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28 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

The Ralph stuff is infuriating.

If they knew he needed to be sacked in the summer and he’d lost the dressing room what was the point in a) rolling the dice hoping things would miraculously change b) forcing a formation on him that nobody wanted further alienating the squad and wasting an entire pre season trying it out and c) end that entire period with Nathan Jones being the number 1 target to replace him. 
 

Catastrophic mis management that ultimately somebody needs to be sacked for. 

 

Forcing a formation on him? Sorry, first I’ve heard of this.

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57 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

What bigger picture, guaranteeing relegation & ensuring Jones gets as big a pay off as possible. 

Bigger picture... getting Jones out and replaced, restoring some credibility to the club, giving ourselves some hope of improvement on the pitch, galvanising the fanbase, etc. 

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Just now, saintant said:

When Jones is sacked are you happy for the same group of clowns led by Ankersen to preside over appointing his successor based on a load of claptrap algorithms and garbage spewed out by a compute? This lot haven't got a clue how to run a football club,

This is the worry I have over the future decisions, as I said they've led chaos since the summer, not from a playing side just everywhere else. I know change will cause a bit of chaos, but a lot of what we've seen has been self inflicted thus far.

So I'd say I'd be nervous, but also still have in the back of my mind that he did spot Thomas Frank and Dean Smith.

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Just now, S-Clarke said:

This is the worry I have over the future decisions, as I said they've led chaos since the summer, not from a playing side just everywhere else. I know change will cause a bit of chaos, but a lot of what we've seen has been self inflicted thus far.

So I'd say I'd be nervous, but also still have in the back of my mind that he did spot Thomas Frank and Dean Smith.

Are you sure he spotted Thomas Frank? I think he was just part of a group that brought Frank to Brentford. It's a stretch to think someone who spotted the talent of Frank also spotted enough traits in Nathan Jones to do a similar job. The two managers are polar opposites.

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Fair dues to the board fronting up and taking the difficult questions head on. That being said they were hardly going to acknowledge that our league form under Jones is abysmal, nor were they going to lay into him further in relation to his post match comments. But at least they can be under no illusions about the strength of feeling within the majority of the fanbase.

I've always been perplexed by how we arrived at Nathan Jones as our number one choice. Was it largely Rasmus's decision, dictated by his previous interest in Jones/metrics etc or what was the thinking within the club. We got some insight into that tonight.

Rasmus said that they considered many parameters when looking at managerial candidates, but he highlighted how improving us defensively was one, and how Jones had been successful on this particular parameter previously.

Well in Jones' last two full seasons as Luton manager (20/21 and 21/22 in the Championship), Luton ranked as follows defensively;

20/21 - Conceded 52 goals in 46 games, 1.13 goals per game. Joint 9th defensively with two other clubs

21/22 - Conceded 55 goals in 46 games, nearly 1.2 goals per game. 13th defensively (even worse than Derby who couldnt sign anybody and were relegated after their points deduction)

In the 20 games he had this season before leaving, they were ranked joint 7th defensively (conceded 21, 1.05 goals per game). An improvement, but the fine margins after less than half the season should be noted (had they conceded 2 more they would have been joint 11th)

These are defensive parameters which would hardly get you noticed or get those recruiting you very excited. Surely if your teams are renowned for their defensive success, they should be ranking in the top 5 at least. For somebody like Rasmus who likely pours over stats and metrics, this just doesnt add up. Rasmus did also mention defending set plays, so it would be interesting to see Lutons stats on that.

To me this just solidifies my belief that Rasmus wanted Jones, purely because he wanted him before, and nothing was going sway him off that opinion.

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Apologies if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick but the prepared for relegation claims from the board are insane.  We’ve hurtled faster towards the trap door with NJ in charge, losing six of our total 14 PL defeats this season so far.  Looking at past PL tables, we can only really afford two or three more defeats, which makes staying up this season a pretty much impossible task.

They were either prepared to go down under Ralph and knew it was a realistic scenario regardless of who comes in, or now realise we have no chance of staying up because of NJ’s failure to turn it around. And if it’s the latter, they should come out and admit they were wrong or take decisive action by bringing someone else in to give us a fighting chance of staying up.  But they won’t do the latter because it’s obvious now most efforts will be futile as who in their right mind would risk taking this mess on?

I don’t know about anyone else, but hearing them say we’ll have the finances in the Championship makes me very uneasy, and not reassured in the slightest.

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I thought it was an interesting forum - much better than I anticipated in terms of allowing the fans to ask questions (many of which were direct and difficult) and showing unedited footage. Goes a small small way of increasing trust and on the minor positive: I think they fronted up well and gave some answers BuT they were always gonna be limited in terms of the information shared with regard to the Jones situation at this point. Like other posters I didn’t think the answers gave much new information but I think they were surprised at the depth of feeling and anger. I don’t have much to add that hasn’t been discussed already but I did catch “Rasmus say about making a mistake in buying a club in turkey under time pressure so they let it go” did this refer to Goztepe? Do SR not own it anymore? Has the multi club model strategy changed? I thought it was a big thing for a throwaway comment… so what have I missed?

 

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4 minutes ago, Maggie May said:

Apologies if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick but the prepared for relegation claims from the board are insane.  We’ve hurtled faster towards the trap door with NJ in charge, losing six of our total 14 PL defeats this season so far.  Looking at past PL tables, we can only really afford two or three more defeats, which makes staying up this season a pretty much impossible task.

They were either prepared to go down under Ralph and knew it was a realistic scenario regardless of who comes in, or now realise we have no chance of staying up because of NJ’s failure to turn it around. And if it’s the latter, they should come out and admit they were wrong or take decisive action by bringing someone else in to give us a fighting chance of staying up.  But they won’t do the latter because it’s obvious now most efforts will be futile as who in their right mind would risk taking this mess on?

I don’t know about anyone else, but hearing them say we’ll have the finances in the Championship makes me very uneasy, and not reassured in the slightest.

I was unsettled by the first fans forum earlier in the year. To be honest I think they've cared more about their system and their experiment than wanting to stay in the league. I think at some point they may have stayed thinking that relegation is a price worth paying as long as they can continue their grand plan. 

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Just now, imadirtyurchin said:

I thought it was an interesting forum - much better than I anticipated in terms of allowing the fans to ask questions (many of which were direct and difficult) and showing unedited footage. Goes a small small way of increasing trust and on the minor positive: I think they fronted up well and gave some answers BuT they were always gonna be limited in terms of the information shared with regard to the Jones situation at this point. Like other posters I didn’t think the answers gave much new information but I think they were surprised at the depth of feeling and anger. I don’t have much to add that hasn’t been discussed already but I did catch “Rasmus say about making a mistake in buying a club in turkey under time pressure so they let it go” did this refer to Goztepe? Do SR not own it anymore? Has the multi club model strategy changed? I thought it was a big thing for a throwaway comment… so what have I missed?

 

I 'think' it was referring to the managerial change at Goztepe.

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48 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said:

Fair dues to the board fronting up and taking the difficult questions head on. That being said they were hardly going to acknowledge that our league form under Jones is abysmal, nor were they going to lay into him further in relation to his post match comments. But at least they can be under no illusions about the strength of feeling within the majority of the fanbase.

I've always been perplexed by how we arrived at Nathan Jones as our number one choice. Was it largely Rasmus's decision, dictated by his previous interest in Jones/metrics etc or what was the thinking within the club. We got some insight into that tonight.

Rasmus said that they considered many parameters when looking at managerial candidates, but he highlighted how improving us defensively was one, and how Jones had been successful on this particular parameter previously.

Well in Jones' last two full seasons as Luton manager (20/21 and 21/22 in the Championship), Luton ranked as follows defensively;

20/21 - Conceded 52 goals in 46 games, 1.13 goals per game. Joint 9th defensively with two other clubs

21/22 - Conceded 55 goals in 46 games, nearly 1.2 goals per game. 13th defensively (even worse than Derby who couldnt sign anybody and were relegated after their points deduction)

In the 20 games he had this season before leaving, they were ranked joint 7th defensively (conceded 21, 1.05 goals per game). An improvement, but the fine margins after less than half the season should be noted (had they conceded 2 more they would have been joint 11th)

These are defensive parameters which would hardly get you noticed or get those recruiting you very excited. Surely if your teams are renowned for their defensive success, they should be ranking in the top 5 at least. For somebody like Rasmus who likely pours over stats and metrics, this just doesnt add up. Rasmus did also mention defending set plays, so it would be interesting to see Lutons stats on that.

To me this just solidifies my belief that Rasmus wanted Jones, purely because he wanted him before, and nothing was going sway him off that opinion.

Those stats you’ve quoted don’t show how well Jones did at improving the team defensively. You’ll need to look into how they were doing before he went back to Luton and how much he improved them. Not compare them to other teams in the league. You want to see the improvement the manager can have on a specific group of players he’s working with and presumably want to see how well he did that immediately. He also mentioned set plays. I’ve no idea how those statistics stand up by the way but the ones you’ve quoted won’t be the ones he would have looked at if he was looking to find someone who was good at improving teams defensively. 

Edited by Fabrice29
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14 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Those stats you’ve quoted don’t show how well Jones did at improving the team defensively. You’ll need to look into how they were doing before he went back to Luton and how much he improved them. Not compare them to other teams in the league. You want to see the improvement the manager can have on a specific group of players he’s working with and presumably want to see how well he did that immediately. He also mentioned set plays. I’ve no idea how those statistics stand up by the way but the ones you’ve quoted won’t be the ones he would have looked at if he was looking to find someone who was good at improving teams defensively. 

He literally took them backwards defensively from 20/21 to 21/22. Zero improvement

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I thought it was a reasonable performance from the board. They seemed to say it how it is.

They were never going to slag off Jones publicly, but that was as close as you get to 'last chance saloon'. When your boss says ' I didn't enjoy' and 'disappointed'  you aren't sitting comfortably.

Jones has been disappointing on the football front, and a disaster on the PR front. I guarantee he's had a meeting without coffee, and told to keep his mouth shut.

The football could improve, but he needs wins and a coherent strategy. The former takes the heat out of the situation, the latter gives some hope.

I can't see it myself, but at least the board haven't retired to their bunker.

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14 minutes ago, macca155 said:

I thought it was a reasonable performance from the board. They seemed to say it how it is.

They were never going to slag off Jones publicly, but that was as close as you get to 'last chance saloon'. When your boss says ' I didn't enjoy' and 'disappointed'  you aren't sitting comfortably.

Jones has been disappointing on the football front, and a disaster on the PR front. I guarantee he's had a meeting without coffee, and told to keep his mouth shut.

The football could improve, but he needs wins and a coherent strategy. The former takes the heat out of the situation, the latter gives some hope.

I can't see it myself, but at least the board haven't retired to their bunker.

Yes agree with this.  Having listened to the whole hour I think Jones is skating on thin ice with the Board, and would imagine that a poor result and performance saturday will be time up.  Many fans may think that is too late, and that is fine, but I definitely did not get “full backing” vibes….

Edited by Forester
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Kudos to the panel for holding the forum. As Paul mentioned at the beginning, these are pretty rare with PL clubs, so hats off.

Glad that the rumours were untrue and attendees could ask their own questions. This really reinforced the collective feelings towards NJ seeing as a lot of the focus ended up back with him. Having Rasmus and Semmens admit to being unhappy with the Brentford post match presser was reassuring in a very small sense - would've been worrying if they had tried defending it.

They seemed happy to talk at the bar afterwards which shows willing.

The innocent and naive side of me would like to believe that relegation was factored into this season's plan simply because it makes sound business sense. We've been flirting with the bottom three for a number of seasons, so better it's planned for than coming as a surprise with little financial reserve to help with a promotion push and all that comes with the drop.

They'll certainly have a list of managerial targets should they relieve NJ of his duties. Would be very interesting to know who's on that list. Would they go down a completely different avenue? Pay big for someone already in a job? Would Dragan trust Rasmus and his data again?

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I watched the video from start to end and I thought it very open and transparent as best as they could allow. Questions were largely good - a couple or so which frankly were pointless. The one thing I was amazed not to hear was a question around why nothing has changed in terms of style and performance, despite several months and a World Cup break.

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10 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

Listening to the recording, you can certainly tell Semmens is pissed off at the situation based on a couple of his answers. One on Jones' comments at the weekend and the other about first teamers in the B team. It's clear as day to anyone that Ankersen is the one keeping Jones here and his stubbornness and unwillingness to admit mistakes will relegate us. 

Semmens publucally called Jones stupid in from of a live recorded fans forum 😂 and it's then gone out. How often does that happen at a premier league club. I don't think semmens is the bad guy that the fans make him out to be tbh. 

Was obvious Rasmus is the one backing Jones. To me, it seems like rasmus lives in a world where he doesn't care what the fans think of his decision making - which could ultimatley be good or bad subject to how it all turns out... However,  precious few people are backing him on Jones...

The most telling thing rasmus said, was basically that he'll stick with a mananger as long as he can "improve the players"... So what I actually heard there was assets... which says fundamentally to me that he sees asset/player value increases and player trading to be as important (if not more) to him than Premier league survival? Or am I the only one who heard / took it that way? I guess that wouldn't be so surprising from a guy from brentford and the crazy profits they made (whilst achieving ultimate promotion and building a new stadium). Could the difference here be that brentford got lucky with their mananger, and that Rasmus has taken that to mean all his appointments will work out as well? Or that the brentford success wasn't really due to Rasmus? 

Tough one for the fanbase tbh. I guess we have to go into wolves backing the team. But another loss and the toxicity is only going to ramp up and may lead to a change. A draw would be the worst result - fall further adrift and more likely to prolong the paralysis. 

 

Edited by Saint86
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10 hours ago, egg said:

Cheers. That's a crazy strategy. He essentially conceded he knew that Ralph was a busted flush, but was willing to take a gamble, then gamble on a new bloke for part 2 of the season of Ralph messed up part 1.

Loyalty is a lovely quality, but not in premier league football.

My theory is that they wanted to bin RH in the summer and get Jones in, but he turned down the offer. They went back for him before the WC, saying something like 'they won't ask again'. 

The giving Ralph until the WC is just backward engineering bollocks.

Also to stretch the theory a bit, they may have left RH with out the new striker, or reluctant to buy one that may not have fitted in with a new manager.

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3 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

My theory is that they wanted to bin RH in the summer and get Jones in, but he turned down the offer. They went back for him before the WC, saying something like 'they won't ask again'. 

The giving Ralph until the WC is just backward engineering bollocks.

Also to stretch the theory a bit, they may have left RH with out the new striker, or reluctant to buy one that may not have fitted in with a new manager.

I don't believe that Jones would turn down an offer to manage in the prem. Knowing what we know about him that seems completely out of character. 

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4 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

Rasmus seemed to think the Man City performance was the way Jones “wants” to play, so let’s see on Saturday whether that is the case. 

Bullshit. 
So he was pressured into playing a different way after that game???? Yeah right.  🤥🤥

sorry Saint Garret, that’s not aimed at you, it’s Rasmus bullshit.

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4 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

Rasmus seemed to think the Man City performance was the way Jones “wants” to play, so let’s see on Saturday whether that is the case. 

Interesting.  The perception amongst the fans is that the Man City game was more Selles than Jones but, given that we started the season with 5 at the back, maybe it’s the other way round.  Some hope if that’s the case.

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It’s nice when they confirmed that they approached Jones in the summer but he turned them down.

My very words to you guys many months ago. So what’s happening next?

I know they are super keen on Carrick but I just can’t see him leaving Boro at the moment. Also is there a link with our new director of football and Carrick as I personally think it’s him that’s going to pull the strings from now on.

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Something that struck me was how preemptively defensive they were with the disclaimers about how it was going to be run, why it wasn't live streamed, etc.

Despite the visible shock of some of the panel (Henrik Kraft looked like a deer in headlights!) *somebody* at the club has their ear to the ground, at least.

It felt a bit like a rebuttal of the criticisms in the early stages of this thread.

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Just now, ant said:

Something that struck me was how preemptively defensive they were with the disclaimers about how it was going to be run, why it wasn't live streamed, etc.

Despite the visible shock of some of the panel (Henrik Kraft looked like a deer in headlights!) *somebody* at the club has their ear to the ground, at least.

It felt a bit like a rebuttal of the criticisms in the early stages of this thread.

Did I see you say above the board were seemingly deaf on Nathan Jones and how he is currently viewed by the fans and media? They were taken aback?

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11 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I don't believe that Jones would turn down an offer to manage in the prem. Knowing what we know about him that seems completely out of character. 

Maybe. But I'm certain I read on here that he had turned down an offer from Rasmus before, maybe that was Brentford.

Rasmus has been courting him for a long time, and with the issues with RH, why wouldn't he have gone for Jones in the summer 

But Jones conscious of getting stung by the Stoke job, may have wanted to improve his pedigree at Luton for a bit longer, before taking another step up. 

Jones is all about Project Jones, he sees himself as on a journey to being a top manager. So part of that would be taking a considered approach to the next step.

Otherwise the only explanation for not getting rid of RH in the summer is mismanagement.

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4 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Did I see you say above the board were seemingly deaf on Nathan Jones and how he is currently viewed by the fans and media? They were taken aback?

I don't think you could say that across the board. There was a mixed degree of understanding.

The questions mostly did a decent job of levelling that out, IMO.

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14 minutes ago, baggytrousers said:

Interesting.  The perception amongst the fans is that the Man City game was more Selles than Jones but, given that we started the season with 5 at the back, maybe it’s the other way round.  Some hope if that’s the case.

28% possession against City. Let’s see if people really want to see that performance again on Saturday because my hunch is people will not have the patience they had that night.

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9 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

Maybe. But I'm certain I read on here that he had turned down an offer from Rasmus before, maybe that was Brentford.

Rasmus has been courting him for a long time, and with the issues with RH, why wouldn't he have gone for Jones in the summer 

But Jones conscious of getting stung by the Stoke job, may have wanted to improve his pedigree at Luton for a bit longer, before taking another step up. 

Jones is all about Project Jones, he sees himself as on a journey to being a top manager. So part of that would be taking a considered approach to the next step.

Otherwise the only explanation for not getting rid of RH in the summer is mismanagement.

I just don't see a man with his ego turning down the chance to manage in the Premier league. 

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I'm starting to think Ankersen is as deluded as Jones. 

"As long as we see that the work that Nathan is doing at the training ground is high quality, then we have something to believe in, and believe that he can turn it around.”

What?!!!!. So on the training ground it all looks good despite the fact that on the pitch it's a bag of total shit and we are almost at the point of no return. And witnessing what happens on the real field of play gives no one with just a even half a brain cell any belief that Jones can turn it around. 

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8 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

I'm starting to think Ankersen is as deluded as Jones. 

"As long as we see that the work that Nathan is doing at the training ground is high quality, then we have something to believe in, and believe that he can turn it around.”

What?!!!!. So on the training ground it all looks good despite the fact that on the pitch it's a bag of total shit and we are almost at the point of no return. And witnessing what happens on the real field of play gives no one with just a even half a brain cell any belief that Jones can turn it around. 

RA has stuck his neck out for Jones, he has to say this stuff. It's meaningless buying time flannel.

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32 minutes ago, Pilchards said:

It’s nice when they confirmed that they approached Jones in the summer but he turned them down.

My very words to you guys many months ago. So what’s happening next?

I know they are super keen on Carrick but I just can’t see him leaving Boro at the moment. Also is there a link with our new director of football and Carrick as I personally think it’s him that’s going to pull the strings from now on.

Was that mentioned in the forum?

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19 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

28% possession against City. Let’s see if people really want to see that performance again on Saturday because my hunch is people will not have the patience they had that night.

A lot of sides lose out on that stat to City, particularly if they are 2-0 up against them.
If you are saying that was a bad performance then you saw a different game to me.

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12 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

I'm starting to think Ankersen is as deluded as Jones. 

"As long as we see that the work that Nathan is doing at the training ground is high quality, then we have something to believe in, and believe that he can turn it around.”

What?!!!!. So on the training ground it all looks good despite the fact that on the pitch it's a bag of total shit and we are almost at the point of no return. And witnessing what happens on the real field of play gives no one with just an even half a brain cell any belief that Jones can turn it around. 

He’s not going to turn round and say “yeah he’s shit. There was a scrap at the training ground and We’re going down under him” is he. 

It was a politician’s answer. At no point was he committal to Jones, reading between the lines I think I got the impression that they know his time is up. 

The continuous “we want jones to go so why aren’t you sacking him” from the audience was tedious, to be honest. 

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2 minutes ago, Dman said:

He’s not going to turn round and say “yeah he’s shit. There was a scrap at the training ground and We’re going down under him” is he. 

It was a politician’s answer. At no point was he committal to Jones, reading between the lines I think I got the impression that they know his time is up. 

The continuous “we want jones to go so why aren’t you sacking him” from the audience was tedious, to be honest. 

Tedious but illustrative of the position we are in.

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1 hour ago, Saint Garrett said:

Rasmus seemed to think the Man City performance was the way Jones “wants” to play, so let’s see on Saturday whether that is the case. 

Was he compromising his football beliefs in that game too? Or is it only when we lose. Thats not a dig at you btw

Edited by Mr Nimbus
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