saintant

If it is true that Ralph didn't even speak with the players immediately after the Everton game then that sounds like a dereliction of duty. He is paid a massive salary and should be taking responsibility not skulking off without a word of advice/criticism/encouragement or expression of his views in relation to the game. I'd sack him for that and sod his compensation but realise that it is not easy to sack people these days. If he's done it before he should have been given official warnings. With the money he's earning he really has to be more accountable and take his responsibilities seriously. It seems he can't take it when we lose but is quite happy to bask in the glory of victories.

Sounds like there were rumblings at the end of last season and he was probably given a chance to improve but he can't or won't.

How do you work out he is a Spanish Steve Wigley?

It sounds a bit more serious than that and why not make it public? Would you rather the players just sweep it under the carpet and carry on? There will always be one or two players that don't get on with the manager but this appears to run a lot deeper. There were rumours that Oriel left in part because of this. I have to say, JWP's demeanour and body language this season has not been normal for him so there is certainly something wrong. Best to get rid of Ralph now because these sort of things are never fixable.

Wouldn't surprise me to learn that Ralph has not been happy integrating the new coaching staff and probably doesn't allow them much of a say or any meaningful input in training sessions. He was fine with Kelvin and the rest because they weren't much more than his glorified puppets but I suspect the new guys have probably got up his nose and will have their own views and ideas.

He wouldn't play him at all until he proved he could adapt to Ralphball.

Don't they realise there is absolutely nobody out there who could ever replace him?

Amazing to see that Steve McClaren is still managing to steal a living at a big club.

It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel for Haaland next week. What are the odds for him getting a double hat-trick?

I think this is a distinct possibility. Would be madness imo.

But surely then you have lost your decent back up players.

It's a fair point but wouldn't you then play Salisu alongside CC and leave out ABK to protect him from the possibility of a bad injury?

The most damning thing about this is the three runs of consecutive defeats. In comparison there are no consecutive wins or even draws which is quite staggering. It's not a record that would give the owners of a Premier League football club any confidence in the guy masterminding these results. To let him carry on would appear tantamount to gross negilgence.

The previous defeats were 1-0 and I think the centre back pairing of Salisu and ABK hasn't done a lot wrong. It was a mistake to break up the partnership. The time to do that is when they look shaky and full of mistakes. That was not the case so they should have been picked together again yesterday.

Dragan has made a pile of money. Nobody does that without having a ruthless streak and a sharp business brain. I'm sure he'll be the one to pull the trigger as he is the investor - as a successful businessman he'll not want to allow this situation to continue and fester. If he does then he is in danger of losing a lot of money. This early in the venture he surely will not want to risk that. He'll be speaking at length with those working closely with him and will expect honest answers as to what they see the future holds under Ralph.

I suspect Selles was brought in with a view to him gaining experience then taking over once Ralph retires. The problem SR now face is that Selles hasn't had the necessary time and Ralph looks a busted flush with continued weird tactics, team selections and decision making. SR are between a rock and a hard place because if they sack Ralph any new manager will likely want to bring in his own coaches and we've only just hired Selles and the others working with him. However, their bottom line is that they have to make big decisions and make the right ones to give us the best chance of finishing in 17th position or above.

To be honest that statement from Semmens sums up the fact that he is not as clever as he thinks he is. You might develop players, provide a pathway and make a few bob selling one or two on but will lose that plus millions more if you get relegated from the Premier league and it's then a hard slog to get back up there. To say for us it's not where we finish is a crazy comment from someone in his position.

Only seen highlights but the sense I got was that we sorely missed Salisu at the back. Not sure why he didn't play as haven't seen anything to say he wasn't fit. If he was fit then it's another strange decision from Ralph because you do not break up a centre back pairing that is developing and growing a strong partnership. Their goals came, in part, from poor defending in the air in our box and ABK alongside Salisu have been solid in that respect.

Don't think SR would even entertain the idea of someone like Sean Dyche.

Admit I did overlook the fact that Ralph dropped Salisu who has been forging a good partnership with ABK.

The buck stops with the big guy at the top named Ralph - that's why he gets paid the huge bucks.

Who would I want in? Well, there can't be many managers with worse records than Ralph and then add in two 9-0 defeats plus many hammerings, odd team selections and rumoured falling out with players/lack of man management skills and the list of who we'd want in must be almost endless.

Yes, everybody saw Ralph and we saw it against Wolves and Villa but it seems you didn't.

Lambs to the slaughter, candy from a baby, more gifts than Santa gives away at Xmas.

What was stupid about it was dropping Salisu who has been developing a good partnership with AKB and playing a kid at left back when Djenepo has done well there and Perraud is adequate.