Millhousesblade1889
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- Jan 12, 2018
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From around 2015/16, which I think is when I started going, through to 2020/21, he pretty much had us all fully devoted. He was our man. There was a real connection between him, the club and the supporters, and after so many good seasons, he’d earned the right to have a bad one. I think most of us would have accepted that and backed him to put things right.
But the way he left changed things. To me, he acted like a kid who wasn’t getting his own way and stormed out. However people want to dress it up, he left through the back door, something he’d always said he would never do. You can appreciate everything he achieved here and still feel let down by that.
When he came back in 2023, that trust didn’t automatically come back with him. Like most on here, I was at the Liverpool game, and I remember how strange the atmosphere felt. There was still affection for him, but it wasn’t the wholehearted backing I remembered. His return couldn’t simply pick up where things had left off.
Then came the season we lost in the play-offs. On paper, it was a good season, and I don’t think anyone needs to pretend otherwise to make their point. But towards the end, he seemed increasingly unable to keep his emotions in check. The incident at Plymouth and the repeated references to the 90 points felt like signs of someone becoming more defensive and frustrated.
Despite the results, it never felt as though everyone was fully behind what we were watching. My impression was that we generally beat the sides we should have beaten, but too often came up short in the tighter, more evenly matched games. There was always that doubt about how we’d cope when it really mattered.
Looking back, I’d probably say his sacking was unfair. At the time, though, my honest reaction was relief. That wasn’t because I’d forgotten what he’d done for the club. I just felt we had an opportunity to move forward: develop a different style of football, freshen up the recruitment and move away from the familiar cycle of players and approaches we knew he would return to.
For me, this fourth stint simply hasn’t worked. He deserves credit for keeping us up, but I also think a reasonably competent manager should have been capable of doing that with the squad available. Looking back at last season’s squad on paper, there was enough quality there to expect more than we got. He had the team for most of the season, yet we never found any real consistency.
You can accept that the problems at the club go beyond the manager while still expecting him to get more out of the players. His history here should count for something, but it can’t keep being the answer to concerns about the football we’re watching now.
This season feels like the end of the road to me, and this time I don’t see a future return making sense. We’ve gone back to that relationship repeatedly, hoping to recapture what made it special the first time, but each return seems to carry more baggage and less belief.
My worry is that the owners won’t have the conviction to make a decision because of how badly they handled the Selles situation. That experience seems to have left us stuck: unsure about the manager we have, but lacking confidence in the people who would choose his replacement.
I’ll always appreciate what he gave us. For a long time, he was someone we believed in completely. But gratitude for those years and confidence in his ability to take us forward are two different things. For me, that confidence has gone.
and it’s all gone quiet over there! 
