Has there been a woman manager of a men’s team? I assume there must have been somewhere but probably not in the English football league. I wonder who (if anyone) will try it first Thing is - I’d expect it would get backlash from all sides
Have to admit my post was a bit tongue in cheek also thought the thread needed a bump considering the transfer window activity. There have been and currently are a number of woman managers. https://footbalists.wordpress.com/2020/08/18/top-10-female-managers-of-mens-football-teams/ https://www.wsc.co.uk/stories/14206...gers-breaking-down-football-s-gender-barriers I'm all in favour of selecting the best suited candidate irrespective of gender and have done so when being part of the recruitment process.
Didn't Clermont (in Ligue 2) have a woman as manager for a couple of seasons? Might have even been longer.
So... Those who are in the Ralph in camp, do you feel that in this window he's been backed? (Providing we don't sell any of our big players)
One acid test for me. If he starts McCarthy over Bazanu at Spurs then I’m immediately Ralph out as would lose all faith in his decision making
Not if the window were to end today, no. The 2 main positions we are weak are 10 and up front, so far we have replaced Broja with Mara and lost Long, we haven't added a 10. If we stop here I think we get relegated, but from the noise coming out of the club we will address these positions. In which case I'd say Ralph has been fully backed and needs to deliver, although I do have concerns about the lack of experience of these new recruits - will be interesting to see if the remaining transfers will all be for youth players.
Yes, of course he's been backed the number of signings bear that out. I'll let the season unfold and see how the new signings perform. Ralph has my support irrespective of player sales, he kept us up with little in the way of support from the previous regime.
Not sure about relegation. I'd say we're looking at 15th or so if we stopped here. But it's all academic because we're going to sign more players.
We are playing a different system but by 10 I assume you mean AM and Aribo played in that position (among others) for Rangers.
For a number 10 and striker we are not going to be signing experienced players - unless they are very experienced in lesser leagues. Those positions are expensive to recruit for in general. And especially when experience is involved But I guess it depends on your definition of experienced. There is obviously a scale from “youth football only” (like Delap) to multiple seasons in the premier league. We won’t be going for the latter. But as to whether we think it is worth the premium for one season for example - time will tell. The rumour that Dennis is lower down our priority list suggests want to avoid a PL premium for only one season. But it is only one example and a rumour
That depends on whether the players brought in were who Ralph wanted or he was told "this is our budget, get your 5,6,7 players out of that". It's not as if he's getting well established players. The club has certainly spent money but there was a need for a drastic overhaul requiring a lot of new players. Could still be a difficult season ahead getting the new faces to gel.
Yeah I think so, though I also think this season is a transitional one. 12-14th and I think he’s done a decent job.
Unless Sekou hits the ground running and is a PL natural I see us finishing 14-17 next season. Our signings are exciting and we could have an incredible team, but there’s 6 new players to bed in and no PL experience between the lot of them.
We are buying the players that suit our model and with which our managers will need to achieve some success and that includes the Ralph This is a transition season due to the amount of change, but we must show improvement. It may take a few games but I’m expecting signs of improvement turning into more points and us competing with mid table teams If we are flirting with relegation after the break then Ralph’s at risk This still depends on us getting another striker as we don’t have enough goals in the team yet Previously we were penny pinching so this is Ralph’s moment of truth I look forward to asking the Ralph-doubters whether he’s proved himself in January ... ... hopefully
Our major Achilles heel under Ralph has been burnout, both over 90 minutes and towards the end of the season. We now have a bigger squad, 5 subs, and a 6 week mid-season break. We should be aiming for 46+ points at a bare minimum, and top half is not an unreasonable expectation.
Is it really a transition season though? We haven't sold anyone, and it is fairly standard for most teams in the league to be starting each new season with 3 or 4 new players in their team. I don't actually think - Bazunu aside - any of the new signings deserve to be starting against Spurs (maybe Aribo, and of course hopefully Mara if he plays well against Villarreal). Obviously I expect them all to play an increasingly important role as the season goes on, but it's not like we have an entirely new first team that needs to get to know each other. This isn't 14/15 again when we'd just lost Lambert, Lallana, Lovren, Shaw and J-Rod (to injury). That was a proper transition season.
But our first team last year is pretty bad for this level, and it’s got worse, so if you don’t think we have bought players to go immediately into it then surely we will initially struggle whilst the new players get up to speed and break into the team? Isn’t that pretty much the definition of transition season? Replacing a lot of previous first team players whilst allowing new signings to settle?
