I think, with the benefit of hindsight, we (myself included) underestimated the size of the job Clough faces.
When we went down there was a general consensus that we were flailing around in the dark, without any identity or philosophy, switching from Blackwell hoof to Speed slow build up to Adams god knows what that was.
A large number of supporters, including the vocal ones who attended the forums, wanted us to be more like Swansea, to go up through the leagues playing passing football. For the club to be rebuilt on stronger foundations.
Unfortunately, for reasons that belong in another thread, we didn't rebuild. Dw1 kept a core of players that were mainly top end of the championship level and used them to play good football. What he didn't do, is build below this enough. In terms of building, which translates as bringing in good young players to provide a supply line for the future, he signed KM, Murphy, Flynn and Blackman.
Once we failed to go up, we lost most of our good players and replaced them with short term veterans like Kitson and Robson. When we again failed to go up, they went and we were left with very little. You could argue that our only good players were KM and Harry; Murphy and Flynn had yet to show their quality, Collins and Doyle solid but no more than that. The rest, slightly above average L1 players.
When Dw2 took over we had to seriously rebuild not just the squad but the first team. We barely had a first eleven of senior players and certainly not one good enough to mount a serious challenge. Weir's rebuilding was poor and hampered further by the late sale of KM. He gave us the worst team I have ever seen at the Lane.
When Clough came in, he worked a minor miracle and most of us thought we'd found the new Bassett. We assumed he'd work another miracle and we'd piss the league. Not an unreasonable assumption under the circumstances.
It hasn't happened. Our preseason seemed chaotic, exacerbated by the late loss of Harry, when it looked like he was staying, and the bizarre bust ups with Butler and Collins. Our recruitment appeared to be done on the cheap, backed up by comments from above about how we wouldn't spend big money until we got back into the Championship.
Clough has had to bring in a lot of players, for both the first team and squad, to make up for three years of neglect and bad management at all levels.
In simple terms, the more players you have to bring in, the higher the likelihood is of getting some of them wrong. So whilst a lot have been decent signings, we've also had the likes of Higdon and Butler, who haven't worked out.
What we do have is a squad that contains some solid pros, a bit of quality and a good number of young players that could develop into some real stars for us.
The JTW is the first time since relegation from the PL that a manager had been allowed to spend serious money (relative to the league we're in). The players haven't gelled properly yet, it happens in football, it doesn't mean they won't. Injuries and suspensions haven't helped.
Yes, Clough has made mistakes, all managers do. At the moment we look awful. But to allow him to spend the money he has and then to sack him six weeks later because it hasn't had an instant impact is fucking madness.
He has shown enough in the year and a bit he's been with us to demonstrate he is moving us in the right direction. It's to slow for a lot of supporters but I'm not convinced there are many who could have done it any quicker.
Sacking Clough now would deter other decent managers from joining us. Looking at the big picture, this season has been disappointing but nowhere near bad enough to warrant sacking the manager. It's not Clough's fault that we've been here for four seasons and that we've constantly sold our best players and replaced them with crap.
I honestly don't think we're that far away, nor do I think overall he's doing a bad job. At least give him the time to see it through.
