Quote: WormInHand "Quite. Just how have we arrived here? .'"
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 'by sacking a decent, experienced (but by no means perfect) coach, and replacing him with an utterly clueless one'. The first rule of sacking coaches (or getting rid of players, for that matter) should nearly always be 'don't do it unless there is someone better available'.
Pearson failed to observe that rule, and now we're seeing the consequences.