Rafa and Steve Bruce appreciation

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Heard a very tenuous rumour last night that we've approached Rafa to be DOF. Overseeing the academy, transfers and overall direction of the club. If Howe is sacked Rafa would already be in place to takeover as manager too. Seems to be a power play to stop Rafa going elsewhere.

Personally I think that would be a mistake if true and would show the lack of footballing knowledge and experience of the new owners. Apart from it being a backward step, it would be the worst possible role for Rafa. I'm not keen on him coming back as manager as I believe his football is outdated and definitely boring. However, Rafa is a manager/coach. He isn't a DOF. His record in recruitment is very poor. No idea how he would get on with the academy, though he would probably be an improvement on what is in place for that.
 
Personally I think that would be a mistake if true and would show the lack of footballing knowledge and experience of the new owners. Apart from it being a backward step, it would be the worst possible role for Rafa. I'm not keen on him coming back as manager as I believe his football is outdated and definitely boring. However, Rafa is a manager/coach. He isn't a DOF. His record in recruitment is very poor. No idea how he would get on with the academy, though he would probably be an improvement on what is in place for that.

Yeah I'm not sure how true it is.

I will say though, everyone we've approached to be DOF has turned us down.

Maybe they're looking at Man Utd and see Rafa as a Rangnick type. Oversee the vision of the club and if he needs to, step in to be manager at short notice.

I'm not sure if Rafa will go for it. He was approached to be Napoli's DOF in the summer and turned it down saying the DOF role is for retired managers. He said he want to manage until he's 70, then manage a national team.

Plus he's also already overseeing Dalians academy as an ambassador there.
 
Yeah I'm not sure how true it is.

I will say though, everyone we've approached to be DOF has turned us down.

Maybe they're looking at Man Utd and see Rafa as a Rangnick type. Oversee the vision of the club and if he needs to, step in to be manager at short notice.

I'm not sure if Rafa will go for it. He was approached to be Napoli's DOF in the summer and turned it down saying the DOF role is for retired managers. He said he want to manage until he's 70, then manage a national team.

Plus he's also already overseeing Dalians academy as an ambassador there.

I agree that I can't see it as being an attractive offer to Rafa. It doesn't play to his strengths - which are all based around coaching and setting up a team with a very defensive outlook. I would hope that any manager we have in place would build a team to be attacking and exciting. The prospect of him stepping in as a caretaker between those managers would not be a good one as he would be trying to get the best out of players who have been coached to be the opposite of what he likes players to be. It would be a recipe for disaster on both sides.
 
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Heard a very tenuous rumour last night that we've approached Rafa to be DOF. Overseeing the academy, transfers and overall direction of the club. If Howe is sacked Rafa would already be in place to takeover as manager too. Seems to be a power play to stop Rafa going elsewhere.


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Yeah I'm not sure how true it is.

I will say though, everyone we've approached to be DOF has turned us down.

Maybe they're looking at Man Utd and see Rafa as a Rangnick type. Oversee the vision of the club and if he needs to, step in to be manager at short notice.

I'm not sure if Rafa will go for it. He was approached to be Napoli's DOF in the summer and turned it down saying the DOF role is for retired managers. He said he want to manage until he's 70, then manage a national team.

Plus he's also already overseeing Dalians academy as an ambassador there.


Or as I've tried explaining several times that there's potentially two very different business plans depending on what league the club is in next season.

Thd DOF will be employed based on that outcome... Pool A and pool B
 
AFTER 3 MONTHS!!!!

Ranieri was only at Watford for 3 months and had a similar level to Howe. They acted because they feel the threat of relegation.

How many more games can we give Howe to lose or grind out a draw. Banking on buying him players that he doesn't want isn't going to save us.

We're 18th, Burnley have 3 games still in hand, Watford have 1. We could very easily be bottom of the table after those games.

We still have Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Leicester to play. With a few slippery games in between with West Ham, Brighton etc.
 
Ranieri was only at Watford for 3 months and had a similar level to Howe. They acted because they feel the threat of relegation.

How many more games can we give Howe to lose or grind out a draw. Banking on buying him players that he doesn't want isn't going to save us.

We're 18th, Burnley have 3 games still in hand, Watford have 1. We could very easily be bottom of the table after those games.

We still have Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Leicester to play. With a few slippery games in between with West Ham, Brighton etc.

We give him longer than 3 months. Context is everything. You take into account what he took over, whether there are signs of improvement and the level of squad he is being forced to use.

Ranieri showed no signs of improvement on what had gone before. That isn't the case with Howe.
 
We give him longer than 3 months. Context is everything. You take into account what he took over, whether there are signs of improvement and the level of squad he is being forced to use.

Ranieri showed no signs of improvement on what had gone before. That isn't the case with Howe.

Bruce 8 matches 3 draws. 5 losses. 2nd round EFL Cup.
Jones 3 matches 2 draws.
Howe 10 matches 4 draws, 2 wins, 4 losses. 3rd round FA Cup.

Matches got postponed so Howe had nearly 3 weeks to prepare for Watford and Leeds. Watford, we threw a win away and got lucky against Leeds.

Everton and Villa next, could go either way. Howe will be looking for a draw.
 
Bruce did aswel as rafa there's no getting away from it

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What you're saying is, after Bruce spent a **** tonne more money, we had less possession, conceded **** loads more goals and chose to forget that season that we won the championship.
 
What you're saying is, after Bruce spent a **** tonne more money, we had less possession, conceded **** loads more goals and chose to forget that season that we won the championship.


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