We’ve hit our first bad run of ‘form’ for nearly 12 months (which just happens to coincide with the most bonkers run of injuries to 1st 11 players I think I’ve ever seen) and people want him gone?
Behave.
If you give someone a job for 5 years, and they do well in their first year, then have a crap 2 and a half weeks, is it reasonable to sack them? The man’s had a shoddy couple of weeks at work (remembering that he didn’t miss Brewster’s penalty, or slide Egan’s interception straight to the opposition, or swing Basham’s leg out to give away a stonewall penalty), but the idea that we should sack a guy from his job after just over two weeks where we’ve not been impressed seems to be a bit of an odd way of acting. (And I really haven’t been all that impressed in the last 2 weeks by the way.) I know a job at a football club traditionally doesn’t last very long - averaging 4 or 5 years in the 60s, 3 or 4 in the 70s, 80s, dropping through the 90s to just over a year apparently in recent seasons (data for the top tier, actually a bit shorter historically in tier 2), but the baying for a sacking which happens at every club where there’s a few bad results seems to be an odd reaction to me.
I think we might overestimate the impact of a manager. Virtually every club seems to expect great results from this amazing plan to get a new manager, then be quickly disappointed and sack them - after about 1 year and a bit on average now, often much less.
Football clubs are big enterprises: scouting, player acquisition, academies, medical team (I know), coaches, players, manager - and I’ve probably missed loads out. Identifying just the manager as the source of everything going wrong (for two and a half weeks), or alternatively as the reason everything went right (for 3 quarters of a season) seems a bit excessive.
I think this is probably what’s behind the “he won’t be judged on Saturday’s result” headline that appeared from the board earlier in this thread - this idea that it’s probably not all down to the manager what that particular result is. I don’t know if that is the thinking; and I certainly don’t know if it’s a good idea; but jumping up and saying “I know, let’s get a new manager,” seems to not work very often either, so maybe it’s worth prioritising stability perhaps.