Thing is he's come in with a half page CV, same as Lage, and we know how that went. Plus on the day Lopetegui was clearly walking, you could have asked anyone for 20 realistic names and vanishingly few would have put O'Neil on their list.
But we as football fans don’t actually have that much knowledge. Whereas I think most of us would say Hobbs seems like he is (or at least talks a good game) so maybe with him having the option to actually speak to him and interview him he might actually have a better idea?
Half a page or not, we’ve all got to start somewhere and in his first job he’s done a very good job, way above expectations. I don’t think that’s comparable to Bruno Lage winning a league with Benfica and then being awful, and being a massive twat, where all the players hate him. GON doesn’t appear to be any of those things from when he first spoke.
We then totally emptied midfield vs Brighton and collapsed, did a bad Colin Lee impression vs Palace once it went 1-1 and lost in entirely predictable fashion, squandered a great opportunity vs Liverpool and then were objectively awful vs Luton who everyone expects to go down. Then got knocked out of the cup having been 2-0 up against a lower division team, though I don't care too much about that as I'm in the camp of wanting the League Cup to be binned.
But also I think your explanations are harsh and I could easily have it the other way or certainly offer mitigation, but that is where biases lead opinions either way. I think O’Neil was impressed with how we played against United (he’s also said that high press front foot would be his ideal way) so wanted to go toe to toe with Brighton. And tbh I think it worked, we gave away a shit goal (or moment of brilliance) and were the better team for me and were well in it against a very well coached team. The second goal is shit from Kilman, Sa and then Nunes. Nothing tactical, just abysmal play from all 3 of them one after the other. That kills the game, particularly when our players are alledgedly not fit enough (undercooked/asking too much of them? Again depends on your bias). As GFFH says though, he was still finding out about his players.
The palace game wasn’t a good look and was shit. But it doesn’t help when two of your forwards are Fabio and Sarabia. Who pretty much don’t feature now as he’s worked out they are shit. We were still well in that game and Palace weren’t exactly better. Shutting up shop in hindsight was a bad call, but he’s not the first and certainly not the last who will do that. Lopetegui did it regularly and was an almost 50/50 split whether it worked or not.
Luton was shit and he owned it. But we’d have probably come away with 3 points without a stupid red and/or a harsh penalty.
At that point we had one league win and two very tough home games to come. You could see it all coming to an end very quickly had we got a couple of batterings.
Which would be completely fair if he was actually a “PE teacher” or whatever. But Hobbs clearly didn’t think he was and could see the Green shoots, as he said as much in the interview and felt we were on the wrong side of fine margins.
The scepticism was understandable, in the heat of the moment it can go too far (I'm sure I am guilty of this at times, but it's only because I'm invested and I care) and I would agree hoping we lose a game so he goes is only the territory for the likes of Saunders/Lage who were both dreadful managers and appalling personalities. That wasn't fair or understandable to throw at O'Neil.
It was understandable. But it’s moreso fuelled as people have already made their mind up to an extent. So falling foul of fine margins and bad luck was “no he’s just shit, look he’s lost again” rather than benefit of the doubt which is what someone of other side of the argument would have given in same situation.