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Genuinely interested, what did he actually do that you feel united the fans? From the outside it looks that it was the predicament that did that, which he was at least partly responsible for. He seems clueless and charmless, which isn't a winning combination. Plus the very fact Everton were down there with the amount spent in the past few years is genuinely criminal, although appreciate not much of that at his door...
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Well I think his biggest draw was that he wasn’t Rafa Benitez. And after that he wasn’t Vitor Pereira (the Joorabchain stooge no one wanted). Then he said a few things which pleased the fans - some of which I can’t really find legitimate sources for. As you say it was partly the predicament but it was also that this was a predicament started unquestionably by Benitez. Finally, he kept us up and in the most dramatic of circumstances. Felt like we’d won a cup final. That’s the madness of football, Leicester and West Ham went deep into Europe but failed to make a final. The irons missed out on Europa league on the last day. They probably feel more disappointed than we do, despite doing massively better than us. It’s just the daft psychology of the football fan and I’m fully on board with it.
He seems clueless and charmless, which isn't a winning combination
More fan psychology. It’s much easier to support someone when they’re in your corner and wearing your colours. Luis Suarez looked like a diving, cheating, biting racist to the rest of the league. But Liverpool fans backed him to the hilt. The team came out wearing t-shirts with him on.
Tonts
I'll be honest, I'm still a fair bit sceptical of him and I also still hate him a bit cos he scored the winner in the 2009 FA cup final. He was handed a bit of a thankless task with us, but he made some pretty basic tactical errors, playing a high line away at spurs was amongst the worst but he did change tactics in enough time to save us from the drop.
However he does seem to get what the fans are about, what the club is about and he got all the fans on board for the last month or two of the season. Crowds out to welcome the team coach, flares, smoke bombs, chanting the whole match, not seen anything like it. I do slightly struggle to warm to him, some of his post match interviews where he blamed the players grated a lot and there was virtually no 'I got that call wrong' admissions. Which there could have been, cos he got plenty wrong. Be interesting to see how it all pans out next season, apparently he's after Anthony Barry from the chelsea coaching staff.