Hollins?
The eighties was like we sold our soul to the devil for our initial success then for us to be thrown back to the hell that was the 4th division and we were even close to being wound up. Thanks to "He's fat, he's round, he cheques bounce all around! Dougy Sharpe, Dougy Sharpe." Who I have mixed feelings for: I thank him for saving the club, but loathe him for using the club to fund his Spanish Villa collection :-( Back to the point though, Hollins has turned a bottom of the table Swans side into a promotion chasing team, which takes good man management, but some would say including myself that he doesn't shout at the players. Many a game last season we had an awful first half, and you'd expect the team geed up for the start of the 2nd half after a right rollicking, but know they come out tamer and often we were lucky to get a result. Another is his tactical awareness, twice last season we have been caught out by Hollins subbing Watkin or Alsop for a midfielder only for us to go let in an equaliser then lose the game. Don't get me wrong I like Hollins I've met him and he's a really nice person, but maybe that is his fault. In the days of the once arc angel Burrows who turned out to be the arch angel Satan, we knew him as a George Graham type character he did little for the PR of the team but he got the job done, and did it well. He scared the shit out of the players and we got the results. Another criticism is the fact he won't force the Ming's the Merciless at Silver Shield into some investment in new players. This post season has only brought in Super Johnny Cornforth on trial basis is a worrying fact, every team knows to break our attacks down is to double team Alsop, we got away with it the first half of the season, but teams wised up and we found it difficult to score in the 2nd half of the season. We need a new striker, a recognised striker to push our campaign. Ever since a kid down on the front of the North Bank I can't remember one of our strikers, scoring 20+ in a season. Saying all this he has done a decent job so far, far better than Alan Cork and in my view better than an over-rated Jan Molby. But is Hollins the next Messiah I'm afraid the jury is still out. Extra We'll it's now July 2000, and Hollins got us promoted out of this hell whole of a division as Champions. It looks like we've kept Bound, lost Alsop (no big deal there). His tactical awareness still looks shody, but he's improving. We may make a Messiah of him Yet ;o)