Absolutely it’s not just about the manager, Ralph was dealt a poor hand. But unless they’re going to back him heavily we need to replace with a more versatile, pragmatic manager.
Yep of if course it isnt only about the manager, but he seems to be more of the problem just now. Think Libs said about backing him in summer, if so, then yeah let’s see what we do, but he wont have many games next season to prove he can turn this around. Id suggest he has about 7 games, and if we dont win in the first 5 i think he may go.
I see little point in giving the current manager the first six games of next season to see how the team is after the summer's recruitment. Either part ways now or back him.through thick and thin. By the way, I have not voted in this poll because I feel emotionally detatched from the club at the moment and have done for a few seasons so it is not for me to say.
Yeah that’s a real dilemma now. Tough decision for owners as there will be some investment in summer & if Ralph has an axe hanging over him, it might not be right to keep? Just heard Ralph’s post match & saying we need a performance in next 2 games. Bafflingly. Yesterday would have helped enormously.
This is the problem, not Ralph. We literally get worse every transfer window, and we were already bad.
I will be objective and say "out" as it appears he needs a new challenge and environment to work in, whilst SFC need an infusión of fresh ideas and faces on the playing side, and I don't think the club needs to go on a mega splurge either.
Probably rehashing something I have already said, but I would like him to have this summer under Sport Republic and see what he can do. Then give him until the World Cup break to show significant improvement. His stock has definitely gone down with me over this run, but I am still mindful that we are just about still better than when he arrived which given the resources he has been allocated is still a reasonable achievement. Regardless though I actually feel a 'mutual termination' scenario at the end of the season is now probably likely unless we get 4+ points from Liverpool and Leicester. I base this on nothing, but the fans vocally turning on Ralph in the stadium is a big turning point and I can't imagine he is overly thrilled with what is going on here at the moment either.
Yep. When you see this, you can clearly see any manager would struggle. Even newly promoted sides spent double what we have. Lol.
This is it. The squad is so bad and underfunded that Walcott and Long were looked at as necessary squad components but “we must be doing better”? It doesn’t make sense. The slow bleed that we’ve been going through under Gao would have killed us eventually. Pep Guardiola is a great manager, sure, but he’s a great manager who can spend £100m on spare parts for his team. There’s no comparison. We’re a small club who have had to financially break even just to keep loans at bay and survive. We play against sovereign oil funds, shady billionaires looking for sportwashing and teams who pay ludicrously low rent rates for enormous stadia. We won’t pay more than £15m for a player as it’s not viable and City have a squad costing £1b. Newcastle were able to buy a player for more than we’d pay, largely to annoy a rival team! The league is stretched so that 10th-17th is virtually indistinguishable from each other so, yeah, frankly a lot of this doesn’t really matter. We have to give him more time now. We’ll have planned for the summer based on having him leading the team, this is the first proper, planned for, post-Gao window. I’d get it if the owners decided to break now, but I don’t think they will and he’ll have the start of next season. This whole division and sport is largely pointless for a huge number of us but we still follow because we’re all insane! This is the game and we’re not going to stop, are we?
This is also it for me, if you combine our spend with our general reputation (so not a Liverpool who are low on the list but players would still go to) then it’s not surprising at all that we have been poor. Having slept on it I’m still on the fence. I think he has done well just to keep us up the last few years with so little money in comparison to the rest of the league. If we are looking to spend a lot (for us) this summer then I think he has earnt the right to be involved in that, plus his signings in general have been good. But him leaving at the end of next season, the fact that so many who do want him to stay are saying stuff like “give him 6/7/10 games next year and make a decision” makes me think that if we are going to spend big then why bother letting a manager who is on the verge of being sacked have influence on who that is spent on? Just bring in a new guy and give him the money to build his squad. I think I’m leaning more towards the out camp in that scenario but not hugely. If we lose the next two it won’t really change anything for me, though if we do go down then he will obviously go. If we don’t have money and are going to operate as we are then I’d be more in favour of him staying as he he proven that he can keep the team up with limited funds. Kick the can down the road so to speak and let him keep us up next year for the lovely PL money we won’t spend and worry about who his replacement will be this time next year
What a ridiculously detailed bit of statistical forecasting that is! I think I'm going to spend a fair bit of time reading through that site later on.
Since the U18s just won the league, some would say that is happening. My beef is that with 2 players in each position for the first team squad, how on earth are youngster supposed to break in?
I personally think the argument has slightly moved on from net spend and league position and consistency. That has been the focus for over a year, and most people come down on the side of defending Ralph (myself included). He cannot be blamed for the lack of money to spend. His hands have been tied. But regardless of whether we're 6th or 20th, it can't be ignored that in the past two months we've played Newcastle, Watford, Palace, Leeds, Brighton, Burnley and Brentford, and taken a total of two points. That's not cherry picking the bad matches - that is selecting every single match we've played for exactly two matches, against teams outside of the current top four. Two points. Six goals scored. 14 goals conceded. Being behind in all seven games. Only once being in front (which only lasted about seven minutes). That is horrendous form for any manager, regardless of resources. Their position will inevitably come under question, and even more so when they are someone who has been in charge for well over three years (a pretty long time for the average manager) and has experienced a recent change of ownership (they weren't the new owners appointment). If those results had been sprinkled throughout the season - as indeed they have been throughout Ralph's time here - I think the debate would still be about net spend and league position and consistency. But when they're clumped all together, that is much worse and does alter the debate. (You could extend it and throw Villa in there too, because at the time they were below us and struggling a little. But I see them as significantly better than us, and so see little wrong with losing to them. Hence I've left them out.)
