sadoldgit

Go and look at his previous record. He also managed to get a bang average team to the top of the EPL albeit briefly. You don’t achieve what he has achieved in the game by being a poor coach.

Back in the 70’s I was playing and our coach went to catch a ball, slipped over and didn’t get up. He died on the way to hospital. 39 years old, ex Guardsman and still played the occasional game. A family friend who I had known all my life. Turns out he had a weakness in an artery in his brain which could have caused a haemorrhage at any time of his life. You just don’t know... Anyway, Trippier at left back and Grealish on the bench? Oh dear.

Fortunately he didn’t die and hopefully he will be ok but why cancel the whole tournament? People die everyday. As said I expect Denmark would have withdrawn out of respect and players would have worn black armbands. No doubt it would have cast a deep shadow over the rest of the competition but it would have been played out in his honour, I expect. Thank goodness it is just conjecture and it is good to hear that he has been stabilised. I was listening on TalkSport and that fool Adrian Durham was giving the BBC a hard time over their coverage, yet they continued to cover it themselves continuously despite having run out of things to say. It became embarrassing in the end as there is only so much you can say about a situation in which you have little first hand information. Just as they were saying that the tv coverage should have been curtailed, they probably should have done the same and put on some music or cut to another topic with the occasional update. The guys in the studio were clearly struggling for things to say and were obviously upset. Thankfully things don’t happen like this very often in professional sport but do happen to “normal” people. I knew someone, fit as a fiddle, dropped dead on a running machine in a gym. There is more monitoring in amateur sports but not enough and there are hundreds of people out and about who have potential life threatening underlying health conditions. Again, as said earlier, it is incredible that CE’s condition hasn’t been picked up through monitoring before and it will be interesting to see what the diagnoses is. Leats hope that he makes a full recovery and that this unfortunate episode brings on a greater awareness of the need for greater health screening amongst all people engaging in sporting activities.

It is a dirge with lyrics that mean very little to most people here in the 21st century. When the Queen croaks they should replace it. I Vow To Thee My Country would do the trick. Cracking tune by Holst and it doesn’t deal with being reigned over by an unelected person who is glorified for being victorious and all the other baggage that comes with an outdated monarchy. What is God saving her from? She is going to die like everyone else and she has dealt with more family shit than many so no matter how many of us sing it, it hasn’t made a shred of difference to her circumstances. On his deathbed I would be surprised if Philip uttered the final words “at least I won’t have to listen to that dreadful dirge anymore”. Anyway, more importantly Italy put on a cracking display last night although against a poor Turkey side. It begins at last.

Where has it been said that he intends to rotate them next season?

I thought that the problem with Lemina was his attitude rather than his ability?

High balls into full back areas are not the problem. High balls into the box are. When defending corners you can bring taller players back to defend them. Once upon a time the full backs used to stand by the posts and not mark anybody.

Perhaps if the club replaced some mangled pigeons with some graceful doves we would see a bit more magic?

Nobody is “worshipping” Ralph so stop using silly language. As far as I can see, the comments about both Ralph and Howe have been realistic. When Ralph leaves I think we all want him replaced with a decent manager, not a lesser one. Ralph’s record is better than Howe’s. That has nothing to do with “worship” or being in a “cult” and everything to do with applying common sense.

Ralph is clearly a quality manager and I’m pleased that the club are standing by him. Whether he had what it takes to bring the club on within the obvious financial constraints remains to be seen, but he has earned the right to try after his work here in 2020. As for Howe or the next manager, they will have exactly the same problems here as Ralph, so until we get some investment any manager faces a tough job.

For someone like you to call another poster a “bellend” just proves 100% what I have thought of you for years. You have zero self awareness.

I his eyes, when there is an opportunity to play away, he has never “been married”.

Why would anyone sign a player after one good performance?

Front? Not a mariner then MLG 😉

So are you suggesting that we draw up a list then discard the first 6 and only go after no 7 onwards?

Why would anybody buy a football club?

There was an element of hyperbole in my comment but there is only so much you can do with a weak squad. Did Sheffield United, Fulham and WBA all go down because Wilder, Parker and BFS are crap managers or because the squads aren’t good enough? Despite all the bed wettery we were never in a relegation fight (as you pointed out) and one more win and we finish 12, solidly mid table. All thanks to an excellent first half of the season, granted, but mid table is mid table and we are a mid table club. I still maintain that a better manager would have struggle under the circumstances we found ourselves in from Christmas onwards. I don’t believe that, in the same situation, someone like Tuchel would have got this squad into the top 8. A few places higher maybe, but that’s it. Any other manager might have got us a few places higher under the same circumstances. Any other manager might have got us relegated. Every game RH and the coaching staff have to turn a cow’s ear into a silk purse, something they were able to do in the first half of the season, but became harder once beset by injuries and dreadful decisions from the officials which left us short of confidence and ideas. Take away his only right back for a number of games his best defensive midfield player and give Tuchel Verstergaard, Bednarek and McCarthy (throw in Redmond and Stephens for good measure) and let’s see where he finishes. He was sounded out for our job when Koeman left but we weren’t “big enough” for him according to his agent. Why have a sow’s ear when you can go for a silk purse? So, we agree that another manager might achieve more with a weak squad, but we don’t have another manager, so we either support him and provide him with a better squad or bring in someone like “Red Adair” Alladyce who, apparently, can work wonders with poor players and in any circumstances (apart from at WBA). I know which option I prefer.

Please do. Perhaps you should be our new manager 😉

Do you think that Tuchel could get more out of this squad over a full season?

Why should anyone excuse showing emotion? I shed a tear when MLT scored that last goal at the Dell and again when Lambert scored with his first touch for England. It was a very hard fought win and it clearly meant a great deal to him. It’s nice to have a manager who obviously cares.

I’d bet Ralph would love to cherry pick several players from Nigel’s team in their prime.

Booing when others are making a point they don’t like isn’t kicking off? Complaining constantly about it isn’t kicking off? What would you call it? Oh, I forgot, you just come on forums on the wind up.

I am struggling to understand why any decent human being would have a problem with anyone else supporting the move against racism. I can only imagine that people who spend lots of their time and energy kicking off against those protesting against racism probably harbour racist tendencies themselves.

It wasn’t that long ago that you were telling us all that racism in football wasn’t such a big thing anymore. Got that wrong didn’t you! As for losing, I think most right minded people think that any kind of bigotry is wrong so you keep on kidding yourself that the fight against racism is misguided.

Do you? I see you are still getting yourself worked up over people who object to racism hypo. You are just going to have to get used to the fact that a great many people think it is wrong and some of those people are trying to do something about it. There is racism in America just as there is racism here. Ignoring what is happening in America might work for you but I think you will find that a great many people can see that we are not isolated by what is happening across the pond.