It's been a good few days for us, a good few days for the manager too. There were rumblings and grumblings after two batterings in a week, but the good ship AFC is seemingly tacking into calmer waters after two cup progressions in four days. Obviously the league is "where it's at", but if we aren't already into "let's talk about the manager" season, we will be real soon.
The mood in the pub I'd gauge as 10% "I don't like him or his football, I would not offer him a contract" evenly matched by 10% of "Yeah I think he's doing well, keep him on". In the middle the 80% overwhelming majority are the, "Let's wait and see" fraternity. In amongst those are a fair number that change camps from week to week based on results, but in the main they are the "Let's wait until Christmas/the end of the season" types.
On the face of it, the 80% would appear at first look to be the most sensible. Not rushing into anything is not a bad mantra for life, neither is "let someone prove themselves before you reward them". Stick to those two things and you won't go far wrong in this world.
Unfortunately of course the football world is not the real world, in the football world that's not how things work. In the football world, if by now Johnnies agent isn't asking the club for clarification as to where his man stands and/or sounding out other options, our manager should get a new agent. Unreasonable? Not really. You've got a young fella with a wife, kids, a mortgage to pay who doesn't know whether or not he'll have a job in six months. Whether or not anyone thinks he's done a good job is by the by, it's not beyond the realms to think Johnnie will be getting twitchy. If we DON'T offer him a new deal over the next month or two and someone comes in to offers him three years elsewhere, he'll be offski (like Schirofsky). Who could blame him? I certainly wouldn't.
So all talk of "let's wait until the end of the season" is for the birds, it don't work like that I'm afraid. That's like saying that we should let Ali's contract run down then expect him to sign a new one when it runs out. Not gonna happen in a billion years. The ONLY circumstance where the extreme "wait and see" approach makes sense, would be if we end up doing really really badly (last season for example). Then, the manager for sure would sign a new deal, he'd be short on options to do otherwise. You have to ask yourself though, would you WANT him for another two years under those circumstances?
So the extreme "wait and see" is pie in the sky. Short term "wait and see" probably makes sense, but by short term I'm talking January at the absolute latest. I think if we haven't "offered" by then, his agents phone bill will rival a lovestruck teenagers. We are going to HAVE TO make a call, and soonish.
My opinion? (I know nobody actually asked nor cares but I'm going to pretend they do). I think if he continues as he is, we ought to give him the very best chance of being successful. All people in my experience do their best work when they feel secure in their employment. We ought to offer him a new two year contract, and budget into our thinking that if it doesn't work out, we have enough to pay the fella off and shake hands further down the line.
As I've said many times, I wouldn't have kept Johnnie on this season. I wouldn't have, but we did. I've also said and continue to say, if we were going to back the manager then we've got to back the manager. Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp he ain't, but he's doing a solid job right now. If that continues until Christmas, it is my opinion that it is time to back the manager and offer him a new contract.
Whether or not folks agree with me though, the important thing to consider is that the wait and see isn't really a viable nor sensible option. If we AREN'T going to offer, we may as well shake hands and pay him off. Having a manager "seeing out" the last three months of his contract is to nobodies benefit, least of all ours.
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