Woke up perky then.

I went to my first match in 1958 and this is about the most frustrating season I can remember but I am trying to cheer up. Never done a smiley before but there has not been much to smile about since Martin O'Neill left. Still, at least we did not win the Johnstone'sx Paint Trophy!!

Did you have a sleep during the David Pleat era or a little doze whilst Frank McLintock was manager?

We have had duff patches before but there was usually a reason. For example, McLintock was a great player but he was no manager.
This season we have had TWO managers with proven track records, a top-notch keeper, solid defenders (on paper), skilled midfielders and two strikers with 29 goals between them. The ingredients are there but the recipe does not work.So what is missing?

Superglue! To stick them all together as a team. Unfortunately some of the pieces do not fit!

True. But which pieces don't fit?

Well, this season went wrong when we sacked Sven. His team may have been maddeningly inconsistent, but they were his team and he was the only one who could've got the best out of them. I don't know whether we would've made the play-offs under him, but we sure as hell weren't going to make them under anyone else either. Quick fix managerial changes work out very, very rarely and it always astonishes me how most football owners don't seem to have grasped that fact.

As much as I have sometimes criticised NP, and some of his decisions have infuriated us all I think, I don't blame him for us falling short. He needs a full season and his own players before we can begin to properly judge him. The only thing we can judge him on so far are his signings, and as the wise Meatloaf once crooned two out of three ain't bad. Drinkwater and Marshall look very astute, Morgan not quite so much. Let's just give a few of the younger lads a run-out and get this season over and done with now.

Pearson is a good manager, as was Sven. The trouble is that if NP has not put the team in the top four by autumn he will probably be sacked. Changing managers is at the root of our problems.

Answering which bits don't fit woul open up a whole load of discussion that we have been through many times before during this season. Best left unsaid now, I think and leave it to NP in the close season.

The bits just don't all fit together as they should.

This season went wrong when we STARTED with Sven, the longer he stayed the longer it would have taken a decent manger like Pearson to sort it out!

I was beginning to worry, but no need, TrueBlue's knee jerked at last, and Sven got his usual scapegoating.

For every action there an equal and opposite, etc, so let me observe that if our decent manager crosses his fingers, squeezes his eyes tight shut and wishes very hard, he may even get us back at the season's close to where we were when Sven was binned.

Don't worry, you give up and cry in your beer, I still believe!!

"This season went wrong when we STARTED with Sven."

Even if that's the case (not saying it's what I think) it doesn't make the decision to sack him any less misguided. We'd have been better off giving him the rest of the season to see what he could do - his contract was due to be up then anyway. All we've achieved by making a knee-jerk sacking followed by a knee-jerk reaction to bring NP back is, well, I'm really not sure what we've achieved. It all could've and should've been far better handled.

When Sven was sacked we were 2 points off the play offs and 13th in the table.

If we'd have held on for another minute at Blackpool we'd have been 3 points off the play offs and 10th in the table. As it is we're 11th and 5 points off the play offs.

It's all speculation, of course, but I don't think we'd have been any better off under Sven. He'd have had to handle things like Abe and Fernandes wanting to leave just the same and we were as inconsistent then as we are now.

The only worry for me is that we've not improved under Pearson as much as hoped. He needs a pre-season and a chance to build his own squad. The end of next season is the time to judge.

What and give him another transfer window to blow more money on panic and ill judged buys!

The owners realised their mistake and made a very brave decision to correct it, whether Pearson was the correct second decision is another question.

I believe he is the right man to build a platform for a sustained period of success and hopefully I'm right a second time!

I don't get peoples argument about our league position and how far off the play offs we were with Sven! The league table was so bunched as it was too early anyway! Ok we were 2 points off the play offs but only 9 points from relegation, by the same token we are now 5 points from the play offs but 20 from the bottom 3 which in my opinion makes the league position argument under Sven floored! Only thing it does proove is that he was sacked at a time when a few wins could have made all the difference.

I totally agree Jimi, I have used your same arguments myself. I was simply using this old argument to debunk the theory that we were so much better under Sven, which clearly wasn't the case.

If we have learned anything it is that sacking the manager doesn't create instant success. We must give Pearson time.

Peason should have all of next season so long as we are not below mid table by Christmas! Successful teams come from stability in the management and a good squad! We have the good squad they just keep being coached by someone else twice a season!