Ralph sacked as Saints manager

Any chance of somebody pasting the article to save giving them more clicks?

 

nice to see that the defensive focus worked well last weekend

 

Will always really like Ralph - he’s done wonders for us to keep us in the league on our budget. I would love for us to have a successful season with him at the helm, with the backing of the new owners and signifying an exciting new era.

The vitriol towards him makes me pretty upset, as he’s a man who’s obviously extremely passionate about his work with us.

I hope Sports Republic can bolster the squad and Ralph can show us what he’s got. But every day I doubt even more if he can.

 

You can’t just discount the article because it’s the mail and you don’t like it.

I don’t like it either, but there are a few things you have to admit are true, and some that make sense.

Our form is awful and it would be surprising if the atmosphere was rosy and there weren’t unhappy players. Whether he’s lost the dressing room or not remains to be seen.

I think this article has come about because Ralph is lucky to still be in the job. Most clubs would have sacked him long ago and he’s favourite to go first. This creates interest.

 

If something is obvious enough for a random fan on twitter to spot then you'd think someone writing an article about the club would notice it too. Not saying it isn't true. But the logic is very faulty here.

As mentioned these points could just as easily from reading response on social media. Especially "he drops players without any real thought". That could come straight out of the mouth of fans - especially at that point at the end of last season where Shane was suddenly starting and Broja and Adams were both dropped (if I remember correctly)

"Players are used out of position" - seems a direct response to the weird striker / no striker situation. Could be levelled at the full backs but playing KWP at left back is absolutely not playing him "out of position". Not in his best position - sure. But no "out of position". So who else has been played out of position recently apart from emergency cover options:

- Djenepo and Redmond and wing backs in pre season
- Armstrong and Aribo as strikers (which surely wouldn't upset them, but would the actual strikers who are either not played or substituted. And there seems to be something in the Che Adams situation at least)

I wouldn't be surprised if the list of out of position players the article is alluding to includes:

- Valery at CB (I expect the average twitter saints fan still think he is a right back(
- Djenepo (has always been an emergency back up full back)
- KWP at LB


Granted I can't think of an incentive to make this up (or to publish it but that is another matter). But it so easily could be. It just doesn't seem too far off the articles you can find out there (and not just football ones) where they bring up people's reaction as some kind of evidence of something and what they show is about three tweets from people with no following and at most 10 likes between them

 

How much do you back him before accepting that he just isn’t going to work here?

 

Probably October the latest. If it’s a full-on disaster start then even sooner. I wouldn’t be surprised if it will be, but I’m not willing it on.

 

But equally I (and others) can refuse to take it as gospel because it comes from the mail. I would not take the mail's word alone on pretty much anything. Whether I liked it or not

And before anyone mentions puff pieces - I haven't seen any recently and those should obviously be taken with a grain of salt (although the Athletic tend to have much better club connections than the Mail.)

It would be concerning if we haven't got the mentality to try and view this season as a clean slate. The whole "calendar year" form thing has always been troubling. If it were important there was a period when Arsenal would have done significantly better. But obviously the losses stacking up is a problem.

I don't disagree that he is lucky to still be in a job but the timing is still suspicious to me. How common really is it to sack a manager after one game? When that game was away to a Champions League qualifying side who are considered to have one of the best managers in the league and considered to have had one of the best transfer windows? Why not when his coaching team were sacked? I am sure it was mentioned then. But the knives weren't out and you'd think they would have been

Maybe it is like what was mentioned above - Ralph came across well in the forum but is actually a nightmare and people who work closely with him saw this yesterday and were furious?

 

If he's lost the room, he has to go! Thanks for all you have done Ralph.

 

The mail is a terrible paper, but I find it hard to see this article as a work of fiction. We don’t know whether staff said those things or whether they’re made up. But it’s not hard to imagine they’re true; how frustrated has the majority of the fan base become? Are there fans calling for Ralph to be sacked? Now imagine you’re part of the team or coaching staff, trying to win each week and getting thrashed. Fans jeering etc. Now how frustrated are you?

They won’t sack him after one game, they have backed their manager and have to give him time. I don’t know why he didn’t go with the coaches, maybe they still believe in him? You would hope it’s nothing to do with avoiding compensation as that’s a terrible decision.

I don’t think the timing is odd, this kind of article will circle about until A- form improves and the club’s decision is vindicated or B- the club loses patience and sacks him. Let’s hope we’re not relegated by the time one of these happens.

 

No idea if it’s true or not, but I tend to agree with the “why would they make it up” train of thought as nobody cares about us enough to bother making this up.

Maybe some of the players don’t like Ralph, I’ve never got the love in from the fans for him as a personality, but then I couldn’t stand Adkins at all so probably just me.

If I were someone like Adams, having your manager screaming “Go Che!!” 10 times a game for you to chase after some pointless lost cause would piss me off aswell. There is a difference between liking your manager and respecting/acknowledging that the **** you don’t like doing is beneficial

 

With you on Adkins. Made me cringe.

 

Something that has just come to me, iirc, is Ralph’s response to the question asking why we aren’t playing 4-2-2-2. He said something along the lines of the new players still learning the system, hence the reason for using 3 CBs.
In itself his answer makes sense, until you remember that he stopped the high press towards the end of last season, possibly after the 4-0 beating at Villa, that he referred to last night and the players we had were well versed with the system before the beating.
Ralph talks about the loss of confidence, following that game, but was his change to a system that was not suited to the team indicate that it was HIM that lost confidence, rather than the players?

 

Possibly. Or he lost confidence in that set of players being able to effectively deploy that system (which I think is wrong, but just proposing it). He now believes he has the squad to do it, but first they need to learn it. Who knows?

 

The Daily Mail just got a pretty rabid (currently) fanbase to all click onto their ****ty newspaper site. People may not care that much about Southampton, but these guys are smart enough to smell when there’s blood in the air, and when they can crap out a story most effectively for clicks.

I’d suggest it’s worked pretty well.

 

And who knows how many hung around clicking through the sidebar of shame

 

Damn, it was only a matter of time before this started. Gotta say i thought it would be longer than this. Theyve been trying to rebalanced the room probably but havent got enough in or out. My post about Ralph and his negative comments wasnt only about this last game, it creeps up as the frustration does.

 

Frustration and pessimism. It’s hard to see the positives atm.

 

Managers have a difficult job, pander to everyone and you have no authority, enforce your non-negotiables too much and you risk alienating players. Ralph has used his strong position with the board to exert his authority but if there's truth to this then he has maybe pushed it too far.

I believe there is truth to this, last season Stu, Broja and AdArma all showed signs of it. This season its starting with Che but the rumours will spread to others. It all comes down to who he has lost and whether he can win games with the players he has left. If Che has packed a sad but Armstrong starts banging them in then he will be able to roll on. If he's lost the leaders like JWP then his gig is likely up.

There is also the issue of the new coaching staff, they were likely brought in to create some distance between Ralph and the players. If they think he's an idiot then his days are numbered. In all likelihood, once these stories make it to the media his days are numbered anyway.

 

To be honest he is bringing it a lot of it on himself.

The article had at least one verifiable fact in it. He is changing the team and putting players in the wrong positions, then criticising them. He has lost the plot recently.

Even now I hope he can turn it around. I still think there is a chance that he can if he starts putting square pegs in square holes again. But… we will see. He is very stubborn.