I do doubt if Dowling has enough to establish us as a prem side and if he is the right man for this job. That doesn't mean he is useless or that nothing he has done has been positive.
I've given my reasons on here a few times and explained my concerns with him and they haven't changed at this point.
He alienated the academy upon his arrival, losing most of our best staff and then 3 of our most promising players in a 12 month period (more nearly left with others still potentially going). His scouting has been very domestic market centric, which can reap some rewards but which is also an old fashioned approach which stops you exploring huge swathes of potential around the world. I have also felt that at times, he does not do his business quick enough, leaving too much to the last minute.
His signings up to this point have been 50% hit 50% miss, with his most expensive signings being the biggest misses, and yes, our best signing under him was somebody identified by Bilic from a market Dowling wouldn't look in himself. I think a club like ours needs to be operating at near enough 95% of potential to achieve and i'm not yet convinced that Dowling is dynamic enough to achieve that.
There are positives of course.
He has a clear approach in terms of lowering the age of the players we buy, signing people who have the potential to generate some big sell on fees (the right business model for a club like ours). The likes of Sawyers, Ajayi and Furlong last season were low cost successes and Kipre this year also seems to be in that sort of profile.
He has also so far finished every transfer window having concluded deals for players in the positions we need. The players haven't always been successes, but he hasn't up to this point seen a window close and left you feeling like we failed to sign enough players, which has happened at times in the years before him.
I also feel he is showing signs of improvement, with him realising eventually that the likes of Field, Leko, Morton and Palmer needed loan moves rather than letting them stagnate in PL2 football, which I hope is something he is going to continue to expand over the course of the next month. He is speeding up how quickly he works this summer which is another plus and his work on the Diangana deal is a big plus.
In time he might prove to be the right man and prove me wrong, he does get credit where it's due for some things he does, but i'd be lying if I didn't lay out my feelings now and highlight the concerns I have. The jury is still out for me.