OGS has passion there is no doubt about that but come on he is not very good is he. He says all the right things and talks good football but he cant back it up in any shape or form. He is in tans pocket right where tan needs him as nobody else was interested in working for him and if he continues to do everything tan tells him then it will be a disastrous season and no good manager will take his place because they would not be able to work with tan. OGS will do his very best but teams in the championship with better managers will walk all over him and exploit his obvious weakness and that will be Tan...
OK, fair enough Phil, if that's the way you want it. What are you trying to prove when others are putting up decent comments on the thread? I invited you to contribute something to the discussion instead of your usual rubbish, but you wont have it and come back with two more examples of your one-line trademark crap. Looks like you're trying to derail the thread so I'll start by just deleting your one liners as and when I see them, and we'll see where we go from there.
That hits the nail squarely on the head. This is my biggest fear. The squad needs beefing up especially in central midfield and at full back where we look albeit potentially good going forward but too frail. Let's review this when the window shuts in late august and after 10 games.
Hey ho, looks like we'll have to settle for winning all our games 5-4. Look guys, we failed to score in exactly half our 38 Prem games - that's 19 big fat zeros that a single goal in a few of them would have kept us up. Ole is tackling our OBVIOUS area of concern, viz our failure to hit the back of the net. Give the guy time eh?
Strikers are hardest players to sign successfully too. Therefore getting the difficult expensive sorted quickly and on the cheap doesn't seem bad business to me. There's loads of time to sort the other positions out. I'd be interested to know Medel's and Caulkers release fee's just because they're there doesn't mean someone will match them. I think Medel could be a real issue as we paid at least £4m over the odds for him. A big world cup could change that though.
In reality, if (and that is a big IF) we can keep the same defenders and get a better shape and organisation, then they will be plenty good enough for the Championship where the quality of forward play will be nowhere near the Prem. That's why it's the Championship, not the Premier League. What we know is that the physical demands will be tougher both in terms of the players (who will use more brawn than brain) and 8 extra games. Come on guys, we've been there pretty recently so know what it's all about. For me we need another pacey winger and another quality ball winner in the middle - possibly 2 if Medel leaves.
Opinions will always vary, but FFS fellas, if Ole had gone out this early and signed a few CB's, full backs and defensive midfielders before anyone had left, he'd be being slated on here for not tackling our obvious striker problem- the guy cannot win! If (and when) Medel and Caulker get on their bikes, I'm pretty positive that more than adequate replacements will be found at Championship level for a fraction of the £20M those two cost between them - and for lower wage contracts as well. If we start the season with 10 strikers and no defence, then that'll be the time to call Ole out, not now. Cut the guy a bit of slack and leave the slagging to Dai.
I get tired of the "Ole is ****e" responses really. He won back to back titles with Molde. After he left, they finished 6th. He did something right there. I think he was on a hiding to nothing last season. He walked into a club with low morale and in terrible form. I think he may well surprise a lot of people this season. When those like Dai say he is no good, it makes me wonder what goes on in their brains. Under Malky, we just did not have a game plan that was going to keep us up. There is no way Ole could get rid off Malky's influence in the space of a couple of months. His real test is can he stamp his style of play on the club. If he does, we will see a flowing attacking style of football we have not seen for quite a few seasons.
When taking over a new side a basic job for a manager is to make the best of the resources at his disposal. OGS failed to do that. In particular he failed to organise the defence which was a shambles for the reasons I described earlier. Pulis managed to do that that successfully at Palace as do other managers who often (but not always) manage to get a bounce in performance after their appointment. My other gripe is that OGS chopped and changed the side so often the players had insufficient opportunity to gel. I recall the game against Villa when Turner for all his faults probably had his best game in a Cardiff shirt, was voted man of the match and his reward was to be dropped for the following game. Similarly Whitts came on at WBA, introduced solidity to the midfield, saved the side from defeat with a late intervention and was not selected for the following game. What kind of message does that send to the players? Under MM we had a game plan, namely to defend and to hit the opposition on the break. What was OGS's game plan because for the life of me I could not see one. I'm not saying MM was necessarily a better manager but at least there seemed to be some kind of system and organisation. As for player signings the point is that when OGS first came in he signed players we did not need and of dubious quality with the exception of Daehli. Is Kenwynne Jones better than Odemwingie? Is Cala a better defender than those already at the club at that time and can Raphael defend? Temple of Blue might wonder what is going on in my brain but football is about opinions. Frankly just because a Swansea supporter can see what some others can't - and I happen to agree with him - doesn't mean that his or my opinion is invalid.
Whoops - the Swansea supporter you mention has a right to his opinions and you have a perfect right to agree with him. The fact that it's Dai you're talking about somewhat devalues your argument though. I agree about Ole's chopping and changing of the players (and systems) when he arrived. It seemed far too haphazard and was far too much in too short a time. The players he brought to the club in january have been questioned by me and others before now. They did absolutely nothing to save this club from the downward spiral, and to that extent they were a failure. However, he inherited a team on the way down and couldn't turn it around in the time available. Was that a failure? In truth, probably yes. The point is that is now history and a full pre-season getting HIS side together will either prove him able or not. He needs the chance to play his sort of game with his sort of players.
And as I have said before. 3 of OGS's first 4 games were the 2 Mancs and Arsenal, all away. Baptism by fire or what? He was on a loser from the start. However, I agree with Whoops' comments about teams elections and lack of consistency. By the way we signed Fabio who's performances got better towards the end of the season. His brother Raphael is still at Man U.
Not at all. I had a go at Dai because he has been the most vocal of the "Ole is a lower league manager at best" flag waving. I believe how he went about his task last season was not good, but my point is this does not make him useless for the future. I can't compare TP to Ole because frankly TP knew exactly what he needed to do. Ole didn't know how to sort out the mess he found himself in. That is what experience brings. Does that make him a useless manager? Only if he doesn't learn. This is a chance now to show us he has learnt. If by the New Year we are not in the top 6 or 7, I will probably be agreeing with the doubters
How many times have we hears the phrase 'for the future' banded about? If we learn ANYTHING at all from last year, surely it is that we should concentrate on NOW and let the future look after itself. Take my word for it, if we are not top five by October, then OGS will be history.
I think Tan has a right to expect top 5 by October. He's currently backing the manager and I have no doubt will continue to. The one thing I'd change about your prediction is that I'd say the distance from 2nd will decide his fate. By Xmas we could be 7/8th but within 4 points of 2nd and I think he'll be fine. We could be 5/6th and 12points behind the auto's and he'll find himself under huge pressure. Anyone would obviously 'take' promotion via the play offs but I'm sure Tan will be expecting an automatic return for his continued investment.
Tan will certainly expect it, but I doubt he'll act upon our position that early. The biggest point in all this conjecture is that Ole is Tan's man - Malky was not. We can say that table position is all that matters, but Ole's appointment is also a measure of Tan's judgement. Whether that cuts Ole any slack through the first half of the season may be debatable, but if he gets it wrong and underperforms, it will also reflect on Tan and he knows it. Unless there's an absolute disaster come Christmas and we're flirting with the bottom 6 rather than be up and around the promo places, I think Tan will stick with Ole to see the season out. This transfer window is going to be crucial and although Tan will reflect on the "once bitten, twice shy" principle of throwing money at it after last season, he'll fund Ole's judgement this time around..... .......and he'll do it again in January if necessary.
