Dman

He looks absolutely fucking awful 😂😂😂 I, maybe naively, thought that we’d spend a decent part of the Vestergaard money improving an already weak area of the squad. It looks like we’ve just made it even weaker. With what this fool Will cost us, we could have got a championship CB in to prepare for it next season. This muppet doesn’t even look good enough for that.

You think he’ll survive another 6/7+ - 0 defeat? Who knows, we’re in balls deep with him so you’re probably right. I guess the question is do you think he deserves to. I have to say, yours and the boards support is admirable, and I’d love to have the confidence that he’s going to turn things around, but he won’t. By using ‘it’s only 2 games into the season’ as an excuse, we’re just delaying the inevitable. Let’s hope United have an off day and we can Somehow steal a result of some kind to kick start the season.

If we set up in the same way that Ralph has had us set up in 95% of his time here, I fear another 9-0 could be incoming. Surely another heavy defeat and even Ralph can’t survive it…?

It’s all relative, clearly. Anyone with half a brain can tell that financially, we’re in the mud. This window, we’ve offloaded wasters such as Lemina and got very good money for players that don’t want to be here in ings and vestergaard. Given what they’ve got to play with, comparing to the shit show of windows we had under previous leadership, Semmens and Crooker have done well, imo.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s probably our best player currently, but I think that says more about us than him. 50m would easily replace his qualities and some (other than free kicks) + give us a decent kitty to improve other areas winger, GK for example. absolutely no way he’s worth 50m or close to be honest and as things stand, he’s not am England international… he didn’t make the squad.

It’s games like Football manager mate and Americanised media like the Athletic. They’re basically making kids who cant play the game think they’re pep, because they won the league on a simulated game.

The trouble is, football is a little like politics in the fact that if people are passionate, you’ll have some who are OTT argumentative for and OTT argumentative against (with some who sit in the middle). The reality is, when things aren’t going well, you’re going to have the natural pessimists become more vocal. Given this is a football forum and people discuss football (some positive, some negative) I wouldn’t call for a ban on anyone (other than chapel_end, who offers nothing to the forum other than sniping comments). MLG starts an argument in nearly every thread, yet others get banned for expressing their opinion. A discussion of the lounge area of the forum, but as others have said; It’d be interesting for mods, in particular @Lighthouse to confirm why people have been banned….

It’ll be too late at that point. If we don’t add some quality in one of the attacking midfield positions and in goal (as well as a CB), we’re down this year. I can only see one of those coming in and no doubt it’ll be a cheapy from the championship, so yes, too late, we’re down.

Come on then Stevy, hit us with your superior football knowledge. I’ll give you some to start, 5 wins in 24 (soon to be 25) games. Bottom Of the table this calendar year. 2 9-0 defeats. 3 years and still seemingly doesn’t know his best 11. Can’t set up a team to defend. Plays and refuses to budge from this 4222 which requires 2 10’s and we have a squad full of wingers who aren’t suited to that role (Armstrong aside). No creativity to score, no ability and desire to defend. We’re just a nothing team who can press high for 45 minutes. That’s about it.

No, you probably don’t, you’re correct. He should have gone back end of last season given the run we went on. As many argued for and you (along with a handful of others) argued against. Nothing I’ve seen pre-season has given me any confidence that things have changed. So when he is sacked in 5 - 10 games time, you’ll admit you were wrong, yes?

How about 5 wins in 24 games this calendar year, including the worse defence (goals conceded) and a record equalling (his own record) defeat. Making the Same old mistakes and the manager showing his same tactical naivety. What makes you think he’ll turn it around? But let’s wait another 20 games which will leave us all but dead and buried before we decide to make a change. We get Ralph has his cult, of which numbers of dwindling, but you’re simply delaying the inevitable.

We could, yes. However; - why would he want to come here? Do we offer anything more than Brighton? - Recent history would suggest we don’t go for managers currently in employment as we don’t want to spend ££ on compensation.

Banned for ‘trolling’… Got a life sentence, I think… looks like Chapel end went down with him. As for the topic. I can’t see how Ralph survives. His reluctance and stubbornness to not change anything up will ultimately be the sword he falls on. As people have said, we start games well buy die off, that’s down to the manager. However, as people have said for a long while, we lack leadership in the squad, especially at CB. We need an older been there and done it head to help us manage these games through. I’m not sure if Howe is the answer, but I certainly don’t think Ralph is either.

So no more proven than lampard, then?

You’ll defend him until the cow come home. Playing well for a half just isn’t good enough. Something clearly isn’t working. Defensively he’s clueless. He may and probably will go on to be a decent manager for someone else, but with our squad, he’s not the right man. The club are balls deep into Ralph, they won’t want to pull the trigger, but sooner rather than later they’ll have to. I’m giving him 9 more games, if that.

We ended las season shit, despite what people claim, we haven’t improved the starting 11. In fact it’s got weaker. Ralph still has his tactical naivety. Is anyone surprised? Surely now, everyone can see we’re in for a very long season.

Add Lovern (in his time with us) and Toby (could argue not a saint, I guess) to that list as well.

Someone should tell the club that winning and entertaining football will put bums on seats and not extra padding. Unless we start well, my guess is attendances will be the lowest for some time, this season. Can’t solely blame the club on this though, they’re just effectively copying the market. The premier league is becoming a joke, they’re all for the fans when they need their support to oppose the Super League, but couldn’t give a shit when it’s to line their pockets. given we’ve absolutely no chance of winning any silverware, getting into Europe any time soon, the sooner we get relegated and cleanse our support of the American/Chinese/modern fan market, the better in my opinion.

Not really a shame or unfortunate. It’s been obvious to everyone that Vestergaard was off this window. Or failing that, the next window. The fact we’re unwilling and/or unable to spend without selling first has cost us. Cahill And Jones would both add some experience and leadership at the back for us. Given we’ll likely be on the look out for a cheap option, Jones would be my pick. Personally, I think we should go all out for koopmeiners, although I think an out and out CB is higher priority than a CM who can play CB. Bednerak doesn’t cut it for me.

I think Diallo will replace JWP when he moves on next summer. Agree that he’ll become a good player for us, a little lightweight, but next to a Romeu type (personally another on I think we could do with upgrading but unlikely to given limited resources), he’ll be fine.

Left footed. We need a right sided CB to replace Bednerak imo.

Good defender and would add some much needed leadership at the back. Certainly an upgrade on Bednarek. However, no way Burnley would sell him to a relegation rival. If they did sell, it’d take more than 20m (didn’t they want over 40 just last summer?). Would he even want to come here? Are we much of a step up for him?

Long gets OTT criticism on here. Up until last season, he was a very useful player for the club and under koeman was very, very good. I can also understand the contract extension as when offered, he was keeping Adams out of the team and formed a pretty decent partnership with ings. He’s naturally dropped off a bit now given he’s getting older, but a great servant to the club.

It’s all relative. Given the shit show we had with Les / Ross at the helm, this has been a pretty positive window. We’ve shifted most of the deadwood, got a decent deal for Ings and added some much needed depth. Do I think we’ll struggle this season? Yes, most probably. I still think we lack quality at CB and desperately need a decent attack mid / number 10. But for what we were expecting, I think we’ve done best we realistically could.

There is clearly something in the villa interest though, generally speaking, there’s not this much smoke without fire. I think it’s fair to question why a super fit, never injured, JWP is out of the squad around the same time said interest come about. I’m sure it’s just coincidence, but I can see why people would link the 2. I think most on here universally agreed that, unless a silly offer comes in, after ings was sold to Villa, JWP wouldn’t be. Imo he goes next summer regardless of what happens (excluding a take over).