Is it valid to judge him?
Im a bit old school about these things and i dont like chopping or changing a manager, i particularly dont like it at Everton with a number of roles changing at Everton in the summer, DOF, CEO, Board. There will be a vacuum in the club and an adjustment period right in the melting pot at what is the summer market.
I think you also have to look at what is going in the market of manager recruitment next season, Everton will be at the end of the que in terms of high calibre managers who want to come to the PL, both Arsenal and Chelsea will be recruiting managers in the summer and its likely we will have to wait to see who is left.
Yet how how should manager be judged. Style of play? We are turgid under Sam, yet we were turgid under Koeman and Allardyce, the only difference is we get results under Sam. What is the dictating factor? Poor recruitment and poor governance, are any of these Sams fault? No. For me is getting results out of a poorly constructed squad, a squad assembled with Koemans possession based football in mind. Sams style is more a direct style and he is trying to implement his philosophy with players who dont have the skills to do it. Is he getting result? He is. As for the broder style of play its awful? A decision needed to be made a long time ago about what was important for the rest of the season, performances or results. It had to be results really.
Is the above acceptable in a second season? No, of course not. Clearly the remit of his second season is improved performances and better recruitment. I am of the opinion that a manager deserves the opportunity to build if you appoint him. I think he has earned the right, to try and improve performances and build a team and recruit players. When you look at the evidence of who he recruited thus far in Walcott and Tosun, they have just gone and been the match winners in the last two games.
When you weigh all of the above up and given our position in the table and as a basket case club when he took over to have us in a default position of 6th -8th for me he deserves and opportunity next year.
Maybe he is the outlet for the projection of a lot of things that have gone wrong at the club, but when you actually break down very little of that he is responsible for.
