Obviously no inside info but I think he was probably homesick and I really don’t blame him if he wanted to go home.
I hope so A. It’s not in England B. He deserves another crack at top flight European football There is still a good manager in there, he had just run out of road with Saints.
Ralph kept this team up last season, what a ****ing job he did. One of the worst squads I've ever seen.
Ah this is classic Ralph-mythology. When the going is good, it's all about Ralph, but when the going is bad, it's all about the players. I can never understand this way of thinking. Our team last season was decent. Squad was poor, but the first team was good. When we peaked in Jan/Feb we were playing teams off the park. Then we nose-dived spectacularly. If results start badly, but get better, then that to me is the manager working things out and improving the team. But if it is a case of result getting worse, that shows me that the manager has run out of ideas. I don't know how fans can suddenly just blame the players, when a week or two before those same players were playing brilliantly.
The team is worse now than last season though. No evidence whatsoever he'd have kept this rabble up, infact I'd say the evidence points the other way as Ralph never had a good run without a striker in top form. Are we the only club in history to spend over £100m and make the first eleven substantially worse? We lost Broja, Redmond and Romeu, all in positions we were already light in, and either not replaced them at all or with worse options. Broja was our top scorer last year - brought in nobody to replace. Redmond for all his faults provided most assists last season - we brought in a kid who's championship standard and Aribo who's the worst player I've seen at this level thi s century. Romeu was our best midfielder and the only one we had who could control games, also very reliable in terms of fitness - replaced with an 18 year old kid who while looks a talent, can't play 90 minutes and has the inconsistency that comes with being young. Throw in the GK situation and we've literally made every position on the pitch weaker bar the defence, and there we've lacked the manager and midfield to improve our goals conceded tally. The squad may be stronger but the first 11 is undoubtedly far weaker than it has been at any point since promotion.
The Redmond that fans moaned about and berated constantly as not being good enough for the PL? And Broja, another kid who did nothing before or after working with Ralph? Agree with Romeu, but he has actually been replaced by Lavia who is class. It is pretty bloody obvious what an amazing job Ralph did. I said it at the time and still believe it. We have had a crap squad for years and 90% of managers would have relegated us a while ago. Now we are seeing just how bad we are and have been for some time.
Yeah I said Redmond for all his faults and we clearlh needed to improve but he's quite obviously better than Edozie and Aribo. Lavia is class but lacks consistency (obviously) and can't play 90 minutes and therefore over a season we're weaker. I'm not saying Ralph didn't do a good job, I'm saying this is a completely different squad to that which he had success with and I don't think he'd keep this squad up. My main point is that we somehow made the squad worse despite spending a fortune.Last summer we'd have all probably agreed the priorities were striker, AM, DM, and GK. And all of those positions were weaker at the end of the summer than they were at the start.
Everton spent way more than us and made themselves worse. That’s probably the only similar thing I can remember. But this is definitely worse. The club has completely imploded and needlessly relegated ourselves. Ralph did a very good job for a couple of years, but he is also 80% of the reason why we are in this position. It’s his team.
Is it though? He couldn't buy players during most of his spell that would have suited his philosophy and were good enough. I find it hard to believe he wanted Adam Armstrong for example. But we had to make do as we couldn't afford anyone better. He inherited a lot of the players as well.
I appreciate and respect the job that Ralph did for us in difficult circumstances but I also think that the rot set in in the final year of his tenure and we haven't even started to recover yet. There has been a big influx of new players and we are playing like a disjointed team apart from at Chelsea and it may take a few more months to regain an identity which will almost certainly be in the Championship as I can't see there being a quick fix for us.
It's a difficult one. Ralph did do an unbelievable job in keeping us up and competing. I loved him, and respected (still do) the job he did. But, it had gone stale, players had stopped playing for him and he was unable to turn it around. He needed to go. For his sake, and ours. He was done and spent. Despite that, I would be willing to confidently say we'd be much better off right now had he stayed.
