Fisher was appointed late last year, with his directorship beng filed on January 4th of this year. Almost immediately, he drafted in Waggott, as reported in the CET on 31st December: 'Former Charlton chief executive Steve Waggott, who knows City’s interim managing director Tim Fisher from their time at The Valley, has been brought in on a temporary basis to help deal with player and transfer matters'
I personally would say I would have been understanding if they'd have canned Thorn at the end of last season - disappointed but understanding. However, I don't think that F&W as a team did as well as they could in January, missed out on transfer targets due to embargo over the summer, and cheated us out of a full pre-season with a new manager building his own squad if that was their true intent. So, yes, there's a legacy - but not tha of one man in my book.
If Waggott was brought in on a temporary basis, with the remit as described in the CET, then if I had been asked to judge him as quickly as he judged Thorn this season, then I'd have been saying post-January window that I couldn't have understood his his 'temporary' position become permanent. Hence my accusations of a whiff of hypocrisy being in the air
No, I disagree, we did well in the transfer market this season, the embargo prevented us from signing James Collins (the Cov lad) but if we had signed him, would we have signed McG and then Clarke? Both are better than Collins. As for that Donny midfielder, that was a blow, but then again, we still signed Fleck and Barton (all scored 3 goals, but Fleck has double assists) so on the face of it, you could argue that we were better off - but I don't know how that CM plays etc. so I don't really know, we also don't know if was a choice between them or we would've signed all 3.
Without turning this into another Thorn thread, he deserved the sack, yes he got 3 draws which, in fairness, appears to be harsh, BUT, it was the manner in which we drew all 3 games, they all showed the same trends as last season, take the lead, then lose it, we were incapable of holding leads, something very common in Thorn's reign, also, the team looked unfit, we looked poor for large periods of the games, and it was clear that Thorn was failing with a "handpicked squad", a good one as we seen in Robins' reign. I think it was decisive action from SISU and have us an opportunity to salvage the season, some would said it was too late after Shaw's reign but that simply isn't true, when we beat Bournemouth at home, they were below us and Eddie Howe had effectively won the title, only for that late Donny goal - Robins could've, probably should've done better. I think this season could've been a whole lot worse if we would've gave Thorn even 10 games, up to Christmas or the whole season! Players like Cody and Hussey who were key to Thorn's plans were this season proven not good enough - despite what the majority of us thought, including myself. Also, if I'm really going to put salt into the wounds, I think Thorn shouldve signed wingers in pre-season, but he only signed players for the diamond system, without considering a 'Plan B', so his successors had to do with McSheffrey and Baker as wingers, Baker is a hit and miss winger, and I personally think he was too inconsistent this season, but was awesome for the November/December under MR, but before and after - nowhere near as good. As for McSheffrey, 1 goal all season (in L1) says it all - not good enough, even I, one of is biggest critics, expected much better.
In January, the priority was to keep the 'big 4', we kept 3/4 and lets be realistic, McG was never going to stay, I thought he was but in hindsight, I can't believe how naive I and others were, but at least we replaced him with a striker who has been just as effective as him (but not as good, but the best realistic option). This year, it is unreasonable to criticise SISU's transfer policy, it was really good last season.
