Tumbleweed.. wrote:As I said in another thread, those who believe Canning is the best man for the job would point to the lack of immediate success when clubs like Dundee or Thistle or whoever change manager and sure enough that has happened, so if you look at success at Accies being simply and singularly surviving in the top league then Canning has done what he has been asked. Terrific.
However, if this is the sole measure of success then it seems remarkably short sighted. I genuinely don't think Accies fans believe we are going to win the league, any cup or qualify for Europe as one poster, in a remarkable display of dismissive arrogance, alleges, but the basics for me are that we go and try and win every game and care if it doesn't happen. Canning confirmed again that this isn't the case by his inane comments last night and it bloody well should be.
We are not getting better, we are not getting future supporters enthused and the rubbish we see most weeks just kills any hope of increasing our crowds. I do ask myself why I care when its clear that the club don't need supporters to survive financially at the moment, however when we go down, and we will sooner or later, Les and Ronnie will look round for people to help and there wont be many people left who care. If they are fitba' men, as Les in particular likes to portray, they must be asking why our much heralded prolonged stay in the top flight has cost us so many fans. In fact, maybe Cannings admirers could answer that question just now. I am genuinely interested.
I don't want this to become more adversarial than it already is, but if ever a post was "a remarkable display of dismissive arrogance", this is it.
• Sarcastic about the club's greatest success in living memory - "terrific".
• Using a straw man argument - if you don't think Martin Canning should be immediately sacked you're an "admirer" and think he's "the best man for the job".
• Misrepresenting opposing views - I didn't talk about us winning anything, but "challenging".
I agree that staying up shouldn't be the only measure of success, but nor should it be underestimated. Our first priority is SPL survival. We play the best teams in Scotland week-in, week-out, so of course we struggle in a lot of those games. We'd all like to win more, so let's suppose we do - what would that look like?
If we won 5 or 6 more games over the season, we'd be 6th or 7th in the league, or, as I put it, challenging for the top six. That would be a huge step up, but it's the next step, if we're to continue to progress. Can we do it? Ronnie and his associates have carried us this far, with their distinctive approach, so why not further?
Many of us had high hopes in the summer. After all that happened last season - the financial fraud; losing more than half a team, including our best players, Docherty and Templeton; Devlin and Ferguson leaving for buttons; only avoiding the play-off on goal difference - we had no real right to expect anything. But the most vigorous recruitment I've ever known at Accies raised expectations. Sadly too many of the recruits have too quickly turned out to be duds, but if we can shape a new team out of the best of them plus the youth coming through, and stay up, that'll amount to a good season. Even if our current win rate doesn't improve.
Maybe in order to push on to the next level we'll need a new manager. Easier said than done. Who knows who? But I'm not in favour of jettisoning one of our most loyal servants of the last decade, who's currently fulfilling his brief.