Saint Albert

Mauricio. You seem like a nice fellow, and the people you work with or for seem to like you. You have truly handled a very difficult situation with dignity, but you also are probably getting paid millions for being bad at your job, so in fairness my sympathy for you has its limits. The problem is, you’re not very good at managing football teams, Mauricio. You leave your best players on the bench, you’re too cautious and you seem to find tactics confusing. Perhaps consider a change in career, where you could be more of a success. Try teaching perhaps, but if the headmaster asks you to coach the school’s football team, please decline for the sake of the children, and their parents who will be bored silly watching their children play. Mum and dad will not appreciate having to deal with little Jimmy’s complaint about playing for a team that rarely wins, and sitting on the sideline while Ralph “the snail” Smith gets to play ahead of him, notwithstanding that little Ralphie gets nosebleeds if he runs for more than five seconds at a time. On second thoughts Mauricio, consider a new career other than teaching.

I’m pretty sure it’s still Pellegrino.

You couldn’t make this up.

I’m going to rate it on the pass / fail scale. We needed a centre forward target man. We got one, and the jury is still out on how he will fit in. He had some decent moments in the second half against Brighton, I thought. His affiliation with Pellegrino could see some strife / confusion on his part if Les ever pulls his finger out and sacks Pellegrino before it is too late. When Austin gets fit, which one of the two will start given Pellegrino’s predilection for only playing one striker? For me it would be Austin. We needed attacking pace on the wing. We did not get it. Although there was some effort to bring Walcott and Promes in, ultimately we ended up with neither. We needed a big CB to handle aerial deliveries, a proper VVD replacement. We did not get it and I am not sure if the club identified this as a need (perhaps thinking that Bednarek and Hoedt were replacements for Fonte and VVD) and made no effort to bring in a new signing in this area. The club failed to address two out of the three main needs. They get a big fat F in my book.

A short term focus on survival is definitely the way to go in my book. We really are in a pickle but I am convinced we have the players to get us out. Ex Dortmund manager Bosz might be an option as well. He started off very well at Dortmund.

He probably looked at the cluster**** that is Pellegrino’s Southampton, and ran in the opposite direction. It would not surprise me if many of the failures and disappointments of this transfer window, were caused directly by the board’s inexplicable decision to stick with Pellegrino through Dec and Jan.

VVD. I think that it is still all his fault.

They’ve been getting those types of comments on Twitter for a while. Unfortunately the comments do not seem to have much impact, since he is still here.

Probably Liverpool away but definitely Leicester. It still amazes me that he’s still here.

So people who don’t go games should just shut up them should they? If Pellegrino continues to make inexplicable team selections, gets his tactics wrong, the team produce limp performances as in the 1st half of today’s game, and if the Board persist with a manager who has not won a single PL games in 12, vocalized discontent at the ground is a perfectly natural response. It even happens at other clubs, but I suppose it’s probably the fault of their non-attending supporters as well.

That would be yet another winnable game wasted on Pellegrino.

I do wonder what Les Reed is thinking when he looks at the bench and sees all of his expensive acquisitions riding the pine, as the first team passes slowly sideways and backwards on the pitch.

This manager is unfortunately not very good at identifying and selecting his best players. It’s painful to watch.

An amazingly patient board?

Pellegrino has survived worse performances and results than this.

Stephens the goal scoring machine!

He tweeted a week or so ago that his ankle is fine. His omission comes down to Pellegrino thinking Davis is a better option.

Starting Davis ahead of Lemina is an odd decision.

That is also a fairly good sign he’s in their squad.

According to the team list posted by Trousers on the previous page, he is.

I had an initial burst of optimism but no, I’m not really buying what the club’s selling on this issue.

The problem with the deal in the summer bit is that if another team goes after him then and Promes prefers them, we could get done like we did with Toby.

The window has not closed yet. Still, it’s not looking very good at this point in time.

According to Adam Blackmore in a subsequent tweet, we met the asking price for Promes a while ago. The delay was because Spartak wanted all the money up front... https://mobile.twitter.com/AdamBlackmore/status/958732660096077826

If we could secure a deal for a summer sale Kieta style, that at least seems like a decent development. Hopefully Les and Co have moved on to other targets. I still hope that we’re looking at another CB but there’s not much sign of that happening is there? If we don’t sign anyone else, I still think we have the squad to avoid relegation. It’s the manager that worries me.