Debatable. He kept us ticking over with limited investment, but some of the decision making was questionable. Albeit not as bad as Ankersens.
Yeah people act like Hassenhuttl keeping us in the Prem was akin to winning the Champions League or something. But look at Bournemouth right now. That squad is not as good as the squad Ralph had, and yet they're doing fine. Is O'Neil some sort of tactical genius then? Making sure a squad of largely average Premier League players aren't one of the worst three performing teams, is hardly all that to shout about. Loved Ralph for a while, but his football became f*cking horrific to watch for the most part of his final two years here. We all know the pattern; lots of energy and pressing in the first half, score a goal but fail to push on and get another, come out second half absolutely knackered and chasing shadows, and ultimately give away two soft goals and lose the game. That's what I remember of Ralph. Let's not romanticise his time here for f*ck's sake just because Jones and Selles are somehow even worse.
One thing worth noting, when we say that Selles is just Jones in a polo neck. He didn’t have the absolute luxury of a faux pre season, and the actual facts here are - Points per game - Selles - 0.82 Jones - 0.38 Selles is not at all the answer, and he’s doing some mad stuff, but he’s not as awful as the other one. In fact, he’s more than twice as good.
Oh I'm by no means saying Selles is good, but if we're talking league, he's not in the same ballpark of ****e as Jones.
I think Selles has added some structure and a game plan. The style might be ****e, but it looks like the players have some idea of what they are trying to do at least, even if it looks like the wrong thing most of the time. When we played under Jones it just looked like total chaos, I assume there was a game plan but I certainly couldn’t tell what it was and the players looked totally lost all the time. Unfortunately I think that says more about just how bad Jones was, than anything about Selles capability.
Jones should have done better with his fixtures, of that there is no doubt. But of the eight teams he played, it includes all five sides who are currently 6th to 10th. The 11 matches which Selles has had, yes four of them were against the current top five (with the remaining one of those sides to come later today), but the remainder included Bmouth, Palace, West Ham, Leeds and Leicester. Plus a Chelsea side who quite frankly everyone is beating. Three points (and three goals) from Everton, Wolves and Forest is awful. But three points (and one goal) from Bmouth, Palace, West Ham, Leeds and Leicester is far worse.
If you'd posted this at HT of the Bmouth match, I'd have more inclined to agree. But, following that formation change at HT, I thought the players looked more lost than ever in that second half. They just had no idea at all. It was an utter mess.
The whole season has been an utter mess The next managerial appointment is huge. If these players can't get motivated for a huge home premier league game against Bournemouth then I worry how we will get motivated for those wet Tuesday night games at Stoke.
I could be giving SR too much credit here but I don’t think they are niche enough appointments for them..
I imagine a lot of the current players will not be here next season. And I’d be happy with that (on the whole).
I’m not sure he was doing a fine job considering we were on a steady decline for several seasons before SR. It’s just that they came in and floored it towards the Championship, so SR are taking the majority of fan scrutiny.
Semmens is a good guy, in my book. He played an absolute blinder in managing to replace Gao with a billionaire who is willing to clear our debts and invest in the team. Not really his fault that Ankersen went rogue and ballsed everything up.
We can't now be relegated against Forest. But it's almost certain that we'll be relegated against Fulham, should we lose both of these next two games (in that situation there is one scenario where we could be left six points adrift and a massively weaker GD, with two games to go).
Whoever comes up from the play-offs in League One it will be a team that has played in the top flight against us at least once.
But Selles was apart of the coaching team that had “2” pre seasons and has had more games with the new signings. Selles is just as bad as Jones, and a points average over minimal games won’t change my mind. Selles also lost to a league 2 outfit in the FA cup at home.
