I feel apprehensive posting this because I know it probably won't go down well. I'm not saying he didn't do a fantastic job or that the signings weren't absolutely necessary at the time but clubs declining after having the big Sam stamp is a common theme throughout his managerial career. Newcastle, Sunderland, Bolton - a bit delayed, but West Ham seem to have it catching them up now as well.

I always think a club set up with such a defensive identity to the point where any form of possessional awareness or patient build up play is abandoned is short sighted and only addresses your problems in exceptional circumstances (which of course they were). The majority of the time it comes back to bite you on the arse because you're left with a group of players who love a "good old fashioned bruiser" but then when asked to actually take the game to teams and play some football, are way short of the required mark as an established premier league side

Like I said, I'm not saying he didn't a great job and I have massive respect for him keeping us up. I would also still have him over Pardew from now until the end of time. But let's face it, he plays football in a s***ty way that gets the results you need at the time but adds nothing to the long-term progression or stability of the club. We were left scraping the barrel in the transfer window this summer as a consequence of the 40 million he spent in January and whilst left back was absolutely a priority, I find it hard to believe a man who spends over £25million on Patrick Van Aanholt + Jeffrey Schlupp is this footballing genius some label him as.

But I guess that's england and the premier league for you - short term results and runs of form are almost always viewed as a bigger indicator of stability and progression and there is almost never any time to take a step back and have a look at the end goal and bigger picture

We're the Arthur over ere!

Reasonable assessment.

Pardew's legacy is leaving us with Lee, Mutch and Sako - none of whom are good enough for our bench and probably on combined weekly salaries of c£120k a week. So over a 3 year period cost including transfers is c£25m.

Big Sam's legacy is PVA and Schlupp - cost over £25m and weekly wages c£100k plus a week.

So over 3 years total cost is c£40m.

Yes there were some transfer successes too and I appreciate not every transfer will be a good one but the above 5 have done long term financial harm to the club

Quite right. And the left back errors, PVA and schlupp, had to happen because of Pardew and Parish, far too pally with each other. The root of the problem is Parish goes cheap and then goes expensive to correct it, as long as the best escape artist is available. Then once it's gone fully t1ts up he claims he should've kept the lowest scoring striker in recent history and he is the best chairman in CPFC history.

A lot of decks need clearing and it'll be a miracle without any damage.

COYP