Are We That Lazy To Just Blame The Manager?

While Alex McLeish certainly wasn’t my first, second, or third choice, just the same as I know he wasn’t yours either, I am finding it a little hard to blame him for everything that is going wrong during the match, and everything that is wrong at the club.

Now before anyone thinks I am sticking up for him, McLeish is far from blameless, but I feel some fans are getting too used to him being the scapegoat for the piece. If the games go well, it is all down to the effort of the players. If they go badly, it’s inept managerial tactics.

Some of our so called “senior” players need to take more of the blame than what they are. The shoulders of some of our “team”, and I used to term loosely, are so slippery that they could well be made of Teflon because blame doesn’t stick.

I Thought Cliques Were Only A Problem At School

During my surfing round the web I read something regarding McLeish, which is that he is so surprised at the amount of “cliques” there are in and amongst the team by so called “senior” players. Of course, this is not new news to us, as we knew we had this problem when Gerrard Houllier was in charge, and he got lamblasted, from some sections, simply for trying to sort it out, so the manager taking the fall for player actions isn’t a new thing, and it isn’t even a McLeish thing.

What surprises me is the manager rightly takes his share of flak for the results and his signings to name but a few, the board take flak for not spending and for employing the “wrong” manager, the fans take flak for not turning up and for only singing when we are winning, but who’s missing from this list of blame? You guessed it. The players.

When are some of our so called “senior” players going to stand up and take their fair share of the blame for the mess we are in? I use the term “senior” in quotation marks as whilst they may earn the title on the basis of their age, I’d expect far more maturity from professional footballers. After all, they are the ones who are really in control of our destiny once a game kicks off.

McLeish may well mess up the tactics at times, but he isn’t kicking the ball, he isn’t the one panic hoofing the ball long, and he isn’t the one conceding really soft goals for really basic errors.

Some say he should “remedy” the issue, but what exactly is that trying to suggest? That we seriously are suggesting that we need a manager of our club to teach players, many of which who have more than ten years experience in the game, just to play the basics of football? Seriously?

Isn’t it more than a little bit laughable to be holding the manager accountable for such flaws, when it is patently obvious the players are capable of playing football, merely not interested in putting in the effort?

What Could Any Manager Do, McLeish Or Not?

How on earth can a manager, who has won silverware may I add, be expected to manage groups of people who are basically failing to do as they are told? If he drops them and then the youth don’t do as well as we hoped, McLeish is at fault. If he keeps them in the team, and they continue to play badly, McLeish is at fault. What is this? Primary school?

Since when did grown men get away with blaming other people and still being loved? If I stopped working at work, I would expect to be in trouble. It seems the players have developed some kind of immunity to being criticised, like they are paragons of virtue whilst the manager is an evil uncle with no other agenda than destroying our beloved club.

This whole lack of consequence for player actions is having a damaging effect on our team now, as well as our team for the future (because the kids are going to work thinking this sort of thing is acceptable), as well as the club overall.

McLeish has been given some of the hardest terms to work under, and yet is being expected to perform miracles with anything less being viewed as failure. Step back and look at the facts he has to operate under:

I am not defending McLeish, or saying he is the next best thing we should be thrilled about, but I am asking people to look at the facts. McLeish may well be part of the problems we have at the club, but he is only a small part.

Players Play, Managers Manage. But Men Take Blame

The players who go and put in a 90 minutes shift have to carry the can and, let’s be honest, many of these players aren’t even putting that in. This attitude look like it is creeping on to the field as well, either that or our players, discounting the youth and youth products, are just not good enough compared to what we expect from our club.

The irony is who do we have to thank for half of the issues I listed above? His impact on the club is still costing us now whilst he laps up adulation from a new set of fans, who are blissfully unaware of just how opinions can change, and indeed have changed about a man who was once worshipped at our place.

The club needs to be repaired, and to give the owner credit, he is making some tough decisions to make this happen. The team needs to be rebuilt and centred around our youth, partly to save money but mainly because it makes a lot of logical sense to weave them into our club’s future.

All of this will take time, and has taken time though. Till it is finished, and it may not be finished for a while, then we have to make do, and support our club at a time it needs us more than ever.

We did not choose, we were chosen.