Holmes_and_Watson

Southampton: That lower division experience in the top league. 🙂

It would be mean to ask him if he really was the fittest man in history. I'll put that with statistically the best in Europe as a Nathanism. I did look up sharply when he said he'd be dead soon. Things aren't that bad! Just a slip of the tongue. He'd clearly had a nice chat with his handler/ press officer. And the pre match, doesn't have the emotion of the post match. So, always emphasised that he had never, ever blamed anyone other than himself. Despite interviews across 3 clubs, where that is how it comes across. If, in his mind, he genuinely isn't doing that, he needs to stop those answers early. Which he did here, shutting down his answers and being more tactful and thoughtful. The big fringe benefit if we win is that he'll be able to stop bringing up his past record to justify his appointment. While he smugly explained that there's a masterplan behind players being in the B team, I hope there's a bit more depth behind the team being front footed and aggressive (which now has it's own stats apparently xGrrrrr).

Molten

I feel my mere mention of xG triggered something there. 🙂

Possibly Rasmus has been looking at the forum, and didn't want to say xG in case it started a riot. 🙂

Good to see SR thinking longer term, offsetting the costs of relegation by... having a fans forum, to boost their sustainability index rating. Like Revolution Saint, I don't mind the finance bit, but they couldn't help themselves and threw in everything else they perceive a good club should have, weighted or not.

I objected to "He wouldn't be good enough for the high aggressive, front footed, high xG Luton side, where I earned awards. So he's not good enough here, as I work, now free of influence from board, players and sanity, to build a side as good as that award winning Luton team was." 🙂 It's important for the pathway to be available to the academy. That pathway now applies to the slightly older youngsters we've bought recently. They filled the gap in quality at that development stage. So, we should be seeing some of them on the bench, if we're going to more easily bring in others at that stage. The club and NJ needs to balance that against having players who can get us points in close games to stay up. We may we'll lose this year for the younger players, before we get outgoings in the summer. Should we go down, we may have far more opportunities to see real progress with the younger players.

Values

SR are giving him the Wolves game. He's put huge pressure and significance on that game with all his "no more" comments regarding previous games. I want us to win. If, despite his comments, the chucking of players under a bus and his new approach, we do win, they may well give him another game. Which I'd want us to get something from. So, if he can turn it round and get us enough points to keep us up, then he'd stay by virtue of the results. Hopefully he'd be learning a lot of things along the way. Much like Ralph, I'd never want us to fail, but the owners would not have to go far to justify pulling the plug. In related news. As I'd listened to NJ's interviews a couple of times, I was picking up similar key words across a number of other interviews. However, they all closed their mouths, before feeling they had to justify their record, contradict themselves or blame everyone while trying get a stay of execution. It's hard to get a fresh start when you've given a lot of folks reasons to carry grudges into it. I'd be expecting a different press conference response next time, whatever the result.

Species

It's not just our fans that dislike Rasmus. Leeds players do too. I'll be discussing it further in the Aaronson's Appropriate Assessment of Arrogant Ankersens Appointments Angers All thread.

Arm

Shot

Crumbs! Orsic will be the envy of all the other B players. 🙂 Not sure how much faith I'd put in those figures, but of course read through them all anyway. 🙂

Herd

Shake

Assessment

The Goggins/ Benali inspirational marathon dream ticket is but a Rasmus press conference away! Nige and Woodward can consult as we release that untapped potential on the rest of the season. 🙂

I'd have loved to have had Bielsa manage our club at any point. But it's a very emotion based wish just to have had him here. In practice, he wouldn't have lasted the summer. He lasted only a couple of days at Lazio. When they didn't bring him the agreed players, he was off like a shot. If he followed that approach with us, the lack of a striker would have been it. And I'm not objecting to that. If promises haven;t been kept, why put your reputation on the line/ waste your time. He may well have agreed whole heartedly with SR's desire to reduce that wage bill and focus on those youth players. But on at least one occassion a team he was with jettisoned too much experience. The youth floundered, and he was towards the bottom of the table when he went home, and was suspended by the club. Then there's the usual opinion on his teams. That they start brightly, but it catches up to them in the end. While you'd hope that would be managed better with experience/ sports science, I'd don't think it would have suited Lavia much. With Romeu likely to have been just as gone under Bielsa, we'd be in the same bother. It's one reason he likes a good run up to taking a team over. To have worked a lot of it out at a lower level, and then reap the success. As you say, the 1 year contracts might also get in the way of the succession planning of SR. They'd always be on the verge of sounding out other managers to take over. Had it happened in the summer, we might be sitting here discussing the erratic post match interviews of a manager, so we can be thankful that....oh... 🙂

The board would have hired him based on the principles they wanted to adopt. Once RalphBall got found out, they were looking to tighten up defensively. To do that, they went off and crunched some numbers (on us against lots of other teams) and determined they would like 5 at the back. It's not known if that was reached with a striker and possibly another attacker coming in during the summer window. Or whether they preferred 5 at the back anyway. So NJ, who has no problem with 5 at the back, gets a tick in the interview. Beyond that. The board know he'll be fine with it, as they've scouted him extensively and know his systems fit what they want to do. Those above NJ bring in players based on selling them on later, but do try and vary the age a bit (Aribo, DCC for example). NJ has a "I make players better. I make strikers score more goals" stall out, and the board like that a lot. Ralph found out that his new back room team this season, that he didn;t seem to have a hand in selecting, had more input into what was going on. So, the board principles/ objective will be there too. I've no issue with some of that. I think SR thought RalphBall was going to work forever, and that Ralph just needed the investment to push on. I don't know how much everyone involved varied the preferred style when that striker didn't appear. It makes such a difference to everything, as we saw when Broja was on song. By the time NJ came in, with no striker, that may not have been the best option at all. Having staff there that weren;t hand picked sounds good in principle. A head coach works within the successful ethos of the club. Like the players, they too will move on to bigger things, but the club will go on without missing a beat. Except, the next head coach feels he has no backing from his own coaching staff. And if those principles don't work, it's murder to change everything around to fix it. NJ will go based on results/ having fallen out with everyone connected to the club. But there are wider issues with the decisions that brought him here. They will have to be addressed, or we're in danger of repeating this cycle all over again.

I hope he points. That could be nearly anyone. 🙂

I caught Alex Crook on talksport while boiling the kettle earlier. He was basically saying it was time for a new person to come in. They discussed a number of the things mentioned here. Broadly the taking of reponsibility, saying he wasn't going to blame the players, before blaming them; the inexperienced approach at this level and that a record at Luton isn't going to make a difference to what's going on here, right now. He did mention that he knew the players and some of the board were unhappy. But he could well have been reading that from here too. Still, it's another news outlet waiting for SR to make the call. As for NJ, it could have been so much easier for him, if he could have closed his mouth, after the first sentence. Lavia being subbed? - He was on a booking, and he's too important a player for us to lose through suspension. STOP - Do not criticise his performance. Approach - He was brought in off the back of specific values and with specific goals. He has not seen those values instilled in the team, he has not hit his goals, and that both are his fault. He's not happy with the approach he took since coming in and will work tirelessly to correct it. STOP - Do not say the players were all rubbish before him, that it's their fault that they can't follow instructions and that he's sick of pandering to them and/ or the coaches and/ or Rasmus. Overwhelmed in the Premier League - By all means trot out his achievements, and it being a super career opportunity. By all means say that these were the foundations of what he'd like to see here. Return to previous answer about the work he'd like to put in to achieve that. STOP - Do not blame shadowy parties interfering with your tactics/ approach. Do not blame the players for trying to pull wool over your eyes/ play to their strengths. Team Selection - almost indefensible, but default interview answers are available. New signings not trained with us much yet, but wanted them to play a part. Bree is a known quantity from Luton days, so that's not the same obstacle. Bland pick the players he felt were best suited to start would be baffling, but at least supportive of those players. STOP - Do not chuck them under the team coach when the various team changes don't work out. None of the above deflects from the stark reality of the results and the difficulty of the task. But at least it wouldn't alienate every one of his colleagues. As for Rasmus, I wonder if his emergency go to manager would actually more of the same. Another out of the left field hire. Because it will be hard to give up the stat based principles, the preferred team formations and the ego to get in someone who has the experience, skill and drive to do it without that input.

Sadly, Mr Jones will not be there. Fan: What's your favourite flavour of crisps. Jones: None of the Walkers flavours, after Lineker called my comments strange, and Wright put the boot in. I prefer traditional Luton food anyway. Like the Bedfordshire Clanger. I've brought plenty of clangers here, to remind me of my time there. Fan: You certainly have.

The last 10 mins of the Wicker Man had Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland in it! 🙂

His employee of the month award will look nice beside his league 1 manager of the year one. 🙂