santolijador

Decent interview I think. Big on developing a clear identity - that is a positive considering our current lack thereof. Looks like he expects his players to give everything at least..

I too am quite underwhelmed by this news, but thought it might be relevant to share some positives that I can see having done a bit of research on the guy - worth pointing out that I am not assigning value to these points, just think that they are good things: - Luton seem to be gutted about losing him. Done a lot with basically no money to get them into the playoffs. - Time at Stoke seems to be partially excused by a terrible team of big egos. Stoke haven't improved since he left them and it seems that the problems were more systemic - I've read in a few places that he is supposedly a very strong man manager. By all accounts this is something Ralph was not. - It is clear from his (often amusing) post-match interviews and clips on twitter that he has a lot of passionate energy, something which may be helpful in our current predicament - When he took over a second time at Luton, he survived a Championship relegation battle, followed by Playoffs the next year - I have seen comments from Luton fans that he is very much a 'long-term project' kind of guy. Buys into a project and grows with the players at his disposal. This can explain some of his success at Luton. Also nice that we have a WC break (lol) for him to fully immerse in the team. - He appears to be an adaptable, pragmatic guy - tactically fitting to the players he has at his disposal. His preferred tactic suits our players too it seems - Che for all his poor finishing holds the ball up well, we have some nice wing-backs in our club with Livra, KWP, Perraud and even AMN - He had an interesting career as a player, even playing 3rd tier football here in the depths of the Spanish desert, and speaks Spanish. I am sure that will help him get up to speed from Ruben if nothing else. - If we go down, then he'd probably be a good appointment in that sense. Think we have got a squad to come back up. Yeah, not thrilling, but it's probably worth giving him a chance - Championship is a good level and similar to an Austrian PL (RB Salzburg) or a Norwegian PL (Bodo/Glimt) without the European experience. Im not sure, but let's not boo him off on Saturday when we get thumped by Liverpool..

Stuart Armstrong is having a shocker, Lyanco looks up for it, has started well

How many do we lose by for Ralph to go?

Well it won't be Cooper...

Shame about the bench too. get Edozie on

that wasn't great keeping

It's almost as if we needed to sign a (proven) striker this summer... dire from us, so many misplaced passes this season in general

I had completely (perhaps intentionally) forgotten Hughes managed us...

This is dire

I work with a guy who has a distant family connection to him (on the Albanian side) - I am almost certain that whilst we have a Serbian lead investor, there is no chance Broja considers playing for us again. Don't think it's a coincidence SR coming in and his form dipping.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a game or two against them in pre-season/post World-cup friendly. Seems like both managers enjoyed the experience all round.

Well, at least our 2 best CBs are playing. I reckon Sekou will start banging them in if he gets any service this season.

all the new signings look decent, ABK should start from now on, loved the cameo from Sekou and also enjoyed KWP kissing the badge and showing some leadership

What a ball Sekou

or Dani Ceballos

Comes across v well in his interview, optimistic about this one

How was Willy?

gotta celebrate that in contes face moi, great character from the lads

Spurs have so much small man energy

not as many as Big Jos

St Mary's should be a hostile place to play, we've been missing it

I would imagine the club know a lot more about the situation than we do. If they do take the statue down, this would have to be because Bates had more of a role than we know about (in a bad way), or was indeed guilty of not acting whilst in a position of considerable influence. For me, the key here is 'speaking to the victims' - at least in this case the club is showing respect for the victims of abuse in and around the club and listening to them. After all, they are the ones directly affected and have every right to express an opinion directly to the club on the matter. It is mentioned in this article that Bates disregarded the concerns of at least one individual. I cannot speak for the accuracy of this report of course. In any case, I would let the club sort this one - I don't think they would take any decision to remove the statue lightly. There is a reason Bates was named in the reports and I am sure there are legitimate reasons for this review of his statue.

It seems the referee suffered from heat stroke in the end.

Actually between Monday evening and some point on Tuesday his account was suspended. I would assume it was a temporary voluntary deactivation of the account. He returned to Twitter last night with the protective measures you mention, also having deleted the replies to fans that got him in trouble. Presumably this time round he will have a PR individual/welfare officer from the club keeping a closer eye on his activity.