Good News at last, he said all the right things and if we are to go down I would rather go down scoring goals and having a go not trying to hang on for 0-0 and scrapping for something off a set piece. That said for 60 mins against Sunderland we were a joy to watch.
You are right of course - but I don't think Ole would have made the two negative substitutions which turned the game even more in favour of Sunderland. If performance at a Press Conference is any gauge of our likelihood of avoiding relegation we are going to be in the top four by mid April - Ole came across as honest, knowledgeable, and a good communicator. Now all he needs to do is pick up points in January. It's taken me a few days to fully realise it, but I am really glad Malky is gone - if we are going down (as we surely would have), then at least let us be relegated by giving the division a proper go. Interesting that Ole could name the players who he liked to see GOING FORWARD. I believe that we have more chance of winning games if we go forward quickly towards the opposition's goal mouth - I know this is naive of me, and Malky never subscribed to this theory, but it seems that Ole might have the same idea. For those of us who have been bored senseless watching us for most of the last year (6 wins in Malky's 30 matches since the end of February!) let us hope so.
It was likely we would not get any points in January and would fall into the bottom three so we can use these games to start using the new system, we cannot expect miracles overnight but as most of us agree we go down fighting not with a wimper. I am not thinking we will now get relegated but this month is not really a fair chance to get wins. jck
West Ham on the 11th is a "6 pointer" and within our capabilities, February & April could be good for us.
Every home game left bar Liverpool & Chelsea are against teams in our half of the table; all 6 pointers. Starting with West Ham who we are so overdue a win (and a goal) against.
If Ole is half as good as a manager, as he was as a goal scorer, you've got a good manager on your hands
looking forwards to having OGS, i thought steve clarke would be a good appointment but the board want to go in a different direction. in hindsight the only reason there was uproar about malky was because the owner changed the kit and badge, on footballing reasons only, it was justified to sack malky. we might have stayed up under malky by going for a 0-0 or 1-0 every game, but we might not have. after the southampton game i had our chances at roughly 50-50. wide players are a must for OGS, as ours simply arent up to the task. we have a few players who are certainly up to the task, and another lot who aren't. mutch, campbell, caulker, marshall, TC, medel and whitts and a good foundation for any manager coming in, but one things for sure now, relegation isnt an option, if it ever was, if we spend big in january.....
I agree with Swamp I thought the best candidate for you in the short term would have been Steve Clarke. So it will be very interesting to see how OGS goes for you as with any managerial appointment its a bit of a calculated risk especially someone new to the Premier League. OGS's 1st home game is critical now both for him and for fat Sam as anything less than a point will be career limiting for Sam.
Who would have imagined we would have two great names like Ole and Bellamy at our Cardiff City football ground...look on those who could only dream of getting these two. jck
Ole could have a similar effect on you that Laudrup has had on us, knowing much bigger clubs will be interested to see how he progresses as a manager which could lead to better quality players coming in, knowing other clubs will be watching how the team performs, thus improving their chances of getting picked up by bigger clubs a la Michu with us
