saintwbu

I’d rather Selles than Gerrard/Lampard/Rooney. In fact i’d rather let the players just manage themselves than any of those three.

I wasn’t desperate for Marsch but I was desperate to never see 5 at the back ever again. Oh well, was fun whilst it lasted.

I think if you’d have told fans back when Selles joined the club that he’d be in charge at some point it probably wouldn’t have surprised many, just not sure 2 sackings and a break down of talks would’ve been expected before it happened.

I’d be more gobsmacked if Tino in particular isn’t still here, given the fee we would command i’m not sure many will be touching an 18 year old who’s been out for a year with an ACL. Edozie, Bazunu and a few others could definitely do with a season in the Championship. There is also always a few players that stick around you don’t expect, Bournemouth kept Lerma the season they went down - not many clubs have a complete exodus anymore like the old days.

We aren’t attractive to many right now largely because managers won’t want a relegation on their CV, regardless of what league it’s from. I guarantee we’re more attractive for a promotion push to the Premier League with a decent squad and strong backing.

I’m not sure Marsch having a short term contract would make it any less important for him - i’d say his Premier League career depends on him doing a good job with us, and i’d suggest that’s why he’s willing to come here so soon. If he didn’t pick up another job in the PL soon he probably never does, and if he flops with us then i’d suggest he won’t be getting another one.

Hughes’ main aim was to keep us up, and he achieved it. That allowed us to attract Ralph the following season. If there’s a similar outcome from this appointment then that’s fine by me.

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Like when we appointed Hughes, and sent down the club he’d come from? Also parallels with an FA Cup tie against lower league opposition round the corner too!

Or the previous manager’s training methods given that Bamford and Phillips were repeatedly injured all last season, and he’s known for having had a pretty intense approach.

Exactly. Marco Silva, Sean Dyche, Eddie Howe and David Moyes all have PL relegations on their CV’s but i’m sure most would take any one of them with open arms.

The last time we appointed a recently sacked Premier League manager it was laughed at by his previous club. He kept us up and they went down…

Thought it was Crocker who’s off? Think it’s widely accepted that Jones was Ankersen’s man given his admiration for him when at Brentford, if our interest in JM predates SR’s arrival then it feels to me like we probably always fancied him as Ralph’s successor (as did I when he got the Leipzig job) and now maybe that element of the board had the push on this one.

Is it fair to say this was an appointment that maybe allowed Semmens to get back involved? It’s basically Ralph lite, and considering this weird 5 at the back obsession we seem to have had since the summer, this feels like maybe a move back to the old way of doing things because the new way was shit.

It’d be great to get a more impressive hire than Marsch, but it’s not the reality of the situation we’re in. If you framed it as ‘we’re going to get a manager with Champions League experience at two different clubs, as well as managing in two of the top 5 leagues in Europe with PL experience’ people would wonder how we’ve managed to pull that off in our current predicament. Don’t get me wrong I have my doubts over whether Marsch is as good as I thought he might be when he first got the Leeds job, but equally i’d be sure he’s not coming here for money but for a chance to prove that he is in fact PL level and it’s probably his last chance. His style is something a lot of our players will be familiar with, he’s not going to play 3 CB’s thankfully, and i’m fairly confident he won’t fall out with one of our best CB’s and leave him in the B team. So if he can put an 11 out that mostly resembles our best 11, can bin off Bednarek, and can bring some kind of feel good (as much as is realistically possible in our current state) back into the fans then he gets the nod from me.

Not a fan of Premier League football then?

That’s obviously fine

I really can’t believe people are entertaining the idea of Gerrard - thankfully i’m pretty sure he won’t be hitting any statistical tick boxes for the board, unless ‘number of wins in a shit league’ really is the top one (it might be, given Jones got the job).

The think that probably works in our favour now as opposed to last season with this style is we have better quality on the bench to bring on. We now have genuine alternative in most positions if we were going to play 4222 and the ability to use 5 of them.

Apart from the fact that analytics is an integral element of his approach to football, to such an extent he’s been caught sending coaches to spy on opposition training…

If we appoint another manager with a back 3 as his favoured formation then it was definitely the board making Ralph work on a back 3 all summer and for the first game of the season - it must be.

The squad is a fit for Marsch because he plays a similar brand of football to Ralph, who has presided over this squad for the last 4 years or so. Many of the players were bought with 4222 in mind, and many of the newer players (Edozie, Sulemana, Alcaraz in particular) all seem like they would suit a set up like that. We don’t have a squad capable of playing 5 at the back, as has been proven repeatedly, and it’s not a formation I could ever see Marsch wanting to play. That’s why it’s potentially a decent fit…

He kept them up last year (Bielsa look like he was definitely taking them down) and they’re outside the relegation zone currently - they also had two games in hand when he got sacked. The fans there never wanted him (or anyone other than Bielsa), but actually I think his job there has been about okay overall.

Some of the reaction to him has been pretty embarrassing to be honest - I said it on here before, it’s not his fault he isn’t at the level required, he should never have been appointed by the board. It was the wrong man at the wrong time, and his career will pay the price for it so it’s not like he’s played us and going to ride off into the sunset. He came with good intentions, tried his best, and just wasn’t good enough ultimately. I’m not sure why people are trying to create some feud with the guy, the fans weren’t great to him and he wasn’t great to them back, it is what it is. The board need to get the next one right otherwise faith will be well and truly lost, if it hasn’t been already for most.

Pellegrino the worst for me, and the worst manager the Premier League has seen imo. Took over from a manager who got us 8th and nearly won a cup, whilst juggling Europe. Would’ve relegated us for certain, and then signed his mate for a record fee when he should’ve been sacked long before, then to compound it gets to take him on loan to whatever Spanish minnow he went to next - couldn’t write it really.