Zip Hound There were times under Clement when I thought we were quite good and entertaining. Looking back from the team sheets, I really liked the look of how we lined up vs Brentford away. We'd have an appalling half followed by a good one (or vice versa) pretty much every game. The late Stam days - now that was unwatchable.
I fully accept he wasn't a great manager, and Gomes has been a breath of fresh air. But PC wasn't all bad, and imo, it was the clusterfcuk with Moore at the start of the season and the injuries to Eza, Bod, Baldock and Meite that really did for him.
The injuries didn’t help but the summer signings were really poor. Gourlay did him no favours too. I liked the guy and unlike Stam he didn’t cripple us financially.
I still think they're only considered poor on the whole because of injuries.
Yes, Meyler was shit and O'Shea was always terrible.
But looking at them objectively:
Walker - to my mind a succession plan for Mannone and Annsi. Initially looked good, had a couple of bad games got injured and throne was up against an inform Anssi or Arsenal loaner. Hard to definitely write him off at this stage remember Clement wasn't playing pass it out really either.
Yiadom - great
O'Shea - pointless, but no one expected him to play much anyway, agree bad signing
Meyler - awful, but an attempt to fix a clear problem. Quickly dropped and replaced
Ezatolahi - looked great, got injured on international duty. I don't see how you can criticise making a signing because the player got injured.
Sims - some good some bad, what you'll often get from a young loanee.
Baldock - solid if unspectacular, tbh the level I'd have expected. Again, can't really criticise the signing because of injury.
McNulty - never likely to have an immediate impact stepping up. Always looked handy to me and has done very well on loan. Decent with limited opportunity.
IMO there's only one signing there where the signing itself really just wasn't up to its intended role in the squad and that was quickly fixed.
Jose's had a fabulous hit rate (in the end), but that's the exception to normal, and they're all loanees here to keep us up, not build to anything. So serve a slightly different purpose.