Where Did It All Go Wrong....

[ChicagoLion]

It has to start with the dissembling of the promotion winning team, chucking out all experience, losing the main goal threat.
Since then it has been a string of poor decisions in respect of squad management player recruitment, selection and game management.
The responsibility starts with the CEO, is Exacerbated by DOF and continued by the Manager and coaching staff.
We have had opportunity to address these issues during the campaign and again these guys have all failed.

[KevinGage]

Getting hammered by Leicester early Dec gave us the jitters and we never truly recovered.

I was still optimistic we could do when we were sitting on seven wins at the end of Jan.  But a lack of nous alongside Mings at centre half and minimal goal threat have done for us.

Our outlay in the summer was largely an advance on the TV deal. If the owners were determined to avoid relegation we needed more: a Premier League ready centre half alongside Tyrone, a competent defensive midfielder to allow Grealish and McGinn to do their thing and goals up top. Not the half baked experimentation they ultimately went with.   Cahill or Shane Duffy from Brighton were available, and after Leicester struggled last season, I wonde if Rodgers had received a £30 million plus offer for Vardy in the summer whether he would have cashed in.   They're not short of money, but it would have been more in the pot to reshape a young side the way he wants it.  Vardy isn't one for the future but him (or a player of that ilk) could have been ideal for us for a year or two as we attempted to reestablish ourselves. Oh well.

[hilts_coolerking]

Being forced to play without a striker for, what was it, 3 or 4 games was an indication to me that off the pitch things weren't professional enough.

[Steve67]

We have picked shit managers, bought badly, over-promised and under-delivered.  I said over six months ago and I say the same today that this club is ripe for a good quality manager to come in now and take us on a journey.  We seem to have sorted the academy out and now need a manager to come in and build from the bottom up with a clear philosophy that is not built on intransigent thinking. 

[brontebilly]

The warning bells were loud and ringing from very early on even in games we got points in. Bottle job away at a dreadful Arsenal team, drawing at home to ten man West Ham, even a very fortunate win at home to Everton. Inaction at board level cost us dear and supporting Smith in January with Drinky, Baston, Reina and Samatta said a lot.

[pauliewalnuts]

Recently, we've been playing with a striker who I genuinely do not recall ever scoring for us.

This at a time where we are desperate to win games.

[Risso]

Crap manager
Crap Director of Football
Crap transfers

Going into a Premier League season with a squad worse than the one that finished the Championship is idiocy of the highest order.

[PaulWinch again]

Recently, we've been playing with a striker who I genuinely do not recall ever scoring for us.

This at a time where we are desperate to win games.

Yes whatever people think of Davis him starting as a lone striker is illustrative of poor management (at all levels of the club).

[AlexAlexCropley]

Can't help but think the lack of crowd has fucked us at home.

[olaftab]

Crap manager
Crap Director of Football
Crap transfers

Going into a Premier League season with a squad worse than the one that finished the Championship is idiocy of the highest order.

I would change this slightly.
Manager out of his depth.
Crap  DOF.
Crap transfers.
A has been CEO who's looking at his own career in non-executive  sector now rather than interested in making us better.

[pauliewalnuts]

Treading into contentious territory here, but the owners have been marvellous in pouring money into the club, you can't doubt their commitment.

But their judgement on this?

Questionable?

[Richard E]

2006, with hindsight. If Lerner’s first managerial appointment had been more imaginative/progressive the whole future trajectory would have been different.

[Damo70]

2006, with hindsight. If Lerner’s first managerial appointment had been more imaginative/progressive the whole future trajectory would have been different.

I can't agree with that. He was arguably one of the most coveted managers in the game when we appointed him. It felt similar to when we appointed BFR. He had done excellently with Leicester winning promotion and two  League Cups and with Celtic where he won seven trophies in five years and who he took to a European final, making him Celtic's most successful manager since Jock Stein.

We even recovered from MON's badly timed departure and recovered from a bad start under Houllier. I think it really went wrong with the appointment of McLeish. Can you imagine Liverpool appointing a manager who had just got Everton relegated? The next big mistake after appointing McLeish wasn't appointing Lambert as he seemed a good choice at the time. The mistake was not sacking him sooner than we did when he clearly wasn't up to the job.

[hilts_coolerking]

2006, with hindsight. If Lerner’s first managerial appointment had been more imaginative/progressive the whole future trajectory would have been different.

I can't agree with that. He was arguably one of the most coveted managers in the game when we appointed him. It felt similar to when we appointed BFR. He had done excellently with Leicester winning promotion and two  League Cups and with Celtic where he won seven trophies in five years and who he took to a European final, making him Celtic's most successful manager since Jock Stein.

Wasn't it Doug who appointed O'Neill?  Or have I misremembered that?

[cdbearsfan]

Can't help but think the lack of crowd has fucked us at home.

It's a fair point. Through the entirety of 2018/19 and 2019/20 up until the enforced break we failed to score in home games twice. We've equalled that in three games since the restart.

That said, they are highly paid professional athletes and shouldn't have to rely on people singing "your support is fucking shit" or "shit on the city" every now and again in order to generate a bit of effort.