Apparently we have now won just one premier league games in the last 32 attempts. Six more consecutive draws/losses will be a complete season. Would that be another record?
No one said "so much better" ffs. But I still wouldn't swap SR back for Gao. Gao took over a club that finished the four previous seasons 8th, 7th, 6th, and 8th (and got to a cup final). His first managerial appointment was Pellegrino (!) and we only didn't get relegated in his first season because of one scrappy Gabbiadini goal. Under Gao we sold Van Dijk and brought in the likes of Carillo, Hoedt, Lemina, Elyounoussi, Djenepo, Salisu, and Diallo. Ralph and Ings helped gloss over the cracks for a while, but apart from one good season we were finishing on fewer points as each season passed. Oh and we failed to offer Ings an adequate contract, which, lets face it, was the main reason for our decline. We replaced him with Adam Armstrong btw. I mean I get being angry right now. I really do. But let's also be realistic. SR inherited a mess. Gao inherited a club in a far, far healthier position.
But the scrappy Gabbi goal did happen. It's absolutely fair to say we were a club on the decline but these dicks jumped in the drivers seat and put a breeze block on the accelerator. Under SR we sold Elyounoussi, Djenepo, Salisu, and Diallo and replaced them with Edwards, BBD, Stewart and Larios. They have ****ed up pretty much every transfer with the exception of Fernandes and Rambo. Their managerial appointments are just as bad. Either way these guys have managed to smash out 2 relegations in 2 PL seasons. Something Gao never managed. We're on course to be the worst ever team in PL history. What a legacy.
Made a real difference to our season. Hate to think what our position in the table would be without him
Two relegations, yes, but also one promotion which you fail to mention. I don't care if people think we had the best Championship squad ever, you still have to get that squad promoted. SR got us up at the first time of asking. This season we are finding it tough, but just look at the likes of Leicester and Ipswich, and the three relegated clubs from last season. These days if you go up, you go down again, no matter how much is invested. It's an almost impossible task. Yes, SR are partly responsible for us being in this position, but they were only the final nail in the coffin. Gao created the corpse, made the coffin, and banged in the first dozen nails.
Really? I’m not defending SR’s transfer policy, I just don’t think Edwards is the one to target. Whilst not mentioning the likes of Lavia, Fernandes etc. They’ve been crap, but Gao was crap, and at least SR are actually trying.
One of those ****ty newsnow sites, so probably bollocks. Can see us loaning him out, whether that’s just to get him some football or because we don’t see a future for him here remains to be seen
The Leicester and Ipswich which have over double our points? We can debate all we want when our decline started but it's cold hard facts that SR are the owners who presided over 2 relegations. That's not on Gao. The laughable transfers are not on Gao nor having 5 managers in 3 years.
Yeah as I’ve said loads of times the rot really set in under Gao and SR have tried to fix it all too quickly and in a “spread the money reaaaaaaal thin” type way which hasn’t worked. They took that option because of Gao and how **** the squad was when they arrived. The main error they’ve made was Jones and probably keeping Martin on for too long, but whether anyone could’ve saved this squad will be a what if scenario people can debate as much as they want It is pretty much impossible to build a PL level team after promotion such is the strength of the lower teams in the league now. You have to get ridiculously lucky with recruitment, cheat like **** like Forest or hope an established team has a horror season. Or likely a combo of all three
Yeah he will go on loan, which is exactly the right move for him. How many CBs move from League One to the Prem at the age of 21? Not many.
I have no issue with the Edwards singing. He cost **** all and it’s not like that money would realistically get us a starter. People can moan all they want at the recruitment this summer just gone/SRs time here but if someone cba to go through the entire league and pick out signings in the same time frame who we could’ve signed and have been successful I’d wager there are very few examples. Recruitment is a lottery and has got way harder since the Cortese days when we hit regularly
Yes, the Leicester and Ipswich in 19th and 18th places. Let's not forget, Leicester cheated financially, and still look doomed. Ipswich rose up two divisions and invested even more than us. And yet. At the start of last season in the Championship, we were in a worse state than both of them, so I'm not that surprised they're still doing (slightly) better. Also, our whole 6 points thing is daft. We've been robbed of at least 3-4 points (but yeah not excusing how bad we are). My main point is that you don't go from what we were, to what we want to become, in a season or two. It takes more like four or fives years these days, and multliple yo-yoing. It's a sh*t state of affairs, and we are not the only ones finding it out.
Agreed. Also, Salisu cost about 4 or 5 times what Edwards did, when we were on a much tighter budget. Our recruitment now is about average I reckon for a club of our size. People obviously get jealous of Brighton and Bompey, but there are many other examples of clubs getting their recruitments wrong.
