I think at the start he created an ‘us vs them’ mentality which worked. We had transfer restrictions, every man and his dog had us down for relegation and he basically told them to prove everyone wrong by being as competitive as possible under the circumstances. Since January, complacency kicked in by both the coaching staff and players. They all thought ‘****ing hell, can’t believe we’re in such a good position’. Too many jollies and days off as a reward for being in contention for top six by Christmas and almost no discipline, standards or professionalism. Jakirović and his staff keep getting bookings and sent off for their antics on the touchline, players and staff start getting in brawls with the opposition like Birmingham, Stoke and Preston away, players pick up unnecessary bookings, do reckless challenges in our own box and of course, go on the piss before and after games.
We’ve been in the top six for four months (four ****ing months). They thought they had it in the bag. These dog ****e performances and results for months were unacceptable but nobody thought to read them the riot act because they assumed it would all be okay. I mean, we’ve played **** for months but scraped enough to still be top six until tonight. Well, now we aren’t in the top six and there are two games left.
I’m quite astounded at the arrogance of them all. There’s no other way to explain why we’ve fallen off this drastically. I’m going to keep mentioning Coyle because he is the club captain and that does mean something, even if people want to pretend it’s just ‘scapegoating’. How ****ing thick do you have to be to go out to some ****ty bar the same day after such a disappointing performance and result against Brum at home when there is another important game in a few days and you know people in the town centre will recognise you and even record you? This is after he was spotted and recorded with a protective boot on after a game several months before. The guy is a grade A arsehole.