alternatively...

...we locked him in for an extra year on the (presumably still low) salary, knowing that we'd never sack him before mid season so the downside potential was a half season of extra notice and the upside was an extra season of lower overheads and not having the potential disruption of losing the manager in a promotion-challenge season.

After all, back in summer it wasn't inconceivable that we'd be there or thereabouts at the right end of the table, and therefore not inconceivable that other clubs might fancy offering him more money to join them, leaving us in the lurch. Not even inconceivable that he may have left us in the summer, leaving us needing to find a new CEO and new manager at the same time as re-building for a promotion challenge.

This smacks of being a (relatively) justifiable commercial decision that has not paid off. It doesn't necessarily make the original decision manifestly wrong.

If we were sitting in 3rd place and competing well, this would be a total non-story.

Posted By: CWC, Dec 30, 10:42:15