Dowling does a high profile job and is part of the main football decision making processes at the club. In the time he's been here, there have been some successes on the pitch (promotion in spite of low investment, signing of Pereira) and some poor decisions (based on the results) this season in particular. Compare us with say Leeds, Sheff Utd, Fulham and Brighton this season or Norwich overall. Are we punching at or above our weight or are we under par. I'd say we're under par overall compared to those teams who generally invested better or in the case of Sheff Utd and Norwich, have a longer term vision to go down and build upon what they already have with a coach they trust or a system they trust.
In terms of strategy, we're either erratic or it's non-existent ( I think it's more the latter).
Overall, it's Lai's fault (or true owner if different), Dowling's fault and of course the players/ head coaches fault.
Dowling cannot escape his key role in this seasons poor recruitment and horrendous showing in the premier league which is way worse than my pre season negative expectations overall. At this stage, I thought we'd be in a pack of five at the bottom but we're well adrift already.
The biggest criticism I have of Dowling is that if he's supposed to be the owner of the 'football' DNA of the club at the moment (it ain't Lai or the other directors) then the vision is short term, erratic and panicky. Compare with Dan Ashworth who is building something (again) at Brighton which will have a long term impact. In the past couple of years, our academy has lost a lot of coaches and players for example. We've lurched from one first team head coach to another. Our recruitment has been , well erratic again (including the journey from Bilic to SA with a squad just not suited to SA) . These areas are Dowlings main area as far as I can see.......... I give him 3/10 this season so far, last season was an 8/10 based on the fact we got up