The situation we currently have, for those who are old enough to remember reminds me of Joe Royle in 1996-7.
There is no doubt Royle had slightly lost the plot. His big signings (Kanchelskis particularly) had underperformed and wanted away. We have injuries to key players like Fergusan, Southall in goal had lost all form and confidence of those in front of him (rather like Howard today, a situation only solved when we binned him the following December).
We had dropped like a stone that season. It seemed almost impossible for us to be considering relegation and while we never looked in serious trouble it was always an outside possibility (similar to this season).
Royle had lost the plot, the local media had turned and he had become paranoid.
Like Martinez now, in the previous season(s) he had done a brilliant job. We looked a top team ready to challenge anyone. Yet bizarrely it all went wrong very quickly. Injuries and lack of form led to this, not helped by the local media.
Of course history tells us we (sort of) got rid of Royle. My worry about doing the same with Martinez is we have the same results. Getting rid of Royle didn't reverse the anomie that surrounded the club. The following season we went into the final game of the season needing other sides to do us a favour to stay up.
Had it not been for Kevin Campbell there's little doubt we'd have been relegated the season after. We all know the relegation problems we faced. The point I make, was getting rid of Royle didn't solve the problems, it further exacerbated them.
If we compare to
Moyes in 2004, who had "lost the dressing room" he was given support. From the following 9 years we finished below 8th once, and never below 11th.
When I read the Royle book back what hit me was not that it was a man out of his depth. It was that he was a man who needed a bit of a break and a bit of support and who had become overly defensive and a little paranoid.
There was nothing that a close season away from the day to day pressures of preparing for matches to re-assess couldn't have solved (as it did with
Moyes and I think will for Martinez).
Royle wanted to Bring Flo in for just over a million pounds. What a signing he could have been! He hadn't become a bad manager. The saddest thing of the late 90's were we were so close to being a top team. People were tipping us to challenge to win the league as Dark horses.
We needed a goalkeeper and a centre half, and possibly a partner for Fergusan (see Flo). We had a lot of talented young players coming through. Royle had already Blooded O'Connor and in a steady winning environment and Royle's tutelage I doubt the likes of Jeffers, Cadamateri, Dunne, Ball etc would have been allowed to squander their abilities.
The same is true now. I worry that hitting the sack button will not only compound our problems, but will stunt the development of our young players.
We live in a world of immediate gratification. Easy Solutions, often being the most radical ones. What is needed to me, is a bit of back to the drawing board, reassessment from Martinez. Moving 3-4 players on bringing a couple in and starting afresh next season.
