It maybe is unfair to say that Mike Phelan was not a good head coach. At the time, players were saying his knowledge of other teams and the meticulous preparation were a step up.
To a man you can sense the enjoyment of the players playing under MS .. it appears his intensive management and coaching is to their liking .. perhaps at some of the so called bigger clubs with players of much larger egos this wouldn't go down well but with our squad micro management appears to be just the ticket .. keep it going Marco old son you'll do for me.
I think another plus point also is that he is a "modern man", been there and done it, played, trained, in the modern game. Involvement on the training pitch, physically getting stuck in, personally, also must help rather than just stood on the sidelines, hands in pockets, juggling whatever, barking orders!
They only ever said that at the start, was very strange that talk of that meticulous preparation - and evidence of it - dropped away sharply.
I think it's fair to say that given very little options and the seige mentality at the start he did very well .. unfortunately the minute he had options he got lost .. playing people out of position.. playing out of form players .. continuing to play new signings despite their obvious lack of form and confidence .. unfortunately the man just disappeared into his shell the longer it went on. The major difference with MS is the confidence he brings .. he has no time for reputations .. he sends us out looking to get the 3 points no matter who it's against .. he has clearly defined plans and strategies .. and ensures the players know exactly what their jobs are.
It probably dropped off because he had no backroom team to put in place that planning, ehab saw to that. Phelan will now always be looked on as a poor choice with poor results, its a wonder he got as many points as he did with what cards he was dealt. We should be grateful that he kept us within shouting distance of the rest before he went.
I think Phelan was in some ways a continuation of Bruce. Bruce didn't always get consistent performance, we still looked short of ideas up front, he had the same stubborn selection approach (Marshall the equivalent of when McGregor was in bad form). He still had the same connections, with the two United players we brought in. Indeed those we bought (the main 3 ended up long term injured) may have been on Bruce's list anyway. And, like Bruce before the season started, he didn't really get much backing, he was the very last choice of the owners to take over. We really needed a fresh look at our players from someone new, and new ideas, and with new connections to bring different people in.
Agreed. We turned the corner on Dec 10 v Palace in terms of performance, but his luck hadn't. Never seen a City team beast a PL team on their own pitch like against WHU. 0-4 would have been a fair and realistic score that day.
I reckon that if MS keeps us up, he'll potentially want to stick around, the amount of effort, graft and emotion he's invested, I imagine he'd want to build something with us. If he went elsewhere he'd have to start from scratch again, at least with us, he'll have us playing the way he wants, with some of his own players that he's attracted in Jan (if we get take them permanently). Just my opinion. But he needs locking in ASAP.
Agree to an extent. He'll want to stick around and show it was no fluke, and have us really flying, like Poch with Soton. But if Allams stay, Ehab tells him there's no money, and he'll be on a shoestring.. then we sell Andy and Harry.. he might start thinking about moving on.
On the other hand, if he keeps us up, the Allams may well be able to sell the club at a price they'd be satisfied with. New owners may well wish to invest in players to progress the project to greater heights (and profitability)and retain the architect of that initial success (retention of PL status). Who knows ?
That's the hope! Worry is that Ehab would look at the net spend this year and the result Silva got, and think he could replicate that next season.
With all the grief the Allam family have experienced over the last 2-3 years, I would surmise that if they got the price they would be satisfied with they would be very happy to move on and eliminate what must be a millstone in their eyes. Then again, Ehab seems to be an egoist, so it's impossible to know how he would react.
True, I guess we thought the same last summer though. TWT as always. Fingers crossed we stay up and a week later it's announced a deal has been agreed for the sale of the club.
They've had plenty of time to sell the club but they're pretty hard to negotiate with! And some of these potential buyers have thought f'ck you and walked! The word soon gets out and now they'd have to rely on a good middle man to get any deal over the line? #allamsout
