Ex Lion Tamer

13 goals in the last 40 appearances for Che now

Why does Ralph need to try him out when he sees him in training and youth games all the time?

I agree with keeping him to the end of his contact, as long as we think he will maintain his form if he misses out on his dream top-four move. He's probably not a Van Dijjk character, but we did also see it with Beattie arguably, that players aren't always the same when you play tough with them. It sounds like Danny has handled himself well during the contract negotiations and we may feel a responsibility to take his career ambitions into account. I certainly wouldn't sell to anyone outside the Champions League

4 points on the board so far

What a player Ings is. We'll be very lucky to hang onto him

Ghosted in at the far post to score!

If we can get Ings to stay then this is the type of player who could grow to replace him in a year or two

You see, I'd say that if the club wants to move up from the bottom third then we need a third choice striker like Adams to cover for injuries. We need to build on him, not replace

I don't really like goalkeepers as outfield coaches either but if Davis is acting as the keeper and setting up situations where Adams can practice his finishing then it's not totally bonkers. There's a limit to how much you can explain to someone how to shoot, and if he's getting that from elsewhere then all that's left is for Adams to practice and ultimately work it out for himself

Someone ITK said that he has a good attitude when things are going well and he believes in the manager, but not at other times

They may have had a falling out but I also remember Ryan posting on social how good it was to have a manager with a proper plan (implying that was not the case under the previous two), so he was at least initially impressed

Ah right, sorry, we agree then. Although I wouldn't totally absolve him on the full back front to be honest - he could have insisted we have an easy option a la Cuco Martina as a back up to get us to the end of the season. It seems like we only looked at quality

This is always the big unknown but I'm sure a guy as meticulous as Ralph will be obsessively watching videos of the players the scouts identify and making clear if he doesn't want them. The club won't always be able to pull off the transfers but I think he'll be heavily involved in deciding which targets they go for. He's at the very least a vital cog in the transfer process, and I think it is showing

After what? This season?

Are we in a worse state than when we were in administration in league 1 and got a great buyer? Unless you mean we're a shit investment because we're in the Premier League and fairly close to the limits of our potential without serious huge investment

The difference being that Ralph did take us on a great run and has done at other clubs, so he could feasibly do it again, whereas Pellegrino was and is just crap.

Well put

If we get 0-1 points over the rest of the season then he'll have to go in the summer. If we get 7+ then he stays. Anything in between and it is a more difficult judgement call.

I'm not saying he will turn it around. Just that there is a chance

Poch and Koeman both did a great job and improved the team, but it is manifestly true that they inherited a squad that was confident and on the up. I can't see how that is even up for debate. You see it with clubs that get promoted and take their form with them in a new league for a year or two before it starts to stagnate. Ralph meanwhile took over a mess of a club that was on a downward spiral and (eventually) got us flying. Then we got terrible injury problems this season, confidence plummeted and he's struggling to turn it around again. But we know he has managed to turn things around once before

I can see us playing differently. We were paralysed by caution/fear in that semi. Less to lose in this one. Not saying we'll win, mind

Even if we accept your points, I'm not trying to claim that Ralph is perfect. We're not going to get someone perfect at our level. Just that it is worth waiting a while longer to see if he can turn it around. His good spell justifies that. He has shown he can get teams outperforming their ability throughout his career. If he can't turn it around then we'll look elsewhere in the summer or early next season.

Vokins and Valery aren't good enough. It's madness that people think they would have changed anything. The problem was that the club wasn't able to bring in a replacement. Armstrong started in place of Diallo in the last game, so perhaps that is the solution, although he's hardly a Romeu replacement. Clearly Ralph doesn't think Jankewitz is up to it - I haven't actually seen him play properly but I wouldn't be judging on a Swiss u21 appearance, and none of us know what is going on behind the scenes.

No one disputes that we're in a really bad run of form. But losing KWP and Romeu, along with our lack of depth at full back, have been massive contributors to that run

It is hard to see how things are going to change this season, to be honest. But there's really no value to pulling the trigger now, and strange things can happen. I still think that what could change over the summer is Romeu could get fit and we could sign an attacking left back, and suddenly Ralph's system works again