Final say on this as ultimately Moore has gone.
I was gutted by the sacking of Darren Moore but what worries me more is what we may become / are becoming as a club.
We have sacked three managers in 18 months, one who was as experienced as you can get, one who had a decent cv and one who was a novice, over the years we have probably all looked at certain other clubs working their way through managers like hot dinners and thought what a joke and thats what we risk becoming.
I imagine Darren Moores remit at the start of the season was promotion, as it stands we still have a good chance of doing that. Of course automatic looks a long shot but even if you go up in the playoffs, its still promotion. The playoffs is a lottery, you only have to have a bad 45 minutes and your season is over, a lot better managers than Darren Moore have had that happen to them so anybody you bring in now doesnt guarentee or really even enhance us getting too / winning the playoffs.
We havent been out the top 6 most of the season and even now after a disappointing february we are still 7 points clear of 7th place with arguably the hardest games of the season out the way. Through February (throwing the Leeds game in there) we played 7, won 3, drew 1 and lost 3, with two of those three defeats against the teams above us, there is nothing to suggest we wouldnt make the playoffs and if you do it becomes a lottery whoever is in charge.
There have been loads of good points for people thinking its the right decision to sack him and good points for those who didnt but as a club, where are we going? Whats the plan?
Surely when you appoint a rookie manager you know there is going to be rough periods, this season hasnt been perfect and again all the pros and cons have been done to death, but the last two weeks has been the first time all season where you could say it was bad results wise and we have panicked in my book.
I dont believe this squad is the best in the league other than on past reputations, other people do and thats great but i think most would agree we have certainly have one of the best six squads in the divison so why not give him til the end of the season and review it then? I would imagine the minimum requirement would of been playoffs (and like i say there is no evidence yet to suggest we wont, 4th place with 7 point cushion isnt panic stations) but had we not done that then you could understand a bit more them saying it hasnt worked.
Regarding the squad, i think if you had put this squad in this league 2 or 3 seasons ago i think they would of done a lot better but i do a number have peaked and although still decent players, they are on the downward curve now. We have some good players but aside from Barnes one thing we havent had compared to our other promotion seasons is standout players.
Under Mowbray when we made the play offs we had some real standout players for this level - Curtis Davies, Jason Koumas, Kevin Phillips, Zoltan Gera, Robert Koren, Jonathan Greening we had a loose cannon in Diomansy Kamara.
That side didnt go up, i think around February time we were right in the mix for top 2 and we didnt do it and ended up playoffs. That squad was starting to peak and i dont think we have many players in our current squad who were upto the above players level, maybe a few years the current squad could of but not now.
With that side and that Mowbray had 7 months to manage them that season you could argue they should of gone up, they didnt but the board remained patient because they knew after the Robson era change takes time. They stuck with Mowbray and the next season produced one the the best seasons certainly in my time going, he learnt a lot from that first season, we had scored loads but let in loads, we lost a number of players that summer but added younger and hungrier players and we ended up winning the league, this season has been very similar to Mowbrays first season, the difference this time is we had only one match winner in Barnes, Mowbrays first season we had 3 or 4.
Even the RDM era, we had some real quality for that level - Olsson, Jerome Thomas, Bednar but we also had a crop of young hungry players like Dorrans, Mulumbu, Simon Cox, Mozza, Brunt, Ishmael Miller all players who were getting better and nowhere near their peak yet, very much like Norwich and Leeds are now, where our squad nowadays we dont have those players, we have more been there and done that and at championship level you do need that hunger, the energy, the legs and we just dont have that.
I was told in the summer Darren Moore had wanted to give this squad a chance, maybe he should of looked to change the squad but i would imagine he was told its promotion or bust so he played it safe, that is possibly his biggest downfall.
I think ultimately change takes time but i worry for us as a club now that nobody is going to get that time, not comparing but Guardiola under Man City won nothing first season and there were all the questions is he right for english football, etc yet they stuck with him. Klopp at Liverpool, they were doing laps of honour for drawing 2-2 with Albion and there were doubts over him, yet they stuck with him and look at them now, thats the elite top level where their is more pressure than at Albion.
Even this level, Norwich last season were very concerned with Farke, they were newly relegated and halfway down the league, yet they remained patient and look at them now, they have let him build and develop a team with identity and the club is buzzing.
I think we are panicking with our decisions and our vision (if there is any) just say Jokanovic gets the job and we dont go up, next season we start well, we are top 3 or 4 by the end of October. In November we have a bad month and by December we have dropped to 6th or out the playoffs, do we sack him? Because that seems to be the clubs logic and thats what worries me more than anything.
