson - most definitely. Rarely do managers take over when a club isn't going in the direction the board want it to and turn it into a instant success. Of course Keane did it at Sunderland but as I said it rarely happens. So if you take a manager then fire them and then fire the next manager soon after you are always left with managers picking up the pieces from the past rather than building the foundations for the future. It is for this reason that I believe QPR fans as a whole should back the next manager and allow him the time to build.
I hope I've cleared a few things up - we weren't overjoyed at the results or the performances but we backed him because we believed he deserved (with a full fit squad) the opportunity to be judged fairly. We can all find stats and make comparisons (I'm guilty of it) but Sousa should have been judged by all of us with a full fit squad not compared with people in our history but judged when every player was available to him and then we could have seen what formation and team he would have put out rather than speculating what he would have done.
Sorry to have rambled but can we put this to bed now?
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