yeh ive never understood how eric black was some sort of messiah to city fans
Because...
1. the average points per game went from 1.2 under McAllister to 1.6 under Black
2. the league win percentage went from 26% under McAllister to 50% under Black
3. the average goals scored per game went from 1.1 to 1.88
4. we scored three goals or more in a third of all Black's games
5. the average point total under Black is playoff calibre the majority of years
6. the average goal difference would have resulted in +33 over the course of a season
And he did all this with a less-than-stellar squad playing some really exciting football. I wouldn't bet on us finding another manager who has that kind of impact on the side anytime soon.
I can understand the 'new manager effect', but this wasn't merely scraping out a few extra initial wins because of added gut-busting effort to impress the new gaffer. Make no mistake about it - it was a total turnaround over a period of 18 league games, and we were really giving a hiding to other teams.
We go from manager to manager looking for that magic touch, and when we finally found the guy he was sacked for being 'inconsistent'. We do need to move on from Black, but it's a huge mistake to dismiss what he achieved and what we lost.