TBH, Richards at Quins did better with probably less money. Mallinder at Saints, too. And they did it with a core of young English players, not by importing a migrant dinghy worth of Saffas.Puja wrote:It's easy to forget that it's only very recently that they've not been a bottom-half of the table club. They were involved in relegation battles and haven't finished higher than 6th until last year (when, arguably, they were likely robbed of 3rd by COVID). Until quite recently, they were in the Worcester/Irish position of developing players and seeing them get poached by bigger clubs - Taylor, Gaskell, Wiggy, Hodgson, Foden, Haley, Addison, Thomas, etc.Digby wrote:I'd deny he's done a good hob depending on what the criteria are
He did an excellent job stabilising them as a solid Prem side and he's brought in some excellent players, but since stabilising them the development has all seemed to come from player acquisition, and it's not easy to see what's being done with that spend. At best the of the ball is clunky, often times they have enough power that doesn't matter, but it looks a big spend (and it's hardly just Manu) to be 4th-7th
Yes, he has done some big spending on players and has likely overpaid, but he's had to while raising their reputation and changing them to a side that players will join to be successful, rather than just for a pension.
I don't like the man, but he's done a good job with the money IMO.
Puja
Sorry, but considering the investment, you'd expect Sale to have risen up the table. And we're not talking about rising from nowhere here, these are former champions. In fact, it'd only been 4 years when Diamond took over, so you could consider their relegation form to have been a bad blip rather than the norm.
No, I don't think he's been that good.
Sure, he's been better than some of the absolute crap we've had, but that's not a high bar.
