When would you have pulled the trigger on Pellegrino?

[Window Cleaner]

I don’t think it was driven by desperation and cheapness- I think Les was so far up his a*se he wanted to bring an unknown quantity like we did with Pochettino.

 

I mean, think of the credit Les would have got had Pellegrino been amazing- and I think it is in this hope Reed is not firing Pellegrino, his arrogance can’t allow him to admit he got this appointment wrong and like all of us, is just hoping this guy will swing it around.

 

and to answer OP’s question- Leicester game- we had very winnable games in Huddersfield and Palace at home- got 1 out of 6.

 

The difference being that Pochettino was a top class international footballer and had had a few years in management. He also had (and still has) a very tight knit and efficient coaching team that comes as part of the deal. This bloke was just a no mark that'd done a while assisting Benitez. Perhaps he was just put into place to await the eventual arrival of Benitez, who knows really.

[Professor]

End of November / early December. Results by then justified dismissal and there was still time for a replacement to make a difference as well as being in place long enough to assess the need for squad changes in the January window. Not that squad changes were essential, because we have players of international quality who simply have not been used correctly or adequately motivated.

[Window Cleaner]

All of these views don't take into account one basic thing. With whom do you replace him? The time for getting it right was last summer when there were still a few "respectable" managers about. Once other clubs start firing and hiring your choice becomes limited. We needed to get this right last June (or not sack Puel) and not be floundering around with an idiot at the helm once the season started.

[mrfahaji]

Apologies in advance for the long post, but thought it would be interesting to look over ALL our games this season and see where there were positives and where there were warning signs:

 

Swansea (H) 0-0. Some encouraging things, but was clear Swansea weren't very good and that we should have won.

West Ham (H) 3-2. A good first half, but dreadful second half, letting 10-men get it back to 2-2 and winning through a soft last miunte penalty.

Huddersfield (A) 0-0. Not a terrible result, Hudds were on a high. Had a spell in the first half where we did well but were mostly outplayed and could've easily lost.

Watford (H) 0-2. One of the worst home performances we've put in in years, certainly since our promotion.

Palace (A) 1-0. Palace in all sorts of woe, but we had a great first half nonetheless. Second half they were much better and felt they could/should have got an equaliser.

Man Utd (H) 0-1. Went 1-0 down early, was so easy. Just what you want to avoid against Mourinho. But played reasonably well after that, unlucky with a couple of chances.

Stoke (A) 1-2. Poor performance. After getting back level with 15 minutes to go still found a way to lose.

Newcastle (H) 2-2. Tried different tactics and started the game brightly, but from about 20 minutes on Newcastle looked the better, more purposeful side.

West Brom (H) 1-0. Pulis sacked after this, they were dire, but nevertheless made it difficult for us. We had a few decent spells but looked to have run out of ideas mid way through the second half. And then Boufal scored a wonder goal.

Brighton (A) 1-1. Started brightly and scored early. Kept the pressure on for a bit but couldn't get a second. Mid way through the first half retreated and eventually conceded and were fortunate not to lose in the end.

Burnley (H) 0-1. Had more of the ball but didn't create much. Pope made some good saves but they tended to be from long range shots/set pieces rather than because we were creating lots of good chances. Burnley kept it tight until Dyche sniffed a chance of victory, changed it tactically and they scored/won.

Liverpool (A) 0-3. Were keeping things tight for 30 mins, didn't look too bad until Tadic had a howler. After that we were pathetic.

Everton (H) 4-1. An unexpected triumph. Charlie Austin finally given a chance and showed what we missed. Unsworth's Everton were hopeless, but we still did well.

Man City (A) 1-2. Harsh to lose with the last kick of the game in the 96th minute. A respectable performance, plus missed a couple of glorious chances, but we also had to rely a little profligacy for them.

Bournemouth (A) 1-1. Off colour for the first half, Bournemouth could have been out of sight. But second half was better, and felt we could have won it in the end.

Arsenal (H). Really good performance for most of the game, but failed to capitalise and only led 1-0. Then sat back, deeper and deeper, until they inevitably equalised in the dying minutes.

Leicester (H) 1-4. By all accounts made the Watford performance (see above) look respectable. Absolutely abysmal.

Chelsea (A) 0-1. Decent first half performance, but evidence of Pellegrino not having a clue with regard to in-game changes. Forster cost us the goal but in second half he kept the score down.

Huddersfield (H) 1-1. Pretty poor performance all round. Huddersfield were better for most of the game, save for a short spell after we scored.

Tottenham (A) 2-5. Spurs put five past us and didn't even have to play that well to do it. Embarrassing.

Man Utd (A) 0-0. Good, albeit defensive, performance away from home.

Crystal Palace (H) 1-2. Decent first half, completely out thought second half. The equaliser was inevitable and all the wrong changes were made, an unforgivable loss.

Watford (A) 2-2. Great first half, despite Watford being terrible. Led TWO (yes, two) nil. They changed things second half, we couldn't cope. Equaliser should never have stood but second half was ALL Watford, can't say they didn't deserve it.

Tottenham (H) 1-1. Decent performance. Spurs not at the races, but partly due to our play. Terrible defending for their goal. We could've won it, but so could they. Sat deeper and deeper, as usual, probably due to heavy pitch & tiredness though.

Brighton (H) 1-1. Pretty awful display. Brighton came with a plan to make things difficult, they succeeded. Rescued a draw but save for a 10 minute spell in the second half where we had some momentum, looked out of ideas and struggled to create anything.

 

Cups: Wolves 0-2, horrendous display. Fulham 1-0 laboured to victory, had a couple of decent spells but second half was mainly defending and booting it clear. Watford 1-0 similar pattern to last game, except lessons were learnt and we defended a bit better against their big forwards.

 

Of course, some people will dispute my one line summary of each game, but thought it'd be interesting to review the season so far and how many matches we've had with more than a fleeting positive spell, or without any major warning signs. I can count a handful of games where there were several positives and very few negatives - Everton, City, United (A), Spurs (H). And we only took 5 points from those!

[Rational Rich]

Burnley home. Was clear that lessons were not being learned.

[CB Fry]

Leicester it became absolutely unquestionable that he had to go but he was pretty sh ite before that.

 

Astonishing, absolutely fu cking astonishing that he hasn't been sacked today and he's still in post.

 

Les Reed thinking he's going to get to point where he comes good and he can be all smug about it. Well, no. He's absolute dogsh it and there will be no validation no fu cking I told you so. Not for you Les. He's utter **** and he's got to go.

 

Status: still annoyed.

[Badger]

Leicester match.

[Disco Stu]

Persuading them to join the club is obviously a bit of a problem. Decent managers can be a bit choosy now cos there is a continual stream of jobs to pick from. Manager's jobs are like buses, if you miss one there be another along in a few minutes.

 

After Koeman left, we were probably in the best position in our history to appoint a top name manager. Instead we took a punt on Puel. Regardless of your opinion on him, he was far from our best option at the time. He was probably the cheapest.

[CB Fry]

After Koeman left, we were probably in the best position in our history to appoint a top name manager. Instead we took a punt on Puel. Regardless of your opinion on him, he was far from our best option at the time. He was probably the cheapest.

I still pine after Rudi Garcia.

[Cabrone]

Realised he was totally out of his depth in October and would have pulled the trigger in November. Had the club done the same and appointed a decent attacking manager I see no reason why we couldn't be 7th now.

 

He has destroyed all our attacking instincts and crushed our self belief. The worry is that even if a new guy were to come in it would take time to get our mojo back and we are running out of time.

[Dellman]

Our attacking instincts and our self belief were destroyed last season and this guy has made it worse

[sebastian firefly]

negative signs were there st etienne freindly... wolves just proved we hadnt replaced puel yet utd home showed promise...burnley should of been walked down tunnel led to an ante room given a bottle of sherry and the club webley.

[Chris27687]

When first team got turned over by wolves in the Mickey Mouse cup. They should have beat us 5/6-0.

 

Now we're here, he's staying till the end of the season I think.

[sebastian firefly]

I still pine after Rudi Garcia.

 

yep this x2

[Katalinic]

I remember at the start of the season Pellegrino saying it would take a while for the players to understand and apply his philosophy, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt from August - October. By November however it was obvious that he was a massive fraud and the players were hating it too, he should have gone then.

[Whitey Grandad]

After 10 games. That was long enough to see that we were going in the wrong direction.

 

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[Wade Garrett]

Leicester.

[Jonnyboy]

I've only been to one game this season - Palace away - and I posted then that rumours of our demise had been greatly exaggerated!

 

Lemina looked like the missing piece in the jigsaw, decent enough debut from Hoedt, Forster kept a rare clean sheet, Tadic was OK, Davis scored (!), unfortunately Redmond was full-Redmond that day but you can't have it all; it looked then like we had something to build on.

 

And the rest is history! Extraordinary that we can start a must-win game with our 4 biggest signings on the bench and playing a non-scoring striker and non-scoring midfield.

 

Utter shambles, he should have gone after Brighton away.

 

Never go full Redmond.

[gphutchings]

Erm, have we given up on murder as an option then? I'd take a good old murder at the moment. Give Radhi Jaidi the job, or anyone really. I think it is the best option all around. People will forget how cack he was and we stay up. Yep, it's murder all the way in my book.

 

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[Nordic Saint]

The first thing is none of us would have appointed him in the first place. But, once he was here, I'd have sacked him after sacking Les Reed, because every appointment Les makes is worse than the previous one. So, there isn't a great deal to be gained from sacking him while Les is still here. Many thought it was a good idea to sack Puel and get rid of Eric Black as first team coach but then Les appointed Pellegrino and Kelvin Davis. There are still plenty of people on the planet so you can bet your bottom dollar Les will still be able to find somebody worse than Pellegrino.

[Supersubpuckett]

Our attacking instincts and our self belief were destroyed last season and this guy has made it worse

 

100% this

 

From the squad that finished 6th and scoring freely, the board failed to adequately replace players and then Puel turned us into the ultra conservative "everyone is a threat" team that has formed the basis of MPs ****d up circus of bllx we have to witness every week.

[Saint IQ]

Leicester at home but could see signs of how poor we were probably going to be within the first handful of games and it just didn't get much better!

[bpsaint]

It angers and upsets me that the club have stuck by him for this long on a hope that he’s suddenly going to come good and turn our fortunes around. It reminds me of when Venkys bought in Steve Kean as manager and he was so bad that every week you’d be thinking he’s going to get the sack this week, and the next week, and the next week.....before it was all too late for them.

 

its a repeat of Lowe holding onto Wigley for so long and ultimately costing us relegation. How MP has made it this far I’ll never know

[Appy]

Liverpool away.

[LGTL]

The writing was on the wall after the first 2 games of the season. He was never, ever going to be a success here and his appointment still baffles me completely. And here I am, stood on a packed train to New Street and the ***** is still here.

[Window Cleaner]

I still pine after Rudi Garcia.

 

Who turned us down I believe. Doing pretty well at Marseille just now. Then again they've a strong squad in a relatively weak league. I mean Thauvin scored 3 last night against Metz. Bit of a failure at Newcastle wasn't he ?

[alehouseboys]

his appointment still baffles me completely

 

They didn't get who they really wanted and then they fell into the tap of believing the hype of this revolutionary 'Southampton Way' blueprint. Afterall, they'd previously amazed the footballing world with this never-ending *ahem* supply of young footballers from the academy and how they'd unearthed this little known Argie manager from an unfashionable Spanish club who transformed us almost overnight and who now has progressed to the point of being headhunted by Real Madrid.

 

So cue little-known-Argie-from-unfashionable-Spanish-club MkII (he even had the same initials and his name was almost the same!) to jump in and save the day. What could possibly go wrong?

 

For Les & Co. to now have to sack this fella is a big egg-on-the-face moment.

[sadoldgit]

It angers and upsets me that the club have stuck by him for this long on a hope that he’s suddenly going to come good and turn our fortunes around. It reminds me of when Venkys bought in Steve Kean as manager and he was so bad that every week you’d be thinking he’s going to get the sack this week, and the next week, and the next week.....before it was all too late for them.

 

its a repeat of Lowe holding onto Wigley for so long and ultimately costing us relegation. How MP has made it this far I’ll never know

 

I disagree. I would say that Redknapp cost us relegation.

[bpsaint]

I disagree. I would say that Redknapp cost us relegation.

 

i still feel that there was a bit of fight under Redknapp though, for me Lowe persisted too long with Wigley and then didn’t back Redknapp with proper funds for reinforcements, hence the likes of Olivier Bernard and Callum Davenport trying to keep us up! Losing Kevin Phillips to injury and David Prutton to a 10 match ban didn’t help either.