Seeing all of this mass hysteria and confusion over Rene and the rest of the staff gives me heartburn.
For part 1, search for numbers dont lie. these parts are independent of each other, so if you havent seen the first dont worry.
Again, most of these points are being adapted from a book called Soccernomics. I highly recommend it
http://www.amazon.com/Soccernomics-Australia-Turkey-Iraq-Are-Destined/dp/1568587015 (http://www.amazon.com/Soccernomics-Australia-Turkey-Iraq-Are-Destined/dp/1568587015)
A good bit of the book talks about managers, and i hinted at it previous that most managers dont make an impact on their team. if you look at it from a numbers perspective most teams average 1.3 points per game. this is an average of points for all teams in the top 4 levels of english football from 1973-2010. most teams sack their manager when that average drops to 1. Any body with experience in stats can explain what happens when a team hits its low point in a cycle, regression towards the mean. the manager is merely along for the ride. Look at mancini with city in 2009 after mark hughes, he wins 4 games in a row, suddenly he's magical. this lull in performance that cost Mark Hughes his job couldve been injuries, bad luck, tough fixtures, or more likely, the time it took for the team to gel.
As I have said on another fulham forum and in an earlier post, bringing in a new manager really doesnt change much. He is more often than not just along for the ride. hell Ebbsfleet united fc won the FA trophy in 2008 by having 30,000 fan owners each vote on player selection.
there is one exception to managers, is those who can make an impact. Knowing that the wages you pay a player account for 85-90% of how a team performs, finding a manager who can give you a 10% boost is extremely desireable.
of the 251 managers who spent 5 or more years at a club, a few names stand out above the others chief among them all, Bob paisley ( Because nott forrest was a private club during Brian Clough's reign nobody really know their financial data) Bob Paisley overachieved far above his teams wages vs the other 92 clubs in the top part of english football. Fergie, Daglish, wenger, rafa, robson, houllier, Steve Parkin, Dave Mackay, and Roy Evans round out the top 10. most of these coaches plyed their trade with big clubs for long periods of time during their successes, with the exception of one. Steve Parkin spent his time at barnsley, mansfield town, and rochdale. Yet steve came 8th among 251 managers.
Finally, looking at who gets picked as a manager shows some serious problems with English soccer. The racial and gender bias in English soccer management is astounding. Almost all coaches are white, and they are always male. more than likely they are a former player, probably someone who has played for the club. We could get the best black or female, or black female manager in the history of sports but we wont because it would be considered sacrelige to go against it. Clearly women have shown that they can run a country, surely they can manage a measly football team?
Bottom line as this applies to fulham, is that the hysteria over rene & co. is futile. we arent changing the things that matter, were changing things that dont. Stick with rene, or dont. its unlikely to make a difference. If we do, find one who can make that 10% impact.