To be completely truthful, I don't understand the need for a comparison.
Firstly, it's a pointless academic exercise. It will never be anything other than ifs, ands, or buts. Ratios and percentages will run riot as posters have clearly subscribed to.
Secondly, am I missing something, or was the reason for this thread anything other than a cynical exercise in proving a point? We're where we are, we have the manager we have, and my feeling is that on the whole we're doing well. I'm not one of those Unitedites who make those declarations that we're better than we are. We're here, in this dreadful division, for a reason. I see that some posters put the blame squarely on the building of the South Stand. For myself that's a tad simple as an excuse for underwhelming decline. From root to branch we've got things wrong. From owners, management, through to what happens on the pitch, there's been nothing that I can, hand on heart, honestly say has been the sign of a club well run, with the type of transparency that would have expected.
One thing I do feel, and that's all it is, a feeling, is that we're making progress. I know the comment may come back, "by whose standards?", well by the things that I see coming together slowly, those things that tell me we have a manager who's building a club that's fit for purpose. Maybe those same critics should cast their gaze in the direction of Ferguson's first 5-6 season's at Man Utd? Nothing delivered by way of trophies or championships, yet slowly something was rebuilt at what has been regarded as one of the giants of English football. Clough has been here less than two seasons, we're not in the relegation zone, we're in the top six, yet already posters like the OP reach a conclusion that Clough's tenure as manager should be ended. And before anyone says otherwise, there's a subtext to many thing, and this post is no different, the only thing lacking transparency in the OP's heading was a more direct accusation that Clough is a failure..
I sometimes feel that the imaginations, as well as relative experience, of some of the posters on the forum bears no relationship to what it must be like to manage a business. What does become clear is an unhealthy craving for immediate progress, in this case promotion. Much has been written about chopping and changing manager's. The consensus seemed to be that we, for once, allow a manager to get on with the job of taking this club by the scruff of the neck, as Clough has done, and shape the club into a living, breathing entity ready to push forward, move up to the Championship, spend 2 or 3 seasons preparing for promotion to the next level, all of which seems to be what's at the heart of Clough's strategy.
By all means damn Clough. If he should leave (unlikely I should add) who do any of you realistically suggest we appoint? Would anyone of calibre consider a Division 1 club with a short fuse for managerial appointments? Yet this crazy absence of logic rears it's head once again. It's as if baby hasn't been given what he demanded, therefore baby stamps his feet, wants a new daddy, and then all will be well in baby's world. Currently, the manager of this division's leading team, is receiving stupid criticisms for losing two games, and that's after a season when they, Bristol City, have done exceptionally well. It's not just a United trait, it applies to supporters everywhere. It just happens that what's being discussed here is based on an emotive, knee-jerk set of criticisms because we're not crushing the opposition due to the fact that we're SUFC and are entitled to success. The adult reply to that notion is no, we're entitled to very little. We're not about to be handed anything, yet the same tiresome nonsense continues, from manager to manager, that we're going nowhere. Well all the while we subscribe to short-term reactions, all containing the vision of a peanut, then yes, we'll continue to underwhelm and think that being a 'big' team means anything. It doesn't, not unless you choose to work together, set about improving the club from the ground up, and invest trust and understanding in what's being done to achieve these aims.
Silly OP that should have been more honest about it's intentions.
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