Isn't this all very simple - one side think that Blackwell has been
useless from day one and when the big chance came at Cardiff he proved it by
the way we played on the day. Therefore he should be gone as soon as possible,
preferably taking most of the players he signed with him.
This view of course disregards the fact that the club was in turmoil when
he took over, he had at least pre-Bates, very little money to work with and
wasn't really in a position to attract decent players to the club, he also had
to get the best young prospect we had since Kewell off the books sharpish and
as has been stated, merely by firstly keeping us in the second division, in a
situation where other big clubs have gone into freefall, under less stressful
circumstances, and in the second season got a top six finish and to the play
off final, which was basically beyond anyones expectations given the situation
in 2003/4.
The other view is that Blackwell has proved himself to be an astute and
steady manager, he's brought in wisely, within what he had to spend, has
started to give the home grown youngsters a chance, is highly rated for what
hes done at Leeds within the wider football community/media, has got the
club to where he said he wanted it to be as part of his plans (i.e.
consolidation in season 1, playoff contenders in season 2,
promotion in season 3) and at least per the public utterances has a
good working relationship with the chairman - a pretty remarkable achivement
in itself.
This view of course disregards the fact that the footballs been bloody
awful to watch at times, that he appears to have no Plan B, or much of a
Plan A, he plays people out of position, relies on his "old guard" regardless
of their form/ability, we have lost to the sort of teams that even a poor
Leeds side should have been taking points off (Brighton, Rotherham, etc.) He
had no idea how to play Watford and was outpsyched by his ex assitant on the
day, he can't make the players do what he wants them to, and that his
successes so far have been more to do with luck than judgement.
I don't propose to try and unite the two camps here, however my 2d.s
worth is this; like all managers the real Blackwell is somewhere in the middle
of this lot, IMHO he has done pretty well with the materials he's had to this
point, I don't think we can be too dissapointed in the long term with missing
out via the play-offs, god knows how many goes Preston, Palace and so on have
had at them without success and there's also a part of me relieved that we
won't be in danger of taking Sunderlands place as the whipping boys of the
first division this year.
The BUT comes now. Regardless of how well he's done (or otherwise) in the
past this season is time to belly up on the bar. Minimum requirement (meaning
he might hang on by his fingernails for another year) this season is going to
be back in the playoffs, (which will in itself be an achivement to go there
two years running), absolute requirement is promotion automatically (which I'm
sure Papa Smurf has made clear). This season is the make or break for him and
there can be no excuses from here on in, if we're not top four by Christmas,
I'm sure Ken will make the decision anyway.
One other assumption in this is that Blackwell actually stays on with the
club, anyone know the odds against him being offerd Middlesborough ?
Sargento
Supporting England for the next four weeks so I don't have to stay at
work and cover for all the rest of them when they go to the
pub.....
