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Thing is, Tom, by all accounts Alan has a great rapport with our players and they (mostly) seem to respect him. JP is fully aware of this and JP himself is a big fan of AI.
Bring some one else in and we could end up with a situation like we had with Pepe Mel where the players thought he and his sidekick were a joke and basically didn't want to play for them.
This could go horribly wrong. My opinion (and it's just mine) is that JP should stick with AI and beef up the squad in Jan....probably at the expense of Saido.
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Drewks you are totally right.
AI is a very decent chap and is doing what he believes is right. He comes across as an honest and very likeable person. I'd happily buy him a pint and spend hours listening to his view on football. My anger is not at him, it is at JP for appointing him first off and secondly for failing to see the writing on the wall and dealing with this kindly, a long time ago.
Add to that player opinion on their manager is a ridiculous gauge of capability. Naturally the players (most of them) seem to like him. I guess that's because its all lovely at training and no-one shouts at them or threatens them with the sack and they can skip too and from training like happy little children. No nasty Drill Sergeant shouting and telling them to pull their socks up.
Add to that if you say negative or bad things as a player you get ostracised, don't get to play and train with the kids. Then appear on the January transfer listing (maybe there is something in that for Saido and others that are not playing at the moment. Maybe later we will hear they were out spoken and punished).
My daughter thinks she is very good at singing. I gave her a chance and funded singing lessons. But is is clear now that the kindest thing to do, is not to post her X Factor application and save her from this misguided view.
JP has paid for AI to 'have a go'. He might be ok on the training ground and everyone loves him. But this is business (please remember this JP) and you can't be romantic about it. Letting this really nice guy pretend to be a coach at West Brom is about to donate 3 points to West Ham and further reduce the points available to the next coach to get out of the mess.
Remember the 5 match final run-in. If I were to start planning a survival campaign I would not have started it in January, I would have started in early December (although, I would never have appointed him over Sherwood in the first place).
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That BBC article is a disgrace - "fans never gave him a chance" is complete bulls*it.
Personally, I didn't want the guy because his CV listed only failures.
BUT I was thoroughly behind him for the Sunderland game, as were the rest of the fans.
The reason people want him sacked now is because he continues to pick the wrong team, with negative tactics and dull, boring, lackluster football week after week.
He often leaves our best players on the bench for dull players who can only be better at following orders in training.
The media keep saying that the "players respect him" but in truth, how can the likes of Gamboa, Varela and Saido respect him when he drops them / doesn't give them a chance? He clearly favors the likes of Dorrans, Brunt and Gardner who have been treading water all season.
Those players probably do support him and of course they would, he picks them week in and week out.
It seems to me that there is a core 'clique' of players + Downing etc who seem to run the club. They managed to get Mel sacked after doing a reasonable job of keeping us up under shambolic conditions and are now keeping Irvine alive. Unfortunately, it is the players outside of the clique (Saido, Varela, Gamboa, Samaras) who have some genuine pedigree.
We really need a new man to step in and take it by the scruff of the neck and shake things up. AL is just another yes man who has preferred to become part of the clique, rather than break it up for progression.
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I have completely forgot about Blanco, that chap must be wandering whats going on too
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SSN now reporting AI will be in charge for the West Sham game! Yet another last chance?
