Ex Lion Tamer

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

I make it that we're 14th over the past 6 months

It all depends if the club have scouted a great manager that we've never heard of. If they have, that might influence their decision

This is where I'm torn because I'd like to give Ralph the start of next season with a fresh squad, but this run of form is testing even my patience and I wonder if we'll get a better manager in the summer then if we wait until mid season

Well the transfer window doesn't open until the summer, but to be honest I think his recruitment has been good, within our financial constraints

I agree that it could be that other teams have worked us out, which is why he will have to go if results don't improve. But it could also be that he needs Romeu back and a decent attacking left back. The run of games without a proper RB may also have hurt our confidence and we need time to get it back. Given the amount of doubt, I think we need to stick as long as possible rather than lose someone who gave us the best spell of football since Koeman and who could possibly do it again

We don't actually disagree that much. We're on a terrible run and I was expecting results to pick up when we had our fullbacks back. I do still feel that with some squad additions in the summer he could turn it around and make his system work again, but he's got to show something in the remainder of this season. It's just too risky to get rid before we have to, given how brilliant 2020 was

I literally already explained that to you, do you have memory problems or something? He was trying to play 3 at the back and needed to go back to 4222. Yes he is tactically one dimensional, but that one dimension is really good when it works

If Mark Hughes had a specific system and style of play, which had been shown to work wonders both for us and for other clubs in the past, but which didn't seem to work in a compressed season when we suffered from a terrible injury crisis and lack of squad depth, and we were safe from relegation, then I'd absolutely be giving him as long as possible to turn it around. Don't get me wrong, if we fail to get any more points this season then it will probably be time for Ralph to move on. But if he does I think there's a big chance he will transform another club and we'll be left rueing that we didn't give him more time. Hughes ground out enough points to save us from relegation but there was never really anything to suggest that he had a vision or a plan that would do anything except have us clogging away at the bottom of the table

Exactly. The supposed fanboys are actually the ones who are seeing both sides of things, the good and bad. The real ones wearing blinkers are those who can't acknowledge that he got us playing well for a long period and that this justifies giving him as much time as possible to turn around the current terrible run

It was because he was trying to play 3 at the back, and couldn't make it work

He might well be like Bielsa, who has a history of getting teams playing amazing for much of a season and then falling apart at the end. Leeds might not have got promoted if the season hadn't been paused for Covid. Oddly Leeds seem to have managed to buck the trend this year

Others may have better memories but I swear there was a period where we were grinding out wins. I remember thinking how we seemed to have got rid of the old fragility when defending leads.

I agree all the clubs are in a similar boat but I don't think it's as bad as people are making out. There's still plenty of money to be made in football, all that needs to happen is serious deflation in transfer fees and new contract terms for a few years

Norwich spent £8m in total last time they came up

Only Everton and the big 6 have been in the Premier League longer than us right now. I do think we belong in this league but we have to be realistic that clubs of our size get relegated sometimes

The game has moved on and he hasn't adapted. I wouldn't take him here

Spurs, Fulham and Leeds are all coming off a short turnaround so being honest I doubt we'll get much from them. Maybe a point from Fulham. But Liverpool are struggling at Anfield so let's say 3 there, and 3 from Palace, so 7 total, taking us to 43