tajjuk

^ Not great, not terrible, but knowledge of the of future effectively means even with a limited budget you can improve it. I have signed Nobby Solano, Ruud Van Nistelroy, Kevin Davies and Pavel Nedved, whilst shipping out players like Heaney, Walters, Gordon Watson etc. 17 year old Matt Oakley and 14 year old Wayne Bridge are in the squad as well. MLT is also amazing, pace aside, loads of 20s. Also the guy that has done the database seems to have got the player prices to adjust a lot and the wages as well, so the whole Saints team costs about £600k a week in wages so with all the modern day PL money you can make a fortune.

Not sure we would want anyone from Stoke bar Shaqiri, should also be noted that most of the players Mark Hughes apparently wanted whilst he was there were signed by us. Butland maybe but he'd be super expensive for a keeper and he seems to still be very error prone. Zouma seems to have gone off the boil, but looks like the kind of centre-back we need, again might be a player like Lovren (for us, not now) that with the right set up and management could be a top player. Left-back wise I think we could rehabilitate Shaw, looks pretty certain Utd are letting him go this summer and he has 1 year left on his contract. We'll see in the summer if the Promes deal is still on, certainly the sort of player we need, basically we need a Mane mk2, even if he is a little worse. This is all presuming we stay up of course.

Austin has been more than fine up front on his own even with Pellegrino's negative tactics. If we can get him fit then I see no need to play 2 up top, it's more about being more positive/slightly more direct, and having a higher tempo about our game and then we'll create enough chances to win games without being open up at the back. IMO Along with Vardy he is the best striker in the league outside the top 6.

We are better away from home anyway, so not a massive worry there and as noted we are likely to play teams with no much to play for or having something to be distracted by (Arsenal Europa). West Ham is massive though, 3 points are there for the taking but there will be a reaction from them after that terrible performance. A loss would hurt us a lot, a point would be ok. 10 points are needed I reckon. 3 from West Ham or Swansea, 3 from Bournemouth, 4 points from Everton/Leicester/Chelsea/Arsenal

Let's hope Austin is fit in time, is there an U23s game he can get in before West Ham?

Can't see that at all, we were already well on top when he came on and winning. Plus by that point Boufal was actually making some inroads and had previously played two decent balls in that Gabbi almost latched onto, I thought of Tadic and Boufal it was Tadic that should have been subbed. The only credit I can give Redmond is the through ball to Gabbi for the pen, but I am pretty sure anyone in the team in that position would have been able to see and do that pass as it was a pretty obvious one, Gabbi's run was the key and the second was his flick over the defender for the second goal, but then his pass was lucky cos it go deflected into Cedric's pass. Before that I saw him lose possession on several occasions and as mentioned by others when he has space to run into in front of him or a defender one v one he just slows play down and passes sideways. Don't get the bad ratings for Cedric either, I thought along with Hoedt he was our stand out defender, looked far less troubled than Bertrand and got some crucial blocks and tackles in. Signs that he is getting back to his consistent best. He is still poop at crossing mind.

Them and West Brom going down is better for the league, would be good if we could push West Ham in with them and that would be 3 **** clubs down in one season.

Best we could hope for, let's hope their poor form continues.

First half was very poor, they looked like the Prem team and we looked like the League 1 team, shows what confidence can do. The main positive is we at least showed fight, there was commitment there to work hard and win the ball back. Second half much improved, half time team talk worked wonders and we dominated the game, should have been at least 3-4. Carillo was an empty shirt IMO, didn't even look that strong or good in the air, and Gabiadini's confidence is a big big worry, couldn't have had two easier chances to score goals and fluffed them both, and our right back who has never scored a goal showed our strikers how it is done. Austin coming back is massive. Thought get credit should go to McCarthy, swirling conditions but came for the ball and looked a calm and confident influence at the back. I also thought Hoedt was very solid, though his passing was a little off. Both Hojberg and Lemina grew in the second half, I think Hughes told Lemina to go out there and dominate. Cedric was also very solid, some crucial blocks and crosses, good to see him take some leadership at the back as well, was seen shouting at his team mates to do more in the first half, goal capped a very good all round display. Neither striker impressed, Boufal and Tadic huffed and puffed but didn't do much, and aside the little flick over the player to start the counter attack for the second goal I thought Redmond was awful when he came on, had 3-4 opportunities to run at people down the line and just cut inside, which is why I'd always have Boufal over him, he even when playing averagely always looks to attack, take people on and go forward not sideways.

Against a prem side maybe but shouldn't be too much of an issue against league 1 defenders.

This is just the the 'little clubs should accept their lot and not upset the apple cart' type attitude that exists in the media. Our board gambled and thought we could have done better (and were probably right), if we got a manager in who made us over perform then we might have skirted the top 6, even the top 4 and that would upset the status quo, which everyone likes. You see the same for West Brom, their fans were criticised for moaning about Pulis and his boring style by some in the media, because god forbid paying football fans want their clubs to entertain them. The media is totally top 4/6 centric.

Neither the Swansea or Brighton players looked very bothered about trying in the cup, hope our players try a bit more. Man Utd were there for the taking and Swansea just let Spurs have so much room, both Erikkson's goals could have easily been closed down.

Austin when fit should be straight in above anyone else, he is by far our best striker.

Wilshere is there on form, he's been good since he came back into the Arsenal team, one of their few consistent performers IMO over their bad run. Livermore and Henderson are weird choices.

Saw this from a Stoke Fan on youtube -

Worrying that from Schwarzer, we don't need another quiet emotionless manager, we need a manager that gets our players to care as they don't seem to much at the moment.

Silva took a middling second division Portuguese team that hadn't been in the top flight for 7 years, got them promoted in his first season, got them to the Europa league in their first season back in the top league, with their highest ever finish of 5th, then got them to 4th the next season. Left for Sporting where he finished third and won their domestic Cup, the first piece of Silverware for several years. Went to Olympiakos and won the league. Then went to Hull where he dramatically improved a pretty much already down Hull team, before moving to Watford getting them their best ever start to a season (including a convincing 2-0 over us at St Mary's) but fell out with board cos he wanted to jump ship to Everton and take players with him. Silva's pedigree is pretty damn strong, hence why he is so highly rated, you could question his loyalty and how quickly he lost focus after getting his head turned at Watford and that has certainly harmed his reputation but his pedigree and record is superior to Hughes. I mean he has actually won trophies and has shown he can get clubs to over perform. ----------------------------- To be fair OP you should also put his Wales record up there, I don't rate the guy but he did decently with Wales and Coleman's success was largely off the back of the progress Hughes made. And his record at Blackburn is pretty decent, so whilst I don't rate him seeing this has given me a little more hope.

Eugh, at least they have done it quickly, only positive I am taking from this appointment.

Pace? We don't have any, unless we are playing our full backs as wingers, or maybe Sims. Redmond supposedly has it but doesn't really seem to show it and Long has it, but is no use at practically everything else.

This because he is not an impact manager, he's not really an anything manager, is not really known for any style or innovation as a manager throughout his career. He's just about competent and average in IMO. He has no reputation for getting teams super fit, or high pressing, or well organised or expansive football. He is just an average and uninspiring choice. That article above is not the first time I've seen stuff about his training methods or lack there of either. He's not even a relegation firefighter, those managers come in after he gets sacked. It's a poor appointment IMO and doesn't make any sense, 'PL experience' is meaningless IMO, David Moyes has 'PL experience' but he's struggled in every job after Everton. Even the likes of Pulis at least have a reputation of turning round relegation threatened clubs. Poch didn't have PL experience, neither did Koeman, they both did fine. Bilic, Silva, Jokanovic, Rowett all would be much more inspiring choices IMO, Jokanovic is falling out with his board anyway so worth a punt IMO. Rowett worked wonders at Birmingham who are messy club by all accounts.

Robbie Savage is endorsing him to be the manager, so you can add that to the list of reasons not to appoint him. He also adds this pearl of wisdom - There is a reason for that though, they sack him before he gets to complete the relegation.

Except he did, he immediately called them up to the national team when he took over, he actually looked to youth players and developed a team from there and was very successful with it. Lucky is just a stupid comment and his track record is much superior to Hughes. As I said his record against the top 6 was one of the best in the league and he still managed to get West Ham to 7th despite the sh*t show that is their transfer recruitment and their awful owners.

Lucky? He was in charge for 6 years FFS and developed them into one of the better national sides in the world despite a population of 4 million and brought through players like Modric from the U21s (who he also successfully managed). His team beat England home and away, even beat Germany in tournament football something no England manager has done for like 30 years. Aside a below par spell with Lokomotiv Moscow he's been successful in most of his career, even his poor second season with West Ham he still has been their best PL manager. He's also an intelligent guy and talks very well about the game, I have seen him doing punditry for multiple channels and is very insightful and knowledgeable. IIRC his West Ham team had the best record against the top 6 of any team outside the top 6. Much better prospect than Hughes IMO.

Of course but there need to be some highs in there as well. Bilic for example has had more highs than lows in his career and I'd reckon circumstances around his failure as West Ham were a big contributor considering the Payet situation and their general ineptitude in the transfer market. Hughes's managerial career seems to be lacking the highs and is more lows.

Would be thoroughly dissapointed, like others have said above he doesn't seem to be a 'bounce' manager, or a 'kick up the behind' manager, or a 'gets them much fitter' manager all of which I think we need a bit of. He's also been nothing but average at every club and done just about enough whilst getting decent backing in terms of finances at most of those clubs as well. Also to me seems very old school and as far as I know doesn't have a good track record at bringing in youngsters. Nor does he have much track record dealing with relegation battles, he seems more responsible for causing clubs to get into them than trying to save them. Pretty much everyone else on the bookies list I would prefer, Silva, Rodgers, Jokanovic, Bilic etc.