S-Clarke

Both of those teams have better players than us though, they've both underachieved this year so even without radical changes for both of those I'd still expect them to improve.

No, we've not been involved in any direct battles at such, but we somehow managed to get ourselves onto the periphery of it. Another month of games and we'd have been done for. I think it has been too close for comfort when you look at the final standings, and it doesn't stand us in great stead for next season should things stay the same.

I honestly don't think any other manager will get anything else from these misfits. So if we do get a new manager, we'd still need to change up most of the squad. I'm not sure what our players have ever done to achieve such ratings my our fans, bar KWP/JWP/Romeu/Salisu/Adams/Armstrong S I'd say the rest are bottom half of the table quality and even championship quality. Valery, Stephens, Lyanco, Moussa, Redmond, Armstrong (A), Tella, Smallbone, Theo, Long, Elyounoussi, Bednarek, McCarthy etc wouldn't get starting places for any other team in this league in my opinion. If we do decide to get rid of Ralph, we potentially waste a month at least searching around for a replacement whilst missing out on any targets we had identified, thus increasing the risk of us starting the season with the same as we have. If we keep Ralph we can at least push ahead with our plans and re-build this squad early.

Agreed, big test this summer. Everton and Leeds aren't going to be as bad next year and automatically that's two teams below us out of the equation. I cannot deal with another season of Redmond, McCarthy, Moussa, Theo, Long, Bednarek, Stephens. I just can't. It would finish me off.

Certainly a huge summer and a real test of their intentions and ambitions. If we've been searching for years for the 'right' investment and have passed up numerous other opportunities, then let's see why we went with these guys. I'm positive about them. But to be honest, it's all I can really be positive about at the moment as it's a bit of an unknown.

We are way too close for comfort this year. Eventually this is going to catch up with us if we're not careful, if we lost the freak win we got (Arsenal) or lost the couple of sneaky draws we got (Brighton/Leeds) we'd have been gone.

Tarkowski is off to West Ham I think, all but done bar the announcement from what I've read. Burnley want £40m for Pope. If we spend that much on a single player then I'll eat my hat, that's all we usually spend in the entire window.

Slightly over the top. I assume you've not had to watch Stephens for the last 5 years? He's enough to send you to an asylum.

It's hard not to be fed up, but there needs to be a tinge of realism appointed so we don't get too carried away. Over the last few seasons Danny Ings goals have been the reason we've got to 40+ points, his goals alone kept us up. Once he was sold for big money, the club were quick to pat themselves on the back for achieving such a fee, but we needed to replace well or we'd inevitably face a struggle. We didn't replace well. Our ings replacement needed to be a success, or we needed Redmond/Moussa/Tella/Adams to step up into the fore. Neither happened. Trying to compete in this league by selling your leading players and replacing them with duds is never going to work. I accept we're a selling club, no problem with that, but having to sell before we could even buy (and not even able to reinvest the entire fee) is a true recipe for disaster. And because we were shopping in the bargain bin, we were only looking at PL academy teams and mid-table championship sides. So, we've got substantial work to do. Not the odd young player here and there, nope...we need a root and branch rebuild of the entire squad if we have any ambitious to do aim for the Top 10. In terms of the manager, I still maintain that no one else would do any different with the bunch we have. Next season will be the bigger test for him with (hopefully) much more quality and all of the lingering bad smells gone. We'll see where we are come the pause in November, but without a radical route and branch reset of the squad a new manager will make no difference. Personally I'd rather spend the millions it would cost to pay him off on improving our squad.

This is what happens when you shop in the bargain bin, you get rubbish that others have given away as they have no use for it. He's committed enough, but is braindead. So in that sense he fits in really well with our squad.

Stuart Armstrong hasn't been great, it's been stop-start due to injuries though. Even though he's still our best, but that pretty much sums up the state of our other options. I'd have dabbled with the idea of starting Small today, but he's gone with the experience of Redmond (not that he's a LB). Not sure Ralph is a fan of Small, he arrived to much of the same fanfare as Tino but doesn't get a sniff. So there's obviously some amiss with him.

1) - I guess it's because we know Broja won't be with us, whereas with Moussa he may still be. We might struggle to shift him. 2) - He needed a game time, nothing wrong with him starting. The criticism is that it feels as if he's been thrown to the lions den with very little support behind him. That's why Adams should have started with him, in my opinion. 3) - Romeu was always going to start. I personally think he loses fitness once the season reaches the end months, so we manage him a bit more. Need to replace him in the summer for sure. 4) - No idea, he's probably one of our better attackers in terms of touch and movement but he's painfully slow. 5) - Stuart Armstrong is our best number 10, so if he's fit he always starts for me. 7) My criticism as well, would have been good to see some young lads with at least a chance rather than trying the Long/Theo/Moussa dance again. Only reason I think we're lacking academy lads is that we want to protect him, and the state of the squad is so bad at the moment that we're not confident enough or in good enough form to be able to 'carry' any young players.

We could stick him in the window of John Lewis, with a big 50% off sale sticker on him and we'd still get no takers. The only way he goes is if we pay him off.

At least on the bench, I'd agree with you. What's the point in filling the bench with Theo, Moussa and Long? Might as well give the youth a 'chance' to taste game time. One positive is no Bednarek though, feels like the penny may have finally dropped about his shitness.

All Leeds need is Ralf Kruguer as Chief Exec and they'll win the irritating soundbites league.

Hmmm, this is not how you get the best out of Adam Armstrong. The main, glaring, obvious weakness in his game is a lack of physicality and height. So playing him as a single striker doesn't make a great deal of sense. The only player we have who can play that lone role is Adams. I feel he's going to be totally isolated with that nothing attack behind him. If we had quality in the 10's who can break the line with their pace and get to the bylines etc it may be different, but we don't so it's going to be a slog. Feels like Armstrong has been sent out to fail so we have an excuse to give up on him.

That's exactly what he's always been really, we don't know what to expect from him and neither does he or the players around him. It's a shame it hasn't worked out as he seems like a great character, but he has always lacked the physicality to really boss full backs and defenders in this league, wants too much time on the ball and struggles to beat a man. In a lesser league he'd be class, as he'd have the time to skin players with his quick feet.

Great effort, nice to see some success in this club for a change. The womans team are on a crest of a wave right now, only way is up.

Yep, true...! He'd certainly add some pace and power to our attack, not really sure Burnley is ever going to be the club to get the best out of him.

I can see Leicester and West Ham being in the mix if he becomes available. Rumours are that Leicester are looking for a replacement for Kasper this summer, and WHU need to replace Fabianski sooner rather than later. I think Newcastle have snapped up Henderson, so that's them out of the mix.

Sadly we gave McCarthy a new contract, he's going to be here next year. We just have to hope we either sign a new number 1, or a young keeper who is Tino levels so he can oust him straight away. I'll be so, so bored if we start with McCarthy as number one again next season, there is no point.

I dunno, not sure about him. Seems very inconsistent and injury prone, not sure we need another of those. I'd be more inclined to take a look at McNeil if we are shopping at Turf Moor. And obviously Pope, but he's off to much bigger clubs than ourselves.

It seems to be what everyone is hearing, and it needs to happen. We can't keep standing still, we've been somewhat forced to in recent years due to Gao but I'm really hopeful that this new takeover changes that. Like you said, these are smart people in charge. They're not going to be content with us sitting still every year. Rasmus himself knows from his experience at Brentford that it requires investment, and clever investment at that. I think we are on the path of being a development club, but we need a bit of help to kick start that process because we don't have a squad full of much quality to re-sell at the moment. If we have that initial investment, sign sensibly and smartly, we will hopefully have that conveyor belt of developing/selling for big bucks/going again in place over the next few years. It's the model clubs like us have to use if we want to be successful and I'm happy with that. Bigger clubs follow very similar principles, notably Dortmund and the RB clubs. Whilst it's probably disappointing for them to lose Dembele, Werner, Dayot, Halland etc after a couple of years, they replace well and go again. That's what we've got to do and that's why scouting is so important for clubs like us, as we can't repair our mistakes. (as we've seen).

Please stop.

I don't think that theory is correct at all. When we had that good run after the takeover was announced, he was being linked with Man Utd and other top clubs. What has happened since the end of Feb has been disastrous, but somewhat expected. Howe joined Newcastle at the end of Oct/Start of Nov I think, so long before our takeover was even a thing. I'm ambitious as a fan and I want to see winning teams and progression, but at the same time I'm realistic and I realise at the moment we are nothing more than a lower mid-table/potential relegation candidate team due to the lack of quality in the team and investment over the past years. So on that basis you have to say that Ralph is doing what is expected, but he's doing so by getting us overachieving at certain points before returning to type. We've had many managers since Koeman. Pellegrino, Puel, Hughes, Ralph - and all of them have finished in and around the 40 points mark. Only Ralph has achieved over 50 points with this group, but average wise we finish mid-40's most seasons. What more do we expect with the players we have? Honest question. We no longer have no consistent goal scorers, no one who can get 10 goals a season. We have no goals from the attacking midfield areas, we have no pace out wide. We have a terrible centre back and an aging DM with no replacement for him. When you look at it like that you have to say we're doing well to be where we are. There are bright spots in Tino, JWP, KWP, Salisu which gives credence to the scouting over the last few years, but christ they need some help sooner rather than later.