The Premier League Thread

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Really, why?

If you’re looking at it from a career perspective, it makes sense for him.

Which other PL job with a bigger club with better resources could Ralph leverage himself into from here?

The two 9-0s make him toxic to the truly big clubs but Villa have better facilities, far more financial power and a better squad than us. Plus they’d pay him far more than we ever can.

What’s the alternative? He clings on here with little to no financial support and waits for a takeover, or he runs out of time at some point and gets sacked and his stock falls dramatically.

I wouldn’t write it off.

Despite some fb specials calling for Ralph’s head recently, I think he is far more secure here and has only just finally got a full squad to utilise.

Seeing the way Villa have disposed of Smith despite having a tonne of extenuating circumstances, I think Ralph would be booted at his first poor run of form.

They are another set of fans like Newcastle and Everton who like to harp on about what a MASSIVE club they are and seem to be living on long past glories, I have already been told how much more MASSIVE they are than us and what a step up they are by an online Villa fan. Despite the fact that Saints have been the better performing club for nearly a decade.

Are their facilities actually that much better than Saints? Villa Park is a cracking ground, but I was under the impression that Staplewood is still one of the best training facilities in the country?

Ralph also appears to have a good relationship with Semmens and Crocker who give him a free hand and with Saints being up for sale our resources could have scope to improve - even if it could go the other way.

Basically I don’t think it is enough of a ‘step up’ to outweigh the career risks.
 
From BBC news : Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand is a name of interest to the club and is admired by fellow countryman, Villa's Sporting Director Johan Lange.

Hjulmand guided Denmark to the Euro 2020 semi-final, when they lost to England at Wembley, and the 49-year-old has a growing reputation.
 
Besides, Ralph definitely seems settled here. Yes a big pay rise may tempt him but we're not exactly paying him peanuts and I don't think he'd leave mid-season.
 
Despite some fb specials calling for Ralph’s head recently, I think he is far more secure here and has only just finally got a full squad to utilise.

Seeing the way Villa have disposed of Smith despite having a tonne of extenuating circumstances, I think Ralph would be booted at his first poor run of form.

They are another set of fans like Newcastle and Everton who like to harp on about what a MASSIVE club they are and seem to be living on long past glories, I have already been told how much more MASSIVE they are than us and what a step up they are by an online Villa fan. Despite the fact that Saints have been the better performing club for nearly a decade.

Are their facilities actually that much better than Saints? Villa Park is a cracking ground, but I was under the impression that Staplewood is still one of the best training facilities in the country?

Ralph also appears to have a good relationship with Semmens and Crocker who give him a free hand and with Saints being up for sale our resources could have scope to improve - even if it could go the other way.

Basically I don’t think it is enough of a ‘step up’ to outweigh the career risks.
On their forum someone was questioning why they couldn’t bring in an elite manager like everton did with Carlo and said something like “and we aren’t smaller than Everton”

Like mentioned - their fans are obsessed with how massive their club apparently is
 
Besides, Ralph definitely seems settled here. Yes a big pay rise may tempt him but we're not exactly paying him peanuts and I don't think he'd leave mid-season.

Anyone any idea how much he is on ?

Someone posted here ages ago it was £6 million , pa , or total contract ?
 
West Ham were rightly given the goal (never a foul), but I think they've been fortunate over that tackle. Could easily have been a red.
 
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West Ham were rightly given the goal (never a foul), but I think they've been fortunate over that tackle. Could easily have been a red.
That's my view as well. Not enough evidence to disallow that goal but Cresswell can count himself lucky.
 
It does though highlight something about VAR which I would like to change (and it's not the only thing!).

The referee neither gave a FK nor a card. VAR looked at it, and decided it wasn't a clear and obvious error to warrant a red card. OK. But why shouldn't the VAR be able to recommend a yellow and a FK? You wouldn't necessarily need to add any additional time onto the review by requiring the referee to look at the monitor card - for a lesser offence such as yellow, the referee could just accept the VAR's word.

That isn't me saying that VAR should be used to review FKs or first yellow cards (being able to review second yellows though is a different point). That's me saying that as part of VAR reviewing a red card, why shouldn't the VAR have the option to recommend a yellow card? The referee at the monitor is allowed to retrospectively give a yellow, but that first requires the incident to be significant enough to send the referee over there. So why shouldn't the VAR be able to?
 
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On their forum someone was questioning why they couldn’t bring in an elite manager like everton did with Carlo and said something like “and we aren’t smaller than Everton”

Like mentioned - their fans are obsessed with how massive their club apparently is

Both similar sized clubs Villa and Everton, not massive, but big; a size up from perfectly formed (us)