honestly Doc - sometimes it’s hard to tell until you see how those players get on in another team. Even then if it’s a different league it’s not really comparable. I’ve often thought we had decent players who just weren’t suited to PL. But maybe they just weren’t suited to our type of football. Or maybe they’re just not quite good enough. It’s very fine margins in top level sport. We have guys who look great for 89 minutes but fck up every game. Sometimes it’s just between the ears. There’s been a bit of ‘it’s the coach v it’s the players’ going on amongst us all season. It’s most likely a combo. Poor results eventually impact on confidence which is huge in sport. Others would have sacked Marsch earlier and I understand the arguments. As an alternative, I look at the 4 games before he was sacked. We were the better side in all of them - more chances than the opposition in all of them - sitters missed, defensive fck ups - and got 2 points. We had a run of ‘easier’ on paper games to come. It could have been very different. And maybe we’d think the players were better.
Milky I get the argument about Marsch but believe he had already lost the dressing room. Comments from Bamford way back said volumes. Since then we have heard from various players that things were broken so cannot see us getting better results than what we got. For me he should have gone before the World Cup and the window opening, we may have seen some new players and a coach who wanted to be here and then who knows, even if it was Big Sam he would have had a mini pre season and half a season to play for
Never mind this shyte will be over by Sunday night. There will be lots of tears and drunkenness whatever the final table looks like. A season to forget, a board to forget and all the good Radz has done is diluted to make into another Bates. Sad for him and his efforts, sad for his family but he relied on Otta and his judgement and he got shat on. time for Radz to bow out and wonder if he’ll be there tonight to see Sampdorias last game, will he be at ER on Sunday? I hope he takes a final bow and leaves rather than slinks out under the radar.! had enough this season because no lessons learned from the debacle of last season. come Monday the fans deserve to be informed of what plans the club have
I reckon Radrizzani will stay on for next season with the aim of getting promotion in order to maximise the value of the club. Bring the valuation back up to what he could have sold it for a year ago. He won’t want to sell for £150m.
Not necessarily. Nothing focuses the mind more than losing a few hundred million quid he’ll be determined to do everything in his power, get a quality DOF and coach in place, to get it back. Can’t see the 49ers doing any better tbh. And we need things sorted ASAP. He’ll be thinking he doesn’t have to sell yet. Not when he can get millions more in twelve months.
It’s funny really that the two teams not involved in the relegation battle there were Portsmouth and Charlton. Its all like one big swirling clothes line really, it will be fine in the end, whenever that is
He’s backed his coach mate and never really got involved much anyway. If Perkins, Joseph, Cresswell, Gyabi, Drameh, Gnonto and Summerville are good enough to build a team around we shouldn’t need to spend much. Dan James will be useful at Championship level too. Nobody spends much at that level anyway. Sinisterra is far too injury prone, if we sell, we’ll not notice. If Perkins and Joseph are good enough, there won’t be room for an ageing Rodrigo. Jacks very hot and cold, he should be sold either way. Bamford another who we’d not miss. Aaronson might be okay at Championship level but if we can get somewhere what we paid for him great. We can easily afford to lose 6-7 players and still have a decent squad to build on. If Radz stays he’ll put a DOF in place and allow him to run things, as long as we get a coach who can bring the best out of the u21s who step up we’ll be okay
That dog appointment will be crucial as surely he’ll have a big say in selecting the coach. Agree on the young lads IF they’re good enough. At least we’ll get a chance to find out. Most of them would never get a chance in pl
Combo of managers and players. Also doesn’t help they suit different types or system. I think Sinisterra and Adams are good players but they’ve been out injured so not got the most of them. If they’re both fully fit it’s possible we stay up. Rodrigo would be amazing in a top team as he’s not a ball holder or presser yet we aren’t good enough to just have a striker that doesn’t have other attributes and a striker with Rodrigo’s and Bamford attributes combined costs between 60-100m. Roca looked decent alongside Adams but not great with McKennie. McKennie is more of an 8 like Klich however he’s not been playing in that position, he’s played as a CDM. Roca is a ball player which Marsch wasn’t and then Adams got injured who our ball winner was. At the end of it we used to play with one CDM and replaced him with 2 players which had his attributes yet had no back up for Adams like we didn’t for Kalvin. Summerville and Gnoto are both good prospects so for 10-20m are worth a punt for someone. It’s when you’re relying on these youngsters who should be developing, in a good team you could integrate one of them and they’d flourish but for a struggling relegation side when you need to get a goal or an assist and people are relying on you is a lot of pressure for a young developing player. Meslier again has the potential to be great so worth trying for someone. The Spanish league just isn’t as quick, good or have the wingers that the PL has so I can see why Firpo would prefer playing in Spain and a club would want him but there’s no chance another PL outfit would come in for him. Harrison is a good player, works really hard and has consistent stats every season. In a half decent side he’ll get you 10+ goal contributions a season which can’t be sniffed at. It’s a 30-40m player if you count English tax, no doubt we’d sell for around 20m though which is mental when you think McNeil Surprised about Koch tbh, I’d be shocked if he went to another PL team as I don’t rate him. In conclusion I don’t think we’ve had the right balance of player, style of football and manager. Most of these players are attackers and I’d say our attack has done pretty well this year. It’s not as if we haven’t scored goals. It’s at the other end that has cost us, people can talk about Harrison not playing well every game and Bamford missing chances but at the end of the day you can’t concede the most goals in the division and keep avoiding relegation. We just haven’t addressed our defence and that’s why we’ll be going down unless we get some sort of miracle.
Lots of good points there Foolee would also add that on the goals front under Bielsa we had goals from Bamford in double figures, Rodrigo 8 goals, Harrison 9, Klich 6 and Raphinha 9. Then straight away you lose Raphinha, Klich, Harrison who is only scoring half of what he did and losing all Bamfords goals, but gaining more from Rodrigo it’s costly. We haven’t replaced Bamford goals or Harrison’s from midfield and we expected goals from Aaronson and then McKennie. We just got bits and pieces from Sinisterra who has been injured, Summerville and Gnonto but have never really replaced what we had
The hope is that they would be good enough and after a year together in the Championship they’d become a firm base for our next visit to the PL. This time around we spent poorly and had an aging squad, in truth Bielsa had them batting above their station and that first season back with the disruption of Covid and no fans, it suited us and disguised a lot of problems. I agree the coach is critical, we need someone who can develop those youngsters to the next level, not stagnate them, we really can’t afford to have a dinosaur in charge
These are not all of the kids because the others are young and developing for next seasons U21 side for Prem2 Div1. Also we have Klaessen, Van Den Hueval as main keepers who may or may not need loaning out or offloading, but look at this lot to sort out and who to keep if relegated: Jack Jenkins Alfie McCalmont Poveda McGurk Perkins Joseph Gyabi Monteiro Charlie Allen Amari Miller Cresswell Gelhardt Summerville Greenwood Archie Gray Drameh Lewis Bate Shackelton Dan James Tyler Roberts Hjelde
Pretty much spot on, on all accounts Foolee Re Mckennie, I think he was brought in for his flexibility - he’s played DM a lot in his career as well as 8 - so he could replace Roca and or Klich and also be cover for Adams. Had Sini, Rod and Adams stayed fit - we stay up… whoever manages us.
Mckennie is dog shyte he feezes when he gets to the box. What he is i do not know but he's not for us.
