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Almost every day brings a new candidate for my job. David Moyes, Rafa Benitez, Marcelo Bielsa, Steve McClaren, Slaven Bilic, Eddie Howe, Gus Poyet — all have been mentioned at some time or other in the last few weeks and I am sure there will be a few more before the final whistle sounds on the season.
As far as I am aware it remains just speculation — nothing more. Does it affect me? I can’t let it. Does it worry me? Not especially because it is out of my control. All I can do is continue to do my job to the best of my ability and then — what will be, will be.
Of course the players and even more importantly the staff will be seeing and hearing the speculation and they will be wondering what the situation is. It’s a position I’ve been in before at West Ham so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
There is no doubt, though, that our poor run of results has fuelled the fire and increased all the speculation.
Let’s be honest here — if we had started the season with a similar bad run, I wouldn’t be here now — I would have been sacked. That’s fact.
We didn’t, though. We might have begun a little slowly but when we hit our stride, we were magnificent.
Even now — and with the defeat at Leicester still hurting — the performances are good but we haven’t been able to sustain that early level.
There’s two reasons for that. Firstly, injuries in groups, especially up front and at the heart of our defence, and, secondly, some players finding life difficult through Christmas and New Year because of fatigue. Injuries to all our strikers at various times have robbed us of the free-scoring ability we had in the first half of the season. Diafra Sakho, Enner Velencia and Andy Carroll all had periods out and that can be crucial.
We’ve not just had injury problems with the strikers but also James Tomkins and Winston Reid sidelined as well. When Liverpool are without Martin Skrtel and Daniel Sturridge, they don’t look the same team. That’s fact.
Despite all that, our performances have been really good and that, from the first day I arrived, is what some people tell me is so important to them.
I’ve been told since 2011 that performances are, if not as important, then almost as important as results. If that is true, surely there can be no complaints with what we’ve done this season. Surely no one can complain about the performance at Leicester for example — we had more than enough chances to win that game but we lost 2-1.
I have to live in the real world in this job. Reality, not perception. Yes, performances have been impressive but that’s not good enough when you are not winning.
I’m looking for a combination of the two, results and performances for what remains of this season. Let’s not forget, though, what we have achieved. We’ve beaten Manchester City, Liverpool, we’ve drawn with Manchester United and Tottenham. Against Arsenal, we out-passed them — the first time that’s happened to a team managed by me in 11 years. Did that make any difference? No, because we lost.
The bottom line regarding my future is that it is not my place to go and demand anything. It is the owners’ prerogative and responsibility to do what they want to do and when they want to do it. If the players are affected there’s not a lot I can do about that until it gets resolved but, in the meantime, I’m doing the job I’m paid to do.
All I can say to the players is: “If you want me here, winning football matches always helps.”
It is important now that we end the season with more than 46 points — the best we’ve managed since we got back into the Premier League — and finish as high as we can. We also have to learn lessons from this season. We have to have a bigger and better squad and try and create an environment which minimises our injuries. That is critical.
To be frank, we need a few more Aaron Cresswells, players who have the reputation of staying fit and playing a full season. If you have five or six of them, you have stability followed by consistency and that means you have a much better chance of maintaining that high position in the table because you are able to pick your best team more often.
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