by RoyalBlue »
24 Mar 2024 12:19
Snowflake Royal Elm Park Kid LUX Great stuff.
I do worry that we are not as far from the relegation places as the article suggests, especially with any more points deductions. But the article gives me confidence we can survive on merit. I was at the Cambridge game, it was very impressive.
OTOH if we do survive, the thousands of disgraceful anti-Selles posts from before Xmas need to be highlighted.
Any manager that had the results that Selles did at the start of the season would be under immense pressure and be facing deserved criticism. Especially one with zero track record of success. Sure, he was dealing with an 'impossible' situation that wasn't his fault - but managers ultimately carry the can. In any 'normal' scenario he'd have been sacked in November and few people here would have thought it was the wrong decision.
Thankfully though we didn't have that option and he's more than risen to the occasion. It's one of the few gambles that we've made that has actually paid off.
If it wasn't for the (deserved) criticism, we might still be playing the only way he knew how in that dreadful 4-2-2-2 and cut adrift in the relegation slots.
Likewise, if he'd played a sensible shape from the start and not completely ditched Holmes, we might be safe in midtable already.
It's worked out ok in the end, and he's somewhat lucky Dai couldn’t give two shits so he's had long enough to learn and rectify mistakes. Which he wouldn't have been afford anywhere else.
And he'd have struggled to find another job with a 50%+ loss rate over two clubs.
Somehow I don't have Selles (or indeed many other managers) down as the type of individual who would change tactics simply because the fans were criticising him. He was new in the job, didn't really get a squad until the season had kicked off, was missing his key number 9 for a long period and, like most people, took time to settle into his new role. Yes, in normal circumstances and/or under other owners he would probably have been sacked but there again, if it was normal circumstances he would have faced far less challenges to deal with in the first place.
One good thing about the Wilf brothers, if they end up buying the club, is that they apparently believe in giving their managers time in the job and won't fire at the first signs of difficulties.
