How is 8 out of 10 harsh? As I said, he's done an excellent job, but I'm just not as overboard in love with him as everybody else seems to be. When we win, Cifuentes is a genius, when we lose, the players are to blame is how it seems to go. There were some truly awful performances under his stewardship mixed in with the good ones. He kept us up, which was the target, but even Ainsworth kept us up last season. Let's see if he can kick on next season, I'll be as delighted as everybody else if he can. And yes, I am stubborn.
We did that with Johansen/Austin/Gray and not selling Dickie, Dieng etc. when their stock was high. I’d love to keep him but he has to go.
No, I get it. Maybe some kind of balance between sensible and ambitious then. We should always be looking to finish as high as possible imo and not just settle for Championship mediocrity.
Decent home form too. Notable lack is our GF columns, we’re a good 8-10 goals light of those above us; increase that and our points would surely go up by another 4-6pts putting us up to 2nd. Going to be really interesting to see what is done about our forward line, we are sadly lacking there, as we all know.
I don't have time to look it up now but I distinctly remember him taking accountability for one of our losses after a game in his interview. Don't ever recall him throwing the players under the bus. The points per game since he took over, and especially from Christmas, is incredibly impressive with a squad that essentially has no striker. The way some of the players have come on also. Easily 9/10 for me. Probably 9.5/10 really.
The ambition has to come in with the reinvestment and how we approach that. Sell an injury prone 27 year old for £7m. Spend £3m on the best up and coming L1 CB (who can play more than 30 games a season) and turn him into a £15m player while also moving us up the table. Same approach that Brighton / Brentford have had and I don't think anyone doubts their ambition (or success).
Heard a few people this season comment on the Crawley goalkeeper. Looked an absolute monster against Milton ****s and very good with his feet. Interesting career trajectory- didn’t make it at Arsenal or Cov then played non-league then abroad.
Too simple, how many 3mil players have they bought that didn't make it? Their system took more that a decade to sort of perfect.
With the help of all the statistics gained from the betting companies they are involved with. Nourry seems to be a statistics focussed guy, so maybe we'll see some evidence of this in any new signings
Is part of your hesitancy to join the Marti love-in down to the fact it is hard to get really excited about an end of season scrap around thr bottom of the table? It is more a choice between utter despair and relief...not excitement. I think, and I know this is obvious, the first 6/7 games next year will be crucial. Martí will have had the summer to change the squad around a bit, albeit with budgetary restrictions, and the 2024/25 squad will be his squad, not one he inherited. I'm cautiously optimistic, but won't allow myself to get too excited until I see who comes in before next season, and how the season starts.
I would say the difference is last season we stayed up in spite of Ainsworth but this season we've stayed up because of Marti.
Yeah, I didn't mean Cifuentes threw the players under the bus, I meant that fans never seem to blame him for anything.
He definitely got the set up wrong in some games e.g. Sheffield Wednesday, but I can live with that if he's learning and takes accountability. I just want you to join to Marti Parti Strolls. It's fun!
I think Palace could be in for a centre back too especially if Guehi moves on. Hopefully if he does go, it triggers a bidding war and we don't sell him to the first club that makes a derisory offer !
Still find it funny that Stoke are being mentioned..... if this "loose agreement" existe restrict it to Premier League clubs and starting bids at £10m..... nice profit for a free transfer.....
Which, if we seriously want to progress as a club, is what we should be doing. This quick-fix bullshit has got us nowhere. Hopefully not a decade, but real ambition is to get up and stay up. Like Brighton have done. Edit: I live in Brighton surrounded by BHA fans, I've watched them go from almost obscurity to eclipsing us, to European football. I've seen Roma fans in Brighton. Brighton. They played at a ****ing leisure centre in recent memory. It can be done. We can do it!
