[drewks]

Can't understand the hate for TP on this thread, infact its a joke. He has all but guaranteed survival in less than 3 months after we looked doomed to relegation under clueless Irvine, also I don't get where this idea of him signing centre backs in every position and only signing giants comes from - McManaman is 5'9" and Fletcher is 6'0". Yes the away performances have been pretty boring but at home we have been excellent.

Would people rather we had Irvine back, got relegated and spent years in the championship missing out on the TV money and the chance to grow our club? Because that is what would have happened.

What "hate"? From my own perspective Pulis has been effective and played some good football -at home. Away, we've been dreadfully negative and yes, he has a habit of playing central defenders as full backs and surely even his most fervent supporters can see that Lescott is not effective at full back. My complaint is that why he can't see that our form and results have been excellent at home, so why not try to replicate it away where our results adopting his approach have been poor? I now understand why my Stoke supporting colleagues at work liked him so much and I didn't - simply they watched Stoke at home while I just endured his away performances

Good post Zinman 
I agree with your sentiments 1996 but also agree that the word 'hate' is a bit strong. The simple fact is that TP has turned us round very quickly from nose diving into the Championship to very likely surviving with a little to spare (God willing).
Of that I'm sure we're all very grateful, but that doesn't make TP immune from any criticism.....actually even THAT word is a bit strong IMO. 'Questioning some selections' is maybe nearer the mark - which we are surely entitled to do (particularly when he plays our best CB at LB where his lack of pace is obviously going to be targetted).

Also, the fact that AI was SOOOO out of his depth means that any comparison with TP must be done very carefully - you could say that AI had the players but didn't/couldn't use them at all effectively; the fact that TP is generally doing this doesn't disguise the fact that he IS still apparently putting square pegs in round holes.

I'm a huge TP fan, by the way, but can still see why some are questioning his selections!