Ola Toivanen

With no money to spend he wouldn't. No manager would have had us in the top ten last season.

 

Cant believe some still see sideshow sam as a mesiah.

 

Innit, what's to like about playing good football and winning games?

Oh yeah the good football and winning games bit.

 

Cos he was class?

 

Towards the end of his time with us he was yeah. I expected us to win every game and this place and the SOL was buzzing. Can you say the same about many other managers we've had recently?

 

Maybe the finest reply ever posted on any forum in the world at any point in history.

Hahhhahahah.

 

His win ratio is hardly better than most of the recent managers.

 

Yeah but it was falsified by his start. Once it was his team and settled we were superb.

We’d have finished about 8th from mid January and we were averaging nearly 3 a game towards the end of the season.

Laugh as I did at the reply, had Sam stated he’d have been backed and we may well have been top 10.

I believe Sam going was the last straw for Ellis as he thought he’d finally cracked it.

 

We'll never know what his true record would have been because he left just as he was getting started. It was a great end to the season and we were brimming with confidence and winning games.

If you can recall times like that under the other managers you're referring to I'd be interested to be reminded of them.

 

Poyet. Pdc etc all had their golden spells. Thats how we stayed up so long.

 

Yes, most of them. They made us look like world beaters at the end of their survival seasons(PDC only had a few games granted but the others did exactly as Sam did). Easy to say the one that didn't face the second season would have done well. Fact is there's no reason to believe he would have succeeded were the others have failed. We'll never know but history suggests he would have failed like the rest as his history at other clubs shows many downward spirals and list of transfer flops as long as arm.

Makes sense to judge Sam on his career rather than the months with us. He's no Miracle worker never has been, our handicaps would surely effected us with him in charge like they would with anybody. The purse string were closing and the squad needed way more investment than we could afford. To think Sam could have handled that pressed on I think is delusional. When a squad needs more investment than it can afford even a Fergie would be ****ed. Cause it's a unsustainable existence.

 

They scraped by, we were flying under Sam and had a much better team which only needed a couple of additions. It was a good time, don't know why people pretend it wasn't.

 

We were in another relegation battle.

 

I don't think any of the other managers who kept us up had us playing as well as we did under Sam personally.

I'm not under any illusions that Sam would have either stayed on or done well with us once Short's wallet snapped shut. He did great with us while he was here and in an ideal world would have been superb for us given funding and the England job ****ing off.

I'm not sure why people like yourself are so down on him. Don't you remember how good it felt when Khazri volleyed in against Chelsea? We were strong, physical, confident and well organised all over the pitch.

 

Come on, under Sam was FAR different.

We were cantering games, attacking, expecting to win. He had players lined up to come in and those here wanted to be here.

I’m not a massive fan of Sam as a person etc but he was the best since Reid and he was building something. The rest had botched, had been fortunate in ways. Sam out the team back together in a deliberate manner and it’s was 3 players short.

I believe he’d have gotten them.

 

Like?

 

Aye, One of those is Sam's last 6 games.

 

One in particular blows every escape out of the water by a million miles imo and it wasn't Sam's that's for sure.

 

There was a period with Bruce when we had Welbeck, Bent and Gyan upfront and before that under Reid when I genuinely expected us to win, without kidding myself, had it again with Allardyce. Might be a while before we get it again.

 

But now you're talking like people are saying Sam was ****e. Nobody is saying that. Folk are saying he's isn't so good he could defy the restrictions. Cause he's not. He's a good manager and even a great manager would have struggled imo. You said he would be backed, not buying it. Short had already said under congerton that he'd finished putting money in and reiterated it the following season. We were unsustainable, hemorrhaging cash, no way would Sam would be backed imo. Nothing to surgest it at all.