Ok, I’ve been reflecting on my calling for Garde’s head yesterday and come to realise that I was probably wrong in taking that stance.
But it’s not because I think he’s what’s required at the Villa. I firmly believe he isn’t the solution.
So what do we think is required at the Villa?
Most importantly for me is some signs of fight, as this team shows none.
So then I have to ask the question “do I think Garde can motivate these players?” and the answer is a resounding no.
Certainly there’s been no hint of it up to now.
Now ok, if we were talking about Garde getting a whole new set of players in this month, I think the manager might be able to achieve something, as I don’t think he’s overall a bad manager.
But he isn’t going to be able to get a load of players in, at least of any quality, because of Lerner’s unwillingness to invest.
Hence if he can’t motivate these players, what chance is he going to have in the even tougher more physical league that is the Championship?
Of course, I still understand very well where our real problems lie and I’ll keep emphasising what I think about the upper management.
But that won’t help what happens on the pitch, will it?
I don’t suppose calling for Garde’s head helps much either in fairness, but what else am I supposed to do?
Just blindly support a manager that I don’t believe will keep us up and more importantly, think will probably do a worse job in a lower league?
That said, I’ve come to realise that sacking Garde will make us look even more ridiculous than we already do and it’s not a stance I’ll be continuing with in the short term (even though I’ll still think it personally).
But I’d ask how many managers Watford have gone through recently?
I make it six in three and a half years and they aren’t doing too badly compared to us, are they?
Still, like I said, it’s not a stance I’m going to maintain on the site, at least not in the headline articles.
As for yesterday’s abuse of the team getting on the bus, while I have a lot of sympathy for fans who keep travelling in the vain hope of the odd victory, that was simply a step too far.
Voicing general displeasure is fine (which surely makes the players feel bad enough), but to actually hurl personal abuse at players is something I can’t agree with.
It’s not only intimidatory, but threatening too and that can’t possibly do the players any good mentally.
As I’ve said before, we need to centralise our anger at the people who are the real cause of our problems.
It’s not the players’ fault if they simply aren’t good enough.