It's worth pointing out that Ralph had **** all to spend for most of his tenure. It was unsurprising his spell in charge went stale in the end. So yes, I think he was as good as most thought he was.
My point wasn't that he was a world class manager, it was that it was so blindingly obvious that he was not the problem. The fact that we have now had 4 managers in Jones, Selles, Martin and Juric (felt harsh including Rusk) that haven't even been able to win 3 games just puts it into context.
They should've bought Ralph a decent striker for the Premiership rather than Championship strikers. I'm not saying that was the only problem but it would've helped massively. Things went down hill rapidly when they didn't replace Ings with a decent striker.
I think most people just felt Ralph was burned out by the end. He'd held things together reasonably well in tough circumstances and I'd love to know how he'd have done if we'd had money to spend earlier in his time as manager but our form was always incredibly streaky. Most seasons we'd have a period with the form of Champions League contenders and a period of relegation form and sadly the longer he was here the longer the bad form streaks got. He definitely had a bit of the stubborn "philosophy" thing about him as well.
He had over 100m in his final summer. SR get all the blame for that sh*t window, but he was the manager. He had a say too.
Agreed. But we could use that argument for every subsequent manager. Also, why didn't Ralph tell SR which striker he wanted, instead of trusting them to find one for him? And it could be argued that Ings made Ralph look much better than he was.
That's a fair point, the season that he got 25 goals, a good proportion of them were fantastic solo efforts not team goals, the next highest scorer was JWP with 5 from his free kicks.
Bit of a stretch but okay. He did some great things, I don't deny it. But there were lots of bad things too. Just gotta look at Wolfsburg this season to see it's just the same old thing again. Halfway through the season, sitting pretty in 7th. Then just two wins from sixteen before he was sacked. 'Half-a-season Ralph' he should be called.
I will always love Ralph for taking us to the top of the league in November 2020, the only time we have ever led the Premier League, and the first time at the top of the top division since 1988. Ralph was partly responsible for our catastrophic loss of form after Christmas, leading to us finishing 15th, but he was hardly helped by one of the worst transfer windows in the club’s history. Our sole incoming player in January 2021 was Takumi Minamino on loan from Liverpool.
Ralph did very well early in his tenure but the squad was a lot better than it was by the end. He became too predictable and conceded too many goals throughout his tenure. I think the fact we always collapsed late in the season was directly linked to his style and it looks like that happened at Wolfsburg too. Good manager and likeable guy but was totally done by the end and had alienated everyone. The mistake wasn't sacking him but not sacking him earlier in the Summer. I would love to know what happened in the dressing room after the 4-0 at Villa.
I also think he got quite lucky with the Covid break in 19/20. Our form had collapsed in January and we obviously came back a different team in June. Without that break he might have ended up out of a job. That's why I'd have liked to see him with a transfer budget. Was he a very good manager doing his best in difficult circumstances or a limited manager with a ready-made excuse?
Simon Jordan just confirmed that the Saudi, Turki Al Sheikh, likes Southampton and Millwall. Wants a club down south and these are the 2 he likes??
That's his only full season here where we didn't collapse at the end and obviously there was the 3/4 month break.
Still don't get how that wouldn't be a conflict with Newcastle as he's a member of the government isn't he?
I'm not entirely sure what organisations he is a part of, but just because he works for the government i don't think that would be a conflict of interest. 2 MPs for example could both own clubs. I think it would be an issue if he had an official business relationship with an owner of another club. Regardless. Hopefully we never need to worry about him buying us!
I know what you mean but the source of funding would ultimately be the same - the Saudi state. Agreed I hope he doesn't rock up here.
No to Saudi owners, please. I would not object to SR selling but would be reluctant to see any meddling after getting Spors and Still in place. Keep getting Spors name confused with the composer Louis Spohr !
