It’s often been argued that when facing adversity, change can be either the magic formula or a portent of impending doom. This was the argument put forward when our relegation from the Premier League was all but confirmed.
We were seeing change in the boardroom - and this was welcomed by those who felt this was a new dawn, a chance for resetting. From the ashes, a phoenix was imminent. It was mooted that this would be the catalyst for a strong window, a new direction in professionalism and an immediate bounce back.After all, we had the squad - so with the right structure and a few additions, it would be plain sailing. The problem is, our ship had a hole in it.
So, we had continuity. A chairman who didn’t want to invest his own money, a transfer window that promised fireworks but which feels like a box of fireworks left in the rain, a bit of spark but no thrill and a proven Championship winner as a manager.
Meanwhile our boardroom is playing out its own drama, while a team lacking quality and with grudges behind the scenes - Todibo and JWP to name two - began the new season at Charlton.
In the euphoria of the promised "seeing the back of Sullivan", the shortcomings of a manager who made strange substitutions and seemed to lack a clear plan were ignored in favour of the status quo.
Ironically perhaps, we didn’t see the back of Sullivan - but the return of the worst of Nuno.
Continuity has meant a return to mistakes at the back, a mentality of defensiveness when we should be capitalising on dominance and an inability to be decisive around formations.
Looking back at the Evangelos Marinakis incident at Forest, it was the culmination of a manager who would rather be defensive and cautious than push for the win. With a forward struggling and one sub left, he brought on a midfielder. The 2-1 lead was squandered and that was that for Nuno at the City Ground. We have seen this pattern repeated at our club.
At Spurs, they found out quickly that Nuno's “his counter-punching style of football, well known to anyone who had watched Wolves, was clearly an ill fit set against all the talk of positive football”.
This season we are everyone’s favourites for promotion. There is a reason for that. We had a decent if unbalanced squad and Bowen was staying. What we have done so far is continue our form from last season. Mistakes at the back, a lack of confidence to go on and win matches and excuses that "we have to do better".
The status quo, for supporters, has meant a continuation of relegation form and a plea for 60,000+ fans to back the team. So is it time for a change?
I would argue that we should have changed managers when we were relegated. There were some good candidates that had experience and would have organised us better: Scott Parker and Kieran McKenna, to name just two, but we opted not to.
So what now? My view is that we already have a team made up of players from numerous managers. We are at the wrong end of the table and low on confidence. We have youngsters that are being lauded one minute and destroyed the next because they aren’t ready.
Without something changing we are facing becoming one of those “X number of years out of the Premier League, It isn’t time for more of the same?" teams.
The first thing we need is a manager who can decide on a system and adaptations depending on circumstances. Nuno lacks this ability. We need a manager who can inspire a team to punish an opponent. Nuno lacks this, too.
We need a manager that understands there is going to be a reaction when you are on top of a game and playing well, and that you shouldn’t replace Taty Castellanos with Max Kilman. Nuno does this.
It's time for a change and early enough to repair the damage. We are already down, so lets not get deeper and down. Continuity and stability, or words that just say “same” and frankly “same” is bloody awful.
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