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So, here are my thoughts on it. There was a time during the season in some games at home when we looked amazing going forward, fast and free flowing football, some deft touches and confidence clearly running a lot higher than now. Also, during the season, there were sometimes when our defence was really good and we kept so many clean sheets in a row after a bad start. A lot of this I think we all agree was a direct factor of having Cameron and Rangel loans strengthening our team and the benefit of a better striker in Nakhi Wells than anyone we had seen up front prior to his arrival. Losing Cameron and Rangel was a big blow because it meant playing weaker players in their positions and affected team confidence and morale. You would never choose to change a winning team, but we were forced into it. Then the youngsters like Chair / Smyth / Oteh etc loaned out to give experience to them ahead of them likely being 1st team players next year meant that the options available to SMC were much reduced, but what would you do in his shoes? You have many player contracts expiring in the summer and there will be many players who we move on. SMC just needed to keep us up this season, while getting us through the transfer ban and developing the fringe players who will become important next year.
Getting rid of SMC to me is a wrong decision. We keep getting rid of managers (Ramsey / JFH, Olly etc) and lets face it, most of them have been pretty rubbish or certainly no better than SMC. Who would come here under the current conditions, with a DOF role meaning that you are only a coach and not a manager with full responsibility for on and off field matters. To me, its not that SMC has lost the dressing room or that the players don't play for him, what I see is a team who do not lack effort and are doing their best, but clearly lack a couple of quality players in the spine that would improve overall performances. If he had lost the dressing room, fair enough - get rid, but until that happens, and its actually fair to judge him, I prefer to keep stability and try and progress next season with our young players and the benefit of being able to operate in the transfer window, albeit at the budget level.
Sorry for the long message.
Getting rid of SMC to me is a wrong decision. We keep getting rid of managers (Ramsey / JFH, Olly etc) and lets face it, most of them have been pretty rubbish or certainly no better than SMC. Who would come here under the current conditions, with a DOF role meaning that you are only a coach and not a manager with full responsibility for on and off field matters. To me, its not that SMC has lost the dressing room or that the players don't play for him, what I see is a team who do not lack effort and are doing their best, but clearly lack a couple of quality players in the spine that would improve overall performances. If he had lost the dressing room, fair enough - get rid, but until that happens, and its actually fair to judge him, I prefer to keep stability and try and progress next season with our young players and the benefit of being able to operate in the transfer window, albeit at the budget level.
Sorry for the long message.
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