Ralph Hasenhuttl

[The Left Back]

3 minutes ago, DT said:

I'm just wondering if there are any good managers we could nab from Man City's academy

I'm a bit slow but I think I've worked out you're not a Ralph fan.  So thanks for repeating variations of the same cracked record every day over the summer.  I know forums are about opinions but yours (and a few others) on this thread is more like Chinese water torture.  

 

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

8 minutes ago, DT said:

I'm just wondering if there are any good managers we could nab from Man City's academy

Already missed out on Arteta and Vieira from their coaching tree. Seemingly they also need to have played in midfield for Arsenal, so shall we let Fabregas manage Melbourne City for a year then get him? (Not going to happen!)

[DT]

3 minutes ago, The Left Back said:

I'm a bit slow but I think I've worked out you're not a Ralph fan.  So thanks for repeating variations of the same cracked record every day over the summer.  I know forums are about opinions but yours (and a few others) on this thread is more like Chinese water torture.  

 

Quite easy to put me on ignore, or block I think.

[Charlie Wayman]

On 24/07/2022 at 20:46, S-Clarke said:

Martin confirmed our club mantra last year, it's not amazing as like you say we'll never create stability or long-term success with the same group. But I've come to accept it to be honest. If we get to see some superstar young players and enjoy those for a year or 2 then that's better than having to limp along with rubbish.

Martin Semmens said ''For us, it's not about points or where we finish, it's about how we develop players and provide them the platform''. Obviously staying in the PL is key to that and I think we'll always be competitive enough to achieve that (I hope), but I don't see us developing a WHU/Leicester type team that stays together for a few years and has consistent finishes in the league. It doesn't seem as if that's the priority for the club.

Which is why I will never step inside St Mary's again until a new CEO arrives with a more progressive and positive attitude towards being competitive in every competition we enter including the Premier League!

It's all too comfy up there for Semmens, setting easy goals that can be achieved with little effort and zero accountability to fans and clinging to a manager bereft of ideas and stealing a living by blaming others for his own failures.

Edited 26 July, 2022 by Charlie Wayman

[Matthew Le God]

13 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Which is why I will never step inside St Mary's again until a new CEO arrives with a more progressive and positive attitude towards being competitive in every competition we enter including the Premier League!

It's all too comfy up there for Semmens, setting easy goals that can be achieved with little effort and zero accountability to fans

Can you outline an alternative strategy you'd be happy with?

[Piran]

10 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Can you outline an alternative strategy you'd be happy with?

I'm not sure Charlie wants to be happy...

[Greenridge]

1 hour ago, DT said:

Quite easy to put me on ignore, or block I think.

I reckon you've put yourself on ignore. You must have, otherwise you'd realise you've said the same thing a thousand times. 

[Saint86]

On 26/07/2022 at 13:11, Charlie Wayman said:

Which is why I will never step inside St Mary's again until a new CEO arrives with a more progressive and positive attitude towards being competitive in every competition we enter including the Premier League!

It's all too comfy up there for Semmens, setting easy goals that can be achieved with little effort and zero accountability to fans and clinging to a manager bereft of ideas and stealing a living by blaming others for his own failures.

Have to say that I am surprised there are such negative views on Semmens. I've been considering him as a significant factor behind why we're still in the league, have the owners we have, and are having the summer we are having. We're a mid sized prem club and he seems a good fit. You only have to look at the mess some other clubs get into to surely think we've done more than alright with Semmens? Under him we've had stability, improved recruitment, an improved financial position, refreshed the squad, and the academy sides have improved?

And I don't have an issue with what he's said in the short term - long term you hope that the club's standing improves, and with it the quality of players and/or their retention. Worth noting that outside of the clubs with super rich owners (where money is no object), all teams have to trade players (and crucially - do it well) to keep improving - the second a club stops improving the squad they've effectively peaked and begin to stagnate and decline relative to other teams. So if you accept that saints need to trade players (we very obviously do because we aren't owned by an oil country etc.), then the club's strategy of targeting top youngsters, developing them, and giving them first team football / a shop window, is the way to go. The challenge as always is to do it better than most other teams. 

[Wade Garrett]

It is clear from last night that Ralph knows exactly what he’s doing.

Have faith, we laughed when he suggested Oriol should play higher.  It turns out he was right, looked like Glenn Hoddle last night.

Ralph knows his onions.  Come on you facking Saints.

[Mr X]

3 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

It is clear from last night that Ralph knows exactly what he’s doing.

Have faith, we laughed when he suggested Oriol should play higher.  It turns out he was right, looked like Glenn Hoddle last night.

Ralph knows his onions.  Come on you facking Saints.

Time will tell if Ralph knows his onions as he definitely didn't know them last season, I think we have lots of potential but still worried about our lack of experience within the squad if we can get in a proven striker to replace ings that's age 24 plus then things may look ok, think the best we can hope for is around 12th as the new players will need time and some of them may turn out to be duds but if we can play some good football over a sustained period rather than just a good month or two that's progress 

[Dellman]

On 26/07/2022 at 13:11, Charlie Wayman said:

Which is why I will never step inside St Mary's again until a new CEO arrives with a more progressive and positive attitude towards being competitive in every competition we enter including the Premier League!

It's all too comfy up there for Semmens, setting easy goals that can be achieved with little effort and zero accountability to fans and clinging to a manager bereft of ideas and stealing a living by blaming others for his own failures.

We wont miss you, enjoy Fratton Park lot

[Daft Kerplunk]

14 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

It is clear from last night that Ralph knows exactly what he’s doing.

Have faith, we laughed when he suggested Oriol should play higher.  It turns out he was right, looked like Glenn Hoddle last night.

Ralph knows his onions.  Come on you facking Saints.

Not sure he knows his onions that well, last season he got shallot wrong

[sainttomski]

Not convinced Ralph is the root cause of all last seasons issues....

[skintsaint]

1 hour ago, sainttomski said:

Not convinced Ralph is the root cause of all last seasons issues....

It doesn't help with strange line ups and tactics.

I think this season will be more of the same unfortunately.

[Toussaint]

6 hours ago, Daft Kerplunk said:

Not sure he knows his onions that well, last season he got shallot wrong

Too much chopping and changing for me

[Holmes_and_Watson]

That's the tears at the Liverpool game explained.

[Toussaint]

I think he was fried half way through the season 

[Saint Fan CaM]

41 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

I think he was fried half way through the season 

Because other Managers ran rings around him.

[wild-saint]

18 hours ago, Mr X said:

Time will tell if Ralph knows his onions as he definitely didn't know them last season, I think we have lots of potential but still worried about our lack of experience within the squad if we can get in a proven striker to replace ings that's age 24 plus then things may look ok, think the best we can hope for is around 12th as the new players will need time and some of them may turn out to be duds but if we can play some good football over a sustained period rather than just a good month or two that's progress 

Its an interesting one really with RH. Yes, we have all been critical of some of his decisions but nearly everyone has agreed the squad last year was sub standard and many think its a championship squad hence the cries for significant investment etc. Whilst i have been massively frustrated at times with RH you cant have it both way surely, if the players are poor then can we really expect much more than staying up. This season I think we can be far more critical now he has had a decent budget to create the squad he wants. Time will tell i guess.

[Toussaint]

The situation reminds me of a famous quote by Ralph Gump, "laafe is laake a bag of onions" it all makes sense now.

[Matthew Le God]

 

 

[Pamplemousse]

Does he need a fast start? Really?

 

I'd be disappointed to not beat Leeds at home but the other 4 games are toughies, let's be honest 

[Convict Colony]

how many years is it now since we won our opening game 10 -15yrs ?

I'd be shocked if we did it v Spurs away especially since conte will be killing them, but hopefully the pace of the game will be a bit of a shock to some of the new foreign signings like persic etc .

[MarkSFC]

8 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Does he need a fast start? Really?

 

I'd be disappointed to not beat Leeds at home but the other 4 games are toughies, let's be honest 

I think its the manner of the performances that will ultimately decide his fate (in the first few games at least). If we are competitive, score, and generally look like there's a good cohesion and strategy (and hope!!!), us the fans will likely give him time. If we look like never scoring and we let in 3 or 4 or even more two or 3 times then I think he's a gona as the owners can't ignore the will of the fans too long.

If there's a hangover from last seasons finish he's done. 

Spurs A Loss

Leeds H Win

Leicester A Draw or Win

Man Utd H Loss

Chelsea H Loss

Then 

Wolves A Draw at least

Brentford H must Win

Villa A Draw at least

Everton H must win

City A Loss

That would be 12-14 after 10 games. Less than that and bye bye!!

[Appy]

3 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

how many years is it now since we won our opening game 10 -15yrs ?

I'd be shocked if we did it v Spurs away especially since conte will be killing them, but hopefully the pace of the game will be a bit of a shock to some of the new foreign signings like persic etc .

Nine years, West Brom away in 2013

[Convict Colony]

5 minutes ago, Appy said:

Nine years, West Brom away in 2013

Thanks hope we dont get to double figures v spurs then

[Lord Duckhunter]

3 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Thanks hope we dont get to double figures v spurs then

Let’s hope they don’t. 

[Miltonaggro]

On 28/07/2022 at 09:45, Wade Garrett said:

It is clear from last night that Ralph knows exactly what he’s doing.

Have faith, we laughed when he suggested Oriol should play higher.  It turns out he was right, looked like Glenn Hoddle last night.

Ralph knows his onions.  Come on you facking Saints.

He is in need of bunch of new onions, a striker in the Pelle mould, the Italian scallion! 

[Diabolus Ex Machina]

Not sure if there's a better thread for this but Swiss Ramble twitter account has a good breakdown of last seasons club performances based on budgets and wages which goes into a lot of detail about who got the most bang for their buck in terms of points/position for money spent on transfers and wages. Worth a look to see how we compare with others currently.

 

[Mr X]

7 hours ago, wild-saint said:

Its an interesting one really with RH. Yes, we have all been critical of some of his decisions but nearly everyone has agreed the squad last year was sub standard and many think its a championship squad hence the cries for significant investment etc. Whilst i have been massively frustrated at times with RH you cant have it both way surely, if the players are poor then can we really expect much more than staying up. This season I think we can be far more critical now he has had a decent budget to create the squad he wants. Time will tell i guess.

Totally agree this season we should be able to judge his managerial abilities he can't hide behind the not my squad or only crap players available that noone would do better with excuse 

[Sarisbury Saint]

9 hours ago, wild-saint said:

Its an interesting one really with RH. Yes, we have all been critical of some of his decisions but nearly everyone has agreed the squad last year was sub standard and many think its a championship squad hence the cries for significant investment etc. Whilst i have been massively frustrated at times with RH you cant have it both way surely, if the players are poor then can we really expect much more than staying up. This season I think we can be far more critical now he has had a decent budget to create the squad he wants. Time will tell i guess.

He brought them in 🤔

[Wade Garrett]

Ralph is a football genius you muppets.

[Lord Duckhunter]

12 hours ago, wild-saint said:

Its an interesting one really with RH. Yes, we have all been critical of some of his decisions but nearly everyone has agreed the squad last year was sub standard and many think its a championship squad hence the cries for significant investment etc. Whilst i have been massively frustrated at times with RH you cant have it both way surely, if the players are poor then can we really expect much more than staying up. This season I think we can be far more critical now he has had a decent budget to create the squad he wants. Time will tell i guess.

Is this a post from last years preseason? It seems very familiar to the pony we were fed by the Ralph cult this time last year. What’s the betting we’ll get the same posts next season, after all the tea lady & the receptionist were here pre Ralph and weren’t his choices. 

Edited 29 July, 2022 by Lord Duckhunter

[Piran]

On the right of the posts there are the 'like', 'sad', 'confused' and 'ha ha' options.

Would it be possible to add a 'what a twat' button?

[Convict Colony]

28 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Is this a post from last years preseason? It seems very familiar to the pony we were fed by the Ralph cult this time last year. What’s the betting we’ll get the same posts next season, after all the tea lady & the receptionist were here pre Ralph and weren’t his choices. 

What needs to happen to change your mind ? Or can nothing change it.

We've just signed 6 players, all high potential on decent fees with more to come and you still have the same view as last summer ?  

Edited 29 July, 2022 by Convict Colony

[The Cat]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Is this a post from last years preseason? It seems very familiar to the pony we were fed by the Ralph cult this time last year. What’s the betting we’ll get the same posts next season, after all the tea lady & the receptionist were here pre Ralph and weren’t his choices. 

Ralph cult ✅

Pony ✅

Classic Lord D.

[cloggy saint]

Noddy ❌

Something something chicks ❌

Sadly no full house.

[Miltonaggro]

1 hour ago, Piran said:

On the right of the posts there are the 'like', 'sad', 'confused' and 'ha ha' options.

Would it be possible to add a 'what a twat' button?

A bell emoji would be a good addition, though this place would frequently resemble Westminster Abbey as a consequence.  

[Lord Duckhunter]

16 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

What needs to happen to change your mind ? Or can nothing change it.

We've just signed 6 players, all high potential on decent fees with more to come and you still have the same view as last summer ?  

I’m merely wondering when it’s considered Ralph’s team, when people judge him by results and don’t blame blokes who left the club years ago. We did see posts stating it was last season, but once the shit hit the fan it wasn’t his fault we had Mr Magoo in nets , Redmond wasn’t his responsibility or Longy, and the coaching staff imposed on him against his will were literally costing us record breaking defeats.

 

I’ll change my mind when he put a proper keeper in nets, when he sets us up to defend properly, when we become hard to beat, when he stops making ridiculous selections and substitutions and when he gets his tongue  out of Pep & Klopps arse. Then I’ll change my mind about him being an average manager. 

[CB Fry]

To be fair it was all Ralph’s team when we were winning and beat Tottenham and look he's proved you all wrong. Then as the rest of the season played out it turned out it wasn't Ralph’s team at all after all and Les Reed and Claude Puel and its all their fault and what chance does Ralph have with that shower?

[aintforever]

He can't pick a decent keeper, set up a defence, or make the correct subs but still manages to comfortably keep us up year after year. 

Keeping a medium/small size club in the Premier League is obviously a piss easy job.

[Convict Colony]

36 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I’m merely wondering when it’s considered Ralph’s team, when people judge him by results and don’t blame blokes who left the club years ago. We did see posts stating it was last season, but once the shit hit the fan it wasn’t his fault we had Mr Magoo in nets , Redmond wasn’t his responsibility or Longy, and the coaching staff imposed on him against his will were literally costing us record breaking defeats.

 

I’ll change my mind when he put a proper keeper in nets, when he sets us up to defend properly, when we become hard to beat, when he stops making ridiculous selections and substitutions and when he gets his tongue  out of Pep & Klopps arse. Then I’ll change my mind about him being an average manager. 

Fair points - this year is the year of success or parting of ways

[saintadjg]

1 minute ago, Convict Colony said:

Fair points - this year is the year of success or parting of ways

But what constitutes success? A decent cup run? Avoiding relegation or being in a relegation battle? 

Or we talking qualifying for Europe, maybe winning a cup whilst all the above?

[gallaghert366@yahoo.com]

On 26/07/2022 at 13:37, DT said:

Quite easy to put me on ignore, or block I think.

Both options are the preferred choice!

[Fan The Flames]

Success for us is not being near the relegation spots for most of the season and finishing 12th or above, with a bit of a cup run.

[Fan The Flames]

16 hours ago, cloggy saint said:

Noddy ❌

Something something chicks ❌

Sadly no full house.

I've got 'in nets' on my LD bingo card.

[Diabolus Ex Machina]

I think there just needs to be some recognition that we have been poor, we have been regressing since his first full season with us and that he has contributed to that regression in some way. Our season under Pellegrino/Hughes is rightly held up as a bit of a disaster and our worst since our Prem return but when you compare it to last season there's really not been much of an improvement at all after 3 1/2 years under Ralph.

Season	Manager	Position	Points	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA	GD	FA	EFL
2017/18	Pellegrino/Hughes	17	36	7	15	16	37	56	-19	SF	2nd Rd
2021/22	Hassenhuttl	15	40	9	13	16	43	67	-24	QF	4th Rd

 

• In terms of results - progress over 3 1/2 years could be summed up as turning 2 draws into 2 wins. We've scored more goals but also conceded a lot more
• We matched our number of losses at 16 and in fact have never got below this number under Ralph (though have gone above it twice with 17 losses in 18/19 and 19 in 20/21)
• Goals for this season was our lowest under Ralph and in fact our goals per game under Ralph has decreased every season (1.39 in his first non-full season, then 1.34, 1.23 and finally 1.13 last year)
• Goals against was our second worst since our return to the Prem being only one better than the previous years lowest of 68 conceded
• Prior to Ralph our most goals conceded since our return was 60 our first season back. Under Ralph we have conceded 60+ every single season
• Our Goal difference was the worst since our return to the Prem (beating the prior record set the previous year)
• The 36 points we got in the Pellegrino/Hughes season would have kept us up every season since (so in theory had we got those points up front every season we would have gone the past 4 seasons never being in the relegation zone for example)
• While not able to bring in many new players per window, a number of first team players (starters or squad players) have been brought in during Ralphs tenure - Djenepo, Adams, KWP, Diallo, Salisu, Walcott, Perraud, Livramento, Lyanco, A.Armstrong. To this point Ralph has not had to sell any player that has been brought into the club under his tenure
• The only first team starters that have been sold (Højbjerg, Ings, Vestergaard) were going into the last years of their contracts and had to be sold or were at risk of leaving on a free - at no point has a regular starter been sold under Ralph purely to raise funds

Those aren't opinions above, they are all backed up by the stats. Some of this will be down to recruitment and funding but I think it also shows that Ralph hasn't made a massive difference either overall (and defensively we are considerably worse).

He'll have my support at the start of the season because as a fan that's what I do - support my club. But the club comes before the manager and if there isn't an improvement I think the owners will need to take a serious look at whether Ralph is the man to carry us forward. Hopefully the injection of youth and the new coaching staff will help make the difference, everything will click like during our good runs and we will be looking at a mid-table or above finish.

[Doctoroncall]

On 29/07/2022 at 13:40, Diabolus Ex Machina said:

Not sure if there's a better thread for this but Swiss Ramble twitter account has a good breakdown of last seasons club performances based on budgets and wages which goes into a lot of detail about who got the most bang for their buck in terms of points/position for money spent on transfers and wages. Worth a look to see how we compare with others currently.

 

So purely on cost comparisons it comes down to an under performance by two league places.

[Wade Garrett]

Sounds like we are still playing the slow RalphBall from last season.

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 hours ago, saintadjg said:

But what constitutes success? A decent cup run? Avoiding relegation or being in a relegation battle? 

Top 10 is would be a decent season, 8th exceptional. Cup is more of a grey area being a bit of a lottery. Semi final could be considered successful, but if you get there and play like a drain it’s pretty fucking woeful. Under Hughes and Teflon we basically flushed our chances down the toilet.