Whatever view any of us hold as to whether Dalglish should have been appointed permanently or not, I think most of us would agree that to change manager mid-season would not be the most sensible thing to do.
Having had such a large turnover of players in the Summer a season of stability, especially after the last few years, has to be paramount.
I think the board certainly needs a 'football' appointment to it as that is the most glaring omission at the moment.
I think we need to give 'everything' a season and then review it then. The addition of a striker in January, always supposing it's the correct one, should go some way to solving the goal scoring problem, and the addition of cover for Lucas to tighten things up further defensively wouldn't be a bad thing.
Players like Downing, who certainly has been disappointing overall, need to be worked with, as he in particular has shown more at previous clubs than he has done so far with us. He needs to work more on his composure and decision making when faced with a goal scoring opportunity.
Yes, it's going to be tough to make fourth (any higher is just wishful thinking), and we need to start matching or bettering Arsenal and Chelsea's results consistantly, between now and the end of the season. Lucky for us, both are still in the CL, and that could hopefully prove a distraction if they can both make it through the first knockout round. Spurs are going to need to collapse if they're to be pulled back into the race.
It's frustrating when you think a single goal would have been the difference maker in so many games and could have had us sitting nicely ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea and putting Spurs under huge pressure.
I think it would be unwise to think of a big clearout either now or in the Summer. The one thing Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea have over us is that their squads, and even more importantly their obvious first 11, have been together collectively longer than ours.
We need to hold our nerve until May and not let disappointments make us impatient and rash in what we are wanting.
I can't see the owners evening thinking about pulling any triggers until the end of the season, when everything will be viewed in it's entirety and within the context of individual events which have occurred throughout the whole season.
One thing is for certain though. Our next striker purchase needs to be better thought out than our last one, especially within the context of our style of play / or the direction in which we wih to develop our style of play.