For what he's done at the club I think he should be afforded every opportunity to turn us around and should be supported to the very end, but I appreciate there's plenty of ground to disagree with me on that. Any other club would have changed things already, but I maintain that our situation is unique. We have invested in this management team as the one we want in our transition into full time football and to change path at this stage could set us back seasons.
It feels like as a club we're opting to grit our teeth and suck up this short term pain in the trust that Phil is the man for long term success. It was only a few months ago that we were worried about Stockport pinching him, it's incredible how we've ended up here.
We're in the middle of a massive transition. From 17/18 through to the end of last season we had a settled squad and I'd imagine with that came a great harmony and balance. I said a couple of months back that I thought we'd lost that this season, you've got the old guard on the two year deals mixed with the new recruits, many of whom have been part of a revolving door exercise.
It all seems so unsettled, forced by injury to an extent but lads like Williams, Sutton and Ceesay have been let go in the attempt to upgrade the squad and I am not sure we have achieved that? Fitzpatrick, Bunney, Furman, Dinanga - four signings that are either no longer with us or farmed out elsewhere. Pringle and Leitch-Smith clearly can't play 90 minutes. Jackson is crocked. Digie isn't up to the standard. Bringing Morgan in to replace Senior is a slap in Densmore's face. Too many players are in the side for 2/3 games then falling off the face of the earth.
It has been disastrous. You could say we're weaker now than when we came up and I'm massively worried about our capability to get it right in the summer if we do survive. We simply cannot afford to get it this wrong again.
Fwiw I think Marriott looks really handy albeit I only watched about 20 mins total of the game yesterday! There are gems around and we have shown we can pick them well, it's going to be one hell of a task in May-Aug if you look at how many could be on their way out.