Fabrice29

It's Ralph's playbook he's sticking too. Ralph and Crocker. Rasmus attempted to get away from playbooks by appointing Jones and that went terribly so they went back to what they knew before and got a manager who has insisted from day one that the way Ralph played is the best way forward. Even if he was sacked for doing so.

At fault for the goal yesterday fwiw. Obviously not at fault for everything else.

Quite the opposite I suspect but naturally board members will have to sign off on everything. However on the basis that SR have employed Wilcox, I'd be pretty surprised if their ideas didn't align.

And yet we're still playing the same way. Same formation, same playbook, same mindset. I would expect the creators of the playbook to have noticed it's flaws and implemented some evolution at some stage, that hasn't happened and is the fault of those before SR came and SR. We'll have to agree to disagree I think because all I see if the complete opposite narrative. The idea that Ankerson is at fault for everything and that's even if you've been quite literally the DOF both before SR came and after.

I don't doubt he's done some very good stuff at the club, evidently the youth and womens teams have improved massively in his time here. However I do find it amusing that he's basically taken a back seat in terms of publicity throughout his time here and let others be the face of things who then in turn have taken all the slack for what has clearly been a regression on the mens football side. Now, I would argue others are more fundamentally at fault for that (Ralph is the main culprit IMO) but I don't think someone who has been basically running the club for a few years now should just get a free pass while others who have been working alongside him take a shed load of stick. He's just as culpable as Semmens, SR, Ankerson and whoever else people want to blame, but it seems to me that mainly because he's not done any (or many) public interviews, fans forums etc then he's been forgotten about and has come out of it all squeaky clean.

Yeah, club is a mess and has been regressing for a few years now but we definitely shouldn't be having a second look at what our DOF has been responsible for because the narrative that he's a good one and SR and Ankerson are the nasty ones is set and that is final.

True, so would I, but it's not a simple Alcaraz stays on we hold out all half calculation is it?

Oh okay, that's that concluded.

You're writing off Mara and Edozie. If you swapped those for Ballard and Doyle and those two had performed like Mara and Edozie you would be writing off those two and wanting more minutes for Mara and Edozie who would been performing in the B team. It's not fair sticking kids in this situation, especially ones who are 2 and 3 years younger than kids that are being written off.

And it’s posts like this that sums up exactly why throwing Ballard and Doyle into the first team would have only done damage to them. Couple of poor performances in a shit season and that’s it, you’re written off.

Definitely Ankersons fault that 3 managers haven't thrown them into a relegation battle. Definitely. They'll both be better off being part of a fresh start next season and both be better off for focusing on getting promotion with the B team. No good could have come from throwing them into the first team at any stage this year.

There's no way Lavia will play in the Championship next season when he's got a Belgium Euro 24 squad to get into.

They're not. But there is a lesson here about how Sky/TV can control the sound and you should remember that next time you're told to believe Anfield is a wonderful atmosphere.

I get that people have a different opinion on the half time change and I had the same "wtf" moment when it came up on the screen but do people understand the reasoning behind it? Would much rather he was available for Thursday than the 2nd half of Friday.

He's 19. He's putting his body through an intensity it's not been through before at a complex and delicate age. He's lasted 90 minutes at times but bearing in mind his importance to the squad, the least the club could do is manage him properly and not force him to do it every few days. He's also had one serious injury this season already. Just wondering how many 19 year old's are currently delivering the physical output he is?

Apart from one decent spell each in America, I'm not really sure the appeal of these two? Viera's last two jobs have ended with him resorting to dull defensive football in an attempt to stop losing runs and both times he failed. Both these were in his second season. That's a trait, not a one off. Henry just has nothing he could point to in his managerial career that is good enough to demand a job like ours. At best it's a punt based on playing careers really isn't it? (and expensive if you really wanted both). Words like "galvanise, stardust, power to attract players, status" are all just buzz words and will evaporate very quickly when the season starts if we don't play well or get results. The evidence underneath those words on their CV's doesn't suggest much substance over a extended period. If you're going for a punt, I'd rather go for a punt like Carrick who hasn't proven himself to be out of ideas when times get difficult like Viera has.

Poch is the epitome of a coach. I hate to break it to you, but wherever he ends up next he'll be appointed as a head coach. Nobody is saying a "coach" won't be man managing the squad. "Sorry fella's, this isn't my remit, I'm merely a coach so can only talk body positions and formations,". It's a title and a way of working. Rather than worrying about external things they'll be focusing on the first team. It's nothing different to any of our previous managers but Jacob has fluffed it up a bit for his word count (in an article which is designed to rehash old stories and already known things as news). Just love the idea of Poch going for an interview for the job and daring to mention he might man manage the squad. "You what? How dare you. That's way above your station little coach, you won't be man managing anyone at this club, this is a strict coaching role only". The desperation on this forum to think the worst is really amazing.

Enjoying Blackmore's and Tanswell's "everyone is leaving, doesn't it look a disaster" narrative. Consider me absolutely shocked that a club that needs to change how it operates is changing how it operates.

Fenn? He wasn't.

I doubt anyone being lined up would want to walk into the Arsenal game first up to be fair. The real issue comes when we win 1-0 tomorrow.

Pretty sure Beattie has been trying to get back in to the club for a little while now so wouldn't be shocked if it was him and Monk.

Not correct fwiw.

The top clubs have known this for a while. He's been with us so long and seen many around him leave and the closest he's come to going is to Watford. Will be interesting to see if West Ham/Everton panic splash some money on him, are willing to pay 100k wages, and he wants to go. He might want to have a proper deep chat with Southgate and ask realistically if he goes somewhere and has a wonderful season will be anywhere near his plans for Euro 2024? If so, he might push for a move, if not, I suspect he'll not bother.

🤣 I'm not up anyones arse, I just think that maybe, just maybe, our issues might be slightly bigger and more fundamental than one bloke. We've currently got a seemingly non existent director of football so getting an active one in the summer will help, we had our head of recruitment leave within a few months, we've been consistently regressing for a few years now both in terms of recruitment and in terms of coaching on the pitch. Fanbase is disillusioned because of the football they are served up, especially at home and results in a nothing atmosphere at the ground. I think because the lack of the connection with the club in terms of good media theories, opinions and easy solutions are allowed to fester online and become part of the chaos (everything is leaked through a group of journalists rather than officially through the club). There's loads of shit that needs sorting at the club, but bloody Rasmus eh! Clearly Rasmus should take the blame for his role in the managerial decisions and recruitment and whatever role he's played in other bits but it doesn't all start with him and doesn't end with him either. There's 3 others at his level, one of which is with Sports Republic for a start but apart from Semmens why doesn't Kraft and Crocker get any stick?

Okay. You're right. In that case, going back to the original point, history should be re-written to show him as a failure at Brentford, any success they enjoyed with him should be taken with a pinch of salt but we even though we need video proof of his work at Brentford we can 100% validate our theory that he's the sole reason for our failure this season.