Thursday, November 01, 2007

Delusions of Sanchez - Part 1

As I was commenting on a post on HammyEnd.com the other day I had a moment of clarity. I realised that deep down I don't really like Sanchez or feel that he's the right man for the job. The great thing about writing a blog is that you have a record of your thoughts at any particular time. I was actually quite pleased with Sanchez coming in when Coleman was sacked but, having seen the lack of a significant reaction in the remaining 5 games and our survival achieved thanks more to a fortunate win over Champions League final bound Liverpool than any improvement in our own team, I was hoping for a more exciting manager to be given the full time post.

Over the summer Sanchez talked a good game, and I fully believed that he could take the players he was buying and turn them into a successful Premier League side. There were quite a few positives in those first few games but the results failed to come. Maybe we're not that far away from getting those important results, maybe we ought to give Lawrie enough time to get his players settled in and finish off what he has started. I feel that I ought to be more positive and ought to just relax a little and see where we stand in a month's time, but I'm already feeling uncomfortable about where we are heading and seeing managers currently available who I feel could do a better job is probably making me less patient than I should be.

If I was confident we could get in another manager with a proven track AND give him the funding to bring in a few key players I’d jump at the chance. The thing is its actually quite difficult to pick out someone who you could feel certain would do a better job. For every supporter who would like Martin Jol (for example) believing he did a great job for Tottenham, seems to be a good coach and has been the victim of the over the top expectations of the board, there's probably another who thinks Jol didn't do that well considering the money he was given to spend.

From a personal point of view I think Sanchez needs to win me over between now and Christmas before I can give him my full support. If he's shown an improvement by then I don't think he could complain if he got the sack. I wouldn't shed any tears if he was given the boot now either but I do think he deserves a few more months to sort things out.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chopper - you've hit the nail right on the head ol' son!! I don't like Sanchez either. I don't like what he says, I don't like his purchases (Healy & Davis excepted), I don't like his team selections or his substitutions, I don't like our performances or our results... and, frankly, I'm a very unhappy Fulham supporter right now! It's all going wrong down at the Cottage at the moment and Sanchez - given the task of turning it round - is failing big time at the moment!

Chopper said...

Almost more depressing than the last few months under Coleman. I actually like quite a few of his signings I just think he made some big mistakes in letting certain players go without having suitable replacements.

Anonymous said...

I honestly don't see any signs that he really knows what he is doing. the signings seem to have been made in an almost random way, with little thought given to what we needed or if ever they all complimented one another and added up to a decent, homogenous squad. We were worse under him at the end of last season than we had been under Cookie and I would expect a better return than one league win by November given what was, for us anyway, considerable investment over the summer. Anybody who thinks Kamara is worth six million is immediately suspect in my eyes. I think he is skating on very, very thin ice at present. If he is replaced teh question remains as to whether any other manager would do much better given the quality (or lack of it) of the players he would inherit.

Rob said...

Brilliant piece Chopper. I agree totally with everything you've said and my conclusion is the same. Interestingly, i've been interviewing Wycombe fans for a piece going up on the site later today...let's just say they don't want him back!

Chopper said...

Rob - That sounds like it should be an interesting read.

Anonymous said...

I said I did not think Sanchez was the man to Manage FFC when he was first appointed but was prepared to be proved wrong, and I believed we would have retained our Premiership position under Chris Coleman anyway! Also had he been given the money Sanchez has spent so far I'm of the opinion it would have been more wisely used. My last comment seems even more relevant in view of this report and the comments it has already atracted.
Chopper's Dad

Anonymous said...

After every loss..."that's football, innit?" Sanchez blows.

Anonymous said...

Hey chopper, you sound a bit nervous there! We are playing some nice football at the moment, and if all the games were decided in the first half we'd be right up the top of the table. That suggests that we need more mental dicipline and belief to prevent the second half mistakes. Sanchez can work on instilling that in his players, but a lot of it is up to us, the fans, to carry our team through the match. Time to stop moaning and start singing!!

Chopper said...

I'm definitely nervous. I don't have a good feeling about Reading on Saturday and our run of games after that start to look really hard.