SHA Small Heath Alliance

I know it's an opinion piece, but where you mention previous managers

What were these people doing during the dark days of Lee Clark? Were they this mad when Steve Cotterill was stinking up the place?

Those managers were when we were at our lowest ownership wise and we had to accept the situation at the time.

I think a fairer comparison would have been appointing Zola in slightly better times at that period in our history. Never a Rowett playing style fan, but we looked a comfortable team and squad in a decent position at that time.

Very similar to what has happened with Eustace and Rooney, It's Knighthead money and they can do what they want, don't agree with abuse Rooney has received, can't imagine he asked for the job, more offered it.

But so far we have witnessed one of the worst performances for a long time against Middlesboro, an improvement of sorts against Hull but still very fragile and clueless at times.

Rooney has made a rod for his own back and shown some inexperience in trying to change a playing style too quickly, this should have been done gradually and not all at once. Personally hope we go back to a solid 4-2-3-1 (ala Eustace) at least for the next few weeks/months, get some stability and confidence back in the side and introduce his new playing styles gradually and not all at once. 1 we haven't got the players throughout the squad to play this way, 2 we need points to get to 45 points at the end of the season then mess about with playing styles.

Newbs

The only thing I'd query is this, "What were these people doing during the dark days of Lee Clark? Were they this mad when Steve Cotterill was stinking up the place? Did Aitor Karanka’s shrugging put them into a metaphorical coma?

As fans we’ve gone through a lot in the last few years and we’ve had to put up with some real bullshit. I can’t understand how now is so much worse".

I think there lots of people including myself who were there for those dark days and felt pretty helpless as to what was going on under the aforementioned managers. Suddenly there is an optimism, we have a new owner, we are 6th in the table under a manager who Rooney acknowledges was popular with the fans and then that gets ripped up and a new manager comes in with a less than impressive managerial record. I really think people underestimate how scarred a good size of our fanbase is by those dark days and the whole Zola/Rowett episode. Sorry if I sound like a bedwetter. Will be there tomorrow and and at Sunderland backing Rooney

I think it's a really good point, scar tissue is weak and susceptible to breaking again. Someone else described it as a sort of football PTSD, it doesn't excuse it but it does explain it a bit.

we are 6th in the table under a manager who Rooney acknowledges was popular with the fans

I will always view that 6th position as a false position. The 2 wins in JE's last 2 matches were an unexpected bonus, no doubt driven by the fact he knew/ suspected he was abt to be dropped so he went 'all out' for the last 2 games. Nothing in the previous matches or results indicated 2 wins from those fixtures to be the likely outcome. They were flukes not as the result of JE suddenly becoming a fantastic manager.

Without them we would have been something like 17/18th - which based on the proceeding half a dozen matches or so better reflects where Blues were as a team.

Without the fluke wins and with it being more than possible that had JE stayed the team may well have lost the most recent 2 matches as well we would have been 21st, below Huddersfield. People would have definitely been calling for the owners to get rid of JE had that been the case

Nikola Zigic

BluSabre

I came away feeling really quite sad about the whole thing. It just seemed very un blues to behave like that after two games. Like what Mayor said where were these c unts under Clark, Cotterill and Karanka?

Me too, I'm soppy anyway but I felt really deflated about what our fan base has become.

It wasn't this toxic in the mid 80s to early 90s when gates were down to 5-6,000

"What scares me right now is that some people have such a need to be right that it was a mistake to appoint Rooney"


It's the reason I'm picking the threads I read at the moment. That need to be right supersedes success for Blues from what I can see.


I'm lovin' the current theme for using songs for thread titles though.

NotFitToLaceDeanPeersBoots

I know it's an opinion piece, but where you mention previous managers

What were these people doing during the dark days of Lee Clark? Were they this mad when Steve Cotterill was stinking up the place?

Those managers were when we were at our lowest ownership wise and we had to accept the situation at the time.

I think a fairer comparison would have been appointing Zola in slightly better times at that period in our history. Never a Rowett playing style fan, but we looked a comfortable team and squad in a decent position at that time.

Very similar to what has happened with Eustace and Rooney, It's Knighthead money and they can do what they want, don't agree with abuse Rooney has received, can't imagine he asked for the job, more offered it.

But so far we have witnessed one of the worst performances for a long time against Middlesboro, an improvement of sorts against Hull but still very fragile and clueless at times.

Rooney has made a rod for his own back and shown some inexperience in trying to change a playing style too quickly, this should have been done gradually and not all at once. Personally hope we go back to a solid 4-2-3-1 (ala Eustace) at least for the next few weeks/months, get some stability and confidence back in the side and introduce his new playing styles gradually and not all at once. 1 we haven't got the players throughout the squad to play this way, 2 we need points to get to 45 points at the end of the season then mess about with playing styles.

‘Mess about with playing styles’? Before the game kicked off on Wednesday and up until that rather cataclysmic error people were very happy with the formation and the manager had done what many were demanding in terms of the midfield and upfront. The defence more or less picked itself. You say Borough was the worst performance ‘for a long time?’ A lot of people said even the last away game was worse, and you obviously didn’t watch the last 60% of last season.

Quite a few people keep saying we were in a false position. I'd counter with, maybe we'd have won if Stansfield scored a great chance at Norwich when 0-0, maybe we'd have won at Watford if Stansfield's shot that hit the post at 0-0 was an inch to the left, maybe we'd have beat Milwall if Hogan scores his penalty, etc etc etc.

Miguelagenn

"What scares me right now is that some people have such a need to be right that it was a mistake to appoint Rooney"


It's the reason I'm picking the threads I read at the moment. That need to be right supersedes success for Blues from what I can see.


I'm lovin' the current theme for using songs for thread titles though.

I love the fact you recognised it :)

I've always been a fan of using song titles to be honest.

The 6th position was largely meaningless because the table was so tight, so I partially agree there

I don't agree the two wins were flukes or we did anything particularly different, WBA was a classic Eustace display, organised with a counter attack, no different to the style against Bristol or Leeds

Huddersfield was merely because they sat in, let us have the ball and didn't press us, which nobody else did against us to that point, they were absolutely abysmal.

Newbs

Quite a few people keep saying we were in a false position. I'd counter with, maybe we'd have won if Stansfield scored a great chance at Norwich when 0-0, maybe we'd have won at Watford if Stansfield's shot that hit the post at 0-0 was an inch to the left, maybe we'd have beat Milwall if Hogan scores his penalty, etc etc etc.

If Laird hadn’t gone off injured in the first game at Swansea too. They scored shortly after when Oakley switched off

The “false position” crowd are just as see-through now as they were in 2016

Iain_Gavin

Newbs

Quite a few people keep saying we were in a false position. I'd counter with, maybe we'd have won if Stansfield scored a great chance at Norwich when 0-0, maybe we'd have won at Watford if Stansfield's shot that hit the post at 0-0 was an inch to the left, maybe we'd have beat Milwall if Hogan scores his penalty, etc etc etc.

If Laird hadn’t gone off injured in the first game at Swansea too. They scored shortly after when Oakley switched off

The “false position” crowd are just as see-through now as they were in 2016

You don't get it do you?

If you can go four or five places up or down the table with a goal or two, then the table is somewhat meaningless. It's what is known as a "small sample size".

Besides, Eustace had us in 7th last December. Remind me how that worked out.

We beat Baggies to go 6th and then at various points the following day we were as low as 10th as goals in other games went in. Incredibly fine margin stuff.

What’s terrible is that Villa fans are saying “even we don’t do this after 2 games”. There’s the expected p*ss take about bringing in an untested manager, but I never expected that them lot could rightly deride our fanbase. Embarrassing times.

As someone in the middle ground I generally read SHA and say nothing exactly because the "empty pots" dominate just ranting the same usually very distorted points back and forth. As one poster often says there is no room for nuance. On here people either have to pick Eustace or Rooney then are abused by the other side for picking it.
Tarquins post was fantastic and I hope both sides can come together around this middle ground going forward. Tam also posted a similar reasoned view on one thread which was great.
What you say about journalist bombast and creating reaction in articles I think is also true online hence the distorting and misrepresentations of others positions just for a reaction.
Unfortunately I think the "empty pots" point also appears to be true at the game on Wednesday as well as online. Not sure what the answer to that is other than reasonable fans getting behind the team as much as they can.
Anyway that's probably my last long meandering post on here but just wanted to speak up for reasonable people over shouty bombastic ones. Thanks Tarquin for summing up many people's feelings so well.

Nikola Zigic

BluSabre

I came away feeling really quite sad about the whole thing. It just seemed very un blues to behave like that after two games. Like what Mayor said where were these c unts under Clark, Cotterill and Karanka?

Me too, I'm soppy anyway but I felt really deflated about what our fan base has become.

Deflated, thats the perfect word for how I feel. Not about the result. Ive sat through the last 12 years, getting beat at home is water off a ducks back. It was the attitude of, I’d say, 20% of the crowd who were waiting for it to go wrong and revelled in it when it did. I cannot fathom that. And that has really got me down.

The breakdown from Tarquin is very much where I am. And sod it, I back the underdog, up the Rooney, up the Cook, up the effing Blues.