He'd lost the dressing room, which is the same problem that Ruud Gullit had, the same problem Graeme Souness had and the same problem that BSA allegedly has now.
That's surely no coincidence?
Ruud Gullit (Lee, Pearce, Shearer) and Graeme Souness (Bellamy, Robert, Jenas) actively sought to lose the dressing room. The former was after generational change and the latter was actually given a mandate by Shepherd to wield a big stick, with failure being the result.
Roeder (Luque, Luque, Luque) always carried the stigma of West Ham with him and never really got the proper support of anyone, seen as either a crap manager with too quiet a personality or Shepherd's lapdog in equal measure.
Robson on the other hand was too old and had been there too long. As soon as Kieron refused the armband in the middle of the conjunctivitis outbreak that was that - I'd like to think dropping Shearer to the bench at Villa Park (citing resting him from playing 3 games in 8 days) was a coinkydink.
I was never in favour of the appointment of Sam Allardyce, but while he's at the helm I think we should be supporting him, not sticking the boot in and making his job harder than it already is.
There's certainly merit to what you're getting at in general - he's had a bad handful of results after a promising start and that's to be expected at any club, so pulling the trigger would be madness.
But...
I cannot remember a time when there was so little light at the end of the tunnel. Even under the Souness reign, you could see he was tightening the defence and getting rid of some bad apples so there was always that hope there.
Under Roeder he had us playing some good footy, got us into Europe and always had the promise of Owen and 50000 other injured players to come back to full fitness.
But under Big Sam, in this last period, we have played ridiculously shit and with no heart, no spirit, no nothing. And it's
his signings which have been the main culprits.
Cacapa's performance against Pompey, dodgy hamstring or not.
Faye's gifting of the corner which lead to the goal at mackemland.
Alan Smith.
Geremi.
He simply can't use the excuse of inheriting a bad bunch or not getting the backing of the chairman in the transfer market.
Nevertheless. Say we'll be more positive and give him time to get over this hump. Let's assume that Duff, Owen, Martins, Viduka, Barton and Emre find their peak fitness and best form - then what?
More long balls? More anti-football?
It's simply looking like a bad fit. Unfortunately.