Humble Pie

[Dan]

I think he's a different person to the manger we had last season.

I still think that if we'd have sacked him in March last year that we'd have made automatic promotion.

I wouldn't have sacked him out of spite, I'd have sacked him because we bombed so badly.

I'm not sure that he'll get a new contract should we get promoted.

 

He's developed. No doubt about it. He's had an improved mentality about him this season (although he's not a different person).

 

I definitely disagree with your second point. Who exactly would've come in and sent us up, and then kept us up?

 

We did drop like a stone but you've since then had evidence to prove that sacking him would have been a bad idea. I was running out of defences for him last season myself but I didn't see any more blatantly obvious alternative (other than that Girard, although I'm not convinced he'd have us top at the minute).

 

He deserves one if he gets us up. If he doesn't then we'll just have to assess the situation again but massive questions will have to be asked of him and his squad's mentality if we piss this up the wall.

[hackneyfox]

I honestly think that almost any manager would have got us up from the position we were in, a new manager normally leads to an improvement, even if it's only short term due to the squad being shit. We had a good squad so I believe that we'd have been ok.

All water under the bridge now, hopefully he'll get us there this time around.

I do think he's changed as a person, or been told to, his interviews are better than they were, he's seemed more relaxed all season.

[Kitchandro]

I honestly think that almost any manager would have got us up from the position we were in, a new manager normally leads to an improvement, even if it's only short term due to the squad being shit. We had a good squad so I believe that we'd have been ok.

All water under the bridge now, hopefully he'll get us there this time around.

I do think he's changed as a person, or been told to, his interviews are better than they were, he's seemed more relaxed all season.

 

I'm pretty sure even in the short term that's actually a myth, and it's 50/50ish. Meaning the appointment would have had a bearing on whether we'd have been promoted or not. Personally, I put last season down to the players' attitudes as much as the manager, and I think our squad was just a bit too thin and inexperienced (immature even) to make it across the line. By March we were already in freefall, we had already blown it really. It was just one of those things, a disappointment but one that, in hindsight, shouldn't have led to panicky decisions. So despite my instincts at the time, I'm glad we held onto him.

 

I think this season we're bearing the fruits of his long term plan. Sure, we've had short term failures like the second half of last season, but the thing I've always liked about Pearson is it's been steady improvement. We've moved forward from season to season and I can't wait to see how far we'll go.

 

I look at the squad he's built and I can see now the potential in the players that I didn't see before, and the team as a whole. The second half of last season wasn't acceptable but we're realising now that he's had a plan and it's working. If we go up this year, last season won't dwell too much in the memory. I'll probably make my peace with it and just consign it to history.