If a manager isn't achieving what is expected of him, then there comes a point when there is no confidence in his ability to achieve. This isn't change for the sake of change. This is a choice between someone you can see is failing, and the likelihood of someone else suceeding.
There are some that see us as under-performing and believe we will get better without a managerial change. And then there are some who see us as under-performing and do not believe we will get better without a managerial change. Both views are entirely valid. Both views are impossible to disprove without the benefit of clairvoyance.
However, only one of the groups decides to seize upon the other with inane and downright abusive comments. Those of you that think that changing the manager would be insanity and to call for it is an act of footballing treason and think the likes of me to be '****s' and so on, do not make an argument in favour of NP. You just think that change is somehow a bad thing.
There are hundreds of examples of changing a manager for the better, and hundreds of examples where it didn't work. As a principle, arguing one way or the other is pointless.
I like to judge what I see and develop an opinion. Time makes no difference whatsoever, if the evidence doesn't change. NP's impact last season was disappointing. I saw us against Peterborough this season and thought, oh dear, this isn't good. There were too many things wrong. We proceeded to lose four of our next five games demonstrating considerable deficiencies. In victory on Wednesday night, we demonstrated the same deficiencies. NP has a worse record than Sven, he's had almost a year and a substantial budget to improve things and I don't think we're any better now than we were a year ago. In many respects we're quite a bit worse. For example, there is evidence that many good players are not fulfilling their potential working for him. The shape of the side is poor. We're not organised defensively at all. We're a soft touch, without a physical presence except for Morgan. And so on.
If something is plainly not working, I'm someone who believes in attempting to fix it by doing something being more likely to be effective than hoping it corrects itself.
I think I posted on here after one game of Sousa's reign calling for him to be sacked and got dogs abuse for it. But it was a view I was entitled to. I wanted Taylor out in the close season before the 0-5 reverse to Bolton where the majority turned on him. But I've also been totally wrong in my judgements, though I can't recall one about a City manager being proved wrong for some time.
The Thai's are the only ones with an opinion that matters and I think they've made understandable and valid firing decisions when they've made them, but very poor hiring decisions.
I wouldn't be surprised to see NP sacked at some point soon. In fact, I think he probably deserves to be. If this makes me a **** or similar in some people's eyes, so be it.
A final point I'd make is that I've never believed that NP has got what it takes to manage at the top level. He's a dour, predictable, safe manager. This influences my opinion in that even if he did somehow get these players into a play off that we were successful in, our subsequent performance at the higher level would be disasterous. So if this is my view, why not advocate looking for someone who could potentially do better? There are some highly capable managers out there that would jump at the chance of this job and who would be more likely (in my view) of getting some success out of the players we have.
