I know you hate being proved wrong Dave but the only stupidity has come from your board when they sacked Hughton and appointed Adams out of sheer blind panic!
well you won't get any argument from me on that point. however, most of the squit that you type on here is embarrassing at the moment
True to a point, they should have sacked him sooner IF they were going to but hindsights a wonderful thing innit. However unlike some the board have admitted their shortcomings and are looking to make changes to the structure of the club to prevent it becoming an issue again.
Well wide of the mark once again, a fiasco would be to announce the appointment or sacking of a manager one day, then reversing it the next - ala Leeds Utd
I'll try and make this simple so as not to tax your single brain cell! McNally wanted Hughton to stay till the end of the season, but the actions of the crowd at the end of the WBA game made that impossible and required immediate action! Obviously no permanent candidate had been lined up so he appointed the only possible person till the end of the season!
Hughton would not have kept us up any more than Adams could because of Sunderland's form. It was clear that Hughton's position, based on his team selection, had become untenable because he had lost faith of both the fans and many of the players. If we had not lost the game with Hughton in charge, West Brom, I think we would have been safe. If we'd won it we definitely would have been. Check the table and do the maths - that was the pivotal game. You can rely virtually every season on one of the bottom three having a strong finish. So you have to ensure you are positioned 16th, not 17th, to protect yourself. That was on the line in the Norwich-West Brom match and we failed under Hughton. The writing really was on the wall at that point. By sacking Hughton when the board did, they made no impact on our relegation, but they did make the fan base generally happier, they did Hughton a huge favour in keeping his record intact and they gave Adams a fantastic opportunity to get PL management experience. The only stupidity from the board was not sacking Hughton earlier when it could have made a difference, but then I see why they didn't, given that everyone is condemning the constant firing of managers and advocating stability. But stable deterioration only ends one way.
just had a look at the odds and there's been another significant shift towards lennon who is now odds-on everywhere whilst mackay has drifted to more than 2-1 (best price). then a huge gap to zola. however, the one that really surprises me is the odds for the west brom job. dave jones is clear favourite. strange.
Good try Dave but the fact remains that the board should have acted a year earlier and not leave it until you were all but relegated! Like I say it was sheer panic that lead to Adams being appointed. If the board had any dignity they would have kept with Hughton until the end of the season. Sacking your manager with only 4 or 5 games to go is a pretty dumb thing to do!
the board gambled; tossed a coin effectively. it didn't work but i bet if we did it again we'd have stayed up. nobody could have expected sunderland's ludicrous upturn in form given how challenging their opponents were. to me, the odds were 50/50 at the point we jettisoned hughton and i reckon had he stayed we'd still have gone down in this particular scenario. but sunderland's form, boy oh boy... fair play to them
first of all, he'd just guided us to 11th in the top flight. how bonkers would they have looked to sack him then? secondly, we were 5 points clear when he left - nobody saw sunderland's form coming. thirdly, i said at the time it was bizarre timing but had you been at the west brom game you too would have felt that they really had little-to-no choice. once they'd decided to keep him post-january the plan was to keep him till the end of the season and then change but the atmosphere at that game was toxic and had that continued into the other games we'd have been dead anyway. at least it got the fans a little more united, even if ultimately the gamble failed. its not what i'd have done but the logic, although not clear to outsiders, was there
WTF??? Where has anyone said that?? Crikey has someone else borrowed the single brain cell you binners all share today? Lord Almighty
JWM, I quite like you so I'm giving up now as I don't want to keep giving you the opportunity to make yourself look silly!
