Evening Brewers. Apologies this has taken ages to write and yes I admit its pretty sad to spend this long writing the post having resisted solely to do one post! But as a Blades fan here goes! Its long, as you can obviously tell, so if you want the short version, skip to the conclusions near the end!
I thought you might appreciate a view on Clough, which I'm fairly sure are shared by many Blades fans - I would say certainly the majority of the forums and Radio Sheffield ring in show. Sadly its not a ringing endorsement of Clough I'm afraid! Some of the stuff you'll know already and forgive me for that but much of it you won't because it's been a long time since he was last in charge if Burton. I'm mainly posting because I know from reading comments from Burton fans at the appointment of Clough, that his sacking at United seems harsh, as on paper, he achieved two semi finals in two seasons (the first was not even a full season because he took over partly through the season), a play off place in his second season and the first season we were in the bottom 4 when he took over and we finished 7th, just missing out on the play offs.
On paper that all sounds great. I noticed that some Burton fans on Brewers Talk said that our fans have unrealistic expectations of our club and that we want Adkins out now too. We know we're not Manchester United, we're Sheffield United and we have generally competed for promotion from the Championship or struggled against relegation to stay up in the Premier League, since its inception in 1992. However, we're in League one for a 5th season now, and rightly fans are annoyed, but only an odd idiot wants Nigel Adkins out - its still early days with the squad Clough left. So here's why the majority of Blades fans were happy when he was sacked!
1 When we finished 7th in Clough's first season, after he picked up the reigns in the bottom 4 in November, it sounds like Clough did brilliantly. However, the squad we had was far far better than he bottom 4; we had finished 5th the season before Weir came in and the club had sold no decent players over the summer, it was David Weirs disastrous few months in charge that got us in the unthinkable of the relegation zone. Clough inherited a decent squad that was underachieving and granted he did really well, but it wasn't the hardest job to keep us up and get us to 7th! We did have Harry Maguire, Conor Coady and Jamie Murphy who have all left for millions since to the Championship or Premier League in the case of Harry. We'll always be grateful to the FA cup run that season and to be honest in the summer of 2015 all looked rosy.
2 In the summer of 2015, we sold Harry Maguire and Conor Coady wasn't signed from Liverpool, as he left for Huddersfield for about £750,000 - he's now at Wolves. So in defence of Clough, we did lose two really good players. So Clough went and signed Andy Butler, 30, from Walsall on a free, to replace Harry at centre back and he signed James Wallace 22, in midfield from Tranmere for a small fee to replace Coady. Sadly for Clough, Wallace, who is a very talented footballer, hardly played, due to various injuries. Clough was unfortunate to lose Wallace, because Clough in the summer of 2015, Clough didn't spend anything like what he gained from the sale of Harry (Clough later stated for whatever reason, the club couldn't get the targets they wanted, so presumably had to sign players from his B and C list), but he did spend £1.5m in January on John Brayford, so he wasn't limited on budget.
As the season rolled on, Clough decided very early doors, that Andy Butler wasn't the answer and as Clough does with certain players, he just bombed him out, never to play again for us. He left (having only joined in the summer) in January. Neill Collins, who was the other centre half (inherited not signed by Clough), was also dropped and never featured again for Clough and Collins rotted in the reserves, until a loan spell at Port Vale near the end of last season. It was mainly because of a bad 5 - 2 loss to Swindon in the early stages of the season, and Clough said in the weeks after that the defence that day wouldn't play again - he was good for his word at least! Ironically we conceded 5 at Swindon away in the play off semi in a defence that was all his own, but he played people out of position due to refusing to pick Neill Collins!
Clough seemed to fall out with numerous players, or sign players and then decide he didn't rate them and just leave them rotting. Not only was there Collins and Butler, but he signed Craig Al*bleep* and Michael Higdon in the same summer, only to give them a handful of games that season, usually from the bench. Al*bleep* started the season and then after the first two months wasn't seen again until an injury crisis forced Clough to play him in the play off semi final away at Swindon. Never have I known a manager at United sign so many players and then just not play them. Jamal Campbell Ryce was another who was signed by Clough and he did well until Christmas, and then despite injuries to wingers, he decided he didn't like Campbell Ryce and he sent him on loan to Notts County in Feburary this year and he didn't feature again last season. Finally, Clough also gave a contract extension to Chris Porter last summer, only to then play him about 6 times last season before January, almost all from the bench. He left to join Colchester on a free last January.
So in essence, Clough failed to make enough quality signings in last summers recruitment. It was obvious from about 6 weeks into last season that we were woefully short of the top two race and so we were left waiting till January to play catch up, with new signings required. In Clough's defence, he did sign Chris Basham, Marc McNulty (for the future mainly) and James Wallace (injured), who were decent additions it must be said, but not enough.
3 The lack of decent signings in the summer wasn't the only reason we were no where near where we wanted to be. Clough's tactics were a major problem! Clough, when he joined said in his interview, that he liked to play many formations, depending on the situation. In his 18 months in charge, I can count on one hand the number of times he started with anything other than 4-5-1. Only when we were losing or drawing with a 20 minutes etc to go might he put two forwards on. Now playing 4-5-1 in itself is fine, but with no consistent goalscorer in our squad, goals were required from the midfield to compensate for the lack of goals from the top forward and the lack of the second forward that you'd get from playing a traditional 4-4-2. We didn't get the goals required from the wingers or midfield to compensate, although Jose Baxter and Jamie Murphy did get 10 or so each, although Baxter's were often penalties - still got to be scored granted. We scored a total of 66 goals last season, which was by at least 10 goals the lowest in the top 6, and the defence conceded more than our rivals or similar amounts by the odd goal. The top 3 teams scored 79, 101 and 96 goals respectively.
I lost count of the matches where we'd go one up and then be pegged back to one - one and that was it. We'd huff and puff but not get that second goal, because we were playing with inept tactics that never changed. We had Michael Higdon on the bench for much of last season, who is a target man, ideally suited to playing with a smaller guy like Marc McNulty. Clough often played Mcnulty on his own up front despite saying when he signed him that he was one for the future, rather than the present. He threw McNulty in the deep end, because Clough refused to play the experienced Higdon off McNulty and then when McNulty failed to do well when starting, Clough publicly criticised him. Watching United was so dull and slow to watch and all the time he had Che Adams (great signing admittedly) not playing, or on the bench without coming on, who could have changed things. Clough basically decided that 4-5-1 was the only approach, despite it not working.
We did really well in the cups when the pressure was off and the 4-5-1 formation and the backs against the wall tactics worked really well. We'd park the bus and hit teams on the break, exactly like what teams did to us in the league. Sadly we couldn't get the cup form in the league.
4 As January came and we knew we needed several new faces - probably too many to integrate and make a winning side, such were the shortcomings of the team/squad. We needed a better target man, because Higdon was obviously not going to get a run under Clough. Higdon is slow and lazy (Clough would have known that watching him) but he could score goals, but Clough hardly played him past January, so it was clear we needed another target man. Did he sign one? No, we did sign another small guy, Matty Done, on Transfer deadline day. Done, turned out to be decent, but we needed a better big man, as we already had McNulty. Clough instead spent around £1.5m on John Brayford, a right back from Cardiff. Now Brayford is great and a fans favourite, but £1.5m as a League One team, signing a right back for that fee and wages?!?!? It wasn't what we really needed! We needed a big forward since he didn't play Higdon much, a centre back and a centre mid (Clough did a centre mid in Paul Coutts from Derby in January who had just come back from a long injury, but thus far he has proved to be very average and often unfit). Having spent a fortune on John Brayford, he didn't play him at his usual right back role! This was due to Clough not signing a centre half in January, either on loan or permanently; having seen loan signing Paddy McCarthy return to Crystal Palace in January (remember we desperately needed one or two centre backs as Clough refused to pick the defence from the Swindon debacle) and finally; having decided to move Chris Basham to midfield, rather than defence (as he was playing since he signed) because the midfield was so soft/without a presence as Clough loved signing technically good players often with a low centre of gravity (short) who were soft ball players like Stefan Scougall, Jason Holt and Jose Baxter (inherited).
5 Clough's man management, as I've alluded too above, was worse than David Brent's! He publicly criticised so many players, either as a group, or individually, and no wonder the players weren't playing well! McNulty been the worse example. As I said McNulty was signed mainly as an impact player - Clough stated he wasn't ready to be the main forward. So when he did start McNultty and McNulty failed what did Clough do? He would say "that's why I don't start him often" or "McNulty needs to work harder etc"!!! I kid you not! That's hardly going to inspire him was it?! Meanwhile you've got 3 or 4 experienced guys rotting in the reserves!
Conclusion for those who want a short version!
1 Don't be fooled into thinking Clough did brilliantly in his first season when we finished 7th after he took over in the bottom 4. That might sound harsh, but It was a decent side that was massively underachieving, make no bones about that, and had we appointed a decent manager before Clough we would have no doubt finished top 6 or at least competed up there.
2 Clough's 2015 summer signings didn't come off and
3 Clough's tactics were trying to play slow build up play, retaining possession etc, but it left the team out bullied, no pace or height in League One and not enough goals with his negative 4-5-1 formation all season. Not surprisingly, it failed!
4 His January signings wasn't what was needed (granted he did sign the class Brayford, but that came at a massive cost financially)
5 He bombed out several established pros often signed by Clough and what Clough knows about man management you could write on the back of a stamp!
6 Clough signed quantity not quality. Adkins has been left with massive squad of largely average players.
I could go on with stuff like he was arrogant and wouldn't ever admit mistakes etc (I'm sure you will know that one from his Dad)! I noticed he said last week, that after a few weeks of last season, it was obvious that we were short of a team getting promotion! He came up with excuses like "teams who play so many cup games, as we did, are naturally not going to be in the top two, because of the demands on the squad". He forget to mention how many games last season that Bristol City had played on reaching the JPT final and getting to the 5th round of the cup! Anyway that's my views, I don't think Clough is a disastrous appointment, despite all the above, and clearly I've focused on the negatives, because that's how I view his time, whereas Clough viewed his time as an improvement (which it was, but as I said earlier, the squad was in a false position near the bottom when he started) and the cup runs, however enjoyable, do not result in promotion and that's the main and only aim really, the cups are a bonus. I hope he learns from his refusal to change at United but I'm not sure he will.