Like a man who hadn't played for over a year. Couple of good stops, but also the old Forsterisms crept in. EDIT: With Gunn in goal we'd probably only lost by 1 or two. Maybe a bit harsh, but true
come in, come in, we’ve got a few players you might be interested in, goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and forwards. They’ve got experience of big games, ... not much when you play them together but in the right team they’ll do a job for you! Now make an offer, don’t be shy, we’re considering anything at the moment! ... Wait, don’t go... two for one?
That went as expected from everyone. Ralph has identified the 11 players in the squad that can do a job for him and now it’s about proving a point that the rest need to go. We were woeful, only held together by the half decent players.
Maybe he was awesome in training. I really hope that we hold on to Lemina, he generally plays forward and is willing to take players on.
Not sure we have the money to buy decent quality anyway. Unless we can get some cash for those already on loan, let alone those not up to PL standard still at SMS, where is the £50+M coming from? Because that’s what it’s going to take to improve the side enough even for mid-table next year. Some wages are going to have to be met with a lot more loans out too. Ralph I believe knows what is needed but that’s not the same as the club buying into his thinking. Some interesting board meetings coming up I think!! Reckon by end of June we will be a lot clearer on how things strategy wise will run as any later will be too late.
Shop window, remind teams he is still here? It’s a shame he didn’t decide to move on at his best he was a great keeper and could have made more of his career.
Yeah, it's his wages are going to put anyone off buying him, or even taking him on loan, unless we contribute to those wages.. Maybe Ralph wanted to see him in a competitive game, with a view to deciding if he is a better bet than McCarty as backup to Gunn. Who knows, I haven't seen the game anyway. But he was on the bench for Bournemouth, he must be doing something right in training.
Training and the pressure and public scutiny of a PL match are two separate things entirely though. I think that Ralph got his answer today. It is a shame because he was doing well until he flapped at that cross for their second goal.
As I say, can't judge Fraser's performance as I haven't seen any of today's game. But playing behind our defence could make most keepers look bad?
He wasn't helped much. Nobody came out of today with much glory. Maybe the match day buzz will peak FF's interests, maybe that was the plan?
Yeah, today was a good day to try things. Would be nice to go out on a high next week. Might help sell a few STs too.
A lot of ifs there but then again at the levels we are probably going to be paying no guarantees either
I don't think Hasenhutl is trying to prove anything. I don't want to depress you here, but I think the "clear out" has already occurred. I think Feyernoord might buy Clasie, or at least someone will. Think everyone else is coming back-- Carrillo, Boufal, Cedric, Hoedt. Harrison Reed might be useful to us, but I think there will be interest in him. So some of these players we can probably offload or loan again, but we'll have our hands full getting it all arranged. We know Austin has been told he can go. Stephens pretty much as well. So that is two more players. But I do not think we are going to get a ton of cash for these players. More likely we will just be happy to ditch some or all of their wages. I think this was a legit tryout. RH gets a chance to assess the players and decide if they go on loan, deserve a shot, or if there us someone in the academy pipeline better. And it was a chance for them to impress RH, or ar least another team. It helps us, it helps them, and I suppose it is fair reward for their service. But I do not think Ralph was just trying to show people the team stinks. I think Gao knows that. And the responsible parties are all gone. I don't think there is any objection to RH doing what he wants. The club would probably love it if RH could rebuild the team how he likes. But it won't happen. Our squad is ridiculously bloated and wages are too high. That's the first concern. Fixing that is likely a multi-year effort. So RH needs to see what these players can do because we may be stuck with what we have.
Watching yesterday’s pathetic effort, I felt sorry for our highly successful U23 players who should be given a chance to prove themselves as they can’t do any worse than Forster, Stephens, Ely, Armstrong and Long etc I know they have important games in the run in so are being rested to hopefully get promoted back to the top table but they have to be a better bet next season
