[BaggieSteve]

  Kick and rush under Steve Clarke ?
  We played Utd off the park on their own patch and beat them 2-1 playing some cracking stuff and if it wasn't for a
  Ramires dive we`d of been the only team to have beaten Chelsea away from home that season so to say we were
  kick and rush under Clarke is ridiculous, you don't finish 8th in the league playing kick and rush. Could you honestly
  of seen Pulis finishing 8th that season and playing attacking football using the likes of Gera,Morrison,Odemwingie,
  Fortune,Long,Lukaku, etc as I certainly couldn't.

I think you're absolutely right about Steve Clarke. We certainly were not kick and rush, we played some excellent football but also played to the strengths of the team, notably Lukaku. It was a bitter blow not to get Romelu for a second season and, with that decision coming so late in the transfer window, we ended up with Anichebe - a decent guy and honest trier but so far below the level of Lukaku it was painful. We really felt his loss in the following season. I felt really sorry for Steve Clarke but his demise was due to the fact that we got into a long spiral of poor results and he didn't seem to know how to arrest it. Nevertheless, if Pepe Mel (another decent bloke) managed to keep us up, them I'm sure Clarke would have done. I honestly have no idea what next season will bring; I'm  ok about Pulis being in charge, but no more than ok. I can't see how the style of football will change as its not in his nature to play expansively. As many have said, it probably won't be pretty but it will be effective, if effective is defined as not getting relegated.