My god there is a lot of negativity here. We've had a bad month or two. Moyes did that too from time to time. Shockingly, we don't have the squad depth to compete with City, or Chelsea, nor do we have mind-blowingly class players like RVP, Rooney, Suarez, Ozil, etc.
Both managers did a pretty damn fine job to keep us up there. At the moment we shouldn't be expecting 4th. Hoping for it, yes, pushing for it, sure. But expecting it? On our budget? I posit that there are only a few managers in history that could get us a CL place with our current squad against the current opposition. If that.
Martinez has done a wonderful job to get us our best point total by this point in a season in years. We've had some pretty wonderful highs so far this season as well. We should have always known that we'd go through a loss of form. We have a small squad that is clearly tiring.
Have mistakes been made. Sure. Would I have loved to see 2-3 (net) bodies in in January? Hell yes, but I also don't know what funds were made available, or the options for that level of outlay.
I'm happier with Martinez because I feel like after 11 years Moyes took us as far as he was going to. Martinez is clearly trying to push us to the next level. But I don't doubt it's an uphill climb, and we may or may not get there. Either way, I'm happy we have someone that will try.
And in the end, I'd rather lose 4-1 and go down swinging than lose 2-1 because we tried to keep it respectable.