Is Jones the only reason? No, clearly not. Are the people who appointed him part of the reason? Yes, clearly they are. But Jones oversaw our easiest run of the season and took 3 points from those 8 or 9 games so he (or his appointment if you prefer) is a big reason why we're bottom.
Were not beating Chelsea away. If the Everton/Leeds game dont end in a draw that would put us at a minimum of 7 points from safety (West Ham will be fine this season). We then go away to Leeds the following week, if we dont win that game we're as good as down as we're not beating any of the top 6 in the fixtures that follow. Sorry but anyone who thinks any different needs to give there head a wobble IMO.
The obviously, to me, most important thing is that Selles gets a positive reaction from the players and, if he can’t get any wins, he needs to limit the level of the defeats. Confidence is low but it could go lower if we take a few heavy beatings, going into the summer, and then the Championship, with a bunch of players that don’t know how to win a game. From this point of view I can kind of understand only offering JM a contract until the end of the season, because there was the strong possibility that he might not have turned things around and he might not have then been able to rebuild the confidence in the players, during the pre-season.
I remember the last time we dropped from the Premier League to the Championship - The club didn't lower the ST prices then, as 'Supporters will get to see more games'. So I agree with you Shandy: I wouldn't be surprised if a similar argument is used again, to keep the prices the same, or raise them 'In line with inflation'.
We're not down until its mathematically impossible to stay up. You're probably right, but if the players think like this then we're in even bigger trouble.
I'm really shocked by it actually. Regardless of form etc and our remaining games, I can't believe how defeatist most on here are being about a four point gap. It's only four points (despite our run) because most of the other teams around us are absolute ****e! It's all to play for. I'd like to see a bit more fight. The players aren't going to give up. And I definitely don't want to hear this attitude at SMS through until May.
I think that two up front is overdoing it. We need six at the back, no midfielders, and as many wide men as we can get, on each touchline, just because we can,,,
It was hilarious a few days ago, I seemed to be the only one on here sticking to my guns that Marsch was a crap appointment because a better manager could keep us up. But I was constantly hounded on for saying I wanted a better manager when we are already down. It was quite honestly pathetic from some on here. 4 points off safety with a game in hand and 48 points to play for with signings that looked pretty decent. It’s absolutely abhorrent that “fans” were writing us off already to the point that I spent a few days away from here. Mark ****ing Hughes managed to turn us around and keep us up in March however we’re down and out in February having played less games. Awful mentality.
Have you watched us? Its not being negative, its being realistic. We are absolutely ****e, run by owners that don’t have a clue and players that don’t care for the shirt. We have a teenager in goal Strikers that can’t score (hopefully big paul sorts this) We have wingers that can’t create chances or score. Defenders that can’t defend and those that can seem like they don’t want to be here. No manager A new board that clearly doesn’t have a clue how to run a football club. I don’t think it’s an awful mentality to prepare for the worst, when taking all of the above into account.
Yet football has proved many times before how quickly it can be turned around. It literally just happened with Dyche and Everton ffs. After one game everyone was a lot more optimistic for them. I agree that the board is giving little hope for optimism but there’s still a possibility they could get a decent hire if they can at least somewhat acknowledge the god awful mistakes they’ve made. But there is a scenario here where we could get the right man to galvanise the players and after two games we could look an entirely different team and off the bottom. Also preparing for the worst is a lot different to saying we are already down.
So what? I'm not saying Ralph should have stayed - he was obviously burned out and running out of ideas - so his record is irrelevant. The other point is that Jones's run covered some of our easiest fixtures. So you'd expect us to pick up more points per game anyway. Edit: Or are you agreeing with me? Rereading your post I'm not sure.
I was about to agree with you, but when I worked it out I still had us bottom. I actually think Ralph would have done quite a bit better, maybe 20pts or so by now. We will never know.
