A pretty horendous season left things very flat at the valley last year. Pards out and Parky stepped up. No real change in fortune and the players probably thought that he was gone as much as we all did. With a difficult close season in terms of the takeover speculation putting Parky in the dark it seems he's concocted a plan to blast the pants off the oppostition in league one with some shrewd free transfers. He seems to be doing everything right at the moment, even winning games. He charms the ladies in Ireland, shows some cheek to opposition managers to keep them away from our players, speaks sensibly and frankly, has the players playing for him, and has come out of these 1st 3 games looking like a real leader. I woke up this morning full of optimism and confidence - this can only lead to trouble on Saturday...
0
Comments
Eh??!!
In the middle somewhere.
In fact , currently 18 pts better. I wonder how the Pardew mouth is explaining away the fact that Soton would still be in the drop zone right now even without their ten point deduction?
;o)
ok, you both want to afford him hero status then go ahead. Why not start a petition to get him knighted ? Me - I'll wait a while before making a judgement.
And Large, given everything that's happened over the last catastrophic three seasons, back-to-back away victories over Hartlepool and Orient is a major achievement! Sign of how far we've fallen, I know. But there we are.
And I'll repeat : Parkinson has at least now shown he's better than Pardew, which I had doubted last season. Really rather looking forward to playing Southampton now (if Pardew is still in charge by then!)
How he has held everything together with all the uncertainty and criticsm throughout the close season, I don't know - but credit to the man.
Also to be fair to Parky, his only signings are an extremely limited number of free transfers.
The starting XI is very decent, but as he himself says, he has no strength in depth but as yet is not permitted to do anything about it.
Yet he has still produced a winning side. And they are playing for each other and their manager.
Shades of Lennie Lawrence and Curbs combined.
Seems, if all continues to go reasonably well, we've got ourselves another Charlton-type manager.
And after the Dowie/Pardew years, that's a blessed relief.
Parky has managed to raise the flag and rally his troops - regardless of all the uncertainty within the club regarding Board and takeover. And with little apparent support. Where many would have shrugged their shoulders and walked away, he's just got on with the job, done it his own way, with dignity and almost in defiance of the situation.
That's what I meant by shades of Lennie and Curbs combined, although of course Curbs got great support from the Board.
Football is played in the mind as much as on the pitch and Pardew destroyed the confidence of a number of our players, the often unjustly maligned Youga amongst them. Parky has painstakingly rebuilt their confidence and these few victories are some well deserved green shoots of reward for his efforts.
Yes it is too early to talk of him in the same breath as Curbs or Lennie but the man inherited one hell of a mess worse probably than anybody realised and he is slowly turning things round.
He deserves some credit for that whether or not you were originally for or against his appointment in succession to Pardew.
Spot on LA.
Agree with a lot of what you say Len, but lets be fair while it was a mess last season, he now has one of the best if not the best midfields in this division.
Whether he makes the best of it remains to be seen but that isn't something we can judge after 3 games.
I agree 3 games is too early to fully judge but a little bit of credit does not go amiss for the victories thus far.
I don't remember that many people holding back on slagging him off because 3 defeats was too early to judge, they just got stuck in! :-)
He's the highest-placed manager in the division. Remaining there is surely all we can reasonably hope for this season.
i really like him, and hope he stays - he's not a smart arse like dowie/pardew.
Until summer 2010 yes.
He has brought in some good players to date, has had to lose alot, got us to second in the league with maximum points, and at the same time playing some good stuff,