lexicon

Is your managerial style - 'spiteful'?

I'm not interested in a debate on semantics. Feel free to discuss the issues at hand.

I get what you mean, and I'm not saying that I'm definitely right and you're wrong etc. - we both have different opinions on the matter and that's fine. I think the main arguments behind keeping Smith are: - He got us into the league in the first place, so he can win games with a comparatively good squad - There are many factors outside his control that have had a large impact on our current position - There is stability that comes with keeping a manager, and when you sack him, you're rolling the dice again It all boils down to whether you think that the average manager that we could attract could have kept us up with all variables and circumstances being the same. I think that it'd be unlikely and I believe Smith can take us forward (as he did before) - throwing the dice is not a risk I'd be willing to take right now.

Because the situation is entirely different. If you think that the squad we have today is premier league standard, then that's up to you. I don't think it is and I don't blame Smith entirely for where we are, with all the context that we have from this season to go on - near total rebuild, huge influx of players that we had to take punts on, season-ending injuries to first choice keeper and striker etc.

We've changed owners and staff twice in the last few years - it's clearly not the same. Lerner had checked out, Xia was a fraud, but these guys have a lot more about them than what we were dealing with before. If you honestly think just chopping and changing whenever you feel like it is a prudent strategy, then just look at the Ellis era and why that failed too.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't think there are many managers that would have done a whole lot better, certainly not ones that would be available to us, when you take everything into consideration that we've had to deal with this year.

This is the point I have an issue with - I just don't see this squad, as a whole, as being much more than they currently are. I think certain players could perform better if they had the right supporting cast around them - but if they don't exist, what are the former supposed to do? I don't want short term solutions to things that are unsustainable.

That's perfectly fair enough - I don't necessarily agree with you, but I totally get where you're coming from. It's been a rough season.

Yet it's better than what we had when we went up last season....

I think that's a very weird position to take. We were far worse before the restart.

They probably do - but I hope that in both cases we keep him. If he keeps us up, he's pulled off a miracle, and if we go down, he's shown that he can get us out of that league already (and with a worse squad).

I'm inclined to agree. I think we'd be better off selling him and reinvesting the money into two quality players (assuming we get around 60mil) rather than over-relying and overworking him - it's too much pressure on just one player and he's not handling it.

Here's a hacksaw and some concrete, Dean. Build a house.

I think we're looking to develop someone younger and with a higher ceiling than O'Hare.

'The reality of that bad penalty decision would fire most teams into life to get there (sic) own back' - Based on what? Examples please. 'The team is underachieving under Smith' - Really? Do you think this group of players is much better than where we are? 'As soon as a goal is scored in any match, even if we score the goal our heads drop' - What on earth are you talking about? Goals change games. Man Utd, 5th in the league, came to life after what was a clearly bullshit decision. We'd take any of their players to improve our first team and in an even fight, i.e. on paper, we lose ten times out of ten if both teams perform like they can.