For me though, the context you've set out there is a bit of rose tinting

At the time, we all listened to Webber's words without the cynicism they are met with now, and we took it on board; the club was broke, we had to do things differently, and this was the start of it.

At the time, we accepted that the football wasn't very entertaining on the basis that it was a project, and that we were doing things differently and that was kinda cool. Yes, there was some evidence of a project and style developing, but there were some really rubbish results and performances, much worse than our first three games, that we accepted partly because expectations were set very low. We also saw that Webber had done well with Huddersfield so trusted him to deliver something with us by signing bargain players.

Had the signings not come off so spectacularly in the second summer (selling Maddison, buying Emi, Pukki and getting Rhodes on loan), we could have really struggled the following season.

Would we be looking back at Farke's first season in the same light had it been followed up by a load more crap? I doubt it because realistically, Farke would only have been allowed another couple of months, such is football.

Would that first season have been accepted now based on the expectations of fans? Absolutely not.

I don't think Farke and Smith should be compared, the expectations are different, the squad is different, there's nothing really the same at all. Football fans are fickle, and I am part of that too, if we win some games and go on a run everyone will love Smith, even if he's dull (see Villa fans).

I'm starting to forget what point I'm trying to make. I think it's back to two fundamental ones:

1) Farke is gone and he's not coming back. Smith may or may not be the right person to take us forward. I've seen little to suggest he is, but see point 2.

2) Even if Farke did come back, or if we appointed Guardiola, he's not going to turn Rashica, Sargent and Cantwell into assist machines and McLean into Luka Modric. There are more fundamental issues in the make up of the playing squad than who is the manager (IMO).

Posted By: SimonOTBC on August 15th 2022 at 16:24:14

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