Ex Lion Tamer

We'd get relegated

I find it worse that he's stipulating what level he'd be willing to go out in loan to

Somehow Leeds managed to sustain it last season but otherwise Bielsa teams always wilt towards the end of the season, because he overtrains them. Their players are just not good enough and only performed last season due to promotion momentum

I'd take RB or SC here but think it's only 50:50 whether we could land them. RB would see himself at a bigger club I think, and Cooper will have plenty of offers

I think this hints at a fundamental point that cuts across all the discussion on here. Both these things can be true: Ralph has done well overall to keep us up each season and would probably keep us up again next year The bad performances and strange decisions are extremely hard for loyal fans to watch and it's understandable that they want someone else who would be more consistent

All possibilities indeed, but it's not really fair to refuse to give him credit for JWP and then blame him for Djenepo. Multiple managers had failed to get JWP firing. To be honest I think Ralph's high pressing style and intense fitness work was exactly what JWP needed to find a way of benefiting the midfield, as he was just ok at everything (barring free kicks) before that and couldn't find his role. We will see if Djenepo goes on to be a better player at another club or under another manager

He's the only manager to have got JWP fulfilling his potential

I didn't mean to quote you on that reply, but I think it's a fair criticism that Ralph's approach asks too much of players and makes it difficult to maintain consistency over a season. However, I also think that there was a culture problem when he joined that he sorted out. Ultimately it's about getting the balance right

Ralph is a disciplinarian. He has a hard training, high energy approach to the game. And when he came in he instantly picked fights with the old guard like of Cedric over things like using phones in the treatment room. More likely is that the players are just physically and mentally exhausted by his demands. In which case a short holiday might not be the worst thing for them

This is extremely speculative

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The trick is that you buy the Tinos but have last year's Tinos coming to fruition as well, then this year's Tinos can flourish next year, at which point you buy more Tinos

Bednarek and Stephens are 26 and 28. We only had £7m to spend and I don't see how we could have got better for that amount

The way I see it, Ralph's system requires 110% effort to work. When the pressure is on and there is mental and physical energy in the squad, it allows the team to play well above its ability. But when those factors aren't there it all collapses

These are the limited snippets we currently have available to predict the club's spending power now: https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/semmens-sport-republic-southampton-transfers-6661251https://www.givemesport.com/1828492-southampton-transfer-news-exciting-update-emerges-on-saints-spending-power-this-month

Ralph is a disciplinarian

Because Gao wanted to sell and there was no one else offering anything better? SR at least seem to have a plan, although I think a lot of people are seriously overestimating the impact they are going to make

Haven't they made it pretty clear that there won't be extra money to spend, just a bit of extra liquidity to allow us to buy earlier?

Let's see how Brentford do next season. They might get found out in their second season just like Leeds, Sheffield United and many others

Training? One to one meetings with players, staff etc?

I could well imagine that Ralph prefers Long's pressing to Broja's and AA's, and that is his top priority

It should be possible for him to take a pay cut if he won't get more elsewhere

The problem is they all want to maintain their access to the club. Without that they've got nothing. None of them are really powerful enough, with a strong enough audience, to be able to go rogue and threaten the club with negative press. The Echo in particular got totally screwed by Cortese when they "stepped out of line"