Ruud van Nistelrooy - New Manager - Official

[StanSP]

3 hours ago, blue army 1988 said:

Surprised Ruud hasn't used any of his contacts to get players in at a cheaper rate or even some free transfers.

 

I think Ruud is way over his head here.

This is ridiculously such a basic way of thinking. 

 

A) how do you know for sure he hasn't? 

B) even if he has, any given player has to want to come here 

C) again, even if he has, maybe the club selling (if not a free) want a certain fee for their asset. 

 

It's never as simple as made out. Doesn't mean he's way over his head. Ironically I think people above him are, and perhaps not backing him as promised... 

[JimJams]

Football is a computer game.

[lcfc sheff]

I actually hope he stays for next season, regardless of what league we’re in. Think he could build something and would have some pulling power most managers don’t.

[HankMarvin]

3 hours ago, lcfc sheff said:

I actually hope he stays for next season, regardless of what league we’re in. Think he could build something and would have some pulling power most managers don’t.

Pulling power won’t tend to matter as we won’t have a pot to piss in

[JJD_LCFC]

4 hours ago, lcfc sheff said:

I actually hope he stays for next season, regardless of what league we’re in. Think he could build something and would have some pulling power most managers don’t.

I would agree keeping him for the championship. The only hope I would have is he is allowed to bring in his own staff with him. I would move on the majority of the technical staff that are here. We saw at Brentford the assistants are clueless and somehow still here. 
Personally I didn’t want Ruud for the job at that time. As he has no experience at this end of a league table. Previously I would have gone for a Moyes, or now Dyche. But if we are in the championship I certainly think Ruud could do well there. 
 

[LCFCJohn]

I’m not sure on him really.

 

Clearly he has walked into an unfortunate situation, particularly with the injuries. Cooper didn’t leave us in a terrible position in the table but the loss of Fatawu, Ndidi and Mads either before he took over or shortly after in Mads case needs to be taken into account. 
 

But at the same time, I’m just not seeing much of anything to get inspired by long term. Whilst it might not be his fault, I also think if he had a makings of being a really good manager, he would be managing to get more out of them than he has these last 6/7 games. Not massively much more, but something.

 

I just also don’t think he would be right for the Championship. All his playing and coaching career has been top end and top flight. Is there any evidence he would know what it takes to get his hands dirty in the second tier? 
 

He’s here for the season for me. No point in further changes. I personally think that we are done. We aren’t going to pick up unexpected points and we have run out of games against those around us to put up a points haul serious of survival. The home losses to Wolves and Palace have been terminal.

 

But I think start fresh in the summer. Danny Rohl would be my first choice as he is working wonders under a pretty identical owner.

 

I also keep getting drawn to the job Richy Wellens is doing at Leyton Orient. Will be interesting to see how they end the season. 

Edited 18 January by LCFCJohn

[Graceroad]

57 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

I’m not sure on him really.

 

Clearly he has walked into an unfortunate situation, particularly with the injuries. Cooper didn’t leave us in a terrible position in the table but the loss of Fatawu, Ndidi and Mads either before he took over or shortly after in Mads case needs to be taken into account. 
 

But at the same time, I’m just not seeing much of anything to get inspired by long term. Whilst it might not be his fault, I also think if he had a makings of being a really good manager, he would be managing to get more out of them than he has these last 6/7 games. Not massively much more, but something.

 

I just also don’t think he would be right for the Championship. All his playing and coaching career has been top end and top flight. Is there any evidence he would know what it takes to get his hands dirty in the second tier? 
 

He’s here for the season for me. No point in further changes. I personally think that we are done. We aren’t going to pick up unexpected points and we have run out of games against those around us to put up a points haul serious of survival. The home losses to Wolves and Palace have been terminal.

 

But I think start fresh in the summer. Danny Rohl would be my first choice as he is working wonders under a pretty identical owner.

 

I also keep getting drawn to the job Richy Wellens is doing at Leyton Orient. Will be interesting to see how they end the season. 

Amazing that nobody takes into account all sides have injuries esp this stage of the season. For example Cooper came up against a full strength Villa side Ruud played a Villa side missing 5 players

[LCFCJohn]

52 minutes ago, Graceroad said:

Amazing that nobody takes into account all sides have injuries esp this stage of the season. For example Cooper came up against a full strength Villa side Ruud played a Villa side missing 5 players

This is true, particularly of Villa. I suppose that comes under what I said about I’d have expected more despite this.

 

A lot was made of Villa being without a few and Man City were in an atrocious run. 
 

I’m not sure of the situations of the likes of Wolves and Palace. Wolves seemed full strength even with the player who should have been banned. 
 

But yeah, this is all why it’s not been that good.

[lcfc sheff]

7 hours ago, JJD_LCFC said:

I would agree keeping him for the championship. The only hope I would have is he is allowed to bring in his own staff with him. I would move on the majority of the technical staff that are here. We saw at Brentford the assistants are clueless and somehow still here. 
Personally I didn’t want Ruud for the job at that time. As he has no experience at this end of a league table. Previously I would have gone for a Moyes, or now Dyche. But if we are in the championship I certainly think Ruud could do well there. 
 

moyes and dyche wouldn’t get the best out of this squad either. We don’t have a defensive back bone 

[lcfc sheff]

7 hours ago, HankMarvin said:

Pulling power won’t tend to matter as we won’t have a pot to piss in

We don’t 100% know that. 
 

never safe to assume either way but surely you’d think the club would be more proactive with signings this January if they thought we can’t sign anyone next season + would get a points deduction.

 

we would have one senior striker potentially in Daka (assuming vardy retires/ goes elsewhere) amongst other potentially problems, so I hope we are wrong about what could be potentially waiting for us in the championship 

[teblin]

In some of the interview yesterday, he kept talking about being patient in the process. Feeling the pressure a bit, which is understandable.

[Cropwellfox]

10 minutes ago, teblin said:

In some of the interview yesterday, he kept talking about being patient in the process. Feeling the pressure a bit, which is understandable.

I don’t think he had a clue how bad things were when he pitched up. Cooperball was turgid but Mads performances and staying out of the bottom three didn’t really expose quite how awful the squad was, and Wilf has probably been a bigger loss than we expected. The issue is that like Enzo he has one method, one way to play, and this team just don’t have the ability to play it. There was noise about his PSV team not been well set up defensively but they had the attacking threat to make that less of an issue. That might go in his favour next season in the championship if he’s still around but this year it means we are woefully exposed week after week, and so we will actually gather fewer points per game with Ruud than we did with Cooper. I doubt we’d have many more points if Mads had played in all of the games. 

[Pliskin]

We are definitely playing better football, but it’s clearly not quite there yet. 
 

It does expose our weaknesses more than Cooper ball did, but what will say is, if Ruud is in this for the long term project, and would be willing to stay even if we are relegated, I’d rather him be in charge of rebuilding the squad over Cooper.  

[blue army 1988]

21 hours ago, StanSP said:

This is ridiculously such a basic way of thinking. 

 

A) how do you know for sure he hasn't? 

B) even if he has, any given player has to want to come here 

C) again, even if he has, maybe the club selling (if not a free) want a certain fee for their asset. 

 

It's never as simple as made out. Doesn't mean he's way over his head. Ironically I think people above him are, and perhaps not backing him as promised... 

It is a basic way of thinking, but Enzo did it brilliantly when he came to us from Man City.

The problem is no one really knows anything that goes on inside the club, from what I've just said to people having a go at Rudkin (for the record I want Rudkin gone to, before people think I'm supporting him).

But to answer your points:

 

A) I don't know for sure he hasn't. But if he has and he can not get anyone to come, that worries me in terms of the club and himself. But there are alot of players out there and there must be a, even small, percentage that he could get to come to our club. Like I said before, Enzo did it brilliantly but I understand they were loans and we can't do that at the moment.

 

B) Of course the player would want to come here. But you can't believe there are not up and coming players who want to use us as a stepping stone at least or even free transfers. 

 

C) I understand about certain fees and no one is going to let us have a cheap player just because of Ruud. But he should have some sway to get some free agents to us if nothing else.

 

The whole board should be sacked and we need proper footballing people in, not just jobs for mates.

He did say he spoke to Enzo before taking the job, and we all know that Enzo was annoyed he wasn't backed as maybe promised. So he came into this job knowing the situation. 

 

I think he was the wrong appointment, but we've got him so there's not much else we can do.

[Mickyblueeyes]

5 minutes ago, blue army 1988 said:

It is a basic way of thinking, but Enzo did it brilliantly when he came to us from Man City.

The problem is no one really knows anything that goes on inside the club, from what I've just said to people having a go at Rudkin (for the record I want Rudkin gone to, before people think I'm supporting him).

But to answer your points:

 

A) I don't know for sure he hasn't. But if he has and he can not get anyone to come, that worries me in terms of the club and himself. But there are alot of players out there and there must be a, even small, percentage that he could get to come to our club. Like I said before, Enzo did it brilliantly but I understand they were loans and we can't do that at the moment.

 

B) Of course the player would want to come here. But you can't believe there are not up and coming players who want to use us as a stepping stone at least or even free transfers. 

 

C) I understand about certain fees and no one is going to let us have a cheap player just because of Ruud. But he should have some sway to get some free agents to us if nothing else.

 

The whole board should be sacked and we need proper footballing people in, not just jobs for mates.

He did say he spoke to Enzo before taking the job, and we all know that Enzo was annoyed he wasn't backed as maybe promised. So he came into this job knowing the situation. 

 

I think he was the wrong appointment, but we've got him so there's not much else we can do.

Enzo had an influx of significant sums from sales in his drive. Ruud is picking up a “superb” recruitment drive in the summer which cleared out any room for manoeuvre and has left us with Skipp, Okoli and Reid picking their favourite seats on the bench. 
 

I’m sure he has a list of candidates but people forget to assemble a squad of Skipp, Ayew, Reid and Okoli, we spent one of our highest, if not the highest net spend in recent times. 
 

That plays the biggest part and further emphasises the mismanagement of the leadership. Not whether one of the biggest, well known centre forwards of the 2000s has pulling power.

Edited 18 January by Mickyblueeyes

[Hamilton Fox]

It’s the 18th of Jan already and we’ve only signed a backup right back when we know we need far more in this team. I’m really surprised any manager would have wanted to come to us if he had been told this situation before joining

[blue army 1988]

22 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Enzo had an influx of significant sums from sales in his drive. Ruud is picking up a “superb” recruitment drive in the summer which cleared out any room for manoeuvre and has left us with Skipp, Okoli and Reid picking their favourite seats on the bench. 
 

I’m sure he has a list of candidates but people forget to assemble a squad of Skipp, Ayew, Reid and Okoli, we spent one of our highest, if not the highest net spend in recent times. 
 

That plays the biggest part and further emphasises the mismanagement of the leadership. Not whether one of the biggest, well known centre forwards of the 2000s has pulling power.

Im not saying it's his fault for the players we have in the squad right now. He can't be judged on who has been recruited at this time.

[The Doctor]

20 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Enzo had an influx of significant sums from sales in his drive. Ruud is picking up a “superb” recruitment drive in the summer which cleared out any room for manoeuvre and has left us with Skipp, Okoli and Reid picking their favourite seats on the bench. 
 

I’m sure he has a list of candidates but people forget to assemble a squad of Skipp, Ayew, Reid and Okoli, we spent one of our highest, if not the highest net spend in recent times. 
 

That plays the biggest part and further emphasises the mismanagement of the leadership. Not whether one of the biggest, well known centre forwards of the 2000s has pulling power.

yep, Enzo came into a side that had just seen Tielemans, Amartey, Soyuncu, Evans, Mendy, Bertrand and Perez all leave on expired contracts, and then sold Castagne, Maddison and Barnes. Theres a hell of a lot of transfer money and, more importantly, wage headroom, that Enzo gained. Ruud has seen us completely refill that with shit like Ayew, Reid and Skipp (and tbh Coady) which demands big money while being utterly turgid. The transfer strategy in summer 23 was good albeit it with some failures (Coady), in summer 24 it was shit with some successes (BEK looks good), and that ultimately comes from a weak DoF not doing his job. Managers can't be absolved of blame if their tactics are obviously wrong and there's no signs of improvement, but the issue with recruitment is deeper than just who is in the dugout 

[ronnup]

34 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

We are definitely playing better football, but it’s clearly not quite there yet. 
 

It does expose our weaknesses more than Cooper ball did, but what will say is, if Ruud is in this for the long term project, and would be willing to stay even if we are relegated, I’d rather him be in charge of rebuilding the squad over Cooper.  

 

Is it better if we're losing more?

 

Genuine question 

[Pliskin]

16 minutes ago, ronnup said:

 

Is it better if we're losing more?

 

Genuine question 

There’s a clear method of play, you can see what Ruud is trying to do, whereas with Cooper you couldn’t, it was just pure chaos….. we’ve stemmed the amount of chances that we are conceding on goal for sure. We’re losing games by tight margins…. First half against Palace we were by far the better side, and Vardy puts his chances away we could have been 2-0 up. We know all too well how fine margins define results at this level…… I do see similarities with this side and the great escape side, the problem is the current mood around the club is horrific, and I think we all see the situation as more of a disaster and turned in to more of a crisis than it actually is. Don’t get me wrong, the situation is far from ideal, but we’re 2 points from safety…

 

Context is massive, and we’ve got to appreciate we were off to a bad start, we hired the only manager who would probably take the job, we were hamstrung by potential PSR issues, which had a major impact on signings, and we’ve ended up swinging between three styles of play all within a matter of months. 
 

I think Ruud has steadied the ship, and I’d say we are as a group more cohesive than we were under Cooper and like I said, there’s more of a style about us. Unfortunately we lack quality in key areas of the pitch which is why we are victims to the fine margins. We’ve got poor defence and a 38 year old leading the line……. 

Edited 18 January by Pliskin

[Mickyblueeyes]

22 minutes ago, blue army 1988 said:

Im not saying it's his fault for the players we have in the squad right now. He can't be judged on who has been recruited at this time.

Yes, but you were questioning why he hasn’t dipped into his contacts. The man’s hands are tied, so are his legs and his mouth is shut with duct tape. We have little movement due to the ownership and leadership and another summer of errors. Not the manager.

[Claudio Fannieri]

1 hour ago, blue army 1988 said:

It is a basic way of thinking, but Enzo did it brilliantly when he came to us from Man City.

The problem is no one really knows anything that goes on inside the club, from what I've just said to people having a go at Rudkin (for the record I want Rudkin gone to, before people think I'm supporting him).

But to answer your points:

 

A) I don't know for sure he hasn't. But if he has and he can not get anyone to come, that worries me in terms of the club and himself. But there are alot of players out there and there must be a, even small, percentage that he could get to come to our club. Like I said before, Enzo did it brilliantly but I understand they were loans and we can't do that at the moment.

 

B) Of course the player would want to come here. But you can't believe there are not up and coming players who want to use us as a stepping stone at least or even free transfers. 

 

C) I understand about certain fees and no one is going to let us have a cheap player just because of Ruud. But he should have some sway to get some free agents to us if nothing else.

 

The whole board should be sacked and we need proper footballing people in, not just jobs for mates.

He did say he spoke to Enzo before taking the job, and we all know that Enzo was annoyed he wasn't backed as maybe promised. So he came into this job knowing the situation. 

 

I think he was the wrong appointment, but we've got him so there's not much else we can do.

I am not in charge but if it was my club, my restructure would be as follows on the footballing side, remove the role of DoF and replace as follows. 

 

Technical Director - takes responsibility for setting strategic direction, sports science, technical analysts and how the academy interlinks with the first team and creating a genuine pathway. 
 

Head of Recruitment - agrees the profile of players with Technical Director and Head Coach and heads up the scouting department 

 

Head of Football Administration - has responsibility for negotiating transfers and player contracts following input from Technical Director, Head of Recruitment and Head Coach and working with the finance team to navigate PSR compliance 

 

Head Coach - responsible for first team management and coaching 

 

Now if we do get relegated I really can’t see Ruud hanging around to manage us in the championship especially if he feels he has been thrown under the bus by Rudders and Top. So this represents an ideal opportunity to refresh. 
 

For me I would look to the following people who know the club and would potentially help set us up the right way for sustainable success and create a succession plan and strategy for the future.

 

Technical Director - Either of Pearson or Puel would be superb in this role 

 

Head of Recruitment - Bring back Steve Walsh or Macia, both have a proven track record of recruiting top drawer players and unearthing some real gems. Both can work equally well with small or decent budgets 

 

Head of Football Administration - Recruit a top level executive with a demonstrated history of negotiating contracts etc, finance & administration within a sporting environment. 
 

Head coach - I would be happy with any of the following Danny Rohl, John Eustace who are both doing great jobs at clubs that have basket case ownership and challenging environments to work in. Also add to that Tom Cleverly who is doing good things as Watford who are also a difficult club to work at, my out of the box appointment would be Richie Wellens who has done really good things at Leyton Orient taking them up from league 2 and now challenging for play offs in league 1, whilst playing some decent football. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 18 January by Claudio Fannieri

[joachim1965]

39 minutes ago, Hamilton Fox said:

It’s the 18th of Jan already and we’ve only signed a backup right back when we know we need far more in this team. I’m really surprised any manager would have wanted to come to us if he had been told this situation before joining

As has been said, in the summer no one wanted to touch us due to potential PSR issues and points deductions, you are correct that we should be further on with signings, but the  mainstream press were adamant that we were being deducted points, and the timing of this at the start of January was no coincidence,  it was done in my opinion to destabilise our recruitment in this window. No surprise that things have moved slowly.

[fox_favourite]

6 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Yes, but you were questioning why he hasn’t dipped into his contacts. The man’s hands are tied, so are his legs and his mouth is shut with duct tape. We have little movement due to the ownership and leadership and another summer of errors. Not the manager.

This I agree with. 

 

At the time I didn't quite understand his subs in the palace game, but in I can now see he was changing it up to hit them with pace, and it nearly worked. At least there was a plan B. Cooper didn't have a plan, he let the players decide when on the pitch, hence the chaos and frustration. 

 

I'm with you, my anger isn't at Ruud at all. There is a clear plan, and the players look onboard. It's the decisions before he came that are hindering us. From shoddy woddy recruitment to football management at board level. 

 

I want a result today, not for the board, but for Ruud. 

[cityfanlee23]

9 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I am not in charge but if it was my club, my restructure would be as follows on the footballing side, remove the role of DoF and replace as follows. 

 

Technical Director - takes responsibility for setting strategic direction, sports science, technical analysts and how the academy interlinks with the first team and creating a genuine pathway. 
 

Head of Recruitment - agrees the profile of players with Technical Director and Head Coach and heads up the scouting department 

 

Head of Football Administration - has responsibility for negotiating transfers and player contracts following input from Technical Director, Head of Recruitment and Head Coach and working with the finance team to navigate PSR compliance 

 

Head Coach - responsible for first team management and coaching 

 

Now if we do get relegated I really can’t see Ruud hanging around to manage us in the championship especially if he feels he has been thrown under the bus by Rudders and Top. So this represents an ideal opportunity to refresh. 
 

For me I would look to the following people who know the club and would potentially help set us up the right way for sustainable success and create a succession plan and strategy for the future.

 

Technical Director - Either of Pearson or Puel would be superb in this role 

 

Head of Recruitment - Bring back Steve Walsh or Macia, both have a proven track record of recruiting top drawer players and unearthing some real gems. Both can work equally well with small or decent budgets 

 

Head of Football Administration - Recruit a top level executive with a demonstrated history of negotiating contracts etc, finance & administration within a sporting environment. 
 

Head coach - I would be happy with any of the following Danny Rohl, John Eustace who are both doing great jobs at clubs that have basket case ownership and challenging environments to work in. Also add to that Tom Cleverly who is doing good things as Watford who are also a difficult club to work at, my out of the box appointment would be Richie Wellens who has done really good things at Leyton Orient taking them up from league 2 and now challenging for play offs in league 1, whilst playing some decent football. 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding Rohl he could be more attainable than ever, I’m hearing from a friend that chansiri held a fans forum the other day where he basically said there’s no money to spend and if the fans want him gone they need to find a buyer 🤣