"Had very little creative ability"

Disagree with this. If anything it was the main strength of the squad Hughton took on from Lambert, always capable of scoring, even late on in games. In fact, we were the seventh highest prem scorers in 11/12 (not that I disagree that the squad was limited overall).

From what I remember, Hughton concentrated on rebuilding our defence in the summer of 2012, which showed in our pre season results and performances. Obviously Surman's injury didn't help him at all, but it was his new system that really stunted Hoolahan's ability to dictate games, while the likes of Fox (crucial the previous season) were made obsolete due to their best qualities being centred around possession and creative passing skills rather than defending and reading the game.

Objectively you can say the plan was successful for that season and that's not up for debate, but it did kill the creative ability we had available at the time, rather than being a weakness that Hughton HAD to compensate for with a sound defensive plan, IMO at least.

I agree with pretty much everything else you wrote.

The Adams appointment is the reason why I haven't been active on here for some time, because I was strongly against it from the start and didn't want to stink up this board with yet more negativity. It's not that I think Adams lacks potential, but we're just not in the correct situation to gamble on a novice who has to learn on the job. This is a tough league to get out of, even for battle hardened managers such as McClaren, Redknapp and Allardyce who have/had strong squads. Maybe the board had some romantic fantasy that Adams could be the Norfolk Guardiola, I don't know, but it's mad to expect a rookie to guide a squad full of prem level (only in their own minds) egos through an ultra competitive division.

Posted By: Common Sense Police, Nov 8, 22:59:35