I see no merit in sacking CH if we stay up (which thankfully is looking much more likely today than on Saturday evening). We will just end up with another manager needing to bring in his own players to suit his style of football and more square pegs in round holes. Under any analysis our squad is one of, if not the, least expensive and talented in the Premier League and staying up will be a good result, anything better than 17th a bonus. We have some decent players but how many would really get into any of our rivals teams? The only one who would get into quite a few PL sides is Ruddy and he has been out for half the season and it is no co-incidence in my opinion that we hae nosedived subsequentlly. On the assumption that we have some money to spend then I would say give CH the chance to improve the squad and see how he fares with better players. If we have more quality then we will play better football and certainly win more games Until we do this we will spend every season hovering around the bottom.
This man stands on the side line with a bemused look on his face, waiting for divine intervention. Ok and which performance are you going to pick out from the last 19 which was anything other than average? I believe this is down to tactics not the heroes from last years campaign. Amassed points, I think we have stumbled to 38 points not amassed them. What game plan? Defend for your life and don't try and score goals. Yes that plan has worked well for us this season. We will remain in the Premier League by shear luck not by the skill and judgement of Hughton and his team. If you hadn't noticed we have two games left and one is against Man City, not a lot of points to be had I think. I would rather lose attacking a team than just sit back and wait to be beaten. I will say again Hughton is out of his depth and the quicker he goes the better.
My God, some of the people on here are so quick to slag off the players who took us to successive promotions and then survived comfortably in the Prem last season. NONE of them would get into rival squads other than Ruddy? People talk about giving Hughton a fair chance because Norwich is a club where loyalty matters. How about loyalty to the players for a change instead of buying into Hughton's crap that he inherited a championship squad and therefore it's not his fault that we've won two games out of nineteen?
I guess we don't know if he is out of his depth, unquestionably there is a learning curve and he can look tactically naïve. he certainly has gone out to defend in many games, but not always, which illustrates that it is a decision he is making. He may not be good enough, but I'm not sure a season is enough to determine that. We got through some games by the skin of our teeth last season, there were many games that on the balance of play we should have lost, but woodwork and poor finishing saved us and we could have easily been in a relegation battle, two more wins this season and the only criticism would be, lets hope he improves the style of play.
OK Mexican and Vietnam if I am so wrong and have so little faith in our players who in our squad other than Ruddy would get into QPR's team, or Southampton's or Villa's let alone a combined team of the bottom dwellers? Look at the players PL has at his disposal - Benteke/Abonglahor/Bent are all top class international players (I know Bent is out of favour but he still has him if he chooses to use him). Saints came up and spent £30m on players, QPR probalby double that and even Reading spent more than us. Wigan have had many season in the Prem to assemble their squad and a lot of their players are technically superior to ours. Look at the quality Sunderland and Newcastle have - are you seriously telling me that you think we should be above them if we go on squad quality? We have Ruddy who is an England squad member a Norweigan international who is not playing well enough to get a game for us and that is pretty much it as I reckon Wee Jimmy Krankie could get a game for Scotland currently. It is easy to say I have no faith or gratitude but neither of you have put your hands up and said that actaully CH has a hugely talented squad to work with who merit a place in the top half of the table. Yes our players have done a great job for us for the past three seasons but there is only so much you can expect from them as even the most blinkered of City fans must accept that they have their limitations. Just as a pop quiz for you boys (Premier League answers only please) Name three weaker squads than ours? Name three less valuable squads than ours? Name three teams with lower wage bills than ours? Name three teams who spent less than us in the Summer? My point is not that CH is doing a bang-up job and that we are playing brilliant football as clearly neither is the case but I would argue that given what he has to work with 17th or above is pretty much all we could hope for at the start of the season. Expectations were raised when we went 10 matches unbeaten (during which time CH won a lot of plaudits on this board) but since we have slumped people have turned on CH and his tactics when the reality is that it is the players who are generally not performing - regardless of the manager they are highly paid professionals and should be capable of playing to the best of their ability regardless of the tactics of the manager. The same players AND manager took us on the unbeaten run as took us on this poor run. I don't see how everything can be CH's fault just as I accept that he is a part of the problem, as are the players.
