I disagree with the idea that it's a poisoned chalice, etc. It was that when Garde got the job, we were in free fall with a squad incapable of staying up and a disinterested owner who was never going to give him huge funds to change things around. RDM should've had a perfect setup, plenty of money to build the squad he wanted, support to get the coaching team exactly as he needed, fan backing to remove anyone he liked from the squad and enough understanding that a couple of wins and a spot in midtable would've been enough to keep him safe. He was on target for a while as well, but then he decided to tinker with things when it wasn't needed. Since then we've been humiliated by Ipswich, Forest, Barnsley and Preston. Just like Sherwood last season he panicked and threw the baby out with the bathwater, I think any manager who does that needs results immediately after the change, get them and it's all good and you carry on, if it gets worse then you've written your own P45.
I agree with Mister E that the obvious options are all really poor, Bruce, Allerdyce, etc. None of them are remotely inspiring and I hope the net gets cast a little broader than that. Mention of the guys at Bristol City and Huddersfield are promising at least.
That's the problem in a nutshell. We don't have the squad for it. We don't have two dependable holding midfielders nor 3 attacking midfielders. We two chocolate fireguards and central strikers, then there's Ayew and Grealish who don't seem to fit anywhere at the moment.
Honestly we do. for it to work you need 2 fullbacks who can get forward and overlap, Amavi, Bacuna and De Laet all fit the bill. That means you can have wide players who can drift around, Ayew on the left is perfect for that with Adomah offering a more traditional option on the other side or push Kodjia out there and have him drifting in as well. Centrally RM and Grealish are fine for the 10 role and Kodjia in his preferred position is very strong for 9 with Gestede as a decent option to mix it up.
In central midfield we're weak regardless but I think we need to pair energetic and steady. in the latter group we have Jedinak, Westwood and Gardner who are all experienced enough to hold a position. The weakness is that Tish is the only option for the other role from the main squad. I'd promote Lyden up as his cover and then make this priority in the window.