You're right - it's not always the right solution

AN was the right man at the right time, and I was all for giving him plenty of time. We went down, he'd have learned, he knows how to get us up, was my thinking.

However, we line up the same every game, everyone and his dog has worked out how to stop it working, and we use the same formation even when the right players for it aren't playing (I said before the game yesterday that Oliveira couldn't do Jerome's job - work hard, run the channels, hold it up, all of that - Oliveira is a different type of forward from that. If I and most other City fans can see that why can't our manager?). We can't defend - we criticise the players a lot but we've had quite a few different players at the back and the same failings keep coming through. Who was supposed to be marking which player where? We still seem not to know. Etcetera.

I'm not saying there isn't a great manager in AN - there may well be. I was glad when we appointed him. Right now, though, he's a square peg in a round hole. Someone needs to get a grip on this squad and get it playing to its potential at least.

Every manager has a sell-by date at a given club, apart from a very very few, and AN has passed his with us.

I'll always be grateful for a fantastic day out at Wembley and a great rollercoaster - I'll always think well of him, and hope he does well anywhere he goes unless he ends up at scum. But time for him to move on is well past, sadly.

Posted By: Old Man, Nov 20, 11:04:27