nta786

Can confirm it is the first time this will ever happen

No excuse not to do it really, given that our next two PL games are away they technically have longer than the 2 week international break.

Norwich should give the job to their fans, perhaps find candidates on CanariesWeb or something. I've love to see how it would play out

I really am surprised at that given our net spend. I'd have thought with the amount of player trading we do and the profits we make on players almost fully amortised would have put us in a better stead than depicted by the table.

I wonder if Roma fans are pissed off and debate within themselves that they got mugged off because they only received "£39m" for Salah. We got a record fee at the time and they paid a record fee at the time too. I think £44m/45m would have been fairer too but certainly not losing sleep over it, plus I'd like to think with all the success Pool have had since we received the full £38m fee anyway. As always, hindsight is a wonderful thing

I personally don't buy this "zero experience" stuff- it's like a catch 22 to be honest and I always say it might be because he is English we think like that. Thomas Tuchel had a sole season in the German lower divisions before being given the Mainz job and then on to Dortmund. Pep Guardiola had one season with with the Barca B team before given the Barca role. Zidane spent a few years as RM assistant and B team manager before being given the RM job. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more I'd like for him to slip up and Villa to go down because they are our competitors, but it's not quite zero experience, he has done a good job in Scotland and won the league. I'm not sure what else he should be doing? Go to a top league abroad? That doesn't work out for British managers that much, perhaps due to language barriers Get a team promoted from the Championship? Neil Warnock and plenty of others have done that many a times, not exactly a necessity to be a good manager.

well my neighbour's wife's cousin's dogs taxi driver, he is practically ITK

Yep, although Gareth name dropped Tino today in the conference - shows he could be on the agenda in the future I think WC 2022 is out of question but Euro 2024 would not surprise me - just hope he is still with us by then!

Just an observation, but I thought PL rules for away game allocations is either 10% of stadium capacity or max. 3,000. Slightly frustrating then to see Villa receive a 3,344 allocation per their website (which they have sold out)

The money perhaps? I can't remember where I read this but I think he was the 8th or 9th highest paid manager in the league. Ultimately his best bet to getting one of the big 6 jobs or a top Bundesliga team is by doing well with us.

https://youtu.be/cKYXbtZzE4U As far as refereeing performances went this was one of the worst last season, be good to smash em 3 or 4-0. No need for Ings to get booed either when he comes out or for every time he touches the ball, would like to think we have all moved on. Otherwise in terms of team selection, I think same as today except perhaps Broja over A. Armstrong. Perraud/KWP dilemma I'll leave to Ralph, I don't mind either atm. Also haven't seen best of Stuart Armstrong just yet, I think keep Moi for now and hopefully Stu comes back stronger from the international break.

Yep, it was the minimum I was quietly hoping for and we have got it. I think 4 pts minimum from the next two games too, but no reason why we can't get all 6.

https://thefightingcock.co.uk/forum/threads/the-mighty-spurs-vs-mancs-sat-30th-oct-5-30pm.43197/page-73 Well they certainly keep it classy in the Spurs forum 😂

FT 1-0 win! Get in there!

we haven't got a pot to piss in

The co-commentator just praised us saying "I really like Ralph, the way he sets up his team, the way he bounces back from 7-0 defeats" I'll gladly knock off a couple goals off from those horror shows.

Che Adams misses what is basically a sitter even if at an awkward height

Depends on your PL aspirations really, with all due respect to Watford if we want to finish 12th or higher you should be beating promoted sides home and away with the odd exception. Equally though, if Watford want to stay up then they should be targeting 3 pts against a team like us. A draw keeps our head above the water really, doesn't do much favours. Therefore on that front I hope it is a good open game where both go for it.

Can see the logic tbf, I'd have preferred Perraud but am also happy with KWP at left back. JWP straight back in no surprise, before suspension I think had the 2nd highest "distance covered" and he is our captain. Who is to say we wouldnt have beaten Leeds even with him had he not be suspended. Djenepo would have been handy off bench too. Prediction - tight 1-0 Saints win whilst we make chances I just expect Saints to make a dogs dinner of about 7 of them

Agreed when we had Carl. Dan's stuff in my opinion is little insight, rehashes what most Saints fan know and there is next to to none tactical or meaningful analysis. Like we all know "Ralph has a squad to manage", didn't need 600 words to basically state the obvious. I'm only paying a £1 a month and there are some decent reads on there tho.

Yes - on £1k a week (which is still more than average wage) and Yes, I know he won't accept that but OP never specified a wage so I'll try to give a different answer.

Whilst this is true, and you could argue that if we had won maybe even the ball numbers would be different, this made me spit my tea out 😂

I think he will have to rebuild his career again - not sure he will ever get a top top job for the Big 6 or for clubs like Bayern/PSG etc I'm very much Ralph in for now, but if things suddenly turned sour in the next 15 games, or if Ralph's stint here is done with us in let's say 2024, then I'd very much like Koeman to be in consideration again. I think if he doesn't get the Dutch job again, he'll have to rebuild at clubs like Roma/Lazio/Lyon/Marseille etc - the Europa League level sorts of teams which I think would still be interested in him. So yeah, in summary, not now but I wouldn't shut the door if he ever wanted to come back here because he gave us 2 excellent years which I will look back with fondly.

BBC have a pretty nifty "select your XI" link now... the above is what I think Ralph will select https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57363970 You can choose yours using link above

I think Ralph will play this: McCarthy; Tino, Bednarek, Salisu, Perraud; JWP, Romeu; Stu. Armstrong, Elyounoussi; Broja, Redmond I think I read somewhere Moi should be back again. If not, then perhaps Redmond to drop back and Armstrong to come in which would also be decent.