OldNick Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 14 hours ago, trousers said: Would anyone welcome Ralph back now? No great secret that I was a big fan in his first couple of seasons here, but I ended up falling out of love with him in the end... His time was done... But, given the last few managerial appointments maybe, just maybe, we can start to appreciate how decent he was relative to what's followed? After his rest from the game, would a rejuvenated Ralph be an option now...? #devilsadvocate Absolutely NOT, he was another who played the game the same negative way. Ings great season papered over the cracks of his poor football. Ings scored goals from nothing, in games where we were going nowhere. He is another who got the players to stop going forward allowing the opposition to reset. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 13 hours ago, Lighthouse said: Never should have been sacked, he kept a squad which was barely an improvement on the one we've got now in the Premier League season after season. Everyone wanted him gone because apparently 15th in the Premier League was an underachievement for this sack of sh*te, which is now getting spanked by Sunderland and Ipswich. Well I didnt want Puel gone and he finished with a far better position and if fate had not been cruel we would have a cup. Ralph got us to a semi final and was the worst negative performance possible, add to that some real bashings 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 Graham Potter is still unemployed...... 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Kucho Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 1 minute ago, Turkish said: Graham Potter is still unemployed...... The amount Chelsea are paying him he is likely to remain employed for a while. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aintforever Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 14 minutes ago, OldNick said: Absolutely NOT, he was another who played the game the same negative way. Ings great season papered over the cracks of his poor football. Ings scored goals from nothing, in games where we were going nowhere. He is another who got the players to stop going forward allowing the opposition to reset. Ralph is the only manager to get the best out of Ings, same for most of the shower of shite squad he kept in the Prem year after year. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 He's probably the best of a bad recent bunch, but, no thank you. He went mad, NJ was mad / went mad, RS was sane but hopeless, Russ is going round the bend. So on the basis of mental capacity alone, get Selles back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, aintforever said: Ralph is the only manager to get the best out of Ings, same for most of the shower of shite squad he kept in the Prem year after year. Exactly. Ings two most prolific seasons in the Premier League was under Ralph. Surely he deserves credit for that? He also got a squad containing these players to 7th in January. This was the lineup when we beat Liverpool. Forster, KWP, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand, JWP, S Armstrong, Diallo, Ings, Djenepo, Walcott Four of that line up are in our squad at the moment that's languishing in the middle of the Championship. And a number of the others have been binned for being poor players. Wasn't much better for the bench either. Valery, Tella, N'Lundulu, Harry Lewis, Vokins, Kayne Ramsay, Smallbone, Chauke, Long. I know people will never really like Ralph. But come on. Imagine getting that side up to 7th in January. I know people will turn round and say our form collapsed. Damn straight it did, cos we had an unbelievably shit team with about 3-4 EPL quality players in it. It was a huge managerial achievement keeping that side up. Edited 20 September, 2023 by sydney_saint 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roo1976 Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 35 minutes ago, sydney_saint said: Exactly. Ings two most prolific seasons in the Premier League was under Ralph. Surely he deserves credit for that? He also got a squad containing these players to 7th in January. This was the lineup when we beat Liverpool. Forster, KWP, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand, JWP, S Armstrong, Diallo, Ings, Djenepo, Walcott Four of that line up are in our squad at the moment that's languishing in the middle of the Championship. And a number of the others have been binned for being poor players. Wasn't much better for the bench either. Valery, Tella, N'Lundulu, Harry Lewis, Vokins, Kayne Ramsay, Smallbone, Chauke, Long. I know people will never really like Ralph. But come on. Imagine getting that side up to 7th in January. I know people will turn round and say our form collapsed. Damn straight it did, cos we had an unbelievably shit team with about 3-4 EPL quality players in it. It was a huge managerial achievement keeping that side up. is that the game where he went down on his knees at the end when we won and cried?............................weve been crying with this set of players since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 16 hours ago, Saint86 said: Should never have got rid of him, we're reaping what the boo boys asked for ultimatley. Everyone remembers when they assured anyone that would listen that we couldn't get a worse mananger? Only just over a year ago, with his last fully fit squad, he was besting Chelsea and outplaying united... Look at the absolute shit show sports republic have presided over since. All for Nathan clucking Jones as well 😑 We're reaping what RH sewed. Were we not 90th in the league for points won under his tenure. You obviously like him and so are pro him, but he owed us more than ever we owed him. No manager would survive the 9-0 and not get sacked, then to walk away with 5m or more. 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 2 minutes ago, OldNick said: We're reaping what RH sewed. Were we not 90th in the league for points won under his tenure. You obviously like him and so are pro him, but he owed us more than ever we owed him. No manager would survive the 9-0 and not get sacked, then to walk away with 5m or more. Nostalgia and the continued decline clouding peoples judgements 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintTex Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 We were headed down with him (Ralph). and then some very bad managerial choices didn't change that trajectory. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egg Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 3 hours ago, Turkish said: Graham Potter is still unemployed...... Yep, and there's about 10 million reasons why he'll still be unemployed next year.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 1 hour ago, OldNick said: We're reaping what RH sewed. Were we not 90th in the league for points won under his tenure. You obviously like him and so are pro him, but he owed us more than ever we owed him. No manager would survive the 9-0 and not get sacked, then to walk away with 5m or more. We were in the relegation fight and one point off safety, without our best player. Ralph was the top end of what that squad was capable of, everyone we’ve tried since him has had us plummeting like a stone. Ralph didn’t sew anything, Gao, Ross and Les did, leaving us cripple with an expensive squad of sh*te we couldn’t afford to replace for years. 90th in points is such a nonsense statistic, all that really means is that we were towards the bottom of a league. If you care about that then go and hire the guy 16th in League 2, because he has more points in 2022. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 4 hours ago, Turkish said: Graham Potter is still unemployed...... More chance of Beatrix Potter! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 32 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said: More chance of Beatrix Potter! Peter Rabbit. Free Agent. CHDAJFU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suhari Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 13 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said: Peter Rabbit. Free Agent. CHDAJFU? Would be stronger in midfield than Smallbone. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis1947 Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 Much as it pains me to say this but our club is in utter disarray at the moment. I was prepared to give Martin some time and reserve judgement as I didn't know anything at all about the bloke. However, I cannot belive what I am watching over the last 3 matches and defeats. I didnt go last night due to a little ill health so watched it on Sky via the red button. The coverage was poor with no high definition, only one camera and no replays orr playbacks. But what I saw was a side devoid of all attacking ideas or threats. Slow,turgid,ponderous play from the back. No pace, no intent. And then add the tactics,the strategy, the set up and the line up of the side. All of that the responsibility of the Manager. I've been watching and supporting Saints for nigh on 60 years and boy, have I seen some bad nights as well as some good ones. But I'm not sure I've seen much worse thn the dross served up against Ipswich. For probably the firts time in my life supporting Saints, I wanted to just switch off. It was tiresome and boring ! To see the same stuff served up time andtime again. Bazunu chucks the ball out to one of the central defenders ( whoever it is ), he in turn passes it square to his mate, he feints to actually make a cunning forward pass....but never does ! Bednarek is especially good at this. He will tapthe ball a few feet forward for 6/7/8 times supposedly looking for a creative forward pass but always without fail either passes sideways and back to the keeper again. And all the time the opposing side have had all the time to set up and defend. And then we have our midfielders, Aribi and Smallbone. How many times did Smallbone make 5yard passes sideways or instantly back again. Can someone tell me what that achieves other than making his passing stats look good ! Somebody has already mentioned his utter lack of any athleticism. Did he make a single tackle last night. And he's our defensive midfielder. Two other points that other posters have already mentioned but are important to the mindset of the sside under Martin. Last night Edozie had the ball on the right touchline. I think it was in the firts half. His opposing full back was 20 yards back. So, you think this would be the time to run at him. This is Edozies skill. He can skin a defender. He did start to run at him and then for some inexplicable reason he stopped dead and passed the ball back into our own half to Walker-Peters I think. Why !!!!! And my second point already mentioned before by other posters was Leicesters fourth goal where 3 Leicester players ran the ball from the edge oftheir penalty area, after a misplaced pass from Sulemana. The guy who scored had so many choices. He could have passed either to his right or left or taken the chance himself. Saints defenders were 20 yards back, all in his wake. When I was home from deployment, I used to watch decent grade Hampshire League football or New Forest League football and that never ever happened even at that level. So, the question is, would I have Ralph back ? Yes, in a heartbeat ! He had his faults, he was probably coming to the end of his tenure.....but he was a significantly better Manager for us than Jones, Selles and Martin in my opinion. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 3 hours ago, Lighthouse said: We were in the relegation fight and one point off safety, without our best player. Ralph was the top end of what that squad was capable of, everyone we’ve tried since him has had us plummeting like a stone. Ralph didn’t sew anything, Gao, Ross and Les did, leaving us cripple with an expensive squad of sh*te we couldn’t afford to replace for years. 90th in points is such a nonsense statistic, all that really means is that we were towards the bottom of a league. If you care about that then go and hire the guy 16th in League 2, because he has more points in 2022. Honestly mate, we could be bottom of League 2 in five years time having tried another 20 managers, and some fans will still be saying 'buT RaLPH cRiED At livERPool' 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie May Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 I would love to know what happened in the build up to the 4-0 defeat against Villa in Ralph’s penultimate season. It seemed to be the catalyst for our tumble towards the Championship. We were a fairly established mid table side off the back of one defeat in nine before that game. Then we only won one more match and have been largely outplayed ever since (bar the first few games of this season before reverting to type at Sunderland). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted 20 September, 2023 Share Posted 20 September, 2023 3 hours ago, Lighthouse said: We were in the relegation fight and one point off safety, without our best player. Ralph was the top end of what that squad was capable of, everyone we’ve tried since him has had us plummeting like a stone. Ralph didn’t sew anything, Gao, Ross and Les did, leaving us cripple with an expensive squad of sh*te we couldn’t afford to replace for years. 90th in points is such a nonsense statistic, all that really means is that we were towards the bottom of a league. If you care about that then go and hire the guy 16th in League 2, because he has more points in 2022. Oh shit, don't give ideas to Ankersen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 18 hours ago, Lighthouse said: 90th in points is such a nonsense statistic, all that really means is that we were towards the bottom of a league. If you care about that then go and hire the guy 16th in League 2, because he has more points in 2022. I suggest 90 in points league suggests 90 other clubs had achieved more points, 90 managers doing better. RH is/was a busted flush and we are one of a few fanbases who would ever put up with the humiliations he put upon us. Puel achieved far more and had we gave him a season I feel we would be better placed. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egg Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 18 hours ago, Lighthouse said: We were in the relegation fight and one point off safety, without our best player. Ralph was the top end of what that squad was capable of, everyone we’ve tried since him has had us plummeting like a stone. Ralph didn’t sew anything, Gao, Ross and Les did, leaving us cripple with an expensive squad of sh*te we couldn’t afford to replace for years. 90th in points is such a nonsense statistic, all that really means is that we were towards the bottom of a league. If you care about that then go and hire the guy 16th in League 2, because he has more points in 2022. Derek Adams who's at Morecambe. Looks an upgrade to be fair. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 15 hours ago, sydney_saint said: Honestly mate, we could be bottom of League 2 in five years time having tried another 20 managers, and some fans will still be saying 'buT RaLPH cRiED At livERPool' I don't care he cried after beating Liverpool, it was bizarre. Ive seen many Saints managers beat Liverpool and none gone on their knees and sobbed. I nearly sobbed after the 2 9-0's Ill give you that, although really just thought typical life of a Saints fan. You lament RH gone, I lament Puel not being given a fair crack after what he achieved. It was not his team at that stage as he had'nt bought his players in. Yes I know people blamed him for not progressing in Europe but didnt we miss some sitters that would have got us through. Watch the League cup semi final and the final and watch some superb entertaining football, not many managers can say they beat Klopp hoe and away in a 2 leg cup competition. Of course RH was better at post match interviews as he could speak good English, not many on here could do an interview in a second language and be entertaining 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 18 minutes ago, OldNick said: I don't care he cried after beating Liverpool, it was bizarre. Ive seen many Saints managers beat Liverpool and none gone on their knees and sobbed. I nearly sobbed after the 2 9-0's Ill give you that, although really just thought typical life of a Saints fan. You lament RH gone, I lament Puel not being given a fair crack after what he achieved. It was not his team at that stage as he had'nt bought his players in. Yes I know people blamed him for not progressing in Europe but didnt we miss some sitters that would have got us through. Watch the League cup semi final and the final and watch some superb entertaining football, not many managers can say they beat Klopp hoe and away in a 2 leg cup competition. Of course RH was better at post match interviews as he could speak good English, not many on here could do an interview in a second language and be entertaining Bless you. I genuinely have no idea why you are talking about Puel. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aintforever Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 40 minutes ago, OldNick said: I don't care he cried after beating Liverpool, it was bizarre. Ive seen many Saints managers beat Liverpool and none gone on their knees and sobbed. I nearly sobbed after the 2 9-0's Ill give you that, although really just thought typical life of a Saints fan. You lament RH gone, I lament Puel not being given a fair crack after what he achieved. It was not his team at that stage as he had'nt bought his players in. Yes I know people blamed him for not progressing in Europe but didnt we miss some sitters that would have got us through. Watch the League cup semi final and the final and watch some superb entertaining football, not many managers can say they beat Klopp hoe and away in a 2 leg cup competition. Of course RH was better at post match interviews as he could speak good English, not many on here could do an interview in a second language and be entertaining I don't think sacking either was the right thing to do. I think Ralph's emotions after the Liverpool win was more down to his history with Klopp than the fact we beat Liverpool, I don't see what wrong with a man showing is emotions anyway. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 42 minutes ago, sydney_saint said: Bless you. I genuinely have no idea why you are talking about Puel. Just comparing my thoughts to yours, you worship RH whilst I felt CP did a better job 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 19 minutes ago, aintforever said: I don't think sacking either was the right thing to do. I think Ralph's emotions after the Liverpool win was more down to his history with Klopp than the fact we beat Liverpool, I don't see what wrong with a man showing is emotions anyway. No problem to me, I wouldn't have brought it up if Sydney hadn't highlighted it. It was odd but football does strange things to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 hour ago, OldNick said: I suggest 90 in points league suggests 90 other clubs had achieved more points, 90 managers doing better. RH is/was a busted flush and we are one of a few fanbases who would ever put up with the humiliations he put upon us. Puel achieved far more and had we gave him a season I feel we would be better placed. Two massive problems with that. First, results are worth the same number of points regardless of who you play and in what league, they’re not like ATP rankings or whatever. If you beat Port Vale and Wycombe, by your logic that makes you a better manager than getting a draw at the Etihad, then beating Arsenal at home. Secondly, PL teams play eight fewer games in a year than FL teams because there are fewer in each league. Last year 89 points won the PL and 36 avoided relegation. Meanwhile 101 points won the Championship and 49 avoided relegation. The points for pretty much every team are guaranteed to be higher. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 32 minutes ago, OldNick said: Just comparing my thoughts to yours, you worship RH whilst I felt CP did a better job Yeah it's just a really odd thing to bring up when it has nothing to do with the topic. I also don't worship Ralph. I just thing the job he did here was really underrated and I can't possibly see how anyone can think he did a bad job when for most of his tenure we were one of the lowest spenders in the league and he managed to keep up an incredibly subpar squad in the league for many seasons. Burnt out at the end- sure. Bad job overall? That's the thing I can't wrap my head around. Naught to do with Puel. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aintforever Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 2 hours ago, OldNick said: I suggest 90 in points league suggests 90 other clubs had achieved more points, 90 managers doing better. RH is/was a busted flush and we are one of a few fanbases who would ever put up with the humiliations he put upon us. Puel achieved far more and had we gave him a season I feel we would be better placed. What season did he finish 90th? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 hour ago, Lighthouse said: Two massive problems with that. First, results are worth the same number of points regardless of who you play and in what league, they’re not like ATP rankings or whatever. If you beat Port Vale and Wycombe, by your logic that makes you a better manager than getting a draw at the Etihad, then beating Arsenal at home. Secondly, PL teams play eight fewer games in a year than FL teams because there are fewer in each league. Last year 89 points won the PL and 36 avoided relegation. Meanwhile 101 points won the Championship and 49 avoided relegation. The points for pretty much every team are guaranteed to be higher. That is superb logic and correct of course, I assume 19 other PL clubs were in the bottom 70 or so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 6 minutes ago, aintforever said: What season did he finish 90th? It was not a league position of course, but a measure how effective he was gaining points against the other 92 clubs totals. No doubt if he was in the top 15 he would still be here and that would be put under my nose to review. It is an indication of his tenure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 53 minutes ago, sydney_saint said: Yeah it's just a really odd thing to bring up when it has nothing to do with the topic. I also don't worship Ralph. I just thing the job he did here was really underrated and I can't possibly see how anyone can think he did a bad job when for most of his tenure we were one of the lowest spenders in the league and he managed to keep up an incredibly subpar squad in the league for many seasons. Burnt out at the end- sure. Bad job overall? That's the thing I can't wrap my head around. Naught to do with Puel. Perhaps, but he was with us 5 years? He had many transfer windows to build a better squad. I was always amazed that his inside knowledge of the German and Austrian leagues he didnt find us some gems. As for subpar squad, I think you will find many thought we had a wonderful team of world beaters, if ever you read a match thread the posters are aghast that the opposition scored against us and we should roll over most teams below the top 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Duckhunter Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 This is what Prowse told the BBC the day we were relegated. “From the first day of pre-season until right now you can tell the standards at the club have slipped," 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie May Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 40 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said: This is what Prowse told the BBC the day we were relegated. “From the first day of pre-season until right now you can tell the standards at the club have slipped," I do respect JWP for everything he did for the club but he was not captain material when he needed to be last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris cooper Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 3 hours ago, aintforever said: I don't think sacking either was the right thing to do. I think Ralph's emotions after the Liverpool win was more down to his history with Klopp than the fact we beat Liverpool, I don't see what wrong with a man showing is emotions anyway. Come on Ffs 🤦♂️.. that was off the scale cringey.. I wasn’t the same towards him after that .. every saints fan I know took stick for that from every other fanbase in the 4 divisions. Still hide behind the sofa wen a repeat hits the tv. 🫣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadhall Saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 Still being paid by the club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 hour ago, Chris cooper said: Come on Ffs 🤦♂️.. that was off the scale cringey.. I wasn’t the same towards him after that .. every saints fan I know took stick for that from every other fanbase in the 4 divisions. Still hide behind the sofa wen a repeat hits the tv. 🫣 Oh mate I wholeheartedly agree! What a laughing stock, a grown man showing emotions. It's embarrassing. I'm so glad we got rid of him after that cringey response. Languishing in the bottom half of the Championship with the worst defence in the league after getting relegated without a fight is simply a price worth paying. I'm sure nobody gives you stick for that now like they did after we beat Liverpool... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris cooper Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 hour ago, sydney_saint said: Oh mate I wholeheartedly agree! What a laughing stock, a grown man showing emotions. It's embarrassing. I'm so glad we got rid of him after that cringey response. Languishing in the bottom half of the Championship with the worst defence in the league after getting relegated without a fight is simply a price worth paying. I'm sure nobody gives you stick for that now like they did after we beat Liverpool... We always used to beat Liverpool 🤔 ..Ralph came a gave us a new identity through the whole club top to bottom .. it was fresh and I enjoyed a very short spell under him in lockdown ..we were soon found out and had no plan b and it’s been dire ever since, his stubbornness is why we are where we are now. .so watching a bloke cry over a slim victory over an arrogant German fella with plenty of teeth was alittle uncomfortable for me I have to say .. I get you’re one of the ralphy love in cult but I still wouldn’t have him back he had no idea toward the end of his tenure.. but good luck to him .. he had a good pay 💰 off from us . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 hour ago, sydney_saint said: Oh mate I wholeheartedly agree! What a laughing stock, a grown man showing emotions. It's embarrassing. I'm so glad we got rid of him after that cringey response. Languishing in the bottom half of the Championship with the worst defence in the league after getting relegated without a fight is simply a price worth paying. I'm sure nobody gives you stick for that now like they did after we beat Liverpool... It all went down hill from there didn’t it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Convict Colony Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 Am happy for the man, deserves the money way more than some mouth breathers before him, he can go back to the mountains to play tennis, golf and play the piano. Massively overachieved with bugger all budget for his time here, people forget the shit show he took over and made us proud again in how we played, was screwed over on the striker front after Ings left, like we are finding now Adams or Armstrong are not main strikers. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 5 hours ago, OldNick said: He had many transfer windows to build a better squad. I was always amazed that his inside knowledge of the German and Austrian leagues he didnt find us some gems. This remains a mystery to me as well. But I really wonder if the club with its smug self-belief in the acclaimed scouting network didn’t simply say “no, Ralph you just concentrate on the coaching we have a proven scouting system …. Best in the world….. black box …. etc”. I can’t believe that at some point he didn’t put forward names, Orban and Hinteriggger for example as proven CB’s , but was told “no it’s alright we’ve just found some African kid who has played half a season in Spain, he’s a great prospect… “ Unlikely we’ll ever know the truth, but I don’t lay the blame for recruitment at Ralph’s door. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint michael Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 Biggest mistake was not thanking him and saying goodbye earlier. Stopping this silly experiment and getting a football manager to stabilise to give the club chance to step back and take stock. What the board did was to try and accelerate out of a bad situation so put their foot down letting all the indicators of the impending crash go by them. This isn’t hindsight this is what we all could see and been talking about for ages. we have seen through the weaknesses and bullshit marketing, and still they insult the fans intelligence as if we are not seeing the true picture. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloucester Saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 30 minutes ago, Badger said: This remains a mystery to me as well. But I really wonder if the club with its smug self-belief in the acclaimed scouting network didn’t simply say “no, Ralph you just concentrate on the coaching we have a proven scouting system …. Best in the world….. black box …. etc”. I can’t believe that at some point he didn’t put forward names, Orban and Hinteriggger for example as proven CB’s , but was told “no it’s alright we’ve just found some African kid who has played half a season in Spain, he’s a great prospect… “ Unlikely we’ll ever know the truth, but I don’t lay the blame for recruitment at Ralph’s door. Wouldn’t surprise me with the sheer arrogance of the know nothing corporate blob running the club plus Les had fucked the club over with the pretence he knew anything about top level football transfers financially eg Vestergaard, Moi, Carrillo. No way that Pelle, Tadic or Mane weren’t Ronald’s insistences. No way either Ralph said ‘let’s buy Lyanco because some chancer who failed FFP was allowed the buy the club and we’re skint’ either. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 hour ago, Turkish said: It all went down hill from there didn’t it Not really though did it mate. We stayed up pretty comfortably the following season with a garbage squad. Sitting in a nice 10th before the Villa game over a year later. Now we ain't even sitting in 10th in the Championship 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 4 minutes ago, sydney_saint said: Not really though did it mate. We stayed up pretty comfortably the following season with a garbage squad. Sitting in a nice 10th before the Villa game over a year later. Now we ain't even sitting in 10th in the Championship We only 4 of our next 21 games that season, the following season we only finished 5 points above the relegation zone. we went 6th with that win over Liverpool. So, yes, It did go downhill from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 3 minutes ago, Turkish said: We only 4 of our next 21 games that season, the following season we only finished 5 points above the relegation zone. we went 6th with that win over Liverpool. So, yes, It did go downhill from there Mate, 27 games into that season we were 10th on 35 points and had only lost 8 games all season. We had effectively stayed up by March. You can argue it all went downhill from that Villa game, but things were pretty alright for over a year after that Liverpool game. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 18 minutes ago, sydney_saint said: Mate, 27 games into that season we were 10th on 35 points and had only lost 8 games all season. We had effectively stayed up by March. You can argue it all went downhill from that Villa game, but things were pretty alright for over a year after that Liverpool game. Losing 14 out of 21 games is not “pretty alright” It’s shite 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney_saint Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 27 minutes ago, Turkish said: Losing 14 out of 21 games is not “pretty alright” It’s shite Yeah mate, and we had one of the biggest injury lists I've ever seen during alot of that period. But sure, you wanna claim that downhill, then you also have to admit we then went through another major uphill again to get ourselves back up to 10th and effectively safe 2/3s through the next season. Who would have thought that football has ups and downs, it should be ups only right? So yeah things were pretty alright for the next year, we stayed up comfortably, and then stayed up again the next season. Many fans wanted him sacked at the end of that season. I reckon we would have gone down the next season if we had done so. We did what we had to do both of those seasons which is that we were never really in a relegation scrap. That's all that mattered. And if you look at our squad both of those seasons, I challenge you to find more than 5 clear EPL quality players. It was a big achievement to stay up those seasons and that's what should be reflected on. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 21 September, 2023 Share Posted 21 September, 2023 1 minute ago, sydney_saint said: Yeah mate, and we had one of the biggest injury lists I've ever seen during alot of that period. But sure, you wanna claim that downhill, then you also have to admit we then went through another major uphill again to get ourselves back up to 10th and effectively safe 2/3s through the next season. Who would have thought that football has ups and downs, it should be ups only right? So yeah things were pretty alright for the next year, we stayed up comfortably, and then stayed up again the next season. Many fans wanted him sacked at the end of that season. I reckon we would have gone down the next season if we had done so. We did what we had to do both of those seasons which is that we were never really in a relegation scrap. That's all that mattered. And if you look at our squad both of those seasons, I challenge you to find more than 5 clear EPL quality players. It was a big achievement to stay up those seasons and that's what should be reflected on. Yeah mate. The previous season we finished on 52 points, that season we finished on 43, the following season we finished on 40 when he was sacked we were course to finish the season on 31 points. So yeah mate you carry on pretending it was all “pretty alright” but we were going in a downwards direction by every single metric. It pretty much started after that Liverpool game. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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