I agree with Simon's comment re what the club is more likely to do. As a penance for what he did to the club last December, Schumacher may have to be patient - he can afford it after all. The question is, how far will the club let this continue, if new players and returns from injury don't improve results? However much they don't want to lose face and sack Rooney at this stage, relegation would be an even bigger blow. Last year showed us that teams who looked adrift - QPR and Wednesday - were able to haul themselves up the table with a new manager in charge. We may find ourselves in that situation come February/March. The table is still incredibly tight and I don't think the teams around us have shown much consistency. So I'm preparing myself for the Rooney show to continue until the end of January at least.
Adam - I hear your pain and sympathise with your point of view but I just don’t see either Rooney being sacked or Schumacher replacing him. The club have effectively decided to back Rooney come what may and have brought in Phelan to provide mentoring support. They will cling to the idea that the injury crisis is the reason for our downturn in form and with the new investment arriving, will spend money in the transfer window to provide more squad depth. Whether this works or not is very debatable, but sacking Rooney is just going to be too big a loss of face, especially after what happened with Foster.
I agree with Simon's comment re what the club is more likely to do. As a penance for what he did to the club last December, Schumacher may have to be patient - he can afford it after all. The question is, how far will the club let this continue, if new players and returns from injury don't improve results? However much they don't want to lose face and sack Rooney at this stage, relegation would be an even bigger blow. Last year showed us that teams who looked adrift - QPR and Wednesday - were able to haul themselves up the table with a new manager in charge. We may find ourselves in that situation come February/March. The table is still incredibly tight and I don't think the teams around us have shown much consistency. So I'm preparing myself for the Rooney show to continue until the end of January at least.
Adam - I hear your pain and sympathise with your point of view but I just don’t see either Rooney being sacked or Schumacher replacing him. The club have effectively decided to back Rooney come what may and have brought in Phelan to provide mentoring support. They will cling to the idea that the injury crisis is the reason for our downturn in form and with the new investment arriving, will spend money in the transfer window to provide more squad depth. Whether this works or not is very debatable, but sacking Rooney is just going to be too big a loss of face, especially after what happened with Foster.