The question that should be answered - is what points to AVB being actually any good? As asked and some have answered - what warrants this 'loyalty' to him? Loyalty is different from support. One good season in a very inferior league does not particularly point to him being any good.
I support AVB but certainly not loyal to him. just not sure where the hell this loyalty stems from and where this expectation that AVB will do well and is the man for the job comes from.
Harry had to prove it before anyone on here was particularly loyal or dare I say it supportive but with AVB its the cart before the horse.
What makes any manager good? Who else will be doing better than AVB right now? Who else will have a better chance of establishing us with a long term plan, to develop youth, to set a playing style right through the club etc? Who else is so much better tactically? Who else is better at motivating players?
What I'm trying to get at, is that managers are only as good as they are suited for the club they are at and the job they have been given to do. I'm very happy that in AVB we have the right man for what we want to do. If that means teething problems in his first half season when the squad is in major transition then I don't really care. Even if it takes three quarters of a season before we start showing real consistent football in both halves I don't mind. I want us to see a plan through. I can't really see any other manager that is somehow so obviously more prepared than AVB to do it. Blanc? He will have bad runs of form and have his certain ways that people will moan about just like AVB.
Every manager has something about them that people will moan about. Every manager has bad runs of form. But every manager also has that knowledge that makes them successful. Our's isn't an easy job. I always thought the idea us trying to maintain a top 4 spot at the same time as implementing major transitions in the playing squad and playing style was pretty much the equivalent of Chelsea expecting to still challenge for the title while doing the same thing. We have a long term job on our hands that needs patience. If we are going to establish ourselves amongst clubs that have far more money we are going to probably need to take a year or 2 of pain to get that base down. There needs to be an acknowledgement that no matter how good AVB is as a manager, we may not challenge this year because the scale of transition is actually too great. If we hold him to maintaining last year's finish and sack him because he doesn't make it, we've wasted a year and lost out on a good manager.
I'm sure he's probably a bit guilty himself for raising expectations at the start of the season, but I guess he wants to breed a winning mentality among the players. But in private with his bosses, they all need to acknowledge that what we are trying to do will take time. AVB hasn't actually done much wrong. He handles the players well, they respect him and are motivated by him. Tactically, he makes sound decisions. (Please don't say bringing on a defender to maintain a lead is a bad thing, because it could just as easily work the other way, when we decide to still attack and get sucker punched. Sometimes the players simply need to carry out the instructions given to them) and he has managed the squad well. (Everyone is fighting for their place and knows there is a fair chance of getting a go, as opposed to how Hughes has managed QPR which seems to be about throwing money around and the guys on the most get to play. The Green/Cesar example is utterly shocking if you ask me. Green is so obviously going to be a source of poor motivation at the club, players seeing him picking up his big pay cheque but not needing to do anything to get it).
The problems we have had, are so clearly that our players haven't adapted to the playing style yet. It doesn't mean it's a bad playing style, or will never work. It just means they haven't adapted to it yet. It seems to be rather different from how they were used to playing before, and how they are now being asked to think about a game. So it will take time. Just like it would have taken time at Chelsea. But we just need to see it through. The other problem is probably AVB figuring out how to get the best out of the squad he has, which will also take time since we have lost key players and because the ones he has aren't really suited to his ideal style of play. So that will take time too. But we need to see it through with him. There's no guarenteed better manager out there. We have a good one. We have one that knows his stuff. We have one that the players respect. The only thing he is lacking right now is the time to see his ideas bed in, and we need to give him that otherwise this whole year will have been a complete waste of time.
