1danewhitehouse
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- Aug 10, 2015
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Thing is, you have to go into convoluted reasons as to why Adkins failed even to reach the level Clough did. As well as the "bad luck" stories, you can equally pick "good luck" stories (the daylight robbery of 3 points at home to Coventry springs to mind). Most people also seem to think the division was weaker this season, so getting last points than Clough is even more of a failure. On the plus side, Clough had no 20 goal a season striker, Adkins did.
I would be pretty sure Adkins was told at the start of the season that the minimum expected was a play off place. As I say, he failed and can have no complaints. You can say the sacking was a bit harsh and that he could well have been given the start of next season and I would agree with that. What I don't think you can say is that the sacking was not deserved given the serious underachievement last season.
As I have said 20,000 times, it was finely balanced decision; not obviously right as the Weir and Robson sackings were or obviously insane as the Wilson and Blackwell sackings were. I don't criticise the Board for sacking him and wouldn't have criticised them for keeping him on.
My point re Clough was that the difference in performance was negligible.
For me it's not about harshness or fairness of the sacking. It's about the lack of foresight, not learning from past mistakes, buck-passing and the elimination of about the only proven quality we have at our club in any capacity before he's even had a chance to do the job. I can't see that we can possibly be in a better position with Wilder going forward than if we had stuck with Adkins. It just reaks of reactionary buck-passing on McCabe's part to keep the angry crowds off his back.