benali-shorts

It's a very good question, and the biggest obstacle to recruiting a replacement. Firstly, SR need to be clear on that their project is, and Parsons etc would need to be convincing in selling this to candidates. As far as the coach's style, I don't think SR can have a pre-empted idea as there are no football experts on the Board (The Omniscient One excepted, obvs) and our managerial appointments to date have been at pretty much each end of the spectrum. So frankly, the coach just needs to have a track record in pragmatism and a willingness to develop youth, whilst having resilient shoulders for the next 30 PL games to come. Edwards satisfies each of those, at least.

Maybe we should get Luton’s DofF to replace ours too…….oh, hang on…..

I wondered about him too. Luton over performed under him, and he openly commented about how he altered his natural coaching style to get the best out of the squad who had been used to a more direct style under Jones. A coach who alters his own style to suit the players around him rather than being obsessed with a singular philosophy……..manna from heaven.

Please for Gazzaniga. Ah, the days when we used to buy promising young keepers as back up rather than first choice.

As well as an imbalanced and inadequate squad, the lack of Director of Football must be leaving RM feeling isolated. He only has Phil Parsons ("I didn't realise how difficult PL transfers would be") and his own subordinate coaching staff, which seems deficient and dysfunctional. This is on Kraft, Ankersen and to a degree Solak. Whether RM can compromise his footballing beliefs to build a pragmatic team is open to question, but seems unlikely given his track record elsewhere. But the Board need to look at themselves over their record of Football Director appointments and refusal to bring one in after Wilcox, their managerial appointments and the inadequate squad they have allowed to be assembled. I have very little faith in their ability to build a proper football structure.

Any more managerial masterstrokes up your sleeve, oh Miner of Purest Gold?

And also, we're going to lose most weeks, don't be a knob to the local Press when they try and do their job and ask you questions.

I'm pleased you didn't include Bazunu in that consideration.

You forgot Bazunu

Not having KWP in our starting XI (nor even coming off the bench in one of the worst PL performances I can remember) seems part of our muddled thinking. I'd be very surprised if it was an attitude thing, but he was probably our best player in the last two seasons and has good PL experience. How the rickety fuck is he not playing in this shithole of a team?

Their central defence is better than ours, even though they're dead.

If one thing that is absolutely certain, we will definitely fuck up the replacement, but that might at least take as one step closer to exposing Rasmus as the root of all incompetence.

He'll never be comfortable compromising his possession-style (which was always going to be suicidal in the PL with our squad) and hasn't any pedigree in making teams tighter. He'll be far too spiky to put up with continued question marks over his job - sadly, he's not what we need at this stag. He's been very let down by being given a squad which is physically and technically inadequate.

Is his body attached to his brain?

Might as well keep him for arsenal humiliation. And then I'd make BB-D manager.

Really? Why?

Hopeless. Changing RM won't make much difference, but that felt like his nadir.

That was a low point

I know he's listed on the squad sheet, but has anyone seen KWP today? I'm worried he may have died.

My favourite BBD bit today was that cheeky little back heel he tried that went ten yards in the wrong direction

In what scenario would Tall Paul have come on (and therefore why have him on the bench?)

This is the worst of all worlds, a drubbing but with an improved second half display that might save him,

Got to get Dibling off

it's clever how RM has kept KWP up his sleeve

Any hope the we may have had that Stewart might be the answer has been quietly extinguished