PDA

View Full Version : No quick fix



JJP
10-05-2014, 07:21 PM
I don't post here very often but I have enjoyed reading this forum for years, I've not enjoyed reading it much lately. I have never started a thread on here either but I feel like offering my views, so thank you for reading and to those who will contribute.

The constant changing of managers at this club is the real reason for where we are now. It seems like our last 6 or 7 managers have not lived up to the expectations of this support quickly enough. I predicted when Fenlon left that we were going back to square one and this would see us dropping down the table like a stone. Sadly, that is what has happened. I was called a Yam for it, but that was my opinion. When Pat took over we could see that things were improving from when Calderwood was here, you can all deny it, but that was the general mood at the time. I wasn't ecstatic with how things were going earlier in the season but we were steady. We, at that point, were in a better league position than we had finished in the season before. Under Fenlon, we at least showed some level of improvement year on year when he was here. I guess not quick enough for some. I argued at the time he should finish the season with us with his players and then we could assess his performance over the full season and the term of his contract with the club. At that point the board could decide to keep him on or he could leave and a new manager could come in with a summer transfer window to recruit players and shape the team however they would see fit. I think there is an argument for standing by a manager through the bad times to get to the good times, especially where there has been measurable signs of improvement. However, Fenlon became deeply unpopular with the support after the game against Malmo and two defeats to Hearts and the support hounded him out, what's done is done.

Terry Butcher has come in and got off to a disastrous start. Butcher has, instead of keeping things steady until the end of the season and then putting his own stamp on things, tore up the script and started from scratch and we have suffered big time for it. We are where we are now though and sacking another manager and not giving them any time to turn things around will just lead to more of the same. These are the bad times, but lets accept that things are bad at the moment, pull together and support this club through it, and hopefully reap the benefits down the line. Butcher has previous for this. Motherwell were saved from relegation by a technicality in his first season there. When he took over at Inverness they were relegated as well. But both clubs improved when they stood by him. I think we should do the same.

Shields Hibee
10-05-2014, 08:07 PM
As much as I didn't like Fenlon's brand of football or hoofball, we at least looked solid at times & I sometimes ask myself where would be now if he had stayed until now i.e. nearing end of contract? I'm not saying Fenlon was the bees knees as he did suffer 2 of the worst results in recent times and the 0-7 defeat at ER to Malmo was always going to make it tougher for him if we started badly this campaign. Not the most impressive of starts, performances still less than inspiring & then the Hearts LC cup result meant Pat was on borrowed time and parting of ways looked inevitable.

Butcher, well when we got him I thought maybe he might turn us round. He has done that but not the way I was expecting & his loan signings in Jan have hardly inspired though Watmore did well today I thought. I'd like to see what Butcher brings in this summer but as you say, he didnt get off to good starts at Well or ICT but those clubs then pushed on as they didnt panic. It would be good if we could do similar but if he gets off to a bad start & there don't look to be signs of improvement then another change may be on the cards & we start again. Trouble is, we've been doing that now for past 6/7 years and we've not got anywhere with it.