It had to happen, didn't it?
Already the knives are out for New Zealand Knights manager John Adshead as they struggle along at the bottom of the points table in the A-league.
With just one win from their first five games the Knights are treading a familiar path, with any hopes of
making the end-of-season playoffs virtually out of the window before their season has begun.
Just how much blame Adshead can take for the current state of affairs depends very much on who you talk to.
There are those who point to the fact that he had most of the say when team selections were made, and that he formulates the tactics.
Therefore his reputation is rightly on the line every time they take to the field.
And then there are those who say that while Adshead is the chief cook and bottle washer, it's the players who should be on the chopping block for the team's poor start.
Their job, they say, is to put the game plan into action, and if they can't do that successfully the odds are that the fault lies more at their feet, than it does at those of the manager.
Having only watched a couple of the Knights' games thus far it would be wrong of me to suggest which of those camps are right.
Perhaps a combination of both sides of the argument would provide the best answer.
What I would say though is that Adshead needs to be wary of not alienating the sporting public, or at least those who follow the Knights' fortunes on a regular basis.
After one of the recent losses he seemed to point to a run of injuries being the main catalyst for their defeats.
It's a line coaches in all sorts of sports often use, but it wears thin pretty quick.
The facts are that the Knights are a professional side whose depth should be strong enough to counter injury woes.
When you are choosing squads to play at A-League level that would surely be one of the main criterias in the selection process
And if it wasn't who should take the blame?well, in the Knights case the buck would stop with Adshead, wouldn't it.?
