League Table

Nice one TB glad you are enjoying the French revolution good post agree completely poor old Rudkin even if he signed Messi that would be credited to Steve Walsh.

Good write up TB, agree with it all. The owners have got more or less every decision right baring a few, appointing Shakey if with good intentions with the benefit of hindsight was a wrong decidion.

Imagine if we'd had Puel from the start of the season with his own transfer window, pre season etc.

"Imagine if we'd had Puel from the start of the season with his own transfer window, pre season etc."

Don't quite agree there, it was all part of the journey and gave Puel and the players chance to bed in with games under the belt, how much influence does the Manager have on transfers, if the rumours about Ian are true, not much.

Puel might have gone with revolution from pre- season rather than Evolution.

PS - I might be in the minority of one but I still don;t think shakey went too far wrong with the fixture list and players he had at the start of the Season,despite how well we're doing now, I personally don;t think we'd have been too far off this position had Shakey stayed.

Appointing Shakey as Manager was a mistake. I'm not convinced we'd be anywhere near where we are if he'd not been replaced. He didn't show anything like the skill Claude has in rotating players and tactics so far.

I think we'd probably would have been above the relegation zone by a few points however, but not at the lofty heights we've reached at present.

For the record, since Claude was appointed we've averaged 1.67 points per game which would get us 63 points over a season - and we've played 5 out of the top 6 during this period. That would have been good enough for 7th last season so it's reasonable to think that we're about in the right spot now.

I did say I’d be in a minority of one

You did indeed; if I'm not agreeing with you it's unlikely many others are.

I'm all for supporting the manager normally but the Shakey experiment looked dubious from the start and did not work. This from a person who still reckons that Nige could have delivered the title if he hadn't been sacked!

I think appointing Shakey as a caretaker manager was absolutely the right thing to do.

But there were cracks appearing in the system well before the end of the season and the Spurs home game was a severe warning.

I think the mistake we made was not heeding that warning and appointing a new manager in the summer. Maybe, just maybe we could have retained Shakey in a coaching role, although I accept that the incoming manager may have been uncomfortable with that.

I also think we’d be much better off with Shakey than we were when he left. He was a little one dimensional but we’d had a gobber of a fixture list and he wasn’t given time.

However, there nondenying that Puel has stepped us on and is much more dynamic. He also deserves credit for looking like the first manager that’s been able to evolve our side since the great escape. And that in itself deserves a great deal of praise.

Long may this continue.

comment by For Fox Sake (U4263)
posted 20 hours, 8 minutes ago
I think appointing Shakey as a caretaker manager was absolutely the right thing to do.

But there were cracks appearing in the system well before the end of the season and the Spurs home game was a severe warning.

I think the mistake we made was not heeding that warning and appointing a new manager in the summer. Maybe, just maybe we could have retained Shakey in a coaching role, although I accept that the incoming manager may have been uncomfortable with that.
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Just to be clear I was talking about the permanent rather than caretaker role, don't disagree with your comments.

It’s the old short-term syndrome that football fans suffer from again isn’t it.

Shakey had a few games against the top clubs and unsurprisingly struggled. He would certainly have been expected to do a lot better had he been retained, although it would have been interesting to see if he had a plan b. I suspect not, but the truth is that it was far too early to really say.

Now Puel appears to be doing really well. I like a lot in what I see, because it’s clear he has his own plan. I think I read somewhere that he’s brought more young players through then any other coach in Europe. What I like most is that for the first time since Pearson, Walsh and Shakespeare came in to the club we look like we have a plan.

But if we start to struggle next season he could still be sacked before Christmas. The same people who are saying how brilliant he’s doing now will be calling for his head.

I hope that results continue to be good enough to keep Puel in a job so that we can also continue to invest in youth and make us a more sustainable PL club.