Sturrock Out?  About time!

There seems to have been an outcry over the recent sacking of Paul Sturrock as manager of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.  The question I’d like to have answered is: Why?  Through the pages of Out of the Blue I have, for well over a year, been demanding the head of this dour, limited manager.  Two seasons ago he did reasonably well to get us promoted, especially when you consider that at no time were we one of the 6 best teams in that division.  Many times that season I left games wondering how the hell we had won.  You may say that’s the hallmark of a good team; I say bull.  Yes, if you have the odd performance where you win without deserving to that is the mark of a good team.  To win so many games without being the best team (as we did in that promotion season) is, at best, the mark of a very lucky team.

I often remarked to colleagues throughout season ’04-’05 that we were not up to scratch.  The trouble was that I, like so many others, chose to ignore the blatantly obvious signs of the troubles that were to come (and that we are now experiencing) and look instead at the improbable position we found ourselves in.  That season’s success owed so much to luck and so little to Sturrock’s ‘genius’.  Owe how foolish we all were to sing that tripe about not needing Mourinho.  You’re quite right though, we don’t need Mourinho we need a f*****g Messiah right now, someone who can actually walk on water such is the mire we are now in.  Forget for one minute the fortuitous nature of our elevation two seasons ago and look at the other miserable failings of Sturrock.

Craig Rocastle: Oh dear.  Truly, truly awful and yet Sturrock not only gave him the important central midfield role but then chose to question our behaviour when we stated the bleeding obvious by booing the 2-legged donkey off the field.  That it took so long for Sturrock to realise that this worthless player wasn’t up to it was a crime.

High tempo football: never been seen in S6 under Sturrock and yet he tried to build a reputation on, and constantly referred to, the need for high tempo football especially from the first whistle.  Could it be that Sturrock had no idea how to motivate a team to play high tempo?  He was responsible for training and yet all we got on a match day was naive, negative, boring bull.  For Christ’s sake we started running the ball into corners to waste time with 10 minutes remaining in games.  That’s right. 10 F*****G MINUTES!  Can you get more negative than that?

The quality of our football: this term and last has been nothing short of woeful.  I know we are playing in a higher division but come on.  There is nothing of any real quality in this division.  Our side churns out the most uninspired, turgid crap week after week and nothing changes.  From the start we lack pace, direction, desire, application and motivation.  All are things that should be instilled by the man in charge.  What we have been treated to this term and last is no better than the bull we watched under Yorath, Shreeves, Wilson or Jewell.  In fact I think several of those past managers actually produced far better sides than the one we’re currently watching.  Oh how we would laugh now if we could go back in time and listen to those whingers who hounded Francis out of a job.  I know it’s easy to say with hindsight but I feel it is fair to state that the people who should shoulder much of the blame for our current crises is in fact we, the fans.  Had we not hounded out the best manager at Hillsborough in the last 15 years (Francis) we would not be in this sorry state now where the vast majority see fit to revere a limited man who has risen to God-like status on the back of a great deal of good-fortune and a group of fans who have become so accustomed to failure that they are willing to ignore all the basic facts and refuse to acknowledge the truth.