I suppose it’s not about being liked but at the end of the day you need the fans on your side.
I won’t go there but I think most experienced football fans who holistically understand the position of the club have a lot of respect for what he’s done and position he’s in. Most of the people I would respect opinion of on the game have that stance - interesting the lads on here who do, or understand the pragmatism required.
I think being liked is irrelevant, it’s part of the problem here, as fans we take our fair share of responsibility for the instability at the club - if we are talking about taking responsibility, we’ve built pressure to the point that managers have been sacked that could and prob should have had more time - hence we’ve had 7 over this Moshiri era. The club needs to be stronger in that and have conviction in their decision making not flip and flop on fans will, reboot after reboot and the cost of that, that’s impacted - that a problem at this club. It’s contributed to the hole we are in.
Fans liked “Lampard he fed them crap and most thought “he gets us” he didn’t care we were just being stage managed. Same with Martinez telling us that we were this great historical club, we are but it was irrelevant to the here and now - stage managed. Fans love this and it papers over the cracks of limits in ability.
Our hope is such that we have developed an inferiority complex - to other clubs and we have a worry of how our identity is perceived by others in football by having a Moyes, Allardyce or Dyche - clearly each made a contribution to the wellbeing of the club - but each weren’t tolerated come the end because of what we think our perceived persona should be and our own insecurity around it. If we are talking about taking responsibility and self reflection let’s do ourselves!
Only thing that matters is there is an impact on the wellbeing of the club, obviously the current manager has had a positive one from where he started to now.
I don’t want to like a manger, it’s irrelevant, I want the clubs wellbeing preserved during a time of holistic internal adversity and outside threat, until we can recover the club.
Neither the club or the manager should listen to fans, it’s part of the problem - the tail shouldn’t wag the dog.