adam95581

Sounds like it’s as good as done (from a Turkish newspaper). Realistically, Atletico would be a pull even if we weren’t in a mess and needing a rebuild…unless we stay up and appoint someone ridiculous then I can’t see him staying

Don’t see it this way. He’s one of the few who have actually shown some fight and emotion at times. He made a mistake today but he’s carried us in many games this season.

The championship might be a blessing in disguise…hear me out. We were going to have a massive overhaul this summer anyway with us losing players for free. If we’d stayed up we’d have struggled to replace them with premier league quality so at least now we can rebuild with parachute payments under the stewardship of Ted Lasso.

Change something FFS. Can see how this is going to go and we’ve only played 4 mins

So who would you want?

Came on here to say the exact same. Nailed on.

See my response to Trent Fox on the same point. My original post was badly worded but the point remains - his record suggests he’d probably go in and do well over the immediate term.

Reading it back, it does sound that way but it’s more that he is generally seen as someone who starts well with a new team. You could make the argument above about him moving from Swansea to Liverpool, Liverpool to Celtic, Celtic to us. He hasn’t changed style dramatically in that time but has generally always had a pretty decent start with a new club.

The thing is, that wouldn’t be a bad appointment for West Ham. He’s not bad at first because he has a clear style and way of playing. The problem is when he is found out he doesn’t know how to adapt…and that’s the stage we’re at now.

Yep. Boos at half time and then the Rodgers out chanting started at 60mins. Felt a bit early for me given we were 1-0 down at a relegation rival and had a chance of getting something from the game but 🤷🏽‍♂️

Tou-bloody-ché

"Worst fans and goalkeeper in the league, you'll never sing that"

Defensively we’re so poor

Haha I would love to see this happen

Hmm, I take the point. But it felt like when Rodgers arrived and we had that great start, pundits were tripping over themselves to call him elite. I just don’t think the same approach has been applied when we’ve played badly - there’s always some other reason. I accept that our signings have given us a boost and allowed us to play differently so Rodgers is slightly vindicated in his argument that we needed to freshen up, but it has to go both ways. Anyway, one to worry about another day, not off the back of two good wins and performances.

I’m not advocating for him to be attacked at every opportunity. I’m highlighting the clear tone in the TOTW article above that Rodgers is to be credited for the good but absolved of the bad. For the record, I’ve never been a vocal Rodgers in or out-er. I have been vocal about the media’s* inability to report on our situation with consistency though. *exception potentially being Simon Jordan.

How does Rodgers always escape any criticism. We’re playing badly = “he’s not been backed” We’re playing well - “he’s managed to get a tune out of Iheanacho”

I think the biggest change in his game is that he knows when to take the foul or when to ride the challenge. He literally never rode the challenge before and it used to slow us down / mean we missed opportunities to break.

Surely not… does that mean Leeds matched it then?

And then when we’ve done that and someone inevitably comes in for him and we’re left with a weaker squad as a whole…

That’s fine and I agree with the sentiment but you can’t divorce it from FFP / sustainability. The issue is that when we next go to sign a player that we’re ‘reaching for’ (e.g. arguably out of our league, lots of suitors etc.) they are likely to want to be paid close to the top earners. We’ve then got a decision as to whether we say yes and drive our wage bill up, or say no and risk losing players. I just don’t think it’s as easy as ‘pay him more because he deserves it’ and that’s why I think he’ll move on in the summer unfortunately.

I don’t think the ‘pay him more’ argument works when we’re so close to FFP limits. Let alone the message it sends to other players (current and future).

Rightly so...Ricardo and Ndidi are just back from injury. They won't be up to speed and just risks setting them back. Iversen has shown nothing to suggest he's much better than Ward either.

We’ve signed players who were far worse and offered far less. £30m was overpriced but that wasn’t his fault - he contributed to our FA Cup win, 2x 5th place finishes, a record 9-0 win and when he and Ricardo were good, they were very good. Only real blot would be his covid antics.

I’d take Smalling for the Evans / Huth role.