Ralph - Stick or Twist..?

So where should we be? Cortese and Liebherr left a long time ago.

And you've not answered my point about the injury crisis and lack of depth.

 

Sitting pretty in mid table. Fulham, West Brom and Sheffield have been that awful it shouldn't even be a concern, and yet here we are 3 points off 17th, and 9 points off the bottom 3. Looking over our shoulder desperately hoping that those other clubs don't pick up points

Hope is never a good plan

 

Only players not to be injured in the new year have been GKs, Bedders, JWP and Che I think?

KWP injured twice second time after we binned off our only back ups... I think that Bedders might've had a suspension as well

 

Williams would be a great signing.
The biggest mistake he has made is letting Matt Targett leave which left us only with 2 EFL standard back up Full backs, he then allowed those to leave as well. The way he likes to play relies heavily on FBs bombing forward & this undoubtedly means they get tired/injuries. I know the January window was knackered due to Lockdown etc, but we knew we were lacking in that department so why wasn't this addressed at an earlier stage, I:e when he let our back-up FBs go?
Surely that is down to either lack of planning or downright incompetency by RH, Seamenns or whomever else had involvement. If so it doesn't bode well for the Summer recruitment drive.

 

In hindsight, maybe it was a mistake to let Targett leave. If he had stayed he may well have become first choice here. But at the time, I think the vast majority of the fans were pleased we got as much money as we did for him.

 

The trouble is that we are still paying for years of buying **** players, they are still eating up the wage bill and until we get rid they are still a millstone. Maybe Ralph has been a victim of his own success as we have had moments of hope with him.
Don't get me wrong, the current results in the PL are not good enough but we can go again in August with a fresh start and hopefully a fuller squad.
The Academy is a huge disappointment currently and we can no longer rely on that being a cheap source of filling the squad with the requisite quality. All that money spent on Staplewood and it appears to be moving backwards.

 

I agree about Matty but I think he wanted to move and we took the decision to cash in.

 

The question of where we should be is a very good one.

Taking a step back and looking just at starting 11's & playing squads - I'd say we are pretty much bang on where we should be in 14th. There are certainly worse sides than us, and funnily enough most of them are below us.

 

This exactly. We know from past experience that once a player wants to leave, because he’s not playing enough, or because he wants more trophies or more money, it is most often better to cash in. We got another season out of both Morgan Schneiderlin and Sadio Mané but the Van Dijk saga taught us that hanging on to unwilling participants can only end badly. Hojbjerg’s form was awful, to the point that he was dropped, before he actually left.

Can we all agree that the reason for our appalling drop off in form is multi-factorial, and that the manager who has presided over getting 10 points from 48 is the same one who got us to the top of the league a couple of months before the rot set in? Yes, he’s made mistakes, we all agree on that, but he didn’t cause the run of injuries, or the bouts of Covid, or a few dubious refereeing decisions. It wasn’t Ralph’s fault that Solskjaer wouldn’t let Brandon Williams leave.

And until all these issues are dealt with, you could replace Ralph with Klopp or Guardiola or Ancelotti or Bielsa or Zinadine ****ing Zidane and it won’t make any difference, the overtired, overworked, pitifully overstretched squad is still the same.

 

You're reliant on others not me. Tools certainly not downed 1st half last night.

 

Stephens has been fit all season.

Think it's only him, Bednarek, JWP & Forster who have lasted all season.

Didn't Che have a head injury January time? Got booted in the face in the Liverpool (i think) game.

 

Yeah I'll go along with that. You've got a snowballs chance of all on this thread agreeing with you, 90% + may well do.

 

Dead right. The only really significant change that will make the difference we all crave for is for Gao to find a buyer and stay where he is, wherever that is. It's certainly nowhere near SMS! Discussion on any other point in this saga is irrelevant I'm afraid.

 

Ralph is our manager and no matter how much piss and wind is created here, he ain't going anywhere unless he decides he has had enough. The club has encouraged Ralph to make massive changes to just about every aspect of the day to day football business, across every team, coaches, medics and scouting. Saints didn't make so many changes because they just felt like doing it, they did it because it desperately needed doing after years with fat Les and company running the place down. The job Ralph has taken on is massive and it will take years for the affects of it to really bear fruit.

Everyone is sick and tired of the dreadful performances but until we get back into Staplewood properly and can make full use of the fitness and recovery systems we have and have all the nutritionists and medical people in full flow, we are going to continue to struggle. That is just the way it is and the cheap shot option is always 'sack the manager'. We have a threadbare squad that just isn't performing and it does need refreshing with some quality players but that takes time too. We just have to hold our nerve because when things do click we can tear it up and play some fast flowing and thoroughly enjoyable football.

 

I totally agree that this club will go nowhere except down until we get owners who have even the slightest interest in the revenue that this club COULD provide . Maybe Gao had that but had his hopes scuppered by his government.

I'm sure he doesn't need to hear this, but can we please cut lincoln SAINT a bit of slack? He is only expressing his opinion.

Passionately yes, but whats wrong with that ?

 

Good point Jasp. I disagree with Lincoln's viewpoint, but I defend to the hilt his right to hold it.

 

Ownership and investment with Ralph staying foremost for the majority who voted in the poll.

 

Thanks mate, but to be fair we're all passionate Saints fans, all with differing opinions on how the club should be run, however we all want the club to be successful. As Laces said the other day, I'm sure our language would all be tempered a bit more evenly in person over a pint. Have I got all the answers? No, of course not. All we have are opinions and given none of us have anything to do with professional football all we can do is moan on here!

 

That is an excellent point.

 

It's what makes the forum work, differing views makes it much more interesting.

 

I have always Said that the written word is easily mis understood . If you met face to face , you would still disagree but it puts a different light on things IMHO .