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Ralph Krueger

Matthew Le Tissier

By Matthew Le Tissier,
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CanadaSaint

CanadaSaint

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He coached the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (before being fired - many think unwisely - at the start of this season), and he was particularly successful coaching the Swiss national hockey team.

 

He's a smart and thoughtful cookie, a very strong communicator, a hockey theoretician and a good motivational speaker, and he's well thought of in hockey as a new age kind of thinker. Really nice guy.

 

He's especially good with young players and I can see some of his skills being valuable at academy level but AFAIK he has no football in his pedigree.

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Badger

Badger

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He coached the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (before being fired - many think unwisely - at the start of this season), and he was particularly successful coaching the Swiss national hockey team.

 

He's a smart and thoughtful cookie, a very strong communicator, a hockey theoretician and a good motivational speaker, and he's well thought of in hockey as a new age kind of thinker. Really nice guy.

 

He's especially good with young players and I can see some of his skills being valuable at academy level but AFAIK he has no football in his pedigree.

 

As I said earlier, SCW Mk II

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John Boy Saint

John Boy Saint

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As I said earlier, SCW Mk II

Football has grown up a bit since then, most of what he wanted do back then has been super-ceded since then, imagine the furore there would have been about cleaning the hotel rooms and taking their own mattresses, and that's before being wired up to machines at Solent University and being mouth swabbed before training every day.

Where would we have been if SCW had succeeded in pushing through what is the norm today, we might have been in the CL already!!

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SuperMikey

SuperMikey

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Having him as a member of the board would be a strength given his knowledge of other sports, possibly even as some kind of Staplewood manager. As a coach, not so much.

 

Given our record with adding famous figures from other sports to our coaching team, I think we may stay clear of that one.

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Badger

Badger

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Football has grown up a bit since then, most of what he wanted do back then has been super-ceded since then, imagine the furore there would have been about cleaning the hotel rooms and taking their own mattresses, and that's before being wired up to machines at Solent University and being mouth swabbed before training every day.

Where would we have been if SCW had succeeded in pushing through what is the norm today, we might have been in the CL already!!

 

I don't necessarily disagree with you, and the comparison between what has recently been accepted, and what SCW tried to implement has not been lost on me. Irony that Cortese has received widespread praise for his part in this, and Lowe roundly condemned.

 

The change in attitude is partly due to a more scientific approach to football, but also in how it is presented, (plus being done at time we are progressing as opposed to when we could ill afford it, or not at all.).

 

I doubt this will universally accepted without some mockery, although had it been NC's brainchild his 'journo-lackies' would have lapped it up as a masterstroke.

 

I'll reserve judgement and wait to see if this happens, and how this fits into the picture, and what the blokes remit is.

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CanadaSaint

CanadaSaint

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As I said earlier, SCW Mk II

 

That was my first thought, but my second was that there's an ocean of difference between Harry and Pochettino.

 

Some of these signals coming out of the club suggest that the plan is to build the club around a team of different specialists, rather than a hierarchy with one guy very much at the top. I would be inclined to see Krueger's role, if there is to be one, as being a counsel and advisor for Pochettino - not inflicted on him but available to him.

 

His unveiling as Edmonton Oilers head coach...

 

Both Tambellini (the GM, on the left) and Krueger were fired a year later. As far as Krueger is concerned, the new coach - even though he has a better squad to work with - is getting much less out of the players than Krueger did.

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Badger

Badger

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That was my first thought, but my second was that there's an ocean of difference between Harry and Pochettino.

 

Some of these signals coming out of the club suggest that the plan is to build the club around a team of different specialists, rather than a hierarchy with one guy very much at the top. I would be inclined to see Krueger's role, if there is to be one, as being a counsel and advisor for Pochettino - not inflicted on him but available to him.

 

 

 

'Arry was of course a dinosaur and that was never going to work. How well disposed Poch might be to someone from another sport remains to be seen, but my initial thought is that he will be sceptical.

 

As for "counsel, advisor" , what do you see him offering ? Not knocking your suggestion but intrigued given your knowledge of Krueger.

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CanadaSaint

CanadaSaint

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'Arry was of course a dinosaur and that was never going to work. How well disposed Poch might be to someone from another sport remains to be seen, but my initial thought is that he will be sceptical.

 

As for "counsel, advisor" , what do you see him offering ? Not knocking your suggestion but intrigued given your knowledge of Krueger.

 

Badger, the thread title took me by surprise because my instant reaction on seeing it was "Surely it's not the same guy", what with Ralph being such a hockey man.

 

But then I started to see at least some logic because he's really much more than that. He's a thinker and a motivator and one of his attributes was finding new and enjoyable ways of getting players fit and keeping them there - minimizing the drudge aspect of fitness training. Krueger is an "out of the box" kind of guy, and a very pleasant man. Perhaps his strongest skill set is player communication, and I can see some value in having a top-notch communicator there because almost all of Pochettino's current team are native Spanish speakers. Krueger is (at least) bilingual - English and German, and is especially well regarded in Switzerland.

 

I'm not saying it will work because, as you said, a lot depends on how willing Pochettino is to embrace it, but it does seem that Katharina is aiming for a team approach, with the team consisting of a variety of people with different talents. Krueger unquestionably has a lot to offer, and he's the sort of guy to quickly win people over with his personal warmth and thoughtful input; he's not the kind of guy to push himself in where he's not welcome.

 

I'm still concerned that, for all his undoubted skills, he has no significant knowledge of football as far as I know.

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pap

pap

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Since when did ready to transform into has ?

 

 

"He will be a consultant to the Canada team at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next month, after which he will begin his work in earnest at Southampton. He was present at Monday's staff meeting."

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LatvianTolix

LatvianTolix

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He is a great motivator and coach, by reshaping and approach of ice-hockey implementation in Switzerland he changed the whole structure of Swiss national teams of all ages. achieved very good results for an average team. Would be interesting to see how he would help the Saints???

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Window Cleaner

Window Cleaner

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Nothing wrong with our football approach, opposite in fact. Hope we don't meddle with it.

 

 

We shall just have to see what comes to pass if and when the bloke starts working with the players. I too thought we had all that sort of thing covered with the sports science people but obviously not.

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ottery st mary

ottery st mary

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I believe Ralph Kreuger is filling the vacancy left by Barry Sanchez and Glasgow Saint.......Motivational Coach for the first team squad:D

 

Believe they are now full time now on SaintsWeb:)

 

May I say:scared: what a fine job they dooooo........Well at least I am motivated by these top pros on this forum.....we are soooo lucky:rolleyes:

 

Let us all hope Mr Kreuger can meet the high standards these two set for Saints;)

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dubai_phil

dubai_phil

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I like the idea of having some great minds around the BOARDROOM table.

 

We have achieved a hell of a lot in a short space of time doing things the Southampton Way. Clearly we already have people in the club who "Think outside the box" (The hotel room team for eg).

 

I know we joked about it but even in the worst days of Rupert & Wilde et al they did not actually PICK the team or dictate tactics.

 

The UK Cycling team showed what a REAL scientific approach can bring, look in every direction for an extra 1%. It certainly worked and others are now playing catch-up.

 

In football our great idea has been praised all season, and others are now looking to copy us (Poyet & Sherwood's "quotes" of late). So the way to stagnate is to keep the Flat Cap on and say everything is fine because it worked last month.

 

A Motivator? Wow, just imagine if the ONLY thing he does while here is give the team around the 1st team the tools to make JRod BELIEVE he IS the best striker in the PL. (He could be he just doesn't believe it himself yet)

 

As a Board of Directors and Advisors I like it. Being available on request to HELP the Football side, I like it.

 

Being all arrogant and Simon Clifford and IMPOSING their ideas on the playing side? No farking way, and I cannot see Les Reed or anyone below him standing for that.

 

Yeah. Promising and sounds like we are still on a Journey.

 

The Project continues.

 

Brilliant.

 

Now go sign a farking CB, keeper & Left Back and we'll believe

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