which proves the point re the Diers and Sanchez’s of the world they are happy and comfortable chasing 4th spot maximum hence why they still here
As I have said several times, professional sports support has a significant tribal dimension. Which means the "producer" is not subject to the full brutality of "market forces" (specifically in the case of providing an inferior product/service) .
Having the money is akin to having a pile of wet mud. The bigger the pile, the more chance there is that a significant amount that you throw will stick to the wall. I contend that Spurs over the past decade, if having a sizeable % of all the mud the above had to hand, would have made a lot more of it stick than said clubs have.
Several of those Newcastle players left to chase fourth spot maximum Sissoko and Wijnaldum, for two...
I have wondered if the plan was to have Stellini in charge as Mason shadows him, so he can get to grips with the longterm plan of taking over as manager without fans on his back if things go wrong Something he could do last time he was drafted in unimpeded due to crowds not being in the grounds at the time
Long term? I can't see him being in charge beyond the end of the season. It'll be for the next 6 games only surely. You'll still have European footy next season. There are some decent managers available. If Levy's prepared to give them what they want to recruit well then go for one of them.
It has seemed for a while that we are positioning Mason to be our future manager, not least the way he's steadily progressed through various youth team roles and became a first team coach last season while also working on his various coaching badges
Stellini has to take some responsibility for that clusterfuck of an omnishambles yesterday. His tactical decisions undoubtedly were clearly ill advised. However.... for a PL (allegedly CL ) level group of players to lose 5 goals in 20 minutes is on them primarily. From 1 to 11 - possibly Kane excluded - they are the root cause. Wrong attitude, spineless, useless. One or all of these is the best description of this shower. And no new manager, be that Nagelsmann, Poch or even Harry, will make tuppence worth of difference. Time for a root and branch clear out at the top end and start building on the younger talent coming through.
They were horrendous on Sunday. But I respectfully disagree that no new manager can get a tune out of them. In fact one thing that seems to happen often is how a new manager can get a previously underperforming group to perform better. The trouble with Stellini is that he was effectively not a new manager. Look at the improvement in Villa for example. Plus the injuries don't help. No I'm not making excuses, it's a fact that if the whole squad was available the situation wouldn't look quite as bad.
I think leaving Stellini in charge was the club saying that they thought the approach on the pitch was fine, just that the position of the man leading it had become untenable. Since Conte left I do have some sympathy as even if Stellini and Mason wanted to change formations they haven’t had the personnel to do that effectively. That said, the Sunday performance was as bad as I have seen. The players didn’t seem to understand the spacing in 433 and Newcastle just had so much space and time. A proper break from Conte’s coaching team might produce different results than what we’re seeing but that will require the club to admit they’ve made a mistake, which is about as likely as me seeing a pig fly past the window.
You may be right, but frankly, I am so past caring whether many of this group should be given yet another 'chance' to turn a corner. Yes, we have lost a few key players to injury, but all squads get injuries. Have we really suffered worse than most other PL sides? Equally, we haven't helped ourselves by having a worse disciplinary record than 66% of the league. Suspensions hardly improve continuity of performance.
Our injury numbers haven't been bad overall, but they've come at bad times and been concentrated. Losing anyone that could play left-back or left centre-half and two ball-carrying midfielders, for example. Davies, Lenglet, Sessegnon and Emerson at the same time leaves us very limited. Bentancur and Bissouma together has a similar effect. Our disciplinary record hasn't been that bad, has it? Moura getting a straight red might not have helped, admittedly.
2 reds and 61 yellow I think. Brighton for example 0 red and 40 yellow. Spammers even less and they've been in a relegation struggle for half a season. Agree re injuries to specific positions, but if you continue to play players out of position anyway it rather negates the argument!
Well this is the group of players that not so long ago *deservedly* beat the likely PL champions this season. So that suggests they have a good performance in them if a manager can eek it out. Now if people say that these players don't deserve success because of their current performances and attitude I can really understand it, but that is kind of [insert cliche of biting off nose etc], because surely we want our club to succeed, and this means the players succeeding whether you like it [them] or not.
From the "Squad performance watch" stats, the total yellow/red cards this season does not appear to be significant, However the distribution of cards across the squad is not recorded, so perhaps the total games missed due to suspension has increased quite a bit.
I don't think it has, as it's something that I include in these threads. Romero missed the Leicester game because he was sent off late against City. Moura's missed the last three, but he doesn't start anyway. I think that's it. Plenty of injury absences, but I don't even think we picked up any 5 or 10 yellow bans.
