For me, I’m absolutely supporting him. I cannot quite believe we’re showing the hysteria we are after 4 games! Yes, we’re bottom, yes it is our worst start in 21 years but are we really that surprised? What has changed at all, to warrant expectations of a flying start to the season? I said it in the summer, the appointment of Wilder, the naming of Sharp as captain and the quick signings of Hussey and Duffy within the space of a week were an attempt to give the false hope of a ‘new dawn’. To me, I wasn’t convinced and it was too much ‘same owd, same owd’. This is largely a very similar side to the one that was very mediocre at the end of last season.
- Noone wanted the cast-offs and transfer listed players, who are eating into his budget – nowt he can do about that, it’s mismanagement from before but his hands are pretty much tied because of it
- There’s no bite in midfield
- There’s little creativity out wide
- There’s sod all supply to the one area where we are strong, the strikers.
- There’s no balance in the backline
- And no leaders in the defence
- He's had his best youngster sold
And of course, you could level at me in reply, “well it’s Wilder’s job to sort all of that” and you’d be right – be he isn’t going to remedy all of that in one summer, he isn’t going to be able to fix years of fuck-uppery from the very top in one transfer window. In which other profession would you be given a matter of mere weeks to turn a failing business around? Very few. The gaps were just too huge, but he is starting to attempt to fill them:
- Some proven width and thread out wide – Duffy
- More proven goal threat – Clarke
- A promising centre half who needs some quality alongside him – O’Connell
Most importantly of all, he is still fighting to instill that spine of the side that he so desperately needs, hence the additions of Moore, hence the 100-page thread and supposed pursuit of Morsy, hence openly admitting he still wants a centre-half. As I’ve said before, we already have the players to compliment a spine to the side (Fleck, Duffy, Done, Chapman etc) but we
don’t have the spine in itself. These are all good players who don’t become bad players over night, but they aren’t the leaders themselves, they are the ones which benefit from playing alongside a leader. A Morgan, Monty, even a Doyle would be rallying them a little more than they are already.
But because of the lack of a spine, because of the flaws listed in the bullet points above, he’s forced to continue to do the very things he didn’t want to do, for example:
- Play square pegs in round holes (e.g. Scougall out wide)
- Not play Done up front, which I think he would rather
- Play a ‘supporting cast’ as the spine of the side
- Rely on a back-up centre half in the first XI
No other manager would be able to avoid these conundrums at present; he simply does not have the players at his disposal to do what he wants to do. His principles are sound, as too is his attitude, and whilst they say a workman should never blame his tools, sadly exactly that applies here – and chuff me, does he have a lot of tools. Admittedly, he isn’t flawless and he could help himself by making subs earlier, or playing football rather than hoof ball with a team of midgets, but calling for Wilder’s head simply isn’t the solution, at all. Because to do that would be to worsen the situation further and write off the whole summer and start again.
The bloke is straight talking, doesn’t take any bullshit – can clearly get the board to part with a bob or two on recent evidence (Clarke, Moore) and for me, that’s a start – it’s better than what we’ve been used to. It may not be the be all and end all, but it is better. He has my support.
