Guy

F'ing scary to think with the squad we had - and seeing teams like Burnley, Bournemouth and Luton a league ahead of us now. Criminal.

He might have considered doing so in another couple of seasons time (Ben Foster veteran style) if we were Championship material by then instead of now but he's still in his relative prime as a goalkeeper in his mid-late 30s and as you say is still too good for the Championship, even if he's no longer in his actual main prime now like during the Prem. winning season or even two years ago like in the FA Cup final or in the following Euros for Denmark in 2021. Had we stayed up he might have vaguely considered doing so but even then they do say "never go back". I now actually can't remember the last returnee to the club after time spent away at a different club for a few years (on loan obviously doesn't count!) - Dickov in the 00s maybe?!

A completely 'no brainer' move for him there to be fair....and Villa are now where we still should be had we sacked Rodgers a lot sooner maybe!

To quote the late, great Jimmy Greaves : "It's A Funny Old Game, Saint"!

We were utter dog shite though, as was Rodgers' team selection for that Blackburn R5 tie when it was clear that all he thought was necessary was just turning up and we'd win due to it being Championship opposition - wrong! Needless to say Blackburn crashed out to another Championship team of the time, Sheffield United in the next round which says even less for us!!

That would be most fans' nightmare - if Rodgers had stayed, having taken us down - and in the hope that he would get us back up - as many blinkered pundits were still saying would be our best outcome last season before he was (finally!) sacked - incredible!

Hard to say. He did well at Villa to get them from alsorans flirting with Championship relegation to play off winners in the same season (very similar to how Cooper did at Forest in the Championship afterwards) but he won't have talented players like Jack Grealish and Tammy Abraham at his disposal with us like he did that season he got Villa up. Different times and circumstances I guess.

Indeed, everybody could see it but .... them!

Amartey was clap trap in reality and like Daka, is a Championship player at best. Yes, DA put in "a shift" when unexpectedly asked to start and all that (why wouldn't you if on £70-£80k a week?!) but it should never have come to that unnecessary compromise in the first place with personality issues between Rodgers and Soyuncu being the sole reason as to why Amartey started so many games last season....probably more times than he did for the previous four seasons put together. No surprise that he's not being retained though, even though he was the third longest serving player behind Vardy and Albrighton of course....

We've gone to seed since the King Power shirt seasons!!

Well it was half said in jest! Even so, on a more serious note I'm still not sure Hassenhutl would be that great for us....but who am I to say?!

Could be another Tete

Hasenhuttl might be an option but I can't see it at this stage! After all look what happened when we recruited two members of that 0-9 Saints team from 2019-20 - not a lot!

Headline in one of the tabloids was "forgiven and forgotten" or words to that effect re the notion of Rodgers returning to Celtic but I suppose the proof will be in the pudding. His Celtic return is probably just paper talk, tied in with Postecoglou leaving there at the present time. Now that the Tottenham gig has gone, ironically to the latest Celtic boss then apart from Palace then there won't be other Prem. clubs available for him to step into now unless, as others have suggested he continues to bide his time and wait for the inevitable one or two Prem. managerial casualties between September and Christmas, although I know there was a bit of unrest at Wolves at the last count re the manager's future there. That said I can't see such a turn around in Prem. managers next season as there was last season, which was total madness!

Probably why he's not been hired by anybody here since!

Hughton is Ghana's new head coach, so I've just read and as the other poster said too. I wouldn't have really wanted him anyway, even if available - very much another managerial-merry-go-round participant who flatters to deceive in this country, even though his did well at Brighton before the Potter era. Talking of which, Potter would be my first choice now too if Smith wasn't offered the gig. The fact that Smith and Shakey haven't already been offered to stay on here for next season makes you think they might not be offered it but I suppose there's a lot for Top to weigh up going forward, logistically, financially, etc. now that we're in the Championship.

Good shout actually but I suppose the Puel ship has long since sailed now, four and a bit years ago to be precise. He would probably have made a decent DOF, given how his recruitment was in his managerial role here. It's just that he wasn't great at man management (re things like how he treated Adrian Silva, Vardy at times too and was reluctant to play Soyuncu due to his limited English, etc). Plus his turgid tactics never endeared him to the crowd, along with his lack of charisma with it but behind the scenes he'd have been free from all that, as you kind of alluded to I suppose!

Yeah, BR probably couldn't have done any worse than Rudkin over the past two years here I suppose - but then again....!

I/we almost think Panorama are going to be tempted to do an episode on the whole of Rodgers' time with us (initially excellent, turned bottle jobs, turned tepid, turned disastrous!), in the near future, lol! First world problems obviously but I really do wonder what went on in his mind and behind the scenes last season at times, I really do! Maybe it was sabotague of a kind after all!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and all that and whether or not the fact Puel got sacked from his role with us then muddied his reputation and then meant nobody else in the Premier League or even Championship would take him on thereafter maybe said something at the time (although I heard Watford were interested shortly after he was fired), or maybe he simply returned to manage St Etienne in Ligue 1 as more as a convenience and comfort zone thing, having had enough of being sacked over here not once but twice....we'll possibly never know but to my knowledge that was his last job and he may well disappear into oblivion now. All the same I agree that Puel had a certain 'shelf life' aspect to his time with us at the time and following his bright start in charge after Shakespeare then he really did end up going through the managerial motions with us over time, despite building a good side capable of regular top ten finishes in the Prem. However at the time that was deemed inadequte I guess, given our very recent title win at the time and so he lasted about as long as most expected in the end, if not a wee bit longer even. After that Palace defeat at home in the February it was clear that was likely to be the final straw when going by a good chunk of fans' reaction in the stadium on the final whistle, coupled with the anti Puel online dialogue - and so most by then were baying for his blood, especially with a name like Brendan Rodgers waiting in the wings....weird how things turn out sometimes!

I was no great fan of Puel's at the time but he did a decent stabalising and recruitment job for us after Ranieri had lost the plot after the title winning season and when successor Shakespeare was clearly out of his depth here in his new found managerial role for those few months. So I sometimes think sacking Puel was the worst thing the club did over the past decade on reflection, seeing how his successor Rodgers (albeit who appeared to be a good appointment/name at the time), then 'slowly but surely' systematically drove the club into the ground single handedly it seems into a side sleepwalking to relegation, with some of the dross he signed two years ago (Daka, Soumare, Vestergaard, Bertrand), then of course especially last season when playing certain players over others because of either severe managerial misjudgement or personality clash traits, rather than their actual ability ie Ward over Iversen, Amartey over Soyuncu, Soumare over Mendy and so the list goes on!

Cheers! Occasionally I do, although others speak more eloquently on here than me by far!

Looks like no other club is rushing in for Deano's services either, unless they're thinking he's simply going to be retained here.....

....and this my friend is why we are where we now are - back to square one in the Championship with a bump, or a whimper even..........

That's a long grudge to hold!