Quote Originally Posted by animallittle3 View Post
I always got the impression the job was too big for Clarke , this was the biggest job he'd landed thus far in his career and I sensed it daunted him a little .

With all due respect to Port Vale , Walsall and Cheltenham this club is different gravy from his previous assignments , I sensed he was out of his depth at times and it showed with some of his substitutions , it's generally not a good idea to throw your players under the bus when you haven't exactly set the world alight when it comes to football management .

Neil Warnock can get away with it because his record in management stacks up but I'm afraid Clarke's doesn't .

That said he wasn't supported in the January window what so ever and the squad right from the off was never balanced in my opinion .

Those tasked with providing what Clarke needed have also to take their share of the blame and it actually turns my stomach to see them remain at the club and will probably fuq the next HC up too .

My thoughts on Hourihane are this , he's unproven as a HC but that never stopped Allan Clarke , Norman Hunter or Danny Wilson having outstanding success although times were different then .

However Hourihane does have something the last two HC's didn't have and that's a bit of clout , he was a very popular player here with history that pre dates those running this shyte show on Grove Street .

In a battle of whose fault it is if things go tyts up under Hourihane those tasked with supporting him might want to actually do that because Hourihane's previous at this club gives him a huge amount of credit with the bank .

They'll not be able to sell Hourihane down the river like they've done with Collins and Clarke and get away with it with the fans .

They've just inadvertently and potentially exposed themselves if Hourihane gets the gig full time , the fans aren't going to turn on Hourihane no matter what .

Not in a million years .

Good point but we must also bear in mind that Hourihane may not want the gig permanently if offered it.

He's seen first hand what the head coach is up against with these owners. I seriously doubt whether he'd even want the job full time because it's simply not right with the way things are.

The other managerial rookies you pointed out who have had success here did have a distinct advantage over Conor Hourihane or indeed any other prospective HC-they were all backed by the Chairman and board.

Personally, I wouldn't like to see Hourihane try to cut his teeth here as a head coach on a permanent basis.

Cast your mind back to Alan Shearer temporarily taking over at Newcastle in 2009 for the last few games to try and save them from Premiership relegation. He wasn't able to. Obviously he didn't tarnish his reputation as a Geordie legend but even he knew it wasn't ever going to be a permanent gig because the club at the time was being run by bad owners who were out of their depth and they were going downhill. Shearer only took the job through his love of the club and sentimentality. Perhaps Hourihane may feel the same as Shearer did- he obviously has a great player history and association with this club. There are similarities and sometimes these things are best left alone.