Originally Posted by
Chicken Balti Pie
Not even close to being worse than Sam Allardyce when he first arrived. He got us relegated and then bounced straight back. Had the season not been curtailed, I honestly believe we'd have gone up as champions with all the fixtures left to play. You also say never won key matches yet you forget about Mansfield at Home, Barrow Away etc.
Also the majority of the team didn't stay. Certainly not the ones that were needed. Let's have a look at what he had to work with shall we:
Fitzsimmons - hopeless
Tootle - totally lost it, fullback who couldn't stop crosses
Bird - may have played OK but trained horribly by all accounts
Oxlaide-Chamberlain - signed by Hardy because of his brother, evidence football ability isn't genetic
Crawford - seemed quite small but decent and possibly should have been used more
Doyle - used extensively
O'Brien - legs may be fading but still used extensively
Osbourne - an untested youth player at the time
Mitch Rose - used extensively
Enzio - Used extensively
Campbell - youth player
Hemmings - sold as very expensive
Dennis - probably not used enough
From this, we can see that yes, he probably could have thrown a side together, but the defence which was always the issue the season before would have been awful. He managed to keep the midfield together and did have proven forwards if not massively expensive and draining of a budget for a club on its knees.
Just have a bit of perspective