1. The EL will definitely decide it. Not finishing in the top 8 should mean he is gone. 2. Unlike Jose and Conte, Ange has not been gobby or throwing players under the wheels as excuses.
We have a hard limit on what we can spend from the stadium covenants. That is what is limiting us this window. There is never enough information to sack a manager based on results as there are too many other variables affecting results. Levy clearly sacks managers when they stop doing what they said they would do. Ange hasn't done that yet.
In for a penny, in for a pound. No point sacking Ange now. We had a bit of momentum from the Newcastle game and brought it into the Pool game. Drawing with Tamworth set us back and at this stage with the amount of games we play, the injuriy crisis and all the other interruptions the squad looks beat mentally with the exception of the younger players. Beating Arsenal at home is a big ask for any team but I hope they can pick it up for the Everton game and put a run together for the league. Get some players back and who knows what might happen.
I've been saying for a while that Hoffenheim will be the tipping point Win and Ange is here until the end of the season Lose and Mason is in charge of training for the Leicester game
He's not an easy target. He is held to a higher standard but with good justification. He is our most experienced outfield player by four years, captains the side and is supposedly our 'best' player. Yet he drops 3 and 4 out of 10 performances every single game. His body language this evening was disgraceful. Constantly throwing his arms in the air in faux disgust, shoulders slumped, shaking his head. Not a single discernible moment offering encouragement or guidance to the players he's supposed to captain. His legacy protects him, but if he was a player we'd just signed this summer, fans would be hounding him out the club by now.
I can’t find it, but I saw a really good tweet last night from someone, who, in a nut shell, highlighted that Kane’s departure was essentially the final component that has led us to where we are now. Which got me thinking. We’d seen the likes of Toby, Vertonghen, Dembele etc all leave one by one, but Kane essentially covered everyone’s arse over the years (particularly levy’s) with the goals he scored that won us points, completely papering over the cracks. But we’re now so far removed from what we used to be, and, in no time at all, it’s all been laid bare. The lack of investment in genuine quality replacements of our excellent team we had a few years ago (including the 3 windows of inactivity) still haunts us, as the quality in the squad has/is diminishing at a far quicker rate than it’s been/being replaced. Some great youngsters with potential, but so many senior players who aren’t at the level we had just a few years ago. We’ve tried trophy managers, but half arsed it. When we’ve finally spent significant money, we’ve wasted our precious funds on average players. And now we’ve got a manager, having exhausted so many other options, who is doing his best despite no experience at this level. We continue to need quality players (which will cost a fortune), but we’re now a club sitting 12th in the league due to the impact of the previous issues not being addressed/ neglect, despite it being blindingly obvious to most fans. Nevermind which players we want to get rid of (in order to make improvements), we’re now massively at risk of some of the players we want to keep (Kulu, VDV etc) wanting to move on, IMO. More issues to address, potentially. Yes, we’ll make some money, and I couldn’t care less if we sell Romero for example, but Dierhard’s motto of “No Real Plan” rings very true. We’re caught in this perpetual cycle and I have no idea how we escape it. You’d think we’re not bad enough to get relegated, but we have to be looking over our shoulder now. If we get caught up in it, I don’t feel we’ve got the types of players who are capable of a dog fight. 5 points from a possible 27 is form to be terrified of. To think that 3 years or so ago we were very evenly matched with arsenal, (even preventing them from getting CL football), is really sad to look back on. We’ve regressed so badly in such a short space of time, but the worrying thing is there’s no sign of improvement in this so called “project”. Even though many fans think Ange’s “kamikaze” football is irresponsible, and yes, he might be out of his depth, I don’t think we get close to solving anything by making another sacking. Yes, we can find someone who will pick up a few more results and steady the ship such as a potter or poch type, but this rot is so deep. This a complete collapse that’s been brewing under the surface for ages, and you could argue that Kane was the constant who was instrumental in hiding the cold hard truths to so many for quite a while. anyway, rant over.
I agree with all of this. Apart from your claim that we are 12th. We're currently 13th and will be 14th after United beat Soton tonight. Have a lovely day
oh FFS. And I’ve just spotted that West Ham are above us despite a -25 goal difference. You couldn’t make it up.
In all honesty Munse the only team that stands out there is obviously Forest. I hope by some miracle they win the league, and that Nuno arranges the open top bus parade to drive past Levy's house.
Just to add to the above. Nottingham Forest. A club that most neutral fans would have thought would be potentially facing a relegation battle this season, or certainly be down in the bottom half of the table, at least. We’re not talking about a Man United here, who have suffered a loss in form for a few years whilst they find their way, we’re talking about a club that have been distinctly average for years and years and years. And I don’t mean that disrespectfully. It’s actually brilliant for football that this has happened. But they’ve made some footballing decisions that have been right for them, from management choices, to the players, and look at them now. In absolutely no time at all. And to top it off they sold us a player for 50m! It’s hard to see them not at least qualifying for the ECL or Europa now. Absolute credit where it’s due. It just goes to show what’s possible. Chuck Bournemouth in to this argument, too. but for me it highlights further how whilst levy is very good commercially, footballing decisions clearly aren’t for him. Either that, or he’s just a genius who’s been gaslighting the fans by doing the bear minimum for an insane amount of time. But ultimately, if it’s the former and he really hasn’t got a clue, we’re potentially screwed by every decision he makes, unless we get lucky.
Ain't happening we'll be above them before we beat them again at our place. They can be maybe 4th or 5th
The data doesn't support your argument on Levy. Since he took over our average league position has been above our sverage position in the wealth league. So we've slightly outperformed on footballing measures. We need more money. Everything else will follow.
Do you have that data to hand? League position vs position in the wealth league? I’ve never seen it before and would like to look at it, if you are able to post it? Thanks.
Chronic underachievers in the spending power v average position conversation are Chelsea and United. City and Arsenal have been par for course. We've been slightly below par but nothing crazy. The gold standard is Liverpool. They should be nowhere near their average placement compared to their average net spend.
This is similar to the point I just made to @PowerSpurs on RCL’s sack thread. The view that because Gray, Bergvall, Moore etc “might” be great in a few years means we’ll have an excellent team is too much of a dreamer’s vision because it doesn’t take into account what will actually make that team excellent in 3 years. If you could freeze time for some players then sure we might just have as such but unfortunately science doesn’t allow that. Son will have definitely declined within a couple years, the form Kulu is in means that a big move is surely not too far away, Romero is almost certain to leave in the summer and reports say as such and there are other players that if we don’t seriously sort ourselves out sooner rather than later will also want to leave - potentially including some of those promising young players. Who’s to say that Archie Gray won’t get snapped up by City in a year or two if he keeps performing as he is for an 18 year old? They’ll have no problem dumping £100m on him. Too many of our fans always want to believe the future will be better without having any substance to actually back up the claim. I used to fall for that trap myself but I’ve since realised promising futures don’t arrive if you don’t sort out the present.
while i obviously agree we are gold standard should point out that while our net spend is low we do have a very large wage bill .
I’ve touched on our wage bill in the past as a reason for proof of a player’s true quality when matched with their transfer fee. Case in point, we paid £60m for Richarlison but “only” (I make it sound like pennies ) pay him £90k a week. A true £60m calibre player would warrant circa £200k. Solanke too is on £90k despite costing £65m, now in his defence he’s far better than Richarlison but he’s still not someone you’d say is worth a £200k a week wage either. Brennan Johnson cost us £50m and is on £70k. We’ve paid almost extortionate fees for some players but paid them wages that match their actual market worth which is roughly around half of what their fee was, then club officials probably wonder why we don’t actually improve.
