cityfanlee23

I will die on the hill that RVN would have been far more ruthless in driving the "old guard" out of the club and would comfortably have put up in a better position than we currently find ourselves. We had an identity issue and RVN was often accused of not blooding the youth in enough and those were fair assessments, but he identified very quickly a mentality issue at the club and was actively trying to stamp it out, we ended the season positively and beat what we expected to be our two biggest rivals this season comfortably. Everyone knows who my first choice was, but I took a fair bit of stick for saying I wouldn't be too angry if we just stuck it out with RVN because he at least showed there was some sort of tactical plan that he had at PSV and in the few games he had at United. I had multiple QPR fans tell me Marti doesn't have a plan and that he was rapidly declining amongst the fanbase. I took that as just disgruntled fans that MC had spoken with another club before being put on gardening leave. Give me RVN over this any day of the week and twice on Sundays. There are still plenty of forward-thinking managers who would join us and we need to take the leap before it's too late.

I'm not really the sentimental type, but don't you dare open such a precious bottle that represents so much over this shitshow.

This is probably a massive sticking point; it makes complete sense for whoever this next person is to have a strong input. Let's hope something is already underway and we are close to bringing someone in and they have given us their opinion, otherwise, we could be close to the drop zone if we don't make a move in the next 4-6 weeks.

Would be a monstrous upgrade.

We should be snapping the likes of Carsley, Carrick etcs hand off.

I think we would be in a better position.

Erm... who just hammered us? Where are Rangers in the league? How are Celtic doing under MON now?

We were only joking we didn't mean it

Yep, and people will still defend him. No manager would bring the same results.

Actually blows my mind that people thought this was going any other way after about 6 games in.

We need a formation that plays to our strengths on the pitch. 2-1-2-0

Wasn’t as good as the last couple of years but not the worst race, Max really is in a league of his own when they can get the car working, considering the tractor of a car they delivered in the first half of the season he probably deserves to be much closer or even leading. Great recovery from Norris, Kimi putting in some incredible late laps to stave off Leclerc deserves a lot of credit too.

Well, I've obviously missed that then as every time I saw him he was standing there doing very little, maybe the odd instruction to an individual. I saw him urging players forward a few games ago and they were ignoring him, so it's entirely possible they are just not listening. The issue is, he told us in one of his first interviews we would always go for another goal in an aggressive style, if we still aren't doing it coming up to December, either the players don't believe in him or he isn't communicating it well enough. It does seem to be a running theme with possession-based managers, though.

The saddest part is that's one of the main promises he gave to fans, he told us from day 1 that no matter what, even if we are winning comfortably, we would always be pushing hard for another goal. The moment we scored today we slowed down from a walk to a crawl, and Marti was not indicating at all that it wasn't part of his plan. Multiple things he has just outright lied about.

Possibly, but I havent been able to stomach possession football for the best part of 6 years

Part of me wonders whether it would have been as bad as this under Ruud. Maybe we would be in a similar place in the league, but with the step down in class and with the generally okay performances toward the end of the season, I’d have preferred to keep RVN in hindsight over watching Martiball.

Come on Phil there’s no need for that, Paul sells great scalp products too.

Moving Rudkin on or to another department and publicly apologising to the fans are what i've wanted for a while, not to make fun of him or make a point of embarrassing him to put out a video or statement, but to show the fans he actually understands the issues, the next step is to work with supporters groups to actually put some sort of 5 year plan together to reconnect the club with the fans, and a seperate 5 year plan to financially stabilise us and get us back to the premier league in a position where we can stay up. I don't think we will get a full plan given to us, but the club needs to acknowledge that we've lost our way with the blueprint that Nigel left us and that Puel progressed (With the support of Vichai/Top etc) and make a commitment to return to it. Promoting youth using our world-class facilities, signing cheaper, hungry players who have potential and need a chance. Acknowledge that and I've said i'm more than happy to get back on their side, the proof will be in the pudding, this is the first step and i'm glad he's taken it.

Also if we fancy aiming for the impossible, we should be paying whatever Ralf Rangnick wants to join us as an advisor alongside his role as Austria manager. One of the biggest influences of modern football and helped build Red Bull into what it is today, and he’s clearly someone who doesn’t chase money but looks to build a project.

The first step, years too late but it’s been taken nonetheless. I’d imagine that in general, JR is probably quite a competent person who overall has contributed more to the club than he has taken out, but as a Director of Football his stock declined rapidly as we veered away from a winning blueprint into a chaotic mess during covid. It’s imperative we find the right person to come in now, right now even if he didn’t fancy that sort of role long term, I’d definitely be offering a role to Nigel Pearson I know his health hasn’t been the best over the last few years, but maybe he has an office role in him to stabilise the club and oversee a rebuild. The point is, the fans have been heard, either that or Top had his card declined in Waitrose and realised the club has been burning through a fortune with no return, either way it’s a win-possible-win-possible-destruction but we have to make our voices known.

Then we play Marti's signing Begovic with Vieites as backup.

My bad, I didn't even realise he played today, just seen he made the full 90' so yeah he's probably got fire in his belly now, my assumption was based on the 1' of football he was given before today

Looked at the potential loan market come January for players who need game time and could use a 6 month loan with us as a stepping stone. In defence, there are a few Premier League loans I'd enquire about: - Jorge Cuenca (centre back that can play LB), signed for Fulham from Villareal but struggling for minutes - Jaydee Canvot, 18 appearances in Ligue 1, moved to Palace and has made 1 appearance - Josh Acheampong, CB for Chelsea, unlikely considering he's made 300+ prem minutes this season and Enzo seems to rate him, but worth contacting in case Enzo feels he needs more gametime. Wingers: Rio Ngumoha (left wing), scored on debut for Liverpool, made 206 mins total in all comps (most in EFL cup) as the heat turns up on Liverpool I doubt he will be getting many more minutes. Could do with consistent mins in the championship. Midfielders: - Bence Dardai(CM/CAM), played 21 games last season for Wolfsberg but fell out of favour. Ambitious loan targets, but the benefit of a short term 6 month deal could be enticing for players to fight their way back into contention?

IF the goalkeeper rumours are true, and IF Marti is the one who has identified the need for one, we need to sack him yesterday. We've signed 2 goalkeepers this season, one of them a Marti choice clearly, the only reason we would even need to consider a new goalkeeper is because of Marti's reliance on them. Goalkeepers need to be better with their feet in 2025, but Stolarzcyk's lack of ability in distribution and passing is the least of our worries and it's only an issue because Marti's tactical system makes it one, we could easily offset Stols flaws without needing an immediate replacement using the very little money we have. IF it is MC that has asked for a keeper and we spend some or all of the pittance we have left on a loan deal to secure one, that really is the club rowing us up sh*t creek, and Marti throwing away the paddle. Good god I hope the rumours are wrong.

Not fussed who we have to sell. Players like JJ need to be snapped up, made captain, and the entire foundation built with him as the starting brick. This is the sort of Danny Drinkwater/Matty James/Vardy/Mahrez kind of signing we need. Great attitude, works hard, huge potential. Fans need to do their absolute best to make him fall in love with this place.