While I share many of the feelings expressed on here, my overall feeling is anger. Anger that the emperor’s lack of clothes took so long to register. Even when we went on a long run undefeated a lot of us weren’t fooled. By the time he finally went he had ripped out the heart and soul of a club that had been stuttering for a few years. We may be starting to recover but it won’t be quick. Obviously I wish Still well. But he has his work cut out.
I get the general sentiment of our fans towards Russ, but I also think it’s becoming a bit exaggerated. He got us promoted at the first time of asking. People can say ‘yeah but we had one of the strongest squads’, and sure we did, but just look at Selles now with Sheffield Utd. Having a strong squad is only half of it. Russ’ tactics were extremely questionable, that’s true, but the spirit and togetherness of the team saw us through a lot of games. The players fought for him. The Prem campaign was a mess, but neither of the other promoted clubs fared much better, and had it not been for VAR we would have picked up at least a few more points. Sure, Russ was way out of his depth, but he’s not the first manager we’ve had who failed. Saying he ‘ripped out the heart and soul’ of the club though, bit much I reckon.
I thought the unbeaten run was fantastic and it is a bit ingenious to ignore this. There is probably some truth in the fact that we made promotion difficult for ourselves but not many people were complaining in May 2024. I think the club were unprepared for promotion and SR as whole have never understood the standards required to stay in the top flight. The right but unpopular decision would have been to upgrade Martin ahead of 24/25 and get someone in who appreciated the calibre of players required for the Prem.
I think the thing with RussBall is that it can nearly work, but you really need a strong squad - and by that I mean a squad a lot stronger than the others, not just strong. In our Championship season last time, we had that squad, won a lot (and drew a lot) and made it. Wouldn't swap that day out at Wembley for the autos as it turned out ok. Where Russ lost us was the stubbornness when the whole world could see it wasn't going to vaguely work in the PL. Opposition fans were literally cheering when they got a goal kick as they knew that meant pissing about with the ball and was more dangerous than a corner. The last Championship season I looked forward to going to every match, last year I went to 8 in the end as it was woeful. I haven't forgotten him helping us back up, but the smugness and arrogance (which is his self defence mechanism) has made me smug about his inevitable downfall.
Yeah in hindsight, and for many at the time, replacing Russ in the summer would have been the right thing to do. But it's not a great look. What top level manager wants to join a club that trigger happy? The blame is with SR for the squad that they provided Russ with. I really don't think even the most elite managers would have kept us up.
