After last night’s 3-0 defeat to Blackburn, it was time for Preston North End fans to come out in force on Twitter and start that age old debate again – stick with Alex Neil or sack him?
The Scottish manager has taken charge of over 150 games so far for PNE and has been with the club since July 2017. After taking over, Neil has led the club to some decent top-half finishes in the Championship, including a seventh-placed finish, only narrowly missing out on a Play-Off place.
On a modest budget, that is certainly some doing. With many fans considering North End relegation fodder upon their promotion back into the second tier, it’s certainly no mean feat to have taken us to such high league finishes during his tenure. We’ve certainly become an established Championship team yet again.
However, fans are growing tired with him. After last night’s defeat, we currently sit 15th in the table, closer to the relegation places than the promotion ones and having won only two of our last five. Add in to that our atrocious home form (we have the second worst home record in the league, winning just once so far this campaign) and fans are becoming disillusioned with the man in charge.
So, we decided to voice our opinion and express it into the world of North End fans.
For starters, we’re officially Neil in, so if you’d like to exit the article now, just hold on a second. This isn’t going to be a pro-Neil agenda but we’d like to state that we believe Neil to be the right man to lead us forward.
However, we’re going to look at and take into consideration, the reasons both for and against keeping him so that you can make your own mind up when handed the facts.
Here goes nothing.
Alex Neil’s working on a shoestring budget
First off, the biggest point for the pro-Alex Neil camp is that the issue may not lie with Neil himself. It’s well established that we have one of the lowest budgets in the league and are still yet to break our transfer record (which we initially smashed for David Healy over 15 years ago…which is slightly worrying).
We’ve come close and the signing of Emil Riis represents a deal worth about £1.2m but the fact we haven’t spent £2m or more on a player in a league where top goalscorer Ivan Toney joined Brentford for a fee rising to £10m, then you’re bound to struggle.
It’s true what they say that more often than not, spending more money gets you better players (case in point, Toney). It’s certainly possible that you can buy a diamond in the rough and mould them into a better player as we have done several times when it comes to the likes of Jordan Hugill, Callum Robinson, Ben Pearson and Alan Browne for example but it’s not ALWAYS going to work (just take a look at Graham Burke).
Neil is working with what he can in that regard. Yes, he managed to sign Riis but it took weeks to finally get a deal done. In fact, one of the players on the biggest wage is David Nugent, who hasn’t even been included in the squad (and that’s arguably not down to Neil either and is a shame to see with someone who is in certainly a club legend).
Give Alex Neil the chance to spend more money and who knows what he could achieve and who he would have signed by now. Of course, we’ll never know if giving him a blank cheque would have ended with us fighting for promotion or still sat in 15th still but just with a ton of debt. Either way, we won’t know because the owner refuses to spend money.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re wholly grateful for him keeping the club afloat. However, when your best players are sold and not replaced adequately, you cannot complain when a situation like this occurs – and you certainly can’t blame the man having to deal with it. If you were dealt a dodgy hand in Poker, would you blame yourself for the fact you had no chance of winning or the dealer? That does though link in to the next point we address…
Neil frustrated with the situation
Could it be that the manager who has managed to achieve so much with us on a shoestring budget is now getting frustrated with the situation? You couldn’t blame him if he was.
Neil has been linked with some of the top jobs in the Championship (most notably, he nearly made the move to West Bromich Albion and most recently he is 25/1 to nab the Derby job) and it’s with good reason. He’s done tremendously well with us and the players we have to get us to where we are and other clubs are also noticing.
However, could the work he is doing finally be coming undone? He’s worked tirelessly to get us to where we are and it could be that Neil is growing tired with having to work with his hands tied behind his back. If he’s frustrated, that could certainly affect the work he is doing with the players and therefore affect results on the field.
Himself and the players all cut dejected figures last night and didn’t show many signs of fight at 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0 down. Maybe, the Scot is fed up with leading PNE.
Is there a genuinely worthwhile managerial replacement for him?
A reason to hold onto Alex Neil though is a question which doesn’t even involve the man himself – if he was sacked or left, who could be his replacement?
North End fans are quick to throw several former players name into the hat from Graham Alexander to Michael Appleton to Gareth Ainsworth.
Alexander did a solid job at Fleetwood and Scunthorpe and was doing well with Salford until his untimely sacking but he has yet to be challenged at Championship level. Giving him the job has an element of risk which could backfire. At Salford, he had a large budget to work with and wouldn’t be afforded the same here.
With Appleton, he’s also done good work at Oxford and with current team Lincoln, he has led them to third in League One (at this moment in time).
Tested in the Championship in the past though he too has struggled and you can’t be sure again what type of work he would do with North End. Would the man who took Oxford to promotion achieve the same feat at PNE or would you get the same Appleton who struggled with Blackburn?
As for Ainsworth, he has worked wonders at Wycombe to get them into the Championship and he worked on a budget with them. However, like the others, there is one key feature of his managerial reign – he’s untested in the second tier and with Wycombe currently, they are sat in the relegation zone (albeit, working with a modest squad).
If you take a look at the names being touted for other Championship jobs, its easy to see why keeping hold of Neil could also be beneficial. Tony Pulis has just been appointed Sheffield Wednesday manager for starters, which isn’t the most attractive appointment. Valerien Ismael took over at Barnsley after manager Gerhard Struber left the club and he was sacked in his last role at LASK.
With Derby, the current favourite is John Terry with Liam Rosenior and a slew of other former players all being linked – all with barely any or no previous managerial experience. A bit further down that list is Sam Allardyce.
So, realistically, if we were to sack Alex Neil then who could we draw in as our next boss with our budget? It might not be anyone anywhere near as good and is unlikely to be anyone of the calibre of Chris Hughton or Rafa Benitez who have been touted as managers elsewhere.
Neil has proven he that he can handle managing us during the hardest times of the season and has taken us to higher positions than most of the people before him. He’s experienced both in the Premier League and in Championship promotion. Could we get anyone nearly half as experienced in charge next? Sacking him could therefore prove to be a mistake.
Could Neil have lost the dressing room?
It’s argued though that Neil may have lost the dressing room – in which case, it is definitely cause for concern. The former Norwich boss made some remarks to the Lancashire Evening Post after the defeat, which caused many to question if he still will have the backing of his team.
He stated that he didn’t let some of his players ‘get up and go after it’ after going 2-0 down last night, as he said: “I was saying you couldn’t get it well enough with 11 men, so my task sometimes is to try and protect you – I will take the all the flak for that which is normal.”
Does he not trust his players to be able to come back and win the game? Sure we were down to ten men at the time but to state that they weren’t up to it with 11 men on the field is a bit concerning. He’s right, as last night the players were poor from the start, but surely he should be trying to still instil some belief into the whole squad. A sign of his frustration perhaps?
Pay-Off for Alex
One final thing to note is that it’s unlikely he would be sacked. After signing his new deal, it means that sacking Alex Neil would result in a rather hefty compensation package – s0mething Trevor Hemmings would be very reluctant to pay, especially considering our budget.
If that is the case, then it seems that Neil will either have to walk or be offered a job elsewhere for him to eventually leave.
With all these points made both for and against Alex Neil, it’s up to you to make a decision on where you stand with Neil.
We personally stand with the current Preston boss, as his work cannot be understated. We were certainly not up to the task last night but can you blame Alex Neil for the fact we will go into the next game with no fit full-backs? Can you blame him for the fact we do not have a higher level of full-back or centre-back able to stand in when the likes of Darnell Fisher and Ben Davies are on the sidelines?
However, we would love to hear your verdict on the situation after weighing up our points in the article so be sure to get in touch via Twitter @vitalpne.