Quote: morrisseyisawire "The loyalty of the fan to the club should be unswerving and without question. Many of the supporters of the club will, like me, have spent god-forsaken afternoons in weather that would send a dog scurrying underneath the kitchen table, wondering if they would ever see Wires win [ione[/i challenge cup final in their liftetimes, let alone three. So we should be eternally grateful to TS for that golden period in the club history.
However. that period is gone. The old maxim in sport about only being as good as your last game is partly true. We cannot present TS and certain members of the squad with endless get out of jail free cards on the basis of events that happened two seasons and more ago. That way lies stagnation then decline.
Compare and contrast two hugely successful British football managers of (relatively) recent years, Alex Ferguson & Brian Clough. Ferguson achieved success over an unprecedented period by constantly reviewing, appraising and changing his squads and did not allow sentiment or loyalty to get in the way. Brian Clough achieved remarkable success at Derby & Forest, before he went into decline. His decision-making, recruitment and tactics became questionable and led to the the club itself going into decline, something they have never recovered from. Forest stuck with him purely out of loyalty, and the stubborn belief that he could recapture former glories. Granted, Clough's decline was largely due to alcoholism but it's a valid comparison.
There's a point where blind loyalty, and ignorance to an individuals failings, becomes terminal and we may be approaching that point with several individuals at the club. They may have served us well in the past, but are no longer doing so and indeed are holding us back.'"
Totally accept your point and Im not advocating endless get of jail free cards. I advocating a little more patience than 1/2 of one bad season for a coach who had delivered so much. I'm not advocating being sentimental about players either - just that I'd like their demise and exit from the side to be handled with a little more grace than "get shut he's gash"