I think we'd have fared much better - Sam knew how to manage the injury prone players - his techniques may be questionable long term but Kaboul, Cattermole and Kirchhoff all played more games under Sam than at any other time in their careers. Their long term fitness (later career), overall, may have suffered but their fitness when playing was unquestionable. Kirchhoff hardly played more than 2 in a row previously at any club! And I'm pretty sure that he hadn't played the amount of games he did for us anywhere. Since Sam went Cattermole's injuries have returned, Kirchhoff went to Bolton and played 4 times! Then he's disappeared off the face of the earth as his injuries have got the better of him.
FWIW though, I doubt Sam would've stayed even if the national job hadn't come knocking. He'd have told Short to stick the job imo much like he did the chairman at Palace
I agree with everything except the last paragraph.
Short was undoubtedly fed up to the back teeth throwing away his money keeping a losing side going.
But go back to when we got to a Cup Final.
His picture splashed all over the back pages, full publicity, he was a very happy bunny then.
I just wonder if he might have been OK about supporting a decent side.