Just goes to show that a lot of fans have unrealistic expectations. As seteefeet said, in three seasons, play offs, promotion and nailed-on relegation. Pretty impressive with our budget. Dexy has posted a big list of the all signings from 19/20 and he marked most of them as failures. We got automatic promotion of the back off that transfer window earning the club hundreds of millions of pounds! It's laughable.
Whether a matter is unrealistic is a matter of your personal opinion, but we cannot just sit here and blaming the budget and the finances to mask what some may consider an appalling job he is doing.
How much money does he have to be given before we can judge his performance accordingly?
Lets face it - this club has not been awash with money and the fans have been able to judge the likes of Ashworth, Garlick, Hammond and Terraneo despite working to similar constraints.
Both 2019/20 and 2020/21 have seen us spend monies - whether you agree with the allocated amounts - which could have been used smartly to address the weaknesses within this squad.
2019/20
The two real successful signings of that season are Pereira and Diangana who are both widely attributed to be Bilic signings.
The rest of very much of a muchness - there are no stand out talents, just merely average footballers who will likely spend the majority of their careers playing championship (or lower level football).
I'm not even going to comment on the pathetic waste of monies on Zohore. Austin might have came for a fee and high wages but at least he provided a contribution.
The comparison was drawn to Ashworth - but he built a side which could succeed in the championship but had the nucleus of being a Premier League side (as an example, Brunt, Morrison, Mulumu, Olsson, Tamas). He then added to it with the smart recruitment of the likes of Odemwingie for peanuts whereas we opted for nigh on £15m for Grant and both players are not comparable.
How much of our current crop do you reckon we can form a side that could enable to survive in the PL? Ajayi, Furlong, Sawyers are not PL quality and that is the difference between the two.
As for last season:
The pursual of getting the old band back together which from December onwards limped towards promotion - Dowling takes responsibility for that.
The pursual of Krovinovic despite him being a second rate star of our championship season - Dowling takes responsibility for that in not putting his foot down.
The failure to address the weaknesses in central midfield - Dowling takes responsibility for that.
The appointment of a manager that was not entirely suited to this group of players - Dowling takes responsibility for that.
The pursual of Diangana - against his managers wishes - for nigh on £15m when he doesn't fit into the managers methods of playing - Dowling takes responsibility for that.
The pursual of Grant - who is nowhere near a centre forward for £15m - Dowling takes responsibility for that. He should have over-ruled Bilic given Dowling is in charge of our club going forwards.
Cedric Kipre - can anyone from the top of their heads recall what country he is currently playing in let alone team he plays for?
The decimation of our academy staff to that lot down the road - Dowling takes responsibility for that.
---
We might not be the richest club in the world, you might not agree with the budget that is set - but clubs like us have to box clever. They have to maximise their resources. We do not do that. We fall from one season to the other with no forward planning unlike clubs like Norwich, Brentford, Barnsley who are reaping the benefits of their patience and forward planning - and two of those may be swapping divisions with us.
Poll