There were a few unfortunate things that were clearly out of his control that happened in his time:
- Saunders deciding to head to Benfica just at the point that he and Katman were putting together a decent partnership
- Having to spend an evening getting John Deehan released from the police after the incident at QPR
- the rapid failure of his body, which saw him go from a decent debut at Palace to a horror show in his last game as a player, as Michael Bridges repeatedly placed him on his arse in the 4-0 drubbing vs Sunderland
- the Kanu/Overmars fiasco
- the panic sales of Stuart, Holdsworth and Borbokis as financial pressures increased
- The Count
That said, some of his questionable decisions clearly he had full influence over included:
- a narrow tactical approach where he would often insist on 4-4-2, despite us having the league's two best wing backs arguably. Trying to cram both players into roles as wingers never worked well
- the total mishandling of Try Dellas, who was so annoyed at the lack of opportunities given him that he just headed back to Greece in the summer rather than take up the year's option on his contract
- the arguable mishandling of David Holdsworth, who by the sounds of it he had a huge personality clash with
- the signing of Ian Hamilton
- the signing of Jonathan Hunt
I was actually pretty relieved he left when he did, as I really didn't see him being a success with us. Clearly on a long learning curve at the time - he was similarly terrible at Huddersfield, where he was allowed to spend quite a bit of cash.
