Ultimatt

Austin and a new manager in for the next game :thumbup:

This used to be true and coincided with our successful years. Since Summer 2016 we've signed players on the way down that couldn't lock down starting spots at their last club. World of difference.

We sold Mane/Wanyama and bought Redmond before Puel joined. Our decline started before Puel joined.

Far more likely that Gao doesn't know much about the football side and is leaving Reed and Krueger to (not) make the decision.

Spurs must be close to their limit after year on year contract extensions squad wide. I'd be surprised if they don't lose a few after the world cup. Not sure any English club would go in for Kane though given a 100m+ pricetag.

A good manager has another side in 8th place, although when he was here you thought he was rubbish. I guess that means you think Leicester are a seriously good side that should be challenging top 4. We can agree to disagree but, assuming we stay up, when we replace MoPe for next season and are still struggling I wonder if you'll continue to blame the manager.

IMO the board know that the real issue is the squad quality. If we sack MoPe we can't attract someone much better and that new manager will have the same poor squad. If MoPe is replaced and our poor run continues then the crosshairs are pointed squarely at the board and they'll be next to go. In that sense, keeping him around provides a buffer and scapegoat. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

It's a **** implementation that turns people off it. They could easily start with only using it for non-grey decisions like offside. Spend a year with that getting it right before moving onto more subjective decisions like fouls/pens. When they can't even draw a straight line, what hope does the technology have.

Looks like James didn't get the memo. Hasn't he heard we're a small club that's just looking to survive? He needs to get on script.

This is nonsense. If we were so keen to cash in on him and sell him why didn't we do so in July when he wanted to go and his value was high post Euros win? Instead we offered him a new contract. Nonsense on stilts.

I did, but fans are fickle. You're only as good as your last game. Confirmation bias after a bad game. How bored they were after that Stoke game might have had a lot to do with Stoke only taking 4 shots all game and killing the game by sitting back.

Leicester under Puel have scored 37 goals in 24 games, failing to score only 4 times. That's a better rate than any team outside the top 6. If anything it shows it was the players.

GK - Our first choice was Crystal Palace's backup. He couldn't get a game here for the longest time even while Forster was quite clearly struggling. CB - Both Stephens/Hoedt are a step down on Fonte/VVD/Alderweireld/Lovren. They still have plenty of years to become solid players but they're not there yet. RB - Cedric is ok but not great in an attack with his wayward crosses, and gets caught out fairly often on crosses to the far post where he can't compete in the air (that's more the CB's fault). Clyne was definitely better as a modern fullback. LB - Bertrand is generally solid. DM - Romeu is a step down on Wanyama. Couldn't get a game while Wanyama was still here. CM - Hojbjerg shows glimpses of really good things. I think in a few years he can be the player Schneiderlin was for us, but he's not at Morgan's level yet. Lemina generally looks goods and an upgrade on Davis. Wingers - Tadic is quality if he has people to assist. Not a good finisher. Boufal flatters to deceive and has been woeful for us (though I can see why we bought him). JWP isn't really good at anything but he gets in better attacking positions than most of our other attacking players. We really lack a Lallana/Mane that can dribble through and linkup. Strikers - Austin is a step down from Lambert/Pelle. Long/Gabbi are clearly not the type of player we need. Jury's still out on Carillo. Our strikers don't take chances or even get into the right position for a chance, and our defenders make mistakes too often that lets other teams in. We don't have on-field leaders in any of the lines. We don't have any strong physical players to win the ball/headers. All in all I'd say our 1st XI is probably around 15th best in the league.

VVD Mane Wanyama Pelle Puel Easy top 6 Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I'm sure the board genuinely think they're going for the best available players. It's just not working. We've signed 9 players (+2 free transfers) in the last 2 seasons and not one has become a key player. Not one. Explain that to me. 8 of them weren't good enough for their old clubs to lock down starting places and lo and behold they're struggling to be good enough to lock down a place here. Premier league minutes played this season: Bertrand 2156 Romeu 2108 Tadic 1939 Cedric 1807 Forster 1800 Yoshida 1534 Hoedt 1530 Davis 1489 Redmond 1376 Stephens 1350 JWP 1283 Lemina 1271 Boufal 1162 Long 1139 VVD 993 Gabbi 948 Hojbjerg 935 McCarthy 630 We sold all our top players and the new ex-benchwarmers struggle to cement a place above our old backup players. The new approach delivered 17 less league points in its 1st year; Redmond for Mane, Gabbi for Pelle, Hojbjerg for Wanyama; and on track for an even worse 2nd season. Whether Gao sacks the board or not is one thing, but to effectively give them a 3 year contract extension while we sit in the relegation zone is just bizarre. It sends the wrong message. It sends a message that what they're doing is fine and to continue on this path.

So you're saying that our last 2 managers were at fault and that it had nothing to do with our clearly changed strategy of signing backup/out of favour players, while the 3 managers before them were all brilliant and it had nothing to do with our old strategy of buying successful in form players? We can agree to disagree but to me it looks like 2+2=4.

Hojbjerg only had 13 league starts for Schalke: https://www.whoscored.com/Players/101859/History/Pierre-Emile-H%C3%B8jbjerg Redmond had 24: https://www.whoscored.com/Players/86425/History/Nathan-Redmond Not the kind of numbers you get from important 1st team players.

Except that's not what i'm doing. In the 2 years before summer 2016 we strictly targeted players regularly starting for their clubs; Mane, Tadic, Bertrand, Forster, Pelle, VVD, Clasie, Cedric, Austin, Romeu; with no out of favour/backup players (Bertrand and Romeu were out on loan and playing every match). In the 2 years since we've almost exclusively targeted bench/backup players; Gabbiadini, Hojbjerg, Redmond, McCarthy, Lemina, Hoedt, Carillo; with only Boufal being a regular starter. That change in strategy is clear as day. I can praise the approach we did pre-2016 and be super critical of this appalling strategy since. Add to that the long contracts to player and staff alike in that same Summer 2016, regardless of whether they were a top player we desperately wanted to keep (VVD) or someone that's never quite been at the level of a starter. Another clear strategy shift after the club felt burned on players like Wanyama/Clyne leaving cheap. We now have a huge squad of average players, of which no club wants because half of them aren't getting any game time (we're the only club dumb enough to only sign backup players to be starters).

If you accept that our model/strategy changed Summer 2016 then we can look at the effectiveness of this new direction. Contract extensions with likely payrises to the entire squad regardless of how good they are. One particular player probably had the worst season of his career and got back to back contract extensions with 4 years still remaining. That's rewarding poor performance. The coach in charge of that player, Dave Watson, on the back of that players worst season ever gets promoted to Head of Goalkeeping at all levels (25th July 2016). That's rewarding poor performance. Our current manager has us in the bottom 3. Instead of being sacked we've given him full backing, having paid out our record signing to a player he used to work with. That's rewarding poor performance. Our board moved away from the successful model that saw those 8th, 7th, 6th seasons to one that clearly isn't working. Blackmore is saying they've been given 3 years job security. That's rewarding poor performance.

Seriously? ... This club is such a joke right now. Run like a South Coast B&B. Time and time again we seem to be rewarding people for failures and showing absolutely zero consequences for poor performances. Long contracts on and off the field as the junior teams fail and our prem team dances with relegation. On what planet do the board deserve a 3 year vote of confidence looking at our current situation?

Says the guy still wishing Cortese was here Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

The biggest mistake was changing the focus from on-field performance to the value of the squads players. We stopped recruiting in-form players like Mane/VVD/Tadic/Pelle who were at high market value and instead went for out of form/out of favour players who were at low market value. All or most (depends who you ask) of these players have struggled to cement a spot in the team and continued to spend a lot of time benched. We stopped moving players on that weren't good enough and instead gave long term contracts to every single player bar Davis (34 when his contract ends) and Gardos (injury plagued). Rewarding players for mediocrity and massively bloating the squad based on the false assumption that it'll significantly increase their market value (it relies on clubs being interested and that's just not the case for most of the players). It was a clear change in strategy summer 2016 that also saw a greater focus on improving sponsorship/our profile overseas etc. The club totally lost sight of what really matters; on field performance; and began making every decision based on $$$, including cheap replacements in every area of the club. https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?58613-Great-strategy-at-the-wrong-time

I don't think it does. Fans weren't renewing season tickets when Puel went. Fans are still selling St Mary's out despite hating Pellegrino more.

Our #1 GK is Palace's backup. Our CB pairing is defensively one of the weakest in the league. Our RB can't cross to save his life. Our DM is a step below Wanyama and didn't get a chance until we sold him. Our AM's are an ageing Davis and JWP who, while currently in a purple patch, hasn't delivered much in an attacking sense over his career. Our wingers don't score goals. And finally the best that can be said about our starting strikers (minus Austin) is they "work hard". Other then 2 or 3 good players I don't see the quality that makes us clearly above the rest of the midtable sides.

I have a feeling this Spurs side will start quickly breaking up after the world cup. They can't match the wages of other clubs.