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Should we have let Sam see his contract out?

With hindsight, should we have let him see his contract out?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 23.0%

  • No

    Votes: 40 65.6%

  • Cheesy gravy

    Votes: 7 11.5%
  • Total voters
    61
John from Bootle

John from Bootle

Player Valuation: £15m
Don't get the pitchforks out, I'm only asking.

There is some debate to be had though, I reckon. Especially from a financial perspective, seeing as the club had at least one eye on our new home by that point.

Should we have just let him see it out and give him a small transfer budget? It's interesting to note that we stopped paying his wages on 30 June 2019. Marco Silva was sacked less than 6 months and 15 PL games later. In fact, in calendar year 2019, we paid Koeman 6 months wages, Sam 6 months wages, Silva a years wages, and before the year was out, we handed Carlo a £12 million a year deal.

So, I'm just wondering, if we'd give Sam a meagre transfer budget and let him see out his last year, would the club be on a better footing today? Or even with a decent budget, we still would have saved a bit of money and avoided yet more upheaval, would that have been better for us?

And yeah, hindsight, I know, but thought it might be worth discussing.
 
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I think that scenario was impossible at the time tbh. Of course sensible financially with hindsight but there is no way there wouldn't have been a mutiny from our fans had Sam not been booted at the first oppertunity given the fact that we all thought we were loaded.
 

At the time we were all begging for a manager like Silva. A young up and coming manager with fresh ideas. I don't regret any of it because we had to find out whether it was going to work. Given what Allardyce achieved, it wasn't enjoyable to watch and we all hated it.

Let me ask the OP, if Sam stayed for another season, who would you have hired in 19/20?
 
John from Bootle said:
Don't get the pitchforks out, I'm only asking.

There is some debate to be had though, I reckon. Especially from a financial perspective, seeing as the club had at least one eye on our new home by that point.

Should we have just let him see it out and give him a small transfer budget? It's interesting to note that we stopped paying his wages on 30 June 2019. Marco Silva was sacked less than 6 months and 15 PL games later. In fact, in calendar year 2019, we paid Koeman 6 months wages, Sam 6 months wages, Silva a years wages, and before the year was out, we handed Carlo a £12 million a year deal.

So, I'm just wondering, if we'd give Sam a meagre transfer budget and let him see out his last year, would the club be on a better footing today? Or even with a decent budget, we still would have saved a bit of money and avoided yet more upheaval, would that have been better for us?

And yeah, hindsight, I know, but thought it might be worth discussing.
Click to expand...
Fox Blink.gif


You mean...

Yes, it's a fake account, but it's probably not that far off.
 

The Penalty Box Dancer said:
At the time we were all begging for a manager like Silva. A young up and coming manager with fresh ideas. I don't regret any of it because we had to find out whether it was going to work. Given what Allardyce achieved, it wasn't enjoyable to watch and we all hated it.

Let me ask the OP, if Sam stayed for another season, who would you have hired in 19/20?
Click to expand...

I've always had a soft spot for Emery, though can't remember if he would have been attainable at that point, but I've definitely wanted us to move for him at times, but hey it's been quite the ride, and I'm 47, so can't remember when it was exactly that I thought we could have got him :hayee:

I'd have been interested in Moyes, Mourinho, Emery, Carlo or Howe I suspect. Oh, and there was a time before United that I thought Ole had potential, after reading about him and seeing him win trophies, albeit in Scandinavia.

For my sins I also thought Duncan wasn't a bad shout to replace Carlo. I'll explain my thinking on that one...

Well, first up, I didn't foresee how bad things were going to get. I knew there was financial restraints, and I knew we'd get him cheap. We'd just 'shifted' £12m p/a off the wage bill with Carlo's departure.

I felt that Duncan had been hanging around the place too long, and I wasn't quite sure why at that point. Was he being groomed for the managers role? If so, then I felt that then was the time to do it. He'd either make a success of it, or his time here would be up.

Naively, I thought that Duncan failing would mean us being about 13th, and with him not costing a fortune, thought it was about time we actually found out if he was worth keeping around the place all that time.
 
Allardyce went through what Dyche is going to go through soon when he is dismissed. An inability to show the courage needed to take the club where it needs to go.

There was a lot of unfair criticism aimed at Allardyce in my opinion because results wise overall and league position he did a respectable job. But after easing relegation fears early on, he didn't adapt and set us up too cautiously and defensively which didn't even pay off for him a lot of the time. I remember poor defeats to Burnley and Watford away where his negative tactics played a big part.

It's similar with Dyche now. I think he did a decent job in the 2 previous seasons in tough circumstances but he now can't adapt to us needing to progress beyond a relegation battle. Like Allardyce, he's set us up in games too cautious and negative with little to no reward.

I don't think Silva was the right replacement, but we may not have got Ancelotti if we'd have kept Allardyce. And I think the Ancelotti appointment was a bold and good move, we were just very unlucky that Real Madrid came calling and then the Benitez appointment was a catastrophe.
 

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