Why though? Why our club? I'll put a positive spin on it (through gritted teeth) and pretend SR think they've uncovered a diamond. Why is our club prepared to be the test bed for an experiment when our PL survival is on the line? Why not go for an accomplished PL/European manager? Why set the bar so low? Hope is never a good tactical plan, and this whole buy as cheap as we possibly can hoping they'll do well experiment is getting a bit ****ing boring to be honest. It's sad how far we've fallen in only 5 years. We had potential to really build on being a top 10 club. Now we're scraping around tin pot championship clubs hoping for the best. The guy failed at Stoke ffs
We also lost to Inter away and went out in the group stage. Massive, massive club. We also went unbeaten against City LAST SEASON and were touted as one of the most exciting sides in the league. There are positives with every era but you would do well to try find them now not 5 years after the fact. It's better for you.
He talked a lot about taking a real learning experience from his time at Stoke. So I'd like to think he would only agree if he thinks our players can fit that style rather than risk the same thing again. Also it seems like Stoke were / are a bit of a basket case of a club. Players on big PL wages not performing among other things Someone posted earlier about Delap under performing there being a "separate" issue. But maybe it isn't? We were going big for him on a permanent. Now maybe we were completely wrong on scouting - but our other signings don't seem to suggest that. So how has he suddenly become someone who can't even perform in the Championship. It's an intriguing one
I think Lavia will go. Belgium haven't got an abundance of DMs and Martinez has been really impressed with him unsurprisingly.
People will probably say (at least) those last two about Ralph. The Athletic hit piece seem to suggest as much - from some mystery player sources no less. But that doesn't seem to be true and potentially isn't here either
I'm not saying we're a massive massive club. I'm saying we're bigger than shopping for managers at Luton Town and should be showing ambition There is no positive to this
He's exactly what they need at DM, and as someone who has a vested interest in Belgium not doing well in the group stage, I'd prefer that they not figure that out.
It’s at times like this that I am glad that I don’t know much about the managers that may or may not be available to replace Ralph. It means that I can just sit back and let the guys who invested money in the club pick the person they want without fretting about whether or not he is well enough qualified to do the job. I knew nothing about Adkins and Pochettino yet both impressed me and moved the club forward. I knew nothing about Ralph and it initially looked as if he would take us to the next level, but it didn’t work out despite a promising start. I know we are all different but at the end of the day, for me, it’s just a ****ing game, a hobby. I have more important things to get upset about or get dragged into arguments about. I would prefer us to stay up but if we don’t, then so be it. And if we do go down? 8 extra league games to watch and we might even win some.
I'm a bit miffed that many are effectively writing Jones off on the basis of a poor spell at Stoke and the fact that he's deemed the cheap option because he's coming from little-ol Luton. Well, I remember people bemoaning that we took on Strachan after he failed at Coventry. I remember people bemoaning Poch because they'd never heard of him and he was replacing our beloved Adkins. Perhaps there's a reason we're here talking about these things rather than being involved in them and that is that we don't really know enough to make the informed decisions. Nor do our peers on the Stoke board or the Luton board. This may go very wrong but until it does, I'll give our board, management team and owners the benefit of the doubt and hope that Jones gets us up and running again.
At least Strachan played at the top level. When Jones steps foot inside St Mary’s it will be the first time he enters a premier league ground. Poch was an Argentina international and highly rated. Almost everyone said “he looks good” but was just upset about the treatment of Adkins. This appointment is nothing like any of those imo. This is literally straight out of the Rupert Lowe era
I remember being pretty shell shocked when we replaced Adkins. Didn't it come after a relatively positive result?
I've read a few snippets today about Nathan Jones, and quite a few seem to suggest he's mad as a box of frogs and doesn't try to hide it. That'll do for me. I'm fed up with normal.
So that will be the manager and one squad player in central defence. What we really need is a goal keeper who is mad as a box of frogs. I put forward the motion that Bazunu spend as much time as possible with Lyanco and Jones.
You could apply the same logic to Poch and he could barely speak English at the time. Some football clubs have moved on from hiring people just because they once played at the highest level (Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard are three of the finest players this country has ever had yet I doubt they'll ever go down as great managers)
Weren't we also pretty much performing to par when it happened? It was rather odd timing. But ultimately the right choice. It is amusing to wonder what Cortese would have done over the past few years. Although there was no money so probably not a whole lot different. But post SR...(trying to picture Cortese and Ankersen in the same board room is something I just can't see!)
Only on the Premier League front. Poch had played in a world cup. Never quite at the very top level club wise though (PSG pre domination days was the top)
Or go for a quick stay with Artur Boruc to pick up a few oddities of behaviour. Laura b (I think that was her name) will let him know he's needed, as I said her name into a mirror 3 times and she only needed someone to mention Boruc to make her pop up.
