Lord Duckhunter

If he allows it to be taken quickly, then yes. However, once he’s indicated the restart will be on his whistle, he has to allow the defending team to be set. The error was he didn’t check the keeper was ready before blowing his whistle. He then panicked when he realised he wasn’t, and blew it again to stop play.

I went to a dozen away games and every single home one. As Turkish has pointed out, home games aren’t particularly any better than Puels. 9-0, Bournemouth, 2-0 up against Wolves, Chelsea, Newcastle, Burnley all woeful. This season at home hasn’t exactly been laugh a minute. Spurs, 2-0 up against Utd, West Ham, Wolves, Arsenal. Still he did cry against Liverpool, who were in such form they drew with West Brom & lost to Burnley & Brighton around the same time.

More excuses. Firstly, this Ralph knows what he is trying to do, whereas Puel didn’t is just pony. Just because you didn’t like what Puel was trying to do, doesn’t mean he didn’t have a plan and a style he wanted us to play. Tactically he was miles ahead of what we’ve seen so far this year, particularly defensively as that really has been a shitshow lately. Secondly, if we lack the players to play a certain style, why on earth are we playing it. Poch wanted us to press in his first few games, but when we started to look dodgy he changed slightly. He only went back into after he signed Victor the following summer. Being inflexible is not a strength in football management. Thirdly, he’s had pretty much the same backing as the previous 3 managers, basically not a lot. However, there’s no slack cut to them. For the avoidance of any doubt, nobody wants Claude Puel as manager instead of Ralph, some of us just want them judged fairly. Puel shit, Ralph good is just lazy pony, based on nothing but liking the personality of one, and not liking the other. Based on cold hard facts Puel did a better job, let’s hope this time next year the reverse is true.

More excuses. This bloke could get us relegated and some of you will lick his fucking feet. This side is not much different to the one Puel had once VvD got injured. Keepers are similar. Both had Bertrand. KWP or Cedric, not much in it. Centre halves-Yoshida & Stephens or Vesty & Bednarek. I think we know which pairing you’d choose. JWP & OR, in both sides. Armstrong or Davies, pretty equal. Redmond, both. Ings or Gabbi, I’d say Ings, but pretty similar. Tadic or Walcot/Djeneppo. Tadic every day of the week. Who from Puels side would get into the present side, Tadic & VvD defo, and he was missing VvD from Jan onwards. Are the others very much different? Of course they’re not. If you forget about Puel, were Mark Hughes’ or Pelligrinos sides any better than this one? Not really. This pony that Ralph has somehow been dealt a horrendous hand, is just that, pony. He’s got pretty much the same hand as the past 3 managers were dealt and at the moment he’s playing it worse that Puel, slightly better than Hughes and a lot better than Pelligrino. In the grand scheme of things, he’s been pretty fucking average. But he cries when we beat Liverpool, so thats ok.

Fuck me, that Woodgate is doing a tremendous job at Boscombe considering their net spend the past 55 years.

I think we’ve jumped the shark now......

Not good enough at the time we let him go, the fact he is now, says more about Bertrand’s appalling 3 months, than Targett’s ability.

Without Grealish as well.

Shambles. There’s 2 things the ref can do. Allow a quick one with out a whistle (tough if the defending team aren’t ready), or tell everyone the kick will be on the whistle. Once you’ve insisted the kick is taken on your whistle, you have to allow the defending team time to get set. He obviously assumed the keeper was set & ready without actually checking he was. He then shat himself when he realised he wasn’t and the kick had been taken, so blew the whistle again. To me the VAR could have bailed him out a little . There were players offside, that at a stretch could have been in the keepers vision. VAR could have told him this and given him a way of disallowing the goal, without looking like a complete twat (only looking mildly twatish).

Targett lucky to not receive second yellow there.

It doesn’t seem right to me that having suffered lockdown to protect the over 60’s, nippers will now be banned from pubs, clubs, international travel, cinemas because we haven’t got down to vaccinating them. Once the whole adult population has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, then there’s a discussion to be had. Personally, with the BAME community , women up the duff & illegal immigrants high up the list on non Vaxers, I can’t see this pinko government going for vaccine passports as government policy. What I can see them doing is allowing companies to insist on a negative test that day or proof of vaccine. The hassle of obtaining a negative test result over and over, will mean vaccine passport by the back door. Not Government policy, but a nod and a wink. I can also see them insisting certain professions have one (as I believe they do with hepatitis already) but that Plimlico plank maybe on a sticky wicket if he’s saying a blanket no jab/no job. Again, the way round this would be daily negative test, or proof of vaccine.

This is not true. Burnley,West Ham, Wolves, Crystal Palace & Brighton all had a lower net spend.

How many more years are we going to blame Les Reed. One thing for sure, he wasn’t getting the praise when we were top of the league. Now there’s a slump, it’s his fault.

If he name was Ralph Higgins and he was an ex centre half from Barnsley, I bet people wouldn’t be quite so enthralled by his football and tactical nous. Some people are still spitting feathers about a somewhat boring man that gave us a decent season. A season that included some great performances, some boring ones and some unlucky ones. We certainly didn’t have the absolute shit shows that we’ve had to endure this season. Hopefully Ralph will match Claude and take us to a final. Fingers crossed he’ll match Hughes and get us to a semi final. But if we go out to Boscombe, what then? How will his performances be measured? I’m sure some on here will find weird and wonderful ways to big him up.

After the January Puel had Jack Stephens and Yoshida as centre halves. Bertrand, Pied and Cedric as full backs. JWP, OR and Steve Davies, JRod, Long, Gabbi, Redmond and Tadic. He had to use Josh Simms and McQueen and had a very young PEH. Is that really any better than we’ve got now. I’d say only Tadic would get in this side, maybe Steve Davies. That lot managed to win a semi final and win 6 of their last remaining 13 games. They also never got stuffed 9. And we never looked a complete shambles as we have done at times this season. My opinion has always been the same regarding Claude. He did a good job in difficult circumstances, whilst I wasn’t 100% sure of him, he deserved another season. He suffered a raw deal from most supporters, including the unbelievable claim that points matter more than places (a calculation which means Liverpool’s runners up had a better season than Arsenals invincible’s). Under him we were the 8th best team in the country, and with the squad we had that’s a pretty good return. Puels achievements are derided and he’s lumped in with Pelligrino and Hughes, he deserves better than that. This blokes achievements have been exaggerated big time. 11th is par for us, unless he does something in the cup, this looks like it’s going to be another bang average return this season.

It’s points now, not league position, solely because that one particular fact backs up your opinion. I don’t particularly care how many points a team gets, just where they finish. I haven’t a clue how many points Lawrie got us, just that we finished second. Do you think West Ham fans will care if they get into the top four this season with less points than normally achieves that. Will they say that Moyes achievement “looked better than it was”. Course not, nobody does. Only people performing mental gymnastics to justify an opinion,do. Strange from a bloke dealing in facts. The fact is, had Puel been in charge with the same record as Ralph, you’d have your pitchfork out.

If you’re using facts, I hope you’re not trying to say he’s done better than Claude did. God knows what you’d do if Ralph managed to get us to 8th and a cup final from here, probably propose a statue and freedom of the city.

It’s relative what other clubs spent. Last season we were 13th highest spenders. Puel & Pellegrino we were 12th highest spenders. Hughes we were 13th. All much of a muchness. People are making excuses for the bloke. He’s got better centre halves than Puel had (after VvD got injured), yet we can’t defend. We’ve got no bollocks, yet 6 of the present squad did us proud at Wembley despite a horrendous decision and a 2-0 deficit. Nowadays facing that, we’d get beat 4 or 5 before crying about the unfairness of it. As I wrote, if we go out of the cup at Boscombe questions will need to be asked.

What restraints has he got that the previous 3 managers didn’t have?

I really don’t get the kissing of his ring piece by a large section of our fan base, and the press. Par for us is about 10-14 in the league and, given ok draws, a decent cup run in one of the cups. Last season we finished 11th, had 2 horrific cup draws. We also had an embarrassing 9-0 home defeat, but measured against that, he did oversee stuffing the skates. Overall I’d say a par season, nothing more nothing less. The fact the back end of it was so good, boded well for this one. Where are we now though. Lose to Boscombe and we’d have been dumped out of both cups by lower league clubs, one of whom has nearly as bad form as us going into the game, and have again suffered a humiliating 9 stuffing, have failed to beat 9 men, gave Spurs 5 goals with tactics from the Under 11’s, and suffered countless other embarrassing performances. If we limp over the line questions must surely be asked. Personally, I’m on the fence. The cup game will make or break it for me. It’s a winnable game, that game defines his future for me. Lose it and what have we got. A couple of decent wins, spells of good football. But ultimately, the bloke would have given us 2 bang average seasons.

If the injuries are a result of overplaying them , bringing players back too quickly from previous injuries, or not training them properly, whose fault is that?

It’s just fucking excuses. Other sides press, other sides work hard, other sides have injuries, poor refereeing decisions, limited time between games, small squad depths. Why do some of our supporters try and cover up poor management and poor performances from players, by making out we’re somehow unique.

Too much fannying around out wide.What’s wrong with getting past or level with the full back and whipping it in. The problem is modern wingers play on the “wrong” wing so their natural movement is back inside. It’s ok if you’re Mahrez where you pick a beautiful weighted pass, or knock it square to KDB to do so, but when you’re fucking Nathan Redmond, cutting in to square it to Prowse or OR, who again pass it square, it’s becomes so predictable. Nothing wrong with getting in the mixer from wide angles, especially with Che Adams being a big physical lad and Ings sharp to pick up any bits. Knocking long straight balls isn’t great, we’re not Burnley. But we could get it into the box a bit quicker than we do.

Exactly. Puel took loads of clog, yet he managed to get a back 4 that contained Yoshida and Stephen’s behind a midfield of OR & JWP to defend properly and with a structure. He went to Liverpool in a semi final with those 2 at centre half, OR, JWP, & Steve Davis in midfield, with Redmond, Tadic and JRod up top. Only Tadic is a miss and he couldn’t defend for toffee. From Jan till the end of season Claude took clog, yet he won 6 games in the second half of the season. We need to win another 6 from 13 to match that, and need 16 points to match the pitiful (in most supporters eyes)total of 46. All this without VvD, a centre half pairing nobody would pick now, and whilst taking us to a cup final. Let’s see how Ralph does, but he’ll be going some to match that. The cry was that a lack of entertainment and goals were killing the club, well we’re certainly seeing a lot of goals lately. Unfortunately, they’re in the wrong fucking end.

A midfield warrior that ducks instead of taking one in the face. Yeah, just who you’d want beside you in the trenches. Wake up and smell the coffee, he’s soft as shite, a bottle job. Victor wasn’t the greatest p, but he’d of taken one for the team yesterday, as would of countless players from the past. The fact the captain wouldn’t tells us a lot about him and the culture around the club. Soft arsed.