Are we? please log in to view this image From mid November, no matter how bad/good we've been, we've been between 14th and 16th. And the gap to the bottom three has extended from 1 to 3 points, peaking at 6 points. That's despite Pulis' "Palace revival", Sunderland having a half-decent manager not a nutter, and manager changes at Fulham and WBA. During that time we've had injuries to RvW, Turner, Howson, Pilkington, Tettey, Hoolahan, Snodgrass, Hooper, Martin, Bassong and Johnson, admittedly not all at once. We've still got a treatment list that's as long as West Ham, despite Allardyce's attempt to pretend they've been hit far worse than anyone else, and Cardiff, Fulham, Palace, WBA and Sunderland have less injuries. It's January, and we've got the money to strengthen, which some of the clubs below us don't. Nobody below us has signed anyone, or really expressed an interest in, any players to make you sit up and think "crap, he'd make a real difference". We're meant to be chasing an Inter Milan defender, West Ham just loaned one from league one. Now don't get me wrong, Hughton's got January for me purely so we can bring players in, as I don't think we can do that effectively without a manager, or one that's only just met his squad. If results and performances aren't looking up by the time the window slams shut, then I want Hughton out. We've got an excellent run of fixtures from late January to early April which we stand a chance to pick up good points in, as long as we're moving in the right direction. Getting Pilks and Tettey back in training on Monday is going to be like two new signings already, they were excellent for us in October when we dragged ourselves out of the relegation zone with some good results, in particular the excellent away win at Stoke. Things don't look great, but after a loss to a team with top 4 aspirations, when we're in the middle of a transfer window, it's not the time to go swapping managers. Hughton's got 3 weeks.
You don't believe we are any better than this? Wow. That's a statement. I wonder if that 'a how the dressing room feel, of so then we are down already. Well I absolutely know we are better than this. What negativity. He can't go soon enough.
But what are we all expecting? Survival is the first objective, top half the ambition. Usually that's 40 points for the first aim, 50 normally comfortably top half. From 38 games, 40 points looks something like 10 wins, 10 draws, or 9 wins 13 draws. 50 is something like 14 wins, 8 draws. Whichever we're aiming for, that's pretty much a loss every other game. That's the reality of top flight football. Sure, the style isn't great, we seem to collapse when behind, and the tactics, motivation and confidence are questionable, but in terms of results we're not really that far off expected. A bottom half Prem finish means around 20 losses a season, equivalent to losing against the top 10 home and away, and even then we wouldn't be winning every other game. If we want our club to progress that's what we've got to look forward to. And I do want my club to progress, I want our team to be walking out on a sunny Saturday afternoon to a crowd of 35,000 at Fortress Carrow Road, knowing a win takes us into the Europa league, or a cup final. I want to look at our bench and find it laughable that any of those players would ever be in the championship. But that's not going to be an overnight transformation, it could easily take 15 years, and to begin with I've got to accept the 17th weakest squad in the league getting beaten 20 times a season.
Are the fans partly to blame for bad performances by never getting fully behind CH, instead choosing to criticise every decision he makes.
Perhaps a little. But he's had 18 months, Tipsy. And can you honestly say we are any better as a TEAM (i.e on grass, not paper) than we were when he arrived?
No, I think I'm pretty much a member of "Camp Hughton-Out" now, but as I said in my penultimate post above - he's got 3 weeks. The only reason for this is that his dealings in the transfer market have actually been pretty solid, and if we sack a manager now the chances of us making any signings at all before the end of the window are slim. Good players with plenty of options won't sign for a managerless team, and a new manager brought in now would only have a short period of time to assess the squad and decide what he needs. So Hughton gets January for me to spend where he sees fit and hopefully improve results. We've got Hull (H), Fulham (A,cup) Newcastle (H), and I'll give him Cardiff (A) on February 1st as I'd still want Hughton until midnight the night before. Obviously he gets Sheff Utd (A) if we get through. If in those games we don't put in some good performances and take a minimum of 4-5 points in the league, for me he gets the sack when the full-time whistle blows at the Cardiff City Stadium.
I don't hugely believe my initial statement, more highlighting that the original question is a bit stupid. Although I don't think the fans attitude has helped at times. I can honestly say the club is in a better position now then it was when CH arrived.
I'm more or less with DH. He should, IMO, have beem sacked in early January. But now we've got him and the transfer window is upon us it makes no sense to fire him, partly givn that transfers are his one undeniably positive attribute, but mainly because he knows the squad and we should e close to full strength by Feb. If results haven't picked up again, I'd say mid Feb is the time to change. Four weeks he has for me.
Oh FFS Carrabuh don't start this again. You've generally been well reasone lately. Of course you need names. How else can you be confidnt that Hughton isn't the best available? It's ridiculous to suggest on the one hand you think you know better than McNally but yet on the other hand you'll defer to his judgement on a replacement. I can think ofr, in my limited knowledge, several managers who can do better than Hughton, which is why when the timing is right I believ he should be replaced
Would you like to reveal their names Rob? And should'nt "can do better" actually read "I think would do better"? You don't know that they can do better, or would do better.
The season is panning out exactly as some of us said it would from the start, namely a relegation scrap involving almost half the clubs in the league. The more optinistic of us pencilled in finishing somewhere between 10th and 14th, the less optimistic somewhere around 15th. We are currently 15th, and only 6 points divide the bottom clubs from the club in 10th position (with Villa and Stoke still to play their 20th game). Despite what people say, in terms of results, we are not the club currently showing the worst form. We are in a scrap; get behind the manager and team and help them put some more distance between ourselves and the relegation zone.
Interesting comment, and one that completely goes against what you said a week or so ago, when we were not in a relegation scrap, as the definition of that was 4 or 5 teams cut off from the rest of the league. So which is it? Are we in a relegation scrap or not?
If Hughton was to go we would almost certainly end up with Malky.Now he was my first choice for the job when Lambert left so that wouldn't be a problem as far as I am concerned.However if you to ask me if he was a significantly more capable manager than CH has been I would have to say no. What the Hughton outers don't acknowledge is the bizarre situation that exists in The Premiership at the moment.with Hull in tenth to Palace in twentieth position covered by a mere six points,with us absolutely bang in the middle three points and five positions from either end.Statistically it's unlikely that we will go down,simply in the way that it's statistically unlikely that you will win the lottery.The bookies rate us at three to one against the drop.That isn't very different from 11/3,the number of relegation spots for the number of teams involved. Put quite simply it's a lottery who goes down.And it is possible that if this situation persists that we could see a final day with six or seven clubs potentially in line for 18th place.The way people are going on about how bad we are you would think that we were bottom and cut adrift.
Who would be worth a gamble to do better? Malky? Phelan? Zola? Marcelo Biesla? His Bilbao looked good in their run to the Europa league final a couple of years ago, but would he come here.
Are you keeping a diary on me Thai! No, we are not in a traditional relegation scrap. We are one of nine or ten teams all of whom could quite conceivably be relegated.
Not a diary, but as you come across as highly pedantic, I tend to notice the contradictions you make, and this was one of them. I am not at all surprised to see you back tracking by using the term "traditional", to support the previous definition though
So your saying that because the fans, who have no access to scouts, files, reports, interviews, time to investigate things cannot say Mr A is the man for the job then he should stay? Absolute clap trap. I don't have time to look into these things. McNally also has other things to bare in mind when deciding to sack Hughton, his reasons will be different to my own. I don't have to think about the financial implications, the club plan or agreed policy and approach to these things. They woulds have discussed it and set there scenarios to get rid of him. What I do know is Hughton certainly is not the BEST man for the job and that there will be considerably more out there who are better. Just by going by the sheer number of managers.
