Don’t know how many games you saw Gurney to reach that conclusion. I saw every home game and about a dozen away games. Saw live streams of another 5 or so away games.
All season we have been the footballing equivalent of flat track bullies. Any team that could be beaten with half an hours effort by a bunch of vastly superior footballer were despatched, often with a goal or three to spare.
Any team with basic organisation, prepared to go 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 and work hard for the full 90 and we were clueless. Odd flashes of high quality from Butterfield, Smith and Roberts sneaked us the odd win in these games but usually we huffed and puffed without much idea until gifting the opposition a goal or two with a schoolboy error.
Tactically we were outfought and out thought by most of the top ten clubs. One other observation is that I never saw another team where I would have swapped more than 2 of our players for their players.
In my world this means the only reason we were not promoted was our coaching team was not up to the task. If they had started poorly and got better then I would say give them a chance to keep up the improvement but the truth of it is they started out OK and struggled to stay there.
I challenge anyone to tell me in any way the team improved during the season?
I challenge anyone to tell me a player that improved during the season? (apart from those that magically improved when they played on loan for other teams).
I like Dean and was desperate for him to learn how to manage full time footballers. If he had a contract already for next season I would honour it.
Would I give him and his staff a new contract for next season? No.
Having said all that if Jimmy gets the gig I will be there supporting my club, my team and my manager next season but without great expectations.
