Something occurred to me today, I remember when I used to laugh at clubs who constantly changed manager and at their fans that couldn't understand why their team was struggling/inconsistent/not developing.
Then I realised that in the last 15 years we have had 8 Managers -
Brian Little (91-95)
Mark McGhee (95-96)
Martin O'Neill (96-2000)
Peter Taylor (2000-01)
Dave Bassett (01-02)
Micky Adams (02-04)
Craig Levein (04-06)
Rob Kelly (06-??)
And out of that 8, two were at the club for 8 years, meaning out of the remaining 7 we've had 6 managers and in the last 10 years we've had 7 managers, not including the caretakers (David Nish, Allan Evans, Gary Parker, Howard Wilkinson).
If you look at the successfully consistent teams, not just Man Utd and Arsenal but teams like Wigan, Reading, Sheffield Utd, Crewe, Birmingham, Bolton, Everton, Pompey (under Redknapp), Charlton (under Curbs) there is a common thread - consistent management.
Look at the so called under-achievers of recent times- Wolves, Leicester, Charlton (since Curbs), West Ham (apart from Pardew) Newcastle, Southampton, Leeds, West Brom, Sheffield Wednesday, Forest, Sunderland to name a few and there is another common thread, changing the manager.
Now every now and again you'll luck out and get someone like Brian Laws who will come in and start winning immediately, but chances are that if after a year the fans will boo, the board will worry and the patience starts wearing, no thought for long term development or consistency.
Most of those successful teams have 10-12 players in the squad who have in excess of 70+ appearances have learnt to play with each other and have developed in some form together. By chopping and changing managers, you naturally have to support the new man by providing funds for new players and players are chopped and changed.
So why aren't fans willing to accept time and development, supporting their young players and watching them learn rather than expecting them to have all the skills, experience, knowledge, consistency after 10 games and god forbid if their initial youthful impetutus is lost for a while....
This I think is down to fans who don't have any patience for development, young players (currently see Stearman, Fryatt, McCarthy, Logan) aren't given any time to improve, as soon as performances drop they are castigated and condemned to being 'shite' even though they might only be 19/20/21 and still learning their trade.
Look back at 85-87, we had players like Ian Andrews, Simon Morgan, Mark Venus, Mark Bright, Robert Alleyne, and even Rob Kelly coming through and who were representing their countrys at Under 21's - predicted a successful career and the spine of a Leicester team for the next 10 years. What happened?!
For those of you too young to remember, it is similar to now, fans started to boo them, call them shite (or whatever the word was at the time), their confidence crumbled and all of them left Leicester with potential unrealised.
In the case of Ian Andrews, talent always meant a club would try and rebuild the shattered confidence even those of the size of Celtic, but he never recovered. Mark Bright went onto be a top goalscorer for Crystal Palace and Sheff Wed over a long period of time.Simon Morgan went onto show his quality over a 10-12 period at Fulham and Mark Venus was one of the most consistent left backs/centre halves in the old Div 1 for over 10 -12 years. Players like Rob Kelly and Robert Alleyne never realised their potential either due to injury or application.
But what would have happened to Leicester if the fans had supported these young players through their difficult period after 20 or so 1st team games when opposition players start to work them out, or test them more and the initial confidence and form starts to ebb.
If those players had been added to Walsh, McAllister, Mauchlen, Ramsey, Smith (all of whom had the same sniped from the crowd at similar points but battled through it to a greater or lesser degree) then we might not have had to endure the poor 2nd and 3rd years of Pleat (most people forget that for the 1st year of his reign he got us playing fantastic football, inconsistent, but at times superb, before the players above were destroyed).
The similarities are similar to now, a team of young players that are developing together, getting booed when things go badly, little credit when things go well.
I'm not saying that every sacking was a bad decision, or that if Rob Kelly went in Jan/Feb that a new man couldn't improve performances and results til the end of the season, but then just as has happened for the past 3 managers the polls on internet forums will start in the summer asking inane questions such as "How long will you give A N Other?" and the most popular answer is usually Christmas and if we aren't in the play-offs then sack him.
Everytime a club goes through managers like we are currently, you can be sure its also going to be reflected in 'shite' results.
I'm not saying Rob Kelly is the messiah or that all of our young players are going to develop into Premiership stars but I don't personally believe that Leicester City fans are giving and ever have given young players, or Rob Kelly, the best chance possible of doing so.
