He goes, they start to play.  Now that's a surprise!

And so, as anyone with half a brain could tell you, the team’s fortunes pick up the moment Sturrock is shown the exit at Hillsborough.  It was obvious for all to see that he had lost the players; that he had no idea how to motivate them; that he no longer had the tactical knowledge necessary to alter games when things weren’t going our way; that he had no idea how to get the best out of players who were clearly not performing to their best abilities; and most damning of all, that he no longer had any real grasp of how serious our situation was and how limited his abilities were.  This is a man who genuinely thinks (still) that he had the capabilities to get us out of the mess that we were in.  This is the man who left Plymouth before they were elevated to the 2^nd tier of English football; the man who made such a pig’s ear of the job at Southampton that he was gone within a matter of months as the Premiership and a higher quality of player proved too much for this limited man to handle.  This is the man who was fortunate to get us out of the 3^rd tier of English football and was then found wanting at a higher level.  Dare I suggest that 3^rd and 4^th division football (for the younger ones out their ask your dads about a time when the divisions were correctly labelled and didn’t carry glitzy monikers to court publicity and money) is the level at which this imbecile is best suited?  That or Scottish football.  He could go and manage his beloved Dundee United and would probably, just, cope with that level of football.  Anything higher and he hasn’t got a clue.  That he prattles on about insisting on a clause in his next contract that allows him to return to Wednesday with no compensation due is insulting in the extreme.  Why would we want a manager back when he has failed so spectacularly at this limited level?  We’re better than that, or at least I hope we are.  He is arrogant and naïve if he really believes we would want him back.  Good riddance I say.

And then there are those oh so predictable people who will say ‘but we’re playing well now with a full-strength side and we should have allowed Sturrock time to work with a fully fit squad’.  It really is so predictable and so sad.  Sturrock wouldn’t have made any strides even with a fully fit squad.  Look at Tudgay.  He has been hopeless all season and never looked like a forward.  Now I’m not saying he’s going to decimate teams this season but since Sturrock left he’s been like a new man.  There is a fluidity and verve about our play since the dour Scot left.  We have an attitude that says we’re enjoying our football and want to entertain.  None of this has anything to do with a fully fit squad and everything to do with the attitude of the man in charge and the confidence he breeds in his players.  Sturrock couldn’t do this and it has been clear for the last 14 months that he was unable to generate the right belief and attitude in his players.  Once again I say good riddance.  Brian Laws may not be everyone’s first choice (myself included) but I am willing to state here and now that his Wednesday team will not be as dour, boring, limited and tedious as Sturrock’s.  And you can quote me on that!<