SKD

At the moment yes because Bertrand is on his last legs, but he hasn’t been previously and I think the club were probably right in letting him go, for the good of both us and him. Similar situation to Harry Reed. The issue is we never really replaced him as a backup.

Sad news for the lad. Probably didn’t have enough about him to make it at this level, but would have been a handy option to cover LB this season. None the less, he achieved a hell of a lot more than most (playing away at inter Milan must be a career highlight) and he’ll be a wealthy young man, so hopefully he invested it wisely. By all accounts he’s a very decent lad as well. It’d be great if the club look after him, offer him a coaching role (if he wants to go down the route) building up through the age groups. Having someone like that around 16/17 year olds would be great as it’s a real life example of how your life and dreams can change in a split second.

Worth a insurance bet?

If we get another Adams, does that then mean Adams is no longer the ‘support striker’ as the new man will be and we can rightly criticise how bad he is in front of goal?

Let’s not start the ‘he’s not very good anyway’ because you’re bitter he’s off. Dubious injury record, yes. But we’re a significantly better team with him in it. Ideally, and I’m sure if you asked anyone at the club, we’d rather find another gabbiadini / Adams (neither set the world alight, so poor example imo), to play along side him and cover when injured.

Like Adams who’s scored 8 this season?..... Ings will be a huge loss to us, first name on the teamsheet and our best player. Without him, we lack even less of a goal threat. Nonsense to suggest otherwise really.

Yes, that’s because Pellegrino and Mark Hughes are awful managers and hardly have a track record to suggest they’re anywhere near the level required. But even those 2 didn’t manage a run of 16 games as bad as this.... The system and players were pretty good for 2020, as you like to point out.

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here, but He’s still our best player and will be a big loss. Injuries are why he’s only scored a few this season not ability. He’s miles and miles ahead of Adams / Obafemi / Nlundlu In terms of goal threat

Talented player and potentially has it all, but a shocking attitude and work ethic. not the sort of player for us at the moment. He’s very much a West Ham player imo. Think he’d do well there as well. He’ll go that’s for sure, but we won’t get much for him.

Agree; but he’s comfortably our best player currently and will be a big loss. Absolutely don’t blame him for going though.

But these players are a huge miss for us and our system is reliant on everyone being at the top of their game for it to be a success. Without KWP, we had to play a CB at RB, we had absolutely no width and Bertrand wasn’t offering any the other side because his legs have gone. Without Romeu, the 2 in midfield are far too lightweight and easy to bypass. This is the biggest fault of Ralph. He’s sticking to his system regardless of the fact we are missing key players for it.

I don’t know, probably not. It quite clearly should though....

Let’s just say Ralph’s ‘play book’ has been as successful for them as it has us...

Or maybe it was the player, rather than the managers formation....

Dubious Previous ownership of sport teams and the fact his net worth wouldnt even pay for a premier league players contract. What’s to stop you or I just getting a high interest bank loan placed against the club and trying to take over?

Because we’d be a shit investment for anyone willing to actually part with their own cash. In our current state, We’ll only ever attract chancers looking to make a quick buck.

Local, as in being able to live where he does, as well.

No, but I did coincide with a freak run without an injury for ings and him finding the form of his life. When his goals dried up or injuries reoccurred, we dropped back to usual.

Side note - can you still view who has reacted to posts? I seem to have lost the ability to. Even my own, I get a message saying ‘somebody has reacted to your post’ 😔

I’m not saying we would have won the league under Pellegrino. Just that there was a chance.

Leicester aren’t playing all that well at the moment, so I think 9-0 is out of the window. However, they’ll still have more than enough for us. i’m going for a boring 2-0 defeat.

He sounds perfect

You know what, I wouldn’t actually be that disappointed if it was the case. At least Ralph would show some kind of thought to change things.

I think you’re missing the point. Finishing 14th/15th, whilst disappointing (I personally think we should be in that next bracket of 14th-10th) isn’t the end of the world. I think most would accept that with limited resources out side of our starting 11-15 were pretty weak. However, we’re bottom of the table over half a season, on course to finish 17th with only 2 wins in that time. We’ve had more embarrassing drubbings than wins this year. Just think about that. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that we will turn things around next season (unless something with the back room staff changes, some fresh ideas or some very unlikely investment into the squad). In fact, we’re going to lose our best player, who history tells, under Ralph without him we don’t score goals. You can try and justify things by saying our squad isn’t very good. But it’s absolutely better than 7 points in 16 games. That, is absolutely pathetic and a run any manager is very lucky to survive. Especially one who is reluctant to change a thing.

So what you’re saying is that there are no managers out there who would do better than 7 points in half a season who’d be willing to come to us? Of course there are you idiot. Yes we’ve been poor and ownership is a bit of a mess, but we’re still an established premier league club and a have a reputation of being a stepping stone to the bigger clubs. We’d still Be an attractive option to a lot of managers. As for who they are, I’m not sure, but then again, I wouldn’t have known about Poch, Ralph or Koeman before they came here.