cityfanlee23

Ndidi needs someone around him to collect possession, he's very clearly a trigger for Wolves, multiple times Ndidi has got the ball and they have swarmed him, and he's dribbled into trouble because he has nobody offering themselves to him.

Yep, this is a mystery to me.

I won't for a moment try to justify Ayew starting over Buonanotte, Buonanotte is a far more exciting player with a massive ceiling if he finds consistency, however his stats are very close to that of Ayew, he's not miles ahead of him, they both offer different traits, Ayew tends to create less, but he also loses the ball less, and offers us physicality. Buonanotte is more exciting and produces slightly more chances than Ayew, but he loses the ball more and I can think of multiple errors from Buo that have led to a goal from him attempting a poor pass or a silly take on. The most surprising stat is Ayew takes on players more successfully than Buonanotte does with only marginally less attempts. The first 10 games of Buonanotte blew Ayew out of the water, the rest he's been bang average. Take it with a pinch of salt as stats are not everything, but I am quite surprised by how close they are statistically. (Stats per 90)

I agree he's been mismanaged in terms of playtime, but on the pitch he's been bang average for months, some of that is down to tactical approach, a lot of that is down to him not yet having the consistency he needs to live up to the early hype. Huge potential, but right now nowhere near as good as many claim him to be imo. Should definitely have been playing though!

This does unfortunately sum up RVN's time here, however I think Buonanotte is massively overrated by our fans. He's just the best of a very below average bunch.

I think it's just easier to get rid of a manager than it is to get rid of the board. If Ruud stays in summer we can get rid after 5-6 games without too much issue, if the board is unchanged, we have potentially years of mess to clean up with more overpaid dead wood being signed in summer that we can't shift, and potentially a new manager on a fresh contract that's even worse (don't put it past this lot to do it again)

Yep, as I've said to others this is NOT an endorsement to keep him, it's just a post of my gut feeling of "meh" if he stays and curiosity of seeing his rebuild based on his principles of having higher standards than most of the important players/people at the club (although his team selections do water those standards down ) There are far more reasons to end this chapter than continue to write it.

If ever there was a time for a player to leak what behind the scenes looks like it's now, they were happy to throw SC under the bus.

I didn't, that was the entire point of my post. It's a gut feeling, and an overriding view that if we continue with the board in place as they are, it won't matter who comes in, I completely agree with everything you've said, it would be a massive gamble, I'm completely biased because I like what he has said and like him as a player, but would replace him in a shot with a whole host of managers. I just won't be as angry as most if he stays (providing it results in upstairs being shifted)

I completely agree, the fanbase (atleast on here, which is very prominent) is completely toxic towards RVN and that's why it's untenable. As i say, I have very little substance to base an argument for him staying, and i'd swap him for a whole list of managers that I believe are attainable in a heartbeat. But bring Danny Rohl in and keep everything the same and it will catch up with him at some point as it's looking at Wednesday with their end of season fall off. Ruud came into a club with no coaches and hasn't been able for whatever reason to bring his people in, a club that lied about transfer budgets, full of a team of players who do not give a single shit about the club, fans or community, who actively disrespect the club on and off the pitch. He's made a lot of mistakes with this bunch of players no doubt, it's purely gut feeling that next season we could do well, not an endorsement by any stretch. But the pure animosity towards him makes it very unlikely he stays, then again, with how the club operate at the moment it wouldn't surprise me if he got a new contract

EDIT FOR CLARITY: This is NOT an endorsement or an argument for keeping RVN, just general thoughts rattling around I know the majority will disagree with me, but I've slowly warmed to the idea of him staying (I'm still overall against it, but I hold much less anger if he stays), I'm first to admit this is purely from a bias position of him being one of my favourite players as a kid, and there is not a huge amount to back him from in his time here. I like the way he speaks, I think his standards are generally far higher than the club and board, I think we improved transitionally, but defensively and on an attacking front we marginally declined (the statistics between Ruud and Cooper as pointed out from another poster who compared them a few days ago are not too dissimilar, Cooper was very lucky to have Hermansen saving his skin every week), that doesn't make Ruud good enough yet. However that doesn't mean with time he can't be, and I truly believe we have enough next season to be top 6 if we get rid of a few big earners and focus on our promising youth, I'm curious to know what Ruud's rebuild would look like. Ruud seems to get on with multiple players and they often go to him after the final whistle, his 45+ minute conversation with Jamie suggests they at least have a respect for each other otherwise he would have been in and out. The club have lied time and time again, they lied to Brendan, they lied to Enzo, they lied to Ruud, I wouldn't be surprised if they lied to Cooper but he is just too nice to go public with it, we have a clear misalignment across all areas of the club and we need someone with a firm view of the future to pull everyone together, and that's something Ruud has spoken about. Again, I fully know I'm in the minority, and I don't hold this warming to Ruud strongly, it's a gut feeling. If you offered me Rohl, Urs Fischer, Rydstrom, and multiple other managers I and others have put forward over the last few years I'd push him out of the door myself, but if we continue to keep the key people in position whether that be the DOF, the scouting department who keep putting forward this overpaid dross or even the complete lack of a coaching network that chops and changes, leaves and isn't replaced, very little will change. Ruud has been an issue, but the biggest issues are further up the chain of command, I fully understand what I've said is riddled with holes and inconsistencies, this is just a gut feeling. With all of that said, I just can't see how his position could be tenable at the most basic level, forget the tactics, forget the player antics, forget the DOF, this fanbase has become very toxic towards Ruud in a very short period of time, so It doesn't look possible to keep him unless the final games are a massive improvement and Ruud in the summer fully puts his plan forward to the fans publicly, which isn't likely to happen, every day that he's still here the fanbase is winding itself up more.

I wish they’d go to infinity and beyond…

Could Jake Evans be moulded into a striker? we would still need a new signing with some experience to help him out, but with Mavididi, Fatawu, Alves and potentially Monga on the books (and the other two that we don't talk about), game time might be limited on the wing.

Interesting to hear Ruud talk on multiple occasions about alignment, implying that currently there isn't an alignment at the club, I can only guess that is alignment on vision, transfers and style of play, something that regardless of Ruud in or out we have all known for a while now, we have signed the wrong players for each system under multiple managers, as well as going rogue from that system in Summer, multiple lies told to multiple managers. Ruud is atleast subtly publically saying what others have avoided.

Comments coming in fast so I haven’t looked back to see if it’s been posted but Ruud is asked multiple questions about Jamie. They had a 45 minute question about his career all all sorts of other things.

I wouldn't mind seeing him go to Wednesday, both sets of fans singing his name would be incredible. Reminds me of when we played Doncaster 13/14 and we all sung "There's only one Dickov" who he was managing at the time.

Sad sad day, the GOAT. Get him a statue, either lifting the premier league trophy or the celebration pointing to himself as he broke the record. This day had to come and it’s really sad that it comes on the back of relegation. He will always be a Fox and his legacy on this club won’t be forgotten.

I'm at the point if he went into next season i'd have no choice but to wipe the slate clean and judge him as if it was day 1, for me RVN is an issue but nowhere near the main threat to this club. With the squad we will likely be left with we can still get promoted whether its RVN, Rohl or Dyche, the question becomes can he really stamp his standards and authority with a full summer window and pre season, can he get rid of the dead wood and overpaid grifters. I'd snap your hand off now if you gave me the choice of starting the season with Ruud and getting a better DOF in. If Ruud goes tomorrow, it won't make a shred of difference if we have Rudkin giving over the hill players 90k a week in the championship again.

Manager says he wants to strengthen position, scouts find players, manager has final say, Rudkin is then invited in to do the negotiation.

Bit of a mixed bag of results but I still rate Domenico Tedesco quite highly.

That's the rumour but it is just a rumour at this point, nothing concrete, he worked there previously and Southampton were definitely interested in him, but I'm yet to see any evidence of some deal that has been made, if they had a deal in place they might as well bring him in now since the buyout will be the same. I don't think a deal has actually been agreed personally.

I don't really want Dyche but in terms of baby steps to get ourselves back on track as a club, Dyche definitely represents a step in the right direction or atleast the start of turning the ship around, the question is whether we gamble on the unknown and hope they can build a solid foundation, or do we go for foundation builders now, maybe sacrifice exciting football for a bit in order to really build a solid foundation that a future manager can take advantage of. If we do go for someone like Dyche I think we need a bit of ying and yang with a director of football that focuses on bringing in young exciting players with a bit of bite about them. I really don't want to see the club go down the direction of signing "experience" all the time, Dyche's record of signing cheaper players that can do a job at a higher level is admirable, but his record is also littered with a certain "type" of player, Jay Rodriguez, Jack Cork, Ashley Westwood, Nathan Collins, Robbie Brady, Wout Weghorst, Jeff Hendrick. They weren't massively expensive, but all bar 1 of those names cost >£10m, for that sort of money we could be going in for players like Fatawu, Buonanotte pre Brighton, Bilal type players.

Didn’t want Carsley when Cooper was sacked as I thought it was too early for him but I was moderately impressed by his stint with England when he stepped in briefly, the players had glowing reviews for him when he left the role and some even took a subtle swipe at Southgate when comparing Carsley’s positive changes that he made around the place. Hes got massive knowledge and contacts with the best young talent in the country, could also massively help some exciting talent we have and bring through a new era for us with the likes of Alves, Monga, Nelson etc. I still think Carsley is a risk, but given the reset we need it could be a risk worth taking in the Championship, allowing him to rebuild the squad around Evans, Monga, Nelson, Fatawu, Okoli and other younger players like Mavididi would really solidify a proper foundation.

He did play almost 2000 minutes though and missed 8 games to injury, i'd want to see that down to about 700 (15 mins per game max) If we are going to replace him we can't afford to sign someone who "needs time" then have Vardy poaching thousands of minutes off of them, especially on the wages he's likely to be on. I agree on the affordability though, hopefully we have a bit to spend!

I still think we can be promoted next season. This squad under the right manager with 3-4 proper Leaders signed can get promoted. We need a big exodus of players, but I don't think we need 7-8 new signings to have a good go at promotion.