Tan and Slade or Whelan and Malky? Apart from the Brayford cash, perhaps a fire sale for us is the wrong word - more like a freebee takeaway with Cala, Guerra, Eikrem, Berget, Kimbo, Burgstaller and now Le Fondre put out to grass. Again apart from Brayford and an ineffective ALF, none of them really figured in our season so far, but I've just noticed that Wigan have now flogged Adam Forshaw to Middlesbrough for something like £2M. Forshaw follows fellow regular midfielders Ben Watson and Callum McManaman (£5M) out of the door from the Whelan/Malky combo. Whelan is getting some cash in, but that must leave them short in the centre of the park. Perhaps Malky's old boy Don Cowie will get more game time. Neither Slade nor Malky have exactly covered themselves in glory since they were appointed at City and Wigan respectively, if anything Malky has been worse (if that's possible) but baring in mind where we both are now, who do you think will have the better of their last 19 games? Should we just be glad that we're 13 points ahead of them right now and 10 clear of Millwall? The current bottom 3 look to be right in the crap at the moment and perhaps we should be grateful for that. Blackpool must be gone - with Malky actually doing worse than Rosler before he was sacked, can he do enough to stop Wigan going with them?
Even from here I can see Slade is worse than MM. Not that I MMs biggest fan, can't abide the idiot. A lucky idiot.
The first ten results for each manager with their new clubs would show that Malky is by far the worse of the two - Malky has got just 5 points from a possible 30 from his. I bet Whelan is not best pleased with that. Having said that, Slade has gone downhill rapidly since then, though I've always said on here those early results were very flattering for him - what we are seeing from him now is quite pathetic in management terms.
http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2015/01/chicago-fire-sign-shaun-maloney-designated-player Here's another quality player leaving Wigan.
10 points looks huge but a few of the teams just outside have closed the gap to us. It'll only take Milwall or Wigan to fluke/scrape/battle a couple of wins and everyone bottom half starts ****ting themselves. If Slade stays to the end I'm sure we'll finish in the bottom 6, where in the bottom 6 will depend on others ability (or lack of it) to take advantage of the undoubtable slide we're on.
Stevo - of the teams just below us, I bet ALF will starting ****loads for Bolton now he's gone there and they along with Huddersfield have got good managers in Lennon and Powell. Of the rest, I reckon Charlton, Reading and Rotherham are currently playing better as teams on the pitch than us, and Brighton have got Hughton there now who will take them the same way after the Hyypia experiment bombed. I'd say only Leeds and Fulham look poor and should be targets for the current bottom 3. The way it's going under Slade, those 5 teams could be our saviours this season.
It will be interesting to see how ALF gets on with Heskey and Gudjonsen. I can see him doing much the same for them in being the legs up front. Those 2 have a combined age of 73 (I think) so don't see them providing an energetic forward line.
Will Malky be given the proceeds to buy in or is Whelan squirreling away his cash too? As it's their second year in the Championship I guess FFP rules will hit them even harder next season so perhaps it is prudent pruning.
Now come on Sparks, you've been predicting Alf to start to scoring for ages, excuse me if I retain my doubts! I will obviously agree he is now working under a much better manager.
I think two of the relegation places will prove to be a bit of a lottery. Blackpool look doomed already. The other two places will be filled by anyone up to the current twelfth place. We are no better than any of them.
I still think ALF will start scoring - especially now he's not with us. We keep banging on (and quite rightly so) about the glorious chances he's missed, but sometimes a change of style and players around a striker (I am using the word lightly ) can start the flow. If he gets one or two early on, he could get into double figures for them no problem - something he was never going to do with us.
Sparks, I wasn't basing my opinion on the stats. It's based on whether or not I believe they are decent manager. MM is still pooping yellow compared to Slade. I believe MM will turn around Wigans fortunes but not enough to turn it into a barnstorming climb up the table. He ain't that good. Slade with his wealth of experience should have stopped the rot and steadied the ship by this point, he hasn't and as many have pointed out seems clueless.
