I was going to tag you!! We’re shot at the moment. Ralph makes some odd decisions, but he’s not the problem mate. The club is.
I think most people acknowledge that the problems go deeper than Ralph, but at the same time can still point out that he could/should be doing better. he doesn't get a complete free pass because the board are ****
Ralph isn't getting a free pass but why should he be the only one to get sacked is the question I ask myself. If the guy had a decent squad with options on the bench my expectations would be significantly higher. He's going to have to make some changes happen over xmas and with the games coming up he will have no choice. Adams needs to get back on the pitch and hopefully start scoring. At the very least let him run around and do a Shane Long. Pretty soon Ings will run out of steam and then we are up the proverbial creek. Redmond needs dropping from the squad. Hojbjerg needs a break and some distance. Our CB's aren't good enough. The first can be tackled as our frontline options aren't bad with Djenepo, Boof and Sims available. I would possibly look at putting JWP on the right. Our midfield options are limited but I guess we have to bring Romeu in even though he's swung between ok and awful this season. He was at least effective and attack minded against WHU. If JWP goes forward on the right Armstrong is the only other obvious midfield choice. Defensively we are **** out of options.
Who else can we sack? Everyone higher up on the football side of things has gone. We could bin off a lot of the coaching staff as well I suppose and have a complete over haul. I agree that the squad isn't his fault and, as others have pointed out, he was told/promised there would be a big over haul in the summer which didn't happen for whatever reason. Whether there was zero interest in the players/we wanted too much money/the players themselves didn't want to go we probably will never know. The fact is we have about £100m worth of players out on loan, a team our size can't operate like that and that is why our squad is **** and won't improve until we get rid of a lot of them. Is why I would be looking at a safe paid of hands playing **** boring football to just stay in the league for the next couple of years whilst we move them on
But we've had safe managers, playing predictable boring football. They got sacked. We got a universally praised manager from out of nowhere. He inherited the same players and perhaps predictably - in hidsight - he hasn't managed to get anything much better out of them. If we sack a fourth manager and keep the same playing squad do we REALLY expect anything different? Two more seasons scraping around the survival line for a vital 0-0 draw. No thanks. If we allow a manager to stick around and develop a playing squad based on chemistry, youth and speed we could rightly demand better results. With the new DoF in place there may actually be some leadership and cohesion within the club. At least I can hope.
No I don't expect anything different, but I think we are far more likely to get that 0-0 draw with a negative not lose as a priority type manager than we are with Ralph, and therefore more likely to stay in the PL which, if I were the owner, would be absolutely number one priority over everything. We are stuck with this squad as we don't have the money to go out and buy anyone new, we can only buy what we sell and we haven't got anyone to sell to raise funds. We don't seem to want to just give the players away to free up wages (or maybe we tried that as well and they didn't want to go as they are on lucrative contracts that they definitely won't get anywhere else). So all we can do is wait for their contracts to run low so they are more willing to leave or we are willing to let them leave cheaper.
I was responding more to the "he's not the problem" bit of your post. I know you have said he's made errors. Was more a general point from the "who could do better" camp of Saints fans who, although acknowledging Ralph has made mistakes, don't think sacking him and trying someone else should be a consideration at all
Don’t quote my post then if you’re aiming the comment at others. My point is, that whoever is in charge, it will be variations of the same ****. I even said in one post, “sack him, just don’t expect anything different.”
You know the definition of insanity right? Sacking yet another manager without changing the club from top to bottom would achieve absolutely nothing.
Well it has achieved survival the last 2 times we've done it. I think most people would say that we would've gone down if we'd kept Pellegrino and Hughes instead of firing them. I am not saying we don't need big changes at the top, but I can see the argument for getting a new manager in
I can see the argument for it too... I just don’t see the point after the last three seasons and don’t forget there is no guarantee we would have gone down.
Sure, we can all see the argument for getting a new manager in because its the default response. Its hard wired into the sport and therefore to us as fans. The game is rigged in favour of the players. They get ludicrous salaries and guaranteed security regardless of performance so the only option is sack the manager. So you end up sacking a manager with a stellar record in favour of keeping a squad of players who have consistently under-delivered for 3-4 years. And you end up hiring a manager like Allardyce who has been fired more times than any other manager in the Premier League. Its lunacy when you analyse it.
Another argument for keeping Ralph is that I think players are more likely to come and play for him. Nobody came to play for Saints under Koeman, they came to play for Koeman. Ralph still has a good reputation and I believe he could sit down with a young player and convince them that Saints is a good option. At least we can say we are building something new here at the moment.
Can I just point out, that there's a few of us pointing the finger at Ralph, but not calling for his head. I want him to recognise the errors of recent games, including the two wins. People need dropping and the formation needs changing. We can't keep on relying on the upturn of the second half. Its suicidal.