> The only thing I've got to add - is Jesus! What if Terry's right? > Blackwell WAS doing a good job with substandard players. > > Or is the simple fact 'you can't polish a t*rd' and thats what he's > left us with? > > God knows. But I don't. And neither does Master Bates. What the hell > was he thinking sacking Blackwell without having a replacement lined > up?
Blackwell position became untenable because he couldn't handle the Leeds bully boys. Once he'd lost the crowd, and let's recall for a moment the disgraceful booing of our own players at matches, Bates had two choices - to stick with what an increasingly vociferous element had identified as a hapless clown or to sack him and let Carver pick up the pieces. The irony in all of this is that Blackwell's major crime was held to be that he had the best squad in the championship but played them out of position in an inflexible and defensive formation. With hindsight that appears to be utter gibberish - what I'd give now for an inflexible and defensive formation! I believe, and the results over two seasons suggest I am right, that Blackwell was doing a good job with sub standard players - if good management is defined as working with the team you have then Blackwell did an excellent job and we are seeing the proof of that now. Not one of the anti Blackwell brigade has ever offered a viable alternative strategy to the one espoused by Blackwell - "build a platform then make it better". I suspect that until the Leeds crowd accept that we are not a 'big club' any longer then the decline will continue. Only a couple of weeks ago somebody on this list advanced the theory that Gordon Strachan would jump at the chance of coming to Leeds - yesterday on WACCOE it was reported that Dennis Wise had turned us down. That is the gap between reality and fantasy and until it is bridged and we support the players on the pitch, the manager in the dugout and the chairman at the controls, we will not see major improvement. The really worrying part is that the current sequence of abject defeats was widely believed to be the sequence that would propel us up the table. Of all the managers we've heard mentioned, I'd go for Souness right now - for a couple of seasons he'd be able to steady the ship. MacAllister lacks charisma and experience and as for the rest - how many of them have demonstrated, over two seasons, better results than Kevin Blackwell? Chris Wright _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist oh alright then :-)
