Finnegan

To be clear, saying we'd qualify for the Champions League was a joke. But I do think some of you are letting the negativity get the better of you. Good coaching and actually having a plan that suits the players makes a big difference, players that have been profoundly average to poor this year would have been significantly better with the right leadership and a plan that suited them. Barnes, Maddison and Tielemans were all big parts of the team last time we got relegated with everyone in here calling them useless and shit and happy to see the back of them (well, probably not Barnes.) All of othem went on to play significantly better once they got out and got in two squads that were better performing (even despite Spurs hilarious mess.) Everton, West Ham and Wolves are all absolutely shit. Everton have won 7 games all ****ing season and they're 15th. We'd be well and truly in that mix if Enzo hadn't have gone and we hadn't lost a couple of key players to major injuries. Obviously, both of those are very big IFs, a huge waste of time worrying about and we're getting relegated so it doesn't matter. But still.

Enzo managing: Vards Mavididi, Facundo, BEK, Fatawu, Winks, Ricardo JJ, Vesty, Faes Mads No injuries all season, next stop Champions League.

It was just very different, I'm not sure you can say either is better or worse really. I enjoyed all three goals a lot.

Who knows man, it just sounded like paranoid, entitled jibberish from an unbelievably massive ego.

Jesus Christ, finally Iversen and Ward out of contract, so that's two of your list gone at least. Vards will also be out of contract and I think he goes, it'll be really sad to see his last game be in such miserable context but still. Hermansen I assume you've included because we'll need the money, my concern is that his post-injury season has possibly reduced his value and whilst we need sellable assets, I'm a bit concerned it's going to be a really bad time to cash in. Otherwise he's a great player, he'll do a good job next year and frankly I'd happily keep Winks as well. He was lightyears ahead of the Championship last season and I don't hold petty grudges like a lot on here, don't give a shit how crap he's been this year, I don't think it's entirely his fault. The rest, eh. The majority will want out, I think, Faes and Ndidi have had their agents feeding rumours already, Daka and Soumare didn't want to play in the Championship last time and Vestergaard has just had a horrible career here. However, none are out of contract and most still have a book value and bloated wages to overcome. Even Soumare and Daka, with only a year left, probably have book values of about 5-6m each and I honestly don't think a lot of clubs will want to pay significantly in excess of that for their services given they'll almost definitely be wanted abroad more than at home. I can see Soumare completing the full Praet cycle and doing a year on loan again before his contract expires. I think Daka will be in the squad, personally, whether he likes it or not. With so fewer strikers on the books I don't think a new manager will have the freedom that Enzo did to exclude him and frankly I do think he'll work hard and put the effort in if he's forced to stay regardless. McAteer is just the new Hamza, we fluffed our lines, should have sold him when someone offered silly money for him, the moment has passed and now he's just going to linger. He'll maybe be a useful squad option but he isn't going anywhere. Reid we have for two more years, ffs, he's going to be on wages nobody is topping. That's a senior squad space and wage bill problem we're going to have for another two years. Nobody's even going to want to loan him because he's not good enough for any level he'd be willing to leave us for. Just an awful signing, probably even worse than Ayew to be honest. All in all, of your list of 12, I reckon maybe half are gone by September at most? Faes and Wilf the most likely to go for nominal fees. Golding? Lol don't be daft, he's just Leon Crnic mk 2, he'll never play for us. I think BEK's agent will be ringing around Europa League qualifying clubs already, frankly, he's far too good for us. With Hermansen's value dipping a bit, I think we'll end up having to try and sell him for as much of a profit as we can manage to bring in some cash. Keep in mind he did a Fofana to join us and I wouldn't expect considerable loyalty from him if decent clubs come sniffing. Okoli wants out and has for a while, he's got the same wage and book value probably as some of the others but he has aspirations to get back in the Italian side. I reckon he gets loaned back to Italy, I'll be amazed if he's in the squad. Thomas isn't good enough but we probably can't get rid and Souttar will depend heavily on the style of play a new manager wants to implement. We probably won't have a high enough budget to NOT use him, mind. Brakbrooke failed to make an impact at a crap SPL club and that's his one bit of pro football since an ACL, I don't think he's ready to be in the first team here tbh. We need to find a decent League One or Two loan for him to get some proper minutes under his belt in this country. Skipp probably starts, I reckon he'd be alright in the Championship to be honest and quite frankly we need so much in the squad we probably can't afford to not play him. He isn't going to have a long line of Prem teams after him. I reckon Coady will go. Wages are a problem but we almost managed to swap him out in January, he's barely kicked a ball here and I think he pretty obviously wants out. I don't think Kristiansen will want to be in the squad either, I can see another loan. Worked well for him last time. As for youth, Alves and Nelson will be in the squad I think but Monga will probably have gone. Probably leaves the following senior players that will need to be registered: Winks, Reid, Daka, McAteer, Vestergaard(?), Fatawu, Mavididi, Souttar, Woyo, Thomas, Stolarczyk, JJ, Ayew, Skipp, Ricky(?) - 15 senior pros, several of which aren't good enough and a few who actively don't want to be here. Jesus ****ign christ that's rough. I can't even bring myself to do a depth chart.

A selection of the countries that voted for Rodri: Australia, Ghana, Palestine (and Israel, aww!), Serbia, Zambia, China, Chile, Finland, Uganda. Pretty ****ing diverse. Rodri was just outstanding and deserved to win it. Think if people put their Man City dislike aside they'd probably accept that, too, and it's cool to see a defensive midfielder get that recognition for being so influencial. I didn't particularly think (or realise?) his reaction was about alleged racism at the time, it seemed to me just entitlement because he lives in an echo chamber where the cult of Madrid have convinced him he's the best player in the world, when he isn't.

Because, righlty or wrongly, we decided that Oliver Skipp for 25m was a better midfield signing.

Not really, it's BEK by miles. Much, much better footballing brain.

Whilst it's true we don't utilise it well, you can't FORCE a footballer to sign for anyone. The guy has some of Europe's best clubs sniffing around and a chance to go play for RBL. Why on Earth would he ever agree to put pen on paper for us in our current state?

He'll go in the summer. We might put him on "gardening leave" until the next PSR period officially starts before paying him off but he won't be the manager next year.

Literally one year ago we had Faes in the squad and Rudkin as the DOF and we still got promoted because we made a good choice of manager. Rudkin is a problem, he needs to go, the squad has too many issues, it needs an overhaul. Nobody is disputing that. But it's very silly to suggest that's a bigger, more immediate problem than replacing the inept celebrity we've got coaching the team. Honestly been probably the worst manager in our modern history. I'd rather Peter Taylor.

Everyone understands Rudkin can't continue as Director of Football. We all know that. But Ruud is a hopeless coach and the players aren't playing for him at all. If be stayed we'd be a disaster next year too.

Lovely, lovely first Inter goal. Class. Smash and grab is kinda what they do. Brilliant defensive side with some great counter attackers. Love Lautaro, real rat at times but class, like Vards mixed with a bit more number 10. Enjoyed a completely Muller goal as well

On the average night I think Declan Rice is wildly, wildly over rated. But credit where it's due, that's two of the best free kicks I've seen in ages. The second was one of the most satisfying hits to watch in years.

Ruud is doing more immediate damage, whether people like that or not. If we recruit the right manager we can be more succesful with Rudkin. RVN just isn't a good coach. Rudkin doesn't even need to go, I don't really think he particularly does what we need a DOF. He could be shuffled sideways somewhere else in the business with his job title tweaked, which is what I think will happen. We just need to modernise and split our manager role properly in two, hire a real Dof and a competent head coach.

Hands off.

This is exactly why our operating model doesn't work. A modern head coach has enough on his plate being able to come up with a tactical plan and drill it, coach it in to the players. They don't want or need the distraction of being responsible for also building a squad. We don't want to be looking for any "manager", we want to be looking separately for a head coach and a sporting director / director of football. It's not just a problem of over burdening one person or being over reliant on one person it's also about the fact we're increasingly chasing unicorns. If you want someone to be brilliant at recruitment, brilliant at squad management, brilliant at tactics, brilliant at coaching, that person doesn't exist anymore. Arguably, it never did, even greats like SAF didn't actually do all that, they knew how to delegate. If we keep insisting on not having a proper director of football then every time we recruit we're going to find it harder and harder to find the right person because the current generation coming through aren't "managers" at all, they are ALL head coaches and they all really expect a squad to be there readily assembled for them. Enzo being the brilliant example. They just don't have the skill set we're looking for because we're stuck in the past. It'll get harder and harder every year.

My point is just that anybody can value hard work, commitment, a never say die attitude and a culture of teamwork. I'm not a world class football manager but I personally like all of those things AND exciting attacking football. There'll be coaches out there with a similar outlook. I'm just saying we don't need a footballing dinosaur to rebuild the squad we just need someone that understands culture and mentality, I just used the example Thomas Frank but he's not going to be alone is he. Too often people equate hard work and graft ONLY with managers like Dyche and Moyes like somehow good football and good personalities are mutually exclusive. It's silly.

Brentford is a really good point actually. Nobody would describe Thomas Frank as being "Sean Dyche like" would they? He's another one that's a thoughtful, well spoken academic. He's a student of sports science and sports psychology with no significant playing career. Tactically, his teams play some excellent football that can be great to watch and he's a long way from any kind of football dinosaur. But he's championed a culture he describes as "No Dickheads" which he credits to the All Blacks as being the defining feature of their recruitment. Yes, they are data driven, yes they recruit carefully using analytics to make sure a player fits the role they want to fill technically. But they also do a significant amount of work determining a player's personality and you don't get signed at Brentford if you don't fit the culture and a big part of that culture is working hard for the team and not having an ego. We desperately need to get that back because we lost it for years. Puel is hugely, hugely over rated by a section of revisionists on here but, credit where it's due, he did seem to understand this. Rodgers was the complete opposite. Actively went out and targeted people that were broken or wayward or didn't fit in elsewhere because he thought it would get you technically gifted players for cheap and now we're paying the price.

I think it's a myth you need a manager to have a specific personality and it's an even bigger myth that Nigel Pearson and Sean Dyche are alike. In fact, I'd say that's really offensive to Nige and is exactly the sort of prejudice he's had levelled at him most of his career. He's got a military haircut and he's an English former centre back with no dress sense so everyone just assumes he's a thug. There's this perception of him that he's this stone age knuckle dragger. He's an extremely intelligent, progressive, articulate guy that's calmly spoken and pretty thoughtful. He significantly modernised the club during his time here. The guy likes reading and walking in the mountains, he's not exactly the quintessential British Lad is he. It's not about his personality, it's about the personality of the players he targeted to sign. It's about the personality traits he looked for and valued in others. Pearson and Walsh actively targeted leaders, hard workers, grafters. They cleansed the squad of personalities they thought didn't fit and then they went about only signing players that did. They cultivated a culture here of work rate, determination and togetherness over anything else. You don't need to be Sean Dyche to do that. In fact, I'd argue you don't even need to be the head coach to do that. I'd previously rolled my eyes at people suggesting they'd love Nigel back as a DOF but he'd actually do a pretty good job in that role because his short comings probably are his tactical approach and his handling of the match day. But actually building the club and the squad along with someone like Walsh as head of recruitment would probably be something he'd be great at. TLDR: The squad needs a huge overhaul in personality but that doesn't mean you need a Dyche or a Warnock to do it, just someone that understands building a culture and signing people with the right attitude.

I know a lot of people will disagree but I still believe sincerely we'd have survived if he'd stayed. We'd have still sold KDH, just to Brighton instead and probably still have replaced with him with Bounanotte as a result. We wouldn't have bombed the cash on Skipp, we wouldn't have wasted time with Ayew, BDCR and Edouard. The squad wouldn't be infinitely better but we'd probably have picked up a couple of promising young loans or something instead who would have had more impact. But mostly, the squad would have just had some self belief, some fight, some actual direction and a bit of morale. You can complain the players are too weak mentally or they don't care enough or they're too entitled and you might be right in some cases. But they've basically had zero coaching and off field leadership all season and what you're witnessing currently is the result of that. I'm not suggesting Enzo is the best coach in the league or that his style of football would have been ideal for us this year but his sheer presence and his bond with the squad would have been a massive difference maker. At very, very least we'd be taking it down to the last day with Wolves instead of going out with a whimper but I honestly don't think it'd have come to that.

I promise the BBC, nobody in the ground is "stunned."

So the plan is we absolutely mug Salford off giving them next to **** all compensation, he absolutely dominates the u19s or whatever for two years, gets nowhere near the first team and then signs his first professional contract for Arsenal and our fans have a meltdown about how unfair it all is?