Claudio Fannieri

Something has to give and soon, yes Ruud made some mistakes yesterday no doubt, but look at the squad he is currently managing, we have players like Ward, Choudhury, Thomas, Coady, Vestergaard , Soumare, Iversen, McAteet, Kristiansen, that is 9 of a 25 man squad that have been deemed surplus to requirements at some stage by the club, most of which. were either bench warmers in the championship or were sent on loan in the hope of moving them on. We have then compounded it by signing utter guff like Ayew, BDCR, Skipp, and Eduoard The inability of a certain person to move on our squad payers is pathetic and continues to massively hamstrung our ability to be competitive and plays a heavy burden on PSR compliance. We then have a bloated academy full of players who barely go out on loan to aid their development or to help assess if they can make it, instead they hang around playing academy football until they are 21/22 and then drift away. We have players in their now who have not one chance of making it at the club. We are on our arse at right back at the moment, a few years ago Joe Wormleighton was being touted as one to watch, he is still here and yet he hasn’t made an appearance in anger for the 1sf team, surely we have to pushing the talented 18 years old out on loan and fast tracking their development and making them 1st team ready. I really struggle to see what our policy is as it seems all over the show and we just seem to be stockpiling academy players with no clear direction of how we develop or them or when to cut our losses and release. We really do need some fresh blood, new ideas and impetus at Football Director level as the club is currently stagnating under the current incumbent.

Ward is dog muck but make no mistake the anger should be pointed at the people in the club who identified him as a goalkeeper to spend £12m on and then to reward him with not one but two lucrative contracts. We have been managed into a position where mediocrity has been rewarded with loyalty and big fat wage packets. The club is a disgrace wasting money on players like Ward, who are so far out their depth it’s ridiculous.

I honestly think if Stolrcyrk had played more than 90 minutes in an academy game then he would have started, think it’s probably a week or two too early for him. The only complaint for me is the fact Facundo is not starting probably at the expense of Ayew but maybe Ruud has a plan so not going to slag him off just yet.

Our first 3 choices as starting central midfielders out, therefore left with choice number 4 and number 5, who has barely gotten a game with us over the last 4/5 seasons, then add to that we lose our goalkeeper and arguably best player at half time which would thrown most teams into disarray especially when the replacement yet again has barely played any football in real anger for nearly two years, and surprise surprise we come away from the game with a poor result and performance, however if that doesn’t show Ruud exactly what is required and also demonstrate the lack of quality options within the squad in certain key positions. What is criminal this season has been the random choice of Cooper to follow Enzo and then allowing him active involvement in the recruitment strategy which has meant a right old mixed bag of signings some of which are clearly not suited to how we want to play and don’t really fit the usual age profile. The proactive planning at the club especially when it comes to changing managers is literally non existent, quite what they were thinking in appointing Cooper who had no identity with how we want to play and therefore was always going to struggle with a squad that had largely been recruited to play a certain style under Rodgers or Maresca, and then to allow him to influence transfers was absolutely insanity of the highest order.

I think I speak for the majority of the pod listeners in saying that you are far more of a priority at this time than trying to record an episode. Hope you are ok and please please do not feel under pressure, at the end of the day there are far more important things in life. Sending you love and positivity. Take care of yourself.

Ruud seems to be the type of character who will not suffer fools, I can only hope after yesterdays debacle it is crystal clear to him that certain players are nowhere near premier league level and will not be involved again and will be shown the door in January. we have to be more ruthless as a club and we have to become better at moving on players who are clearly not good enough and are out staying their welcome. our recent history of stockpiling mediocrity on long contracts and not being able to move them on until they leave on free transfers has seriously hampered our ability to freshen up our squads at key times over the last 3/4 years and on its own should be a sackable offence for someone. That team yesterday says all you need to know about poor squad management, a goalkeeper who comes on at half time who has literally spent his entire career bench warming and was deemed 3rd choice in the championship, a midflelder and right winger who would both struggle to get in a top ten championship starting XI. A left back on the bench who has had two disastrous loan spells away and shown he is barely championship level now and then on top of that we have players like Iversen who wanted out when Enzo came and we rejected a reasonable offer from Palace and now he is just handing around waiting for his contract to expire and walk away for nothing and having contributed absolutely zero for the best part of two years. These examples highlight just how poorly run the club has been these last few years, and still certain individuals are trusted to manage the day to day operations.

I wonder if the club are dictating that he is not selected due to his contract situation it’s absolutely baffling that Ward keeps getting the nod ahead of him. Massive issue for me is today we are reliant on squad players like Ward, Hamza,, Thonas et al players who were deemed surplus to requirements pretty much 2 seasons ago, barely featured last season in the championship and yet have hung around stinking the place out, our inability to shift the deadwood in our squad is criminal as players like these three are a drain on our finances and prevent us from what is a much needed fresh impetus of better bench and squad options. None of those 3 should be near the matchday squad in the championship and yet all 3 were involved in our premier league squad today and 2 ended up playing. That speaks volumes as to the mismanagement of our squad.

Because I think he gives us a bit more balance and defensive support than Facu even though he works hard, he is a bit lightweight, also I thought Facu had a bit of a mixed game against West Ham would deffo be in my starting XI but in Ruud we trust

No doubt travelled yesterday instead 😊

Seen in Morrisons, must have got a Christmas job whilst waiting for the call from Wolves

That is a decent result and when you put into perspective the fact we were 2 nil down at 85 minutes then it’s an unbelievable result. 4 points from 2 games is a very very impressive return in your first week in charge. Well done Ruud that is some impact you have had so far 👏🏼👏🏼

Massive appointment, loves club, superb pro and most importantly will be a fantastic role model and mentor to the young academy prospects.

He is a player I really like, still very raw and maybe not the most technically gifted but he is a great outlet especially on the counter, he works really hard, has a great engine and is defiantly a team player and is capable of getting into decent positions. Good to see him get an assist as this is an area I feel he needs to improve on. Funny enough was chatting with my lad watching the game last night and he made a good point that maybe Kasey would be a good option to play full back longer term.

That was much more like the Daka we signed, full of pace, creating mayhem and then to finish it off with a goal, cracking finish and proves he so much better when he plays on instinct rather than over complicate his game. This is where Ruud will do well with Daka, obviously he will look to refine and improve him, but I think he is a coach who will always focus on their key attributes rather than try to convert him into a different type of player. If Ruud can harness the obvious strengths of Daka, we could finally have someone who can take the baton from Vardy

What a unbelievable goalkeeper, fantastic with his feet, and an unreal shot stopper the only think that may stop him going to the very elite clubs is his height as he does struggle a lot with corners/crosses. However he is still a wonderful goalkeeper and it was truly an inspired piece of recruitment to sign this lad for little over £5m.

What a player, so cool calm and collected in possession, and a real eye for a pass, also love his work rate off the ball too, not afraid to track back and work defensively. We have an another talent on our hands and wouldn’t be shocked if he is another £50m+ sale in a couple of seasons time.

Thank you Ruud, that is the first time I have truly enjoyed watching us this season, whilst at times we had our backs to the wall it was great to see our team playing with intensity, aggression and wanting to get on the front foot. we would have conceded a similar number of chances under Cooper the difference being we would have barely laid a glove on them until the last 15-20 minutes and lost 3-1. The shift in mentality was massive and you could see the players loved it and were revelling in it.

Wow what a performance especially given that Ruud had two training sessions and one of those was a recovery session for the majority of the squad. it was far from perfect especially the number of chances conceded but Rome wasn’t built in a day. However we looked a team again, lots of energy, intensity and most importantly purpose to our play. What impressed me most was his in game management and subs, they were proactive rather than reactive, he saw how the game was evolving and made changes to suit, brave call to replace Vards on the hour and it paid off handsomely. The shift in mentality was massive for me, last night we looked like a team who believed they can compete at this level and they can create and score chances and win games of football rather than the negative mindset of trying to cling on in games and damage limitation we endured under Cooper. Surely there can be no doubters now that the decision to get rid of Cooper was the correct one. If Ruud can continue to get his ideas across and continue week on week to improve us and make us more tactical solid and defensively sound whilst maintaining a cutting edge at the top end of the field then I think we can stay up and have a decent season. last night showed this squad has some decent quality within it and if we can add 2 or 3 to help in areas that need strengthening I can see us ending up in the bracket of teams fighting it out for 10-15th position and keep our heads above the relegation battle.

I take it you are taking the piss, given Ruud has only been in charge for 45 minutes ……

Was there any questions asked in the press conference regards any additions to the back room staff?

I think Top really wanted RVN but for whatever reason Cooper was the one that they plumped for. I really think in the summer Top should have pulled rank, I imagine others advised that Cooper would be a lower risk appointment and had premier league managerial experience.

Still can’t quite believe he is our manager, absolute world class in his day hut also has done the hard yards as a coach and showed at PSV he can manage as well. Yes he had some challenges but like Enzo at Parma I am sure he has learnt some lessons and we are going to benefit.

It will have been a recovery day for anyone involved yesterday but there will have been an introduction to Ruud and a chance for him to share his ideals, philosophy’s and expectations of the squad.

He actually just gave Rudkin a name check at the end of the praise for the the club and owner etc and how he cared about everyone there, I don’t buy into that his narrative that Enzo thinks Rudkin was excellent, in fact even when we won the title at PNE, Rudkin was a bystander to the celebrations and it was noticeable how the squad and Enzo celebrated with Top yet Rudkin was on the periphery of it all.

There will be at least 2 new backroom team joining just to get us back to where we were pre Cooper leaving, what will be interesting will be if Ruud has the agreement or desire to bring more in and if he feels he can integrate the remaining staff into his style and methods.