Took the words right out of my mouth mate. And that's why I get so frustrated.

Don't agree about that last bit though. According to someone I know who's close with the club he's apparently looking to sell up. Then again this is only through the grapevine so who really knows?

Going to hazard a guess here looking at your post count and messages you post - but I would think you are probably in your 20's.

I very much doubt you were around for the Trevor Francis, Peter Taylor, George Burley etc days. It takes time to build and infrastructure - I wasn't a huge fan of Simon Jordan but his legacy was the academy.

You refer to Parish as "a naive fool" and "a crook" in your other last dozen or so posts. It takes time to build a football club.

When we were relegated in 2004 Simon Jordan said

"we will bounce straight back" - well we didn't. None of the three relegated last season are shoe in's to return.

So in the spirit of Xmas why don't you put down your crayons - we got promoted to the Premier League far quicker than anyone expected. Parish backed managers with funds and during this time we've sold one "marquee" player in Bolasie - but have retained every other.

Parish either is meddling, or let's the manager do his job. The one time he truly did that - along came Pardew. This time he's tried to build a scouting network.

Spending big doesn't always work - Benteke.
Recrutiting via Scouting doesn't always work.

He tried to recruit Ian Moody to put a structure in place and it wasn't his fault that didn't work out.

The Under 23 side is excellent and that doesn't happen overnight - that is a result of planning.

Everything is a cycle - look at United. If you don't get the spirit right then it doesn't matter how much you spend. Or to liken to another sport - British Athletics were in the doldrums for a long time, but investment (which is being done with the training ground, stadium, Dougie, youth teams) all pay off in the future. Parish has had to go for firefighters (Pulis, Allardyce) but look how it ended for them in their next two jobs - spent money but hardly lasted did they.

Yes SP has made mistakes - but the only reason Zaha is here is SP, and we are in uncharted water with top division survival. For a side that went into admin 20 years ago and 9 years ago that is some going. So I'll take those mistakes and put them into context.

It's not hard to tell your 20 and have only been around for the Premier League years.

It's not a science - there isn't black and white. On one hand you say you know it takes time - it took United a decade with Fergie in charge. I suggest you look up a few chairman/CEO's to get a feel for what a bad one is. Those of us a bit older than 20 will remember the following and what their fans said about them.

Peter Risdale, Milan Manderic (though he wasn't all bad), Ken Bates, hell even Ron Noades.

Also you state

"His record with managers is also atrocious. We've had an average of more than one manager per season since he bought us. I'd wager this is because he's far too controlling over what they can and can't do, particularly with signing players, rather than just trusting them and allowing them to build the club how they see fit"

Two words for you here - Alan Pardew. Two more for you - Sam Allardyce and two final - Tony Pulis.

Managers we have had in the Premier League

Ian Holloway - walked
Tony Pulis - did his half a season. Then went to West Brom. Took them on a downward trajectory.
Neil Warnock - filled a gap.
Alan Pardew - established Premier League manager, was left without interference and look what happened. We are still recovering from this.
Sam Allardyce - did his half a season. Left - went to Everton. Spent a lot of money. Got sacked.
Frank De Boer - tried a change, clearly didn't work.
Roy -

So he picked basically two mercenaries who kept us up, but both of who serve up fairly one dimensional football and wanted total control - but both of whom buggered off and made a mess of their next jobs.

Pardew came in and spent a lot of money - destroyed the team spirit and lasted longer than he should have.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results - hence building the structure but can I suggest before you start spouting what is essentially Talksport levels of "wanting everything now" you realise how long this actually takes. It takes around about the time you have been on the planet to sort out to establish yourself.

Can I also suggest you look up Charlton Athletic and while you are at it - Leeds Utd (the David O'Leary years and post mortem), Coventry City, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Middlesborough, Portsmouth (who wont he FA cup when you were 9), Southampton (yes they are Premier League but study their recent history).

You want it all to be instant- that is the problem with modern football. It's now, now, now and it takes time. If you spend £30m on a footballer and he get's injured (a la Beneteke) no one magically gives you another £30 million to spend.

I don't want it all in an instant. Like I said, I'm aware of how long this stuff takes and how you need stability in order to build it. This is why I don't want Roy to leave, unlike some, cause I feel while he's not perfect, he is a steady pair of hands and someone the board can work with.

But requesting one extra positon is not "moving too fast". We all knew we needed a goalscorer - we didn't get one. Parish has a bad record with goalscorers because they're the most expensive position to fill. He always goes for the cheap option - Ayew, Bamford, Campbell etc. The only exception was Benteke, but that was only after we sold Bolasie, so we effectively only played £5/6m for him (I do think that one was a good bit of business by the way, especially with how good Benteke was in his first year).

As far as the managers are concerned, Pulis himself said he left because he felt the club wasn't going in the right direction for progression. And given Sam ended up at Everton less than six months after he left us, it's likely he left for similar reasons. And those are probably the two most synonomous names with Premier League stability. How many more managers are we prepared to lose before we start to question the people at the top?

I'm not expecting everything right away. But if we had a decent goalscorer we'd probably in Leicester's position right now. If there's one thing I can't stand it's unfulfilled potential and we are certainly not fulfilling ours right now. And a lot of that is simply down to mismanagement and lack of vision in my opinion. Can you honestly tell me where Steve Parish wants this club to end up in the next five years?

Edited by TheArmaniCode (27 Dec 2018 7.57pm)

Agreed. Today was the classic day of totally outplaying a team and settling for a draw. It happens. At least we didn't lose like a few years ago to Villa (actually happened 2 times).

Half way through the season and on 19 points. Six teams below and clear of the relegation zone by 7 points. We aren't playing well enough for top 6, but I don't feel we're in massive danger of relegation either, which is a change, and massive relief.

Let's see if we can nab 3 points from Chelsea!

Watching the West Ham game tonight you can see the difference it makes to have composure in the final third.
Anderson had four shots and scored with two and had two well saved.
I know he cost £40m but i5 shows the difference a bi5 of quality makes.
For all Zaha’s brilliance I still think he needs to improve his composure and final delivery near the goal.
It’s great having thirty efforts on goal against Cardiff but it’s another game without scoring.