You make some good points but I disagree with the essence of this. In February 2015 Bruce made public how he thought Phelan had come in and made a difference, his involvement and input was responsible for a turnaround in our form; he also made it clear he thought Phelan was the secret ingredient to us staving off relegation. This isn't my opinion, this was recorded at that time. The end result was relegation, a relegation many of us were shocked and disappointed at; not just the end product, but the nature of it. The Phelan Effect was a damp squib, or has someone another version of events?
Our season in the Championsip has been a real mixed bag; it has been one of exciting football, that has captivated the crowd (and viewers) and promised more, only then lunging into nonsensical tactics and team selections, random, baffling substitutions and the abject failure to take what should have been safe probable wins.
The manager has publicly stated that he had no idea was was wrong, he has been bereft of a fix, he is currently managing a very poor run of form from a squad that has a quality he has praised.
Steve Bruce has an assistant manager, Mike Phelan, his role is to offer ideas, come up with tactical options, give input that changes form - just as he was praised for doing in February 2015. It's not happening, is it, or am I missing something? If that is so, is it not reasonable to reckon that Phelan is not giving us what we need from an assistant manager and that we can be critical of his input?