I went to bed in 335 days time and heard that we had sacked Mike Phelan.
Bewilderment arose but of course, why didn’t I come to the conclusion that it was all Mike Phelan’s fault that we are bottom of the Premiserable League?
If he had been sacked at the end of the dire Middlesbrough game then I would have understood. Since then, we have undergone a mini-renaissance in terms of performances and even grasped a couple of credible draws. The fight had returned and with it a very watchable style. Gone was the dreaded dreary two hours of submission – in was two hours of actually enjoying the fucking game, even if results didn’t quite go our way.
Given my suspicion that there will be next to no money to spend in January (I am actually being serious here), I didn’t understand nor expect a change of manager.
And before I could even find my abacus to try to work out whether it would be closer to weeks or months before the next caretaker assistant general technical head coach manager would be appointed, lo and behold, we have a new gaffer.
Portuguese, nonetheless. By the way, go to Lisbon if you get chance – full of history, easy to score drugs and the cheapest booze in western Europe – even in a nice restaurant a bottle of wine would be no more than £5 – our cheapest beer was 62p.
It’s a risk. We probably would have got relegated with Mike Phelan in charge. We probably will get relegated with Marco Silva in charge.
As baffling as the idea of dumping Mike Phelan sounded at first, I am going to stick my neck out and give some kudos to the Allams for making the change. Emphasised, italicised and underlined. SOME.
This guy has absolutely no Premiserable League experience. But he does have a track record of success. Both leading a small team in Portugal to the top division, winning the Portuguese cup with Sporting Lisbon, and winning the Greek league with Olympiacos.
All clearly different from a Premiserable League relegation battle with tosspots as owners.
I like the risk. I like the roll of the dice. Evil can sometimes produce some genius. And he has effectively a free two months to bed himself down – the next 5 league games are Bournemouth, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool (maybe not in that order – you know where the BBC is if you care). From March, regular victories are vital.
He comes highly rated. But then again so did Andre Villas Boas.
I am sure he will get a very warm greeting for his first game against Swansea.
Interestingly, part of the reason he left Sporting Lisbon was allegedly because he refused to wear a certain blazer – which suggests that he doesn’t care to be bossed around by dickheads above him.