smudgerfox

Can we afford long term?

Can you explain to me how you force a player to sign a new contract or sell him if there is no buyer? The “letting players leave for nothing” argument is a complete red herring - players (and their agents) have the contract/transfer system sewn up to suit them. Clubs are little more than spectators…

Get a grip! Do you really think SD looked at all the centre backs in the world and concluded that this was his favoured pairing? Or maybe, just maybe, was it that they were already in place or available to buy cheaply and they'd do a job for him? He kept Everton up in the season we went down, with Ashley Young at f/b, Keane at c/b and one barely fit striker. At the very least he deserves respect for what hes achieved in terrible circumstances..

Our players got rid of Ranieri, Puel, Cooper and now RVN - arguably Brendan as well, who is running the club?

Winks out for me….part of a rotten culture and unlikely to be part of a healthier one. We have to stop players undermining our managers - whoever they are and however good they are - or we’re sunk.

Im pretty sure Winks did move north but moved back when his wife was pregnant…she wanted to be near her family - fine let the old man sign for Leyton Orient then ..

Read or heard somewhere the other day that we only got Claudio because he submitted his own CV - he wasn't on the official candidate list at all. And we only got Enzo because Jesse effin Marsch turned us down. Whenever you hear anything about the selection process they’re usually impressed by powerpoint presentations - which tells you all you need to know. Bunch of amateurs who think they’re replacing Colin from Accounts…

Top told Enzo he wanted a team that play like Man City.

Well I think the inference was that they’d not accepted Steve Cooper and they couldn’t afford for them to strike the same attitude to Ruud. That doesn’t sound so incredible especially if it was true that PSR finances don’t allow for a three manager season and we have been here before when they didnt have the money to sack Brendan. No football club should be in a position where it doesn’t have the money to change managers but it is part of our ongoing dysfunctionality. no need to be so aggressive - just trying to offer a plausible explanation for baffling events…

Well Top apparently told the players there was no money to sack RVN - I assume that doesn't mean literally no money but no PSR headroom to accommodate that expense. If that was true then - December I think - it’s still true now…

Isn’t it PSR ? Cant sack him in this PSR period because the financial liabilities for that have not been allowed for. If true we could be waiting until end of June.

Glover spotted Fatawu - Enzo has mentioned MG showing him a video and saying "we'll take him.." Jake on BSLB said a few weeks ago that there's an extensive scouting team at Seagrave who make recommendations and are then ignored by the manager (s). He seemed to think we were wedded to a small number of agents (unnamed) whose "advice" we routinely follow. It would be good to find out who they are...

You fail to mention Mac Aliister 5 goals 5 assists and Szoboszlai 5 goals and 7 assists so obviously they don’t have a rule of central midfielders not getting involved in goals

Im so sorry - I apologise for being so thick and of course bow to your superior knowledge. How stupid of me to think that a “holding” midfielder might score a goal or two every now and again. That the ball might occasionally find its way to his feet 20-30 yards out and he might stick it in the top corner. Or take a free kick or corner that leads directly to a goal. No, he’s a holding midfielder and that’s all we expect of him, to “hold” - hold what and to what purpose exactly? Presumably to operate in a 20 yard strip, 40 yards from goal, taking simple passes off the likes of Vestergaard and passing back to him, while occasionally turning the team round so it’s actually progressing through the thirds. What a skill set! And just in case he’s injured or loses form, we have plenty of other central midfielders who have a goal involvement, on average, about twice a season. A recipe for certain success I’m sure. Thanks for putting me right. PS we just got relegated

His goal and assist record for a central midfielder is pathetic. Same for Skipp, Soumare, Ndidi and Hamza.

I really think it’s a mistake to say Dyche has a “style.” He’s spent his entire career managing teams who strictly speaking can’t compete in wages and transfer fees. What he does is look at the players at his disposal and organises them to maximise results. So he doesn’t complain about having to play Ashley Young at full back - he organises the team so Young isn’t a glaring weakness that opponents can routinely exploit.So,it’s not style first, results second. It’s the other way round.For now that is what we need.

So were Sousa, Levein, Holloway, Allen Sven and they didn’t have a positive impact. Any of the “bright young thing” names are a gamble - you could get Oliver Glasner, you could get Lopetegui….

Some good suggestions - and obviously Rohl would be very interesting. But you can see the problem with every one. None have managed a club of our size/status with the expectations that come with it. None have managed in the Premier League. And while many of them have managed a sh1tshow, not on the scale we are able to offer! We don’t score very high on managers’ usual criteria for taking a job. 1 Transfer funds ( and funds for chosen support staff) 2 chance of success v expectation of success 3 financial stability 4 internal structure 5 supportive fanbase

Does anyone dispute that we are a basket case? And if we are, I certainly believe we are, then we need a manager who can plot a route through the mess and lay down stronger foundations for the future. In other words the job needs to be understood for what it is. It will not just be about establishing a playing style, signing a few modest squad additions and coasting the Championship. We did that last time and look what happened. And the financial pressures are getting worse not better. And our attractiveness to would-be managers must be close to an all time low. We were close to the bottom of the barrel with DeanSmith, Cooper and RVN.

So you’re dead set against Dyche in comparison with candidates you cannot name and who we have no idea whether they would come to a club facing the prospect of losing many of its best players, financial Armageddon, with one of the worst directors of football in the English game, facing a points deduction and possibly a transfer embargo. Welcome to your dream job, Mr young, progressive, ambitious, talented coach!

So who?

Has Wellens managed in the Prem? Or even in the championship? Never mind his record at Burnley, he kept up an absolutely car crash Everton squad with Ashley Young a starting full back. And we need someone with the stature and track record to read the riot act to a group of take-the-piss footballers and to Rudkin, Top and Whelan. We are no longer an established Premier League club with the luxury of choosing playing style, we are a club in a huge financial hole and we need to get out of it while still turning in results.

If there was an experienced manager out there who knows the English game inside out who has the staying power and the self-belief to unravel a sh1tshow and turn it into a basis for footballing progress we’d have heard about him. Moyes would have fitted the bill as would Potter.

Im sorry but this preoccupation with style is a delusion. I find it little short of amazing that fans think this is all we need. We badly need a manager who cannot only coach the team but who has the force of personality and experience to ensure all the things that are going wrong are put right. That person isnt some bright young coach from Europe - its a hardened manager who knows English football inside out. i know people have in mind the Palace, Bournemouth , Brentford and Brighton appointments but those clubs are infinitely better run than we are. They have a professional and stable internal structure and are free from PSR issues. We need a Pearson-type figure to oversee an internal revolution. The closest to that is Sean Dyche.

But what did Musa do on the field? Was there a goal v Everton? My point is we keep signing players who literally never make the grade...(as I say, not always entirely their fault..)