The relegation battle thread

What is Rafa up to these days?

 

What makes me laugh on this forum is fans of other clubs come here now and again trying to take the piss that we’re ****. Every single one of us on here know we’re absolute ****e, funny man

 

No way he'd come back and it's too late... As it was with the previous 2 relegations

 

P!ssing himself at Sunderland thinking they're about to hit the big time.

 

**** can be useful as a fertiliser. We are beyond useless.

 

Steve thinks we are in good form. He thinks we are doing ok. We are the only team in the premier league without a win in the last 5 games. 1/20.

He’s a tosspot.

 

He is a c unt.

 

Hell no, that fat prick doesn’t need anymore free advertising!

Insanity FC

 

Nope

 

Not by a long shot. Two FA Cup finals, Man U or Blackburn at home back in 96, etc. Going down under this ****ing circus is richly deserved and expected, nowt important about trying to beat Brighton.

 

He prefers to bullshit himself

 

It was more important than our pathetic show at Sheffield United which actually involved us??

 

In talks with Valencia.

 

Unfortunately you said it was THE most important in our history and keep repeating it.

 

I mean yes if we are simply looking to use football weathered football cliché's, then the next game is the most important.

I struggle with this regime to place any real importance on games. Our mantra appears to be a desire to be akin to an apple bobbing in the water. Just doing enough to stay afloat. Eventually the apple dies and rots.

Happy Monday

 

He has been absolute garbage this season. Made a series of terrible decisions which directly correlate with our current position. No getting away from it.

I'm not one of these who goes looking to blame everything on him. I find that counter intuitive because it only adds weight to the "impossible job" scenario everyone likes to present regarding managing this club. So I wouldn't go saying he's to blame for the injuries, or accuse him of not picking players like Manquillo who haven't truly been available. We know why we get injuries every season, its because we have a small squad low on quality so we have to keep using our best players more than other clubs. Its not complicated.

However if you look at the season from pre season to now, he has never committed to a formation or style. There is no fluidity to our play as a result. Personally I think this is because he got sick of the accusations of simply continuing Rafa's backs to the wall counter style with 5 at the back. So he tried to change it, then bottled, then tried again, then tried something else, while continually flirting with going back to the 5. He can't seem to work out this is a **** way to run a football team. Just have the courage of your conviction at the very least.

 

100%. If he'd come in, changed it to a back four, gone with anything from 4-2-3-1, 4-1-3-2, whatever his team were most comfortable with and stuck with it through the inevitable losses, we'd be easily on around 36 points or so by now. Easily.

He's been the architect in chief of what is an embarrassing season and hopefully the death knell for managers like him in future. I'm so sick of anyone saying that you need "experience" - whether it's "experience" like Bruce or Allardyce, or sticking with ****ing garbage like Gayle or Hendrick at the expense of Anderson or Longstaff, it's desperately out of touch.

 

He bought into this impossible job rhetoric from day 1. He seemed to find a good place with the team last season and we were comfortable. It feels like he hated that was built on playing 5 at the back and being defensive. I hate defensive football, but if that's what you're good at then I can understand why you go that way. Rafa may not have been my cup of tea, he made us horrible to watch. At least he had a consistent plan and you felt like young players were being taught something. Bruce has to go now, because its clear he either hasn't got a plan, or doesn't have the balls and/or the knowhow to implement one. He's a ****hawk who is focused solely on the idea of avoiding relegation, whatever it takes. He is more bothered about himself than the club. Perfect fit for this owner who doesn't like his managers to have vision, because vision costs money.

 

17th place and 2 points of the team below us and with a game in hand does not constitute "absolutely ****ed".

If, like a certain team in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons, you are bottom all season and miles adrift at this point, you are indeed absolutely ****ed, but we have all to play for right now.

Yeah we're ****, but points on the board are what matters, and we have them.

 

Even if we do go down, the one positive will be West Brom going down with us, not because I dislike West Brom, but because it will finally stop Lawro with his "Big Sam guarantees Premier League survival" horseshit. Allardyce has clearly had his day long ago, and it was a stupid decision by West Brom to bring the old knacker in.

While Ashley is here sadly we're stuck with duffers like Bruce, yeah he's ****, but did we expect anything else? Getting the Newcastle job was beyond his wildest dreams, and he's clearly willing to be Ashley's stooge as a result. No half decent manager is touching us with a bargepole.