CB Fry

He said in "his lifetime supporting Saints" so lets say no it doesn't count. My lifetime also, won nothing (apart from the JPT). And trust me, I ain't young.

Jay Rod on for the winner.

Gordon Strachan was an absolute failure because we didn't win the Uefa Cup of something. Am I doing it right?

None of the thick cunts who say we should have won the Championship would have said that on August 1st of that season. None of them. League One he took over several games in, and again no one would have said he would win the league no problem. 100% bullshit hindsight. Absolute bullshit.

If we can keep the Elyounoussi hype-machine pumping out propaganda we could be onto some serious coin from El-Toon.

Just feels like an appalling appointment to me. Doesn't feel like a good fit, and could be argued that the team he took down was better than the team he will inherit. He's got history of not coping with pressure. Everything about it feels wrong. So fingers crossed it happens.

This mythical "treatment" of Sadio Mane was seven years ago. You probably should be able to get over it by now.

But we wouldn't have got £5m for Bertrand if he'd signed a contract extension, he'd be in our team and we probably would not have signed Perraud. Ditto Vestergaard, he'd have to have signed for at least two more years, at least. So he'd be our first choice CB. Ings we spent a year plus trying to get him to sign an extension. I heard what Semmens said, but he didn't necessarily mean that we just extend everyone's contracts come what may. You can't just get extensions signed with the objective to then just sell them for more money. Look how long it took to shift Lemina, the loss we made on Boufal and the moaning there has been about Forster from about 6 months into his extension.

Except none of those was a fiasco. Bertrand it was clear it had reached a sensible end point: no fiasco. Vestergaard, it would have cost an absolute fortune to extend his deal and he really wasn't that good, and we got our money back just about. No fiasco. Ings, we got far more cash than many were expecting, the second best outcome after him staying. Could have been a lot worse (eg nips off to Spurs on the last day if the window for £20m). No fiasco.

I think Sean Dyche will be able to get a tune out of Cornet.

Just covered it on BBC 6 o'clock news, speaking to an England fan called Graham Hiley and son who were at the game - looked like former Echo Saints correspondent Graham Hiley.

I broadly agree with your general point (we do seem much better than the second half of last season) but you're underpaying how bad we were vs Wolves. We never really looked like winning and their goal and the inevitable result was straight out of the 20-21 playbook. The "we played some good stuff" stuff is smoke and mirrors sometimes. Propaganda football as WGS used to say. That's the type of performance that will keep us in the relegation zone, and I don't know yet how many of them we have in us this season. If it's a few, we're screwed. Burnley next week an excellent test.

Where was it "proved correct" that we were paying unemployed Mark Hughes a retainer from January 2018, within days of him being sacked by Stoke, some two-three months ahead of him taking over from Pellegrino. I've never heard this, so would be interested to see this detail. It would basically mean we were paying Hughes a retainer at exactly the same time we were giving Pellegrino £20m to sign Carillo at the end of the same month. Feels unlikely. I think the specific point of this thread is not that Howe might be in the frame. This has been a rumour for a long time, and everyone recognises that there is a "fit" there. The originator of this thread is not the first person to make this connection. If we sack Ralph and employ Howe it will be the least surprising news in football, after Steve Bruce being sacked. There is absolutely no revelation there, zero insider knowledge. The point of this thread is that we are going to sack Ralph this month, even if he wins three in a row. Whatever he does he is sacked by Halloween. That is what the claim is here. We beat Burnley and Watford and then he's sacked, with us on 13 points from 10 games.

Just two more wins and the Howe era begins.

Well, it's a line up. I'll give him that.

If we do well in the next few games Ralph is safe - I can't see us desperate to sack him (otherwise we would have already done so). If we do terribly, (ie no wins in ten) then its untenable and he will just have to go. Howe feels like an incredibly likely candidate but to be honest if we are sacking Ralph soon because he's started badly and recruiting Howe I think we're relegated. I don't see Eddie as the man to get us out of the shit. I think that if that is the chain of events then it feels to me that this really is the year we go down.

This is obviously not progressing this thread on, so lets get back to naming potential assistant managers. Mick Wadsworth still about?

People can see what I wrote and know that that's a lie. You're a liar. They can also see that you called me "as bad as a racist or a homophobe" which is extremely offensive, and other people can see that too. So don't try and quote "world mental health week" at me when all you're doing is smearing me with demonstrable lies. "Wilful misrepresentation" and "slandering people" is in the WMH day pamphlet is it? That makes people feel better does it? That's good for mental health is it? The fact is that you know you're in the wrong and chicken-shitting off to the ignore button just proves my point. Slander someone then run away: probably page four of the World Mental Health Day play book. Absolute role model behaviour. Grow up, and start to think about how to word your apology.

Not sure that post is called for on this forum. Here's your last post to me, a couple of days ago. Pretty sure it is you doing the attacking, not me. Enjoy the match.

So just to recap, you wilfully misrepresent what I've been saying (suggesting I am saying that Ralph’s results in 2021 have been exceptional) and call me facetious, and thats a-ok. But if I reply by saying your idea of Howe being recruited is mental (to be honest I couldn't remember who's stupid idea it was) I suddenly as bad as a racist or a homophobe. Right you are then. Right you fucking are.

God knows what you're babbling about now. Where have I said anything about Ralph’s recent results being exceptional or even good? Christ. All I've seen on here is "let's recruit Eddie Howe as Ralph’s assistant" - fucking mental. And then let's use a club with no wins and below us in the bloody table as a role model example of a fantastic coaching appointment. You can hardly blame me for being facetious when faced with such horseshit. Ralph Hasenhuttl is accountable for his own backroom team in the sane way he's accountable for the team he puts out. I just don't agree that he needs assistants forced on him, I don't think he needs help parachuted from above. I don't think we are a bloody assistant manager away from triumph. He is making these choices, its on him. If he fails, then he fails on his own terms. Let's hope doesn't.

All that pre-season to "bed in" and get his ideas across and improve on everything, too. No wins in 8 matches, in the relegation zone and out of the league cup. It really is a terrific example of a new coach really shaking things up.

Who is "they" - was this guy brought in above Steve Bruce's head? Or did Steve identify the need and recruit? And didn't Newcastle have a massive injury crisis (worse than ours) and covid crisis mid season which eased at the end of the season when they pulled away safe. A lot of this debate in predicated on the notion that Ralph needs help imposed on him, against will but for his own good. On top you then get this idea that if he had things his own way Kelvin Davies wouldn't be there etc etc. But Ralph has been in role for 3 years, and he could have things his own way - if he wanted to bin off Kelvin he could have done it by now. It's hardly going to be expensive or controversial.

We have an assistant manager - Kitzbichler - who was in place for our "best ever calendar year" run of form and when we went top of the league that day. What's he done thats so wrong? If you can let me know of a club who have been in a significant down turn of form, but have then got out of it by replacing the assistant manager (or employing an additional coach) then I'm all ears. Because I genuinely have no idea of any clubs that have done this to any notable effect. Take your time though, because it would be awful if all you were doing is "rushing to make a point".

Okay then.